It’s so much fun being a part of blog tours, and since this one celebrates all sewing things Canadian I was extra happy to be taking part.
Disclaimer: I was provided with Cecily pattern for free from Pollywoggles. Thank you! All opinions are my own of course.
The Cecily dress is such a sweet dress. I wish I had gotten better (and more!) photos of it but unfortunately I had chosen 6-year-old Silly Bean as my model and oddly she’s less cooperative than her nearly-3-year-old sister Miss V. But it was her turn to have something made for her as I had just finished a dress for Miss V.
The pattern features full circle skirt and a tie back (which you can see in the photo below). It comes in sizes 12-18 months all the way up to size 10. The circle skirt provides maximum twirl, while the tie back and elastic back waist allows for easy dressing!
I love how the dress turned out!
I had the hardest time choosing fabrics. I wanted something floral and sweet with pink, because Silly Bean loves flowers and pink of course! I decided to go out of my comfort zone and I actually mixed prints! Usually I stick to a single fabric or at the very least use fabrics from the same collection that coordinate. I used Emma’s Garden from Clothworks for the main skirt in the tan colourway. For the sash I upcycled fabric from an old shirt, and the top pink fabric is a lightweight fabric from my stash. The pink is somewhat see-through and has slightly more see-through dots so I double layered the front bodice.
Fun detail: this dress can be made reversible! I contemplated doing that but it took me far too long to decide on the fabrics for one side, ha. If it’s made reversible all the seams are hidden!
Modifications made:
I sewed a size 5 bodice to a size 6 length skirt (keeping the waist opening of the 5). I also added an extra layer to the front bodice, but treated it as one layer by basting two front bodices together. Also, since I didn’t make it reversible the suggestions are to add a bias trim but I instead did a narrow hem. I basically did method #1 in this post by By Hand London.
Final thoughts:
The pattern was a little tricky, I would say it’s geared for intermediate sewists. Attaching the skirt to the bodice is a teensy bit tricky but it’s not super difficult. Getting the circle skirt evenly attached to the waistband was a bit tricky as well.
Honestly, the pictures don’t do this dress justice. It is so pretty in person! I definitely recommend this Pollywoggles pattern if you have some girly girls who love to twirl to sew for! 🙂
Hey did I mention there was a giveaway? Well, there is just scroll on down a little bit more!
Sew 20‘s Real Life, Real Sewing blog tour challenged participants to show that we actually wear the things we make. None of the staged photos, just actual photos of us going about our daily life wearing handmade.Roxanne of PenSeb&Rox and Sew 20 sent tour participants some questions to answer for her #realliferealsewing tour.
Yeah! It’s my turn to show what I’ve made for the pyjama tour! I’ve been doing so much behind-the-scenes work on this tour, sewing these pjs was a breeze compared to that!
Getting pictures of the kids, however, was not so easy. I need to hire some new models!
Indoor pics on grey days in a house that’s dark even during the sunniest time… The colour of the fabrics are closest to what you see here.
In Silly Bean’s defense she gets home from school around 4:15pm and by then the house is already somewhat dark, and I work most weekends and get home when it IS dark so indoor photos are not good.
As mentioned in previous posts, the goal of this tour was to sew up pjs using patterns already in your stash. We were lucky to get fabric shop sponsors offering discount codes (more below) and pattern shops sponsoring giveaways! Keep reading to the bottom to enter today’s giveaway!
Instead of using patterns that are marketed as pjs I decided to use regular knit patterns for the tops and bottoms from two of my favourite PDF pattern designers: Filles a Maman and Sofilantjes. Mind you I could easily have used actual pyjama patterns because I know I have a couple in my stash but I decided it’d be more fun for me to mix and match from some other patterns I own.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. All affiliate links are marked with an *. I love the patterns that I’m linking up to and would be showing them off even if they didn’t have affiliate programs!
From Filles a Maman* I used the Agathe et Theo pants* for some comfy slouchy pants. The girls look so cozy and cool in their pants, I can’t figure out why (besides lack of time) I haven’t sewn more of these already. I did test this pattern way back when Miss V was known around here as Baby V but other than those ones, for some odd reason I haven’t sewn them since. (I’ll blame it on too much pattern testing!)
These make good pj pants as they are comfy and have cuffs at the ankles keeping them tight-ish and prevent riding up in the night. (Or am I the only person who wakes up to find pj pants up around their knees?) They’re baggy slightly through the hips but it’s not super exaggerated.
From Sofilantjes* I sewed the ADVtee*. The ADVtee is a v-neck tee with two neckline options, I decided to stick with the standard neckline. I made this pattern once before and it went together so easily. Since store bought pj’s tend to be more of a slim fit this pattern was a good pick. It’s slightly more slim fitting than the Otium* top which I’ve sewn before (HERE and HERE) which would have been my back up choice for a knit top.
Because I wasn’t using all pink for the fabric I decided to appease the pink princess in the house by adding an applique to the front of Silly Bean’s pjs. I used the mermaid free motion applique (or FMA) from StitchART that I had purchased a few months back but hadn’t gotten around to trying out yet. It’s so cute, Silly Bean loves her, and Miss V has requested I make something for her with one.
Of course I needed to add something to Miss V’s pjs and so I drew up a lake monster applique. Technically it’s modelled after Vermont’s Champ (did you know they had a lake monster?? I didn’t until hubby told me.) but if you want it to be Nessie that’s cool by me. (Miss V however calls it a dinosaur which is a relief since she loves dinosaurs which means she’s more likely to want to wear the pjs).
I’ll will be posting the lake monster applique for download soon. I tried to get it done in time for this tour, but hopefully it will be up at the beginning of next week. I will update this post when it’s ready! FMA is so much fun to do btw. I love the handdrawn look of the stitching, which is great because it’s not easy to repeat each stitching line perfectly over the last one!
Patterns:
Pants: Agathe et Theo* from Filles a Maman. Patterns are available in both French and English
Sizes sewn:
Miss V: size 3, no mods. Perfect fit in the waist!
Silly Bean: Size 6, took some width off the waistband for a better fit as her waist measurements were between the 4 and 5.
For both I probably should have sized up in the length to allow for growing room, but the fit is perfect on them right now.
Top: ADVtee* from Sofilantjes; and using the cuffs from Otium. Patterns are available in both Dutch and English
Sizes sewn:
Miss V: I sewed a straight size 3, no mods other than adding cuffs and the band for extra length to allow for some growth room. She measured between the size 2 and 3 in the chest.
Silly Bean: Size 4 width with size 6 length with the added cuffs and band for growing room as she’s slightly taller than the height for the 6. She technically fit the width of the size 3 per her chest measurement but I knew the shoulders needed the 4.
For both tops I sewed the long sleeves and the regular v-neck. There is also a cute little pocket you can add but I left it off since I had added the FMA’s.
I think the fit is perfect on my girls for both patterns!
Fabric:
I tried to make this project completely stash busting but the fabric was purchased recently from L’Oiseau Fabrics. The solid was leftover from another project, and the dots were originally earmarked for another project but I decided to use it for these pjs instead. They sewed so nicely and are super soft!
If you want to learn more about these designers I’ve interviewed both of them in the past year. Read the interview with Anne of Sofilantjes >>HERE<< and the interview with Mel of Filles a Maman >>HERE<<.
So blurry… Can’t wait until it’s warm enough to get pictures outdoors!
There are 24 shops sponsoring prizes for this tour!
Along with today’s daily giveaway (see below!) there is also larger giveaway and a link up happening. Go to today’s post over at Made By Jaime to get the full details on how to link up and to enter the giveaway!
We are also lucky to have four fabric shops offering readers discount codes:
Mabel Madison is offering 20% off with the code JAMMIES. Code expires March 31st!
PhatQuarters is offering 10% off OR FREE shipping to US addresses on orders over 40$ US (with an equivalent discount for international shoppers). Use the code PHAT10 for 10% off OR FREE40 for free shipping to US.
Raspberry Creek Fabrics is offering 15% off with the code PJPARTYTOUR. Good through March 26th!
Today’s prize is sponsored by Paisley Roots. You could win both patterns: the All Spice dress and the Saffron Twirl dress! Visit Paisley Rootsto see what they have to offer. The giveaway ends March 25th at 11:59pm EST. See the Rafflecopter on how to enter! You have up to 7 chances to win! The winner will be chosen March 26th and will have 48 hours to respond to the email before a new winner is chosen.
This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook.
Want to win more prizes? Visit Sprouting JubeJube tomorrow to see what new prizes will be up for grabs as well as see the previews for tomorrow’s bloggers. You still have time to enter yesterday’s giveaway! Go to this post from yesterday to enter the giveaway that ends at 11:59pm EST tonight (March 24th)!
Missed a stop on the tour? The full schedule is below:
I just came across Jessica’s entry for The Kids Behind the Blog a couple days ago and thought it was such a cute idea! I figured I was too late to take part in it for this month, but then I discovered I still had a couple days left to link up! Yay! It’s such a fun idea to get to the know the kids, who in my case at least, are pretty much the reasons for starting this blog. If it weren’t for wanting a space to showcase the things I’ve sewn them I wouldn’t have started it! 🙂
Questions for March: Silly Bean’s answers
(She’s 6)
1.) What do you enjoy doing with Mommy and Daddy? Play board and card games.
2.)What is one thing you’re really good at? Drawing
3.) What is something Mommy and Daddy tell you all the time? Go to bed!
4.) What do you want to be when you grow up? Be a princess! I want to be princess Aurora.
5.) What do you think Mommy and Daddy do when you go to bed at night? You do sewing and Daddy watches TV. (That’s about right!)
Miss V’s answers:
(She’s 2.5)
1.) What do you enjoy doing with Mommy and Daddy? Want to play this.(Points to play food)
2.) What is one thing you’re really good at? Good at making supper.(Still playing with the toy food).
3.) What is something Mommy and Daddy tell you all the time? Mommy tells me to make supper.(Clearly asking the questions while she’s playing with her toy food/kitchen isn’t the best plan).
4.) What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be anything. (Note: She probably actually said ‘don’t want to be anything’, she has a tendency to drop syllables sometimes -like saying “got” instead of “forgot”, and she was being a little contrary and trying to avoid answering questions, lol).
5.) What do you think Mommy and Daddy do when you go to bed at night? Play princess and Playmobil.
