Copyright © June Cleaver in yoga pants
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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

sun bonnets and peasant skirts

So, whenever I get the urge at this stage in pregnancy to start being crafty for baby I first have to create for the "Others" - the big kids that will soon get the short end of the crafty stick, so to speak.

When pregnant with little miss I wanted to knit and knit all winter (ironic because she was a baby through the hot summer and didnt wear all the knitted goods very much. This baby will be in his/her prime in the winter and I am having to force myself to think about knitting.) But I dutifully made big brother a sweater first. A horribly scratchy affair that was too short ... and that he refused to wear.

In this case I chose to make baby girl a sun bonnet and matching skirt.

I saw this amazing sun bonnet at the local super-duper expensive kid store. Reversible with a large visor to block out sun that can be folded back to use as a regular hat in cooler weather.

It kinda looked like this one (except they were charging FIFTY DOLLARS for it???)

Looks like a snap, right?

So, yesterday I decided to undertake this. With all the contractions of late I decided to put myself on bedrest for a day or two, sewing seemed like a good way to still be productive.

I dug out fabric and found these pieces. And then I found more and thought, hmmm, two hats. But then my computer was acting up and I couldnt get on the internet to look at the Etsy hat as a model. So I tried to wing it. Cut out shape. Sew separately. Put right sides together. Sew in ties. Voila, hat!





sewing right sides together...and yes, the only way this
sewing was possible was the veiwing of PBS kids...
...all morning long


you can see the displeasure...this hat got ties (from the
straps of the shirt i cut apart!) i like the button closure better

i should've left the button on the little sticking out strap
i originally made...i cut it off without trying it on,
thinking it would be too much strap...once i wrestled it
onto her head i discovered it was much too short.
i need to sew the button side strap back on...


her look says it all. she is NEVER wearing this hat...and it
totally doesnt fit right.
Except it didnt fit right.

And then she wouldnt try it on altogether.

So, after the kiddies were in bed, and the internet was back up, I ripped them both up and added a back piece, to give more shape to the hat. Ugh. Still doesnt fit right. the back piece should be narrower at the bottom. I think I will rip it out again today.




She still wont try them on. I am hoping this baby is a girl, just for the sake of these cute hats. Although I do plan to make a gender neutral one for baby (with matching shoes!) now that I have assuaged my guilt.

The skirts were MUCH more successful, probably because I was following the instructions from this book. (HA HA.) Its a great little book with tips and pointers and shows the shape of pieces needed and gives general guidelines on varying sizes but doesnt require you to cut out tedious patterns and blindly follow insstructions. I seriously HATE patterns. The pinning. The cutting out of little diamonds to line things up just right. UGH. Takes all the joy out of creating, in my opinion. I would rather be ripping out and trying again (as with the hat) than going through all that! So the general guidelines in this book are perfect for me.

In any case. The skirt was pretty simple. Cut out three tiers of coordinating fabrics, with each one being approximately 6 inches longer than the one above it. You could do this with more tiers (if you had more patience at time!) for a super cute skirt. The top tier was about 36 inches (for a 2-3 year old size). Sew the strips together to make a loop. Make the waistband at the top with a little ruffle at the top and a "pocket" for the elastic to slide through. (Tying your elastic in a little knot makes it easier to shove through. Dont put it in yet though!)

Now it gets a tiny bit tricky. Hand sew all the way across the top of the next tier, to make a gather. Arrange the gathering "just so" so the loop is the same length as the upper tier. (So pulling it to 36 inches.) Sew these together, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER (I put that in caps because this is my number on thing to remember when sewing. Nothing is worse than sewing the wrong sides together and having to rip it out...) Now do the same to the lower tier. Now make a hem at the bottom of the skirt. For one of my skirts I used the decorative hem of an old shirt as the bottom tier (I used more of the fabric from the shirt for the coordinating ining of the - as of yet unworn - sun bonnet.) Now put the elastic in. Make sure there is room in your elastic for your little miss to grow as this is a long skirt that can be worn for awhile. Ripping out the finishing seam to make the elastic bigger is a pain. (I did this last night. HA.)

So here are the results. Cute right?


i love this one. the top tier fabric is leftover from a dress i made
when i was FOURTEEN. the middle one is from
a dress i made at 16...

she refuses to take off this toy story shirt


i snatched the shirt off her head super quick to
catch the whole skirt...


she proceeded to hug the sunshine...and then
yes, we put the shirt back on...  :)
Confused? Write me your questions. It was fun to do and a great use of scraps. I plan on digging around for more clothes to cut up for the nice fabric soon.

1 comments:

  1. You are such a super crafty lady! I wish I knew how to sew.

    I loved your birth story post...fantastic.

    ReplyDelete

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