Yes, you're absolutely right. I'm a fake. It's Winter here, and here I am sewing things for Melly Sews' 30 Days of Sundresses when we should be wearing hoodies and jeans and boots. Can you blame me though?

It's alright because I managed to come up with a hella cool dress and Eddie loved it so much it was a battle to put a jumper on her after the photos and to be honest? It wasn't really that cold.


30 Days of Sundresses is an annual event that Melly throws over on her site where you get 30 days chock full of tutorials and free patterns and giveaways for dresses. Not just little girl's dresses, we're talking women's as well! You can enter the giveaway over at Melly Sews Here. This month it's a mystery box of sewing goodness that I know you want your little hands on!


For my little offering I sewed up a fun little dress for Eddie. It took me quite a few versions to get one just right and even as it is the one pictured here has a bit of a gapey neckline. Do not fear! The one in the tutorial that you get a free pattern for is legit!


It's a simple little bodice, with a surprise back...



And the skirt features two layers of ruffles. It's up to you how ruffly you want it and whether you want them contrasting or the same fabric. It falls about mid-thigh, because I love my toddler dresses 1950s-style short! I know that this length is not popular for everyone but it's not difficult to lengthen the skirts!


 I've also got some directions on how to make it into a sweet two piece! Come back tomorrow to see the little hack for that.



Ready to get started? Read on!

Super stoked to be able to show you the pics of the tester dress I sewed up for Titchy Threads' latest offering, the Safari Raglan! Out of all the patterns I own, I didn't actually have a raglan-sleeved shirt. I had a few self-drafted ones but I was excited to volunteer to test this particular one because (as mentioned in my previous post!) I really enjoy sewing up Titchy Threads patterns and also the options to sew it as a tee, a dress, and with the puppet sleeves was wayyyy too enticing!

As we are gearing up into Winter here (it took so long to get to Autumn here the weather sort of forgot what it was meant to be doing and flung itself too far and straight into Winter), I've been sorting all the kids winter things out and realising that they have WAYYY too many clothes. Or you know, maybe I should just buy them bigger drawers? Most of it is an assortment of handmade and secondhand because my other skill is pro-op-shopper. Eddie's little pink dunlops here? $1. I bought about 4m of the green spotted fabric her dress is made from for about $6 for the whole bundle and the purple was also an op-shop score that I have metres and metres of (you'll probably recognise it here lol) because most of my fabrics these days are secondhand!


When I first sewed this dress up the ribbing I used was WAY too stretchy and the recovery was pretty bad (that means it doesn't hold it's shape and spring back after being stretched) so the neckline was really wide and didn't look so great. Thanks to Laura's suggestion I switched out the neckbands and used the hot pink from an old t-shirt and as you can see it's a great fit!


Pretty stoked with how this pattern turned out, and the overall fit of it on my little plumpkin! She's short for her age (she goes to Family daycare once a week and she's the oldest by about a year and a half and the shortest!) but I sewed up the 18month size for her with the 2T length (as suggested by Laura) and I'm pretty impressed with how perfect it is on Eddie! This would be a great pattern to reconstruct old t-shirts with!

There's a SALE on over at Titchy Threads, so go and stock up on any patterns of hers you don't have yet!

I reviewed this bag for Pattern Revolution a little while ago, and the kid STILL loves it, so I thought I'd talk more about it as well as the shorts & hoodie!

 

The Messenger Bag by Little Moo Designs wasn't very difficult to sew up at all, however when it says that it is a pattern it doesn't actually come with any printable pattern pieces except for the applique templates. There are measurements for constructing each panel of the bag, which was straightforward enough! There are four appliques to choose from; I really wanted to sew the tent or the fox but Vin-dawg chose the owl so I had to think of some rad ways to make it work for us. Choosing some skull & crossbones fabric I have had in my stash for well over 10 year, I used the last of it on this bag as well as some plain black poplin. I lined it with black  white stripped drill which pulled together the kooky-feel of the bag I was going for quite well!


The shoulder strap is maybe a bit wide? However Vin absolutely loves this bag it's a little ridiculous haha. He uses it everywhere we go, slung over his shoulder and won't take it off like it's a piece of his clothing (ie wears it at dinner and in his carseat). He carries his little lego dudes in it, sometimes my ipad that he has claimed as his main Minecraft device (lol) but also uses it in play as a mailman bag and rides his bike up and down the veranda 'delivering' letters to Eddie & I.


 Dad built a fire pit at the start of autumn in our backyard and it's been really fun to just sit around it and hang out. Vincent, like most people I guess, gets super hypnotised by the flames flickering and crackling. Taking photos for this post was pretty easy then ahha.



I also made his shorts and his hoodie! The hoodie is the Subnmarine Pullover by Shwin Designs, still one of my favourite hoodie patterns. The fabric is a really loose weave and while I love the aesthetic of it, SUCH a pain to sew omg. As Vincent pulled the hoodie on over his head there was already some fabric pulling away from the seam. Ill have to patch it, but I don't mind so much because I think with this baja-inspired style of this hoodie, a few patches will look pretty rad. This is the third time I've sewn this pattern up (one & two), and I have a pink baja-style hoodie cut out for Eddie too. I really should get around to sewing it up since the babe is chunking up! You can see in the photo above, near the placket the fabric has pulled away.

I really love the three very distinct styles I've made this hoodie up in, they're so different but all the same pattern! I bought the fabric from Spotlight but I have bought similar fabric from Ethnic Touch that I ended up sewing into curtains!

alpine hoodie

Beach Bum hoodie

I didn't really get any great pics of his shorts, but basically I cut up a bunch of squares from my scrap fabric pile, making sure to include some scraps of his favourite fabrics (pink teddy bears, purple swirls). Then I sewed them all together so I had some 'fabric' and cut the shorts pattern from it. I can't remember which pattern I used but I'm pretty sure they're Hosh pants as shorts. Of course I made a small pocket on one of the white squares near the hem so he has a secret lego pocket.