More Hearts for Hearts Sewing- Liberty Jane patterns

Dell is up next.  Dell’s new outfit consists of Liberty Jane’s gathered t-shirt and Liberty Jane’s mini skirt pattern.

Dell’s t-shirt is made from ITY knit leftover from a dress I cut for myself (which is waiting to be put together).  I really like the finished t-shirt.  But my biggest complaint is that it didn’t include a neckband piece.  So instead of turning under and hemming, I cut out a band matching the width of the little arm cuffs and longer than the neck line length.  I basically used it as a facing and turned it to the inside and stitched down.

I just used the standard 2 rows of basting stitches for the gathering.  All the gathering was fairly easy even with the knit fabric.

The Liberty Jane mini skirt pattern is sized for Wellie Wishers and Hearts for Hearts dolls (14.5 & 14 inch dolls).  I had cut out four of view A from Kona cotton.  I only ended up with 3 skirts because I figured I needed to bring in the side seams for my Hearts for Hearts (since they are smaller than Wellies).  So the first skirt did not fit on my dolls and I was not going to go through fixing it.  After the first one, I used the recommended quarter- inch for side seams and the fit is fine for my dolls.

Now if you have a Wellie Wisher, you may want to consider including a bit more wearing ease so the skirt is easier to pull on and off.  In that case, my recommendation would be to get your extra width from the center front and center back seams.  For View A, I had to fold the front and back fabric pieces and then stitch in a faux felled seam.  That faux felled seam is where I recommend getting your desired width if necessary.

I did like how Cinnamon has you finish the side seams because it does give you a nice waistband finish.  It may not be the best method for complete beginners as afterwards, you have to sew the front waistband down in the round.  A small 6 inch or so waist is pretty tight to do in the round.  The American girl sized dolls are probably easier to complete like this.  For me, it was slow sewing and constantly trying to make sure I was able to move the skirt and able to see.

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Simplicity 8574

Over Father’s Day weekend, several of the Hearts for Hearts girls got new outfits.  As I didn’t want to take away from Rahel’s bold necklaces, I decide to go with Simplicity 8574.  I did view A’s shirt and view B’s leggings.

The leggings used the same sueded ITY that I used for my McCall’s 6654 skirt.  Rahel’s t-shirt uses a cotton knit remnant that one of my friends gave me.

I really think this pattern is designed more in line with the Wellie Wishers sizing.  The shoulders and sleeves of Rahel’s top are just too big for her.  The sleeves would be easy enough to shorten, but I don’t think taking a 3/8th inch seam allowance on the armsythe will fix the shoulders being too wide.  I really don’t know the best way to fix the shoulder problem that Rahel has with this top.

Plus the top did not have a neckband piece.  It was another turn and hem type top.  I don’t feel like I get as nice of a finish this way.  So I cut a rectangular block about 1 inch wide and use it as a facing to finish the neckline.

The leggings are a bit baggy at the waistband.  The leggings should be much easier to adjust.  I think it should just be changing from a quarter-inch seam allowance to a bit over three-eighths seam allowance for the crotch seams.

After I finish up my purses for the Sew Powerful Purse project, I will probably make Rahel a different outfit.

Hearts for Hearts Liberty Jane Jeans

Tipi was the first doll to get a completed outfit (but that is because I used a previously made Wren Feathers gathered blouse).

Tipi’s pants are from Kona cotton.

I pretty much followed the directions of the pattern except for I did not want to insert my elastic in the round.  This time I left one side seam undone but finished off the in-seam so I would be able to hem the second leg easily.  After that, I inserted the elastic and tacked the end of it down.  The final side seam was pinned then sewn and finished with zig-zag stitch.  Side seam was trimmed and I feel that gave me a nice easy to make finish.

This small of a size may have been difficult to complete in the round on a sewing machine.  I am not sure I would want to hand sew it as you do need the waistband to be strong.  My hand-stitching may not be professional enough for this sort of task.

I finished all the seams off with a small zig-zag stitches then trimmed off the rest of the seam allowance (it wasn’t that much).

Butterick 6464 Skirt

 

Last summer I tried shopping for a RTW one but could not find anything I liked. So looking ahead to spring and summer, I decided I needed to make some knit elastic waist skirts.  After searching the pattern stash, I decided to use Butterick 6464.  It is from their Lisette collection.  This was probably finished early May but just now getting blog photo; weather was some of the problem.

I traced out a size 20. I could have sworn I measured myself correctly.  I think my problem was either the stretch material or I measured myself when I was having symptoms from endometriosis and this caused the difference.  So far, the endometriosis theory is the front- runner.  In the end, I took about 4 inches off all over so I should have traced a size 16 instead.

The fabric used first is a candy apple Ponte knit. With my Pfaff Ambition, it handled the Ponte better at a slower sewing speed.

I did not shorten the pattern when I traced it out. I knew I would most likely take off some length but I wanted to be able to see the skirt on before deciding how much should be removed.  I shortened it by an inch then took a 3 inch hem.

I later traced out a 16 one weekend. The following week, I spent cutting out Butterick 6464 skirts in grey, royal blue, and tan Ponte, plus able to cut a Liesl & Co Classic shirt and doll apron.

Over the weekend, I put on my “Home Fires” DVD and went to work on putting together my skirts. As for “Home Fires”, I still don’t agree with the decision to cancel the series.  But back to the skirts, I decided to top-stitch down each side on the center front and back panels.    As for the side seams, I ended up taking them in an inch (2 inches total).  This is a more reasonable amount based on fabric stretch, so I didn’t decide to re-trace out the size 14.

 

The skirts went together fairly quickly and I had all three completed by Sunday afternoon.

 

 

 

 

A bit Late- Simplicity 8365

I really should have thought about making Simplicity 8365 before the Kentucky Derby and the Royal Wedding.  But the thought never crossed my mind then.

In researching the pattern (which I did after I bought and cut the pattern out), I did come across the designer’s tutorial.  It was nice to see the pictures of the flowers being made.

I uses poly satins from Joann’s Casa collection and a block of tan felt.  As a warning, the rosewater pink satin I used was a bit heavy and made it harder to hand sew the roses, so be cautious on the weight.

As for the roses, I found it was easier to hand sew at the bottom as you were wrapping the fabric around.  I started with going through the entire bottom to secure it but eventually switched over to tacking the round to the previous one.

I covered the felt round with a piece of the satin.  On the purple hat I made my mom, I covered the felt before putting the netting on.  But for the second hat (which is the one shown) I decided to sandwich the netting between the satin and the felt.

There is a lot of netting for this hat.  For my hat, I trimmed off about half of the netting.  Otherwise, I think it stuck out about 10 to 12 inches above the base.

All the hand sewing of the flowers convinced me to look for a thimble.  By the end of sewing the flowers on, my poor thumbnail ached.  Since I got a thimble, I decided to invest in hand sewing needles too.  So I will post a review of those items when I try them out especially since they were fairly expensive.

I will be completely honest, I don’t think that a comb or a clip will be able to hold this up.  There is quite a bit of weight from the roses plus all the volume of the netting, which made me think that a thin metal headband would be better.  So I cut another of the felt circle base to be able to glue the fascinator to.  Hot glue ended up being the best way to attach the fascinator onto the headband.

 

 

Dollhouse Designs Fiesta Folklorico Skirt

The Hearts for Hearts dolls haven’t had any new clothes in a while.  So first up was Consuelo.  I already had Consuelo a nice rose-colored t-shirt and wanted something to go with it.  In the end I decided on Dollhouse Design’s Fiesta Folklorico pattern.  It gives options for two dress styles, a peasant style blouse and two skirt options.  I decided to go with the long skirt option with ruffle at the bottom.

Next step was finding fabric for Consuelo’s skirt and out of all the fabric at home nothing seemed to work well.  Friday after paying my mortgage and getting a library book, I went fabric shopping for Consuelo’s skirt.  I picked her out a quilting cotton that has a blue schemed floral pattern on it.  It should work well with her pink shoes and rose top.

This is the first Dollhouse Designs pattern I have used.  The PDF was sixty pages.  The instructions were well written and had great pictures.  I didn’t use the instructions much.  Everything seemed pretty intuitive.

The skirt went together very easily.  The most difficult part was gathering the bottom ruffle to fit. My ruffle was longer than suggested.  I probably had a 89 inch ruffle but I wasn’t going to over think where to trim it for an 86 inch ruffle.

The biggest change I made was switching the skirt from Velcro enclosure to an elastic enclosure.  As Consuelo is a 14 inch doll, she has a waist that is almost a quarter of an inch smaller than the Wellie Wishers.  I did baste in the back for a smaller waistline but really thought it was too much of an overlap.  So instead, I cut a 6.5 inch piece of half- inch elastic and threaded it through the waist band and then sewed the back seam at 3/8 inch.  The skirt was a little tight sliding over Consuelo’s hips but otherwise, it fits her perfectly.

 

 

McCall’s 6654 Skirts

Over the spring, I had a little “knit elastic skirt” project.  Last summer I went to a store and couldn’t find any.  So this year, being proactive, I made about 8 different skirts so I would have plenty for separates over the summer.  First up on the blog is McCall’s 6654 which was the second pattern I tried.

I made two skirts of view F (19 inch length), one skirt in view G (23 inch length) and one skirt in view I (42 inch length).  All skirts are from ITY knit.  I did a larger hem allowance at 1.25 inches for 3 out of the 4 skirts.  I also used size 16 for all of them.  Only the maxi skirt had any major pattern alterations.

First up the View F.  I made two version of this view.  The first was from the black patterned ITY.  I used the 1.25 inches for the hem so it was above knee-length.  As it was the first, I also had doubts so I took in the side seams some which I shouldn’t have done.

The second View F (skirt 3 from pattern) is from a brushed sueded ITY knit.  This fabric did not like heat at all.  I burnt it with the iron which was set under 4 (just on the steam side).  Because of that, I did a double folded narrow hem that I would not need to take the iron to.  It is serged then rolled twice.  Otherwise there were no pattern alterations.

View G was the second version of the pattern completed.  This time the only change made was to use the 1.25 inch hem.  Everything else was according to pattern.

Last skirt completed was View I (the maxi skirt).  I knew immediately that 42 inches long was too much.  I had my dad check the length I needed with a tape measure.  It came to 36 inches.  I ended up using 37 inches.  I figured I would rather have the pattern piece too long instead of not long enough and I used a deeper hem (the 1.25 inches like previous versions).  I started at the lengthen and shorten line and marked off every three inches 4 more times.  At each line I took out an inch of length then blended the side seam from top to end of adjustments.

I really like this pattern (I guess making it 4 times proves it).  It was extremely versatile and allowed me to try out a midi length also.  The pattern is extremely easy to sew together and would make a perfect beginner project.  I think all total each version was probably about 4 hours from cutting to finished.  It took two evenings to complete just because I don’t like fighting elastic late at night.  It always seems to twist.

It is also fairly easy to modify.  I made my mom one for mother’s day and at the side seams to fit her.  But she doesn’t like having her items posted to the blog.