So clever

I am reposting this with permission.  I just thought this was so clever I had to share it.  Also, having the little ones grow and the fabric stash full of pieces that are now to small for a complete outfit, it really was a post that I needed to spark some creativity so I can use up those pieces in my stash.

I love the way Jerry’s mind works, from play clothes to heirloom sewing she just amazes me.  

In her own words I will let her lead you through this project. 

Red, "White" and Blue for MK**

I bought these floral coordinates at Continental two summers ago when they were clearing out their summer fabrics. I bought exactly one yard of each. Since I didn't really have a plan in mind when I bought the fabrics, and since I am now making size 8s for MK, I had to really be creative in using them!! (read....figure out how the heck I was going to get an outfit done using them. ). I had bought a cute new pattern at Continental a month or so ago, but darn if it didn't take 1 3/4 yds of one fabric and 7/8 yd of another....just for the top/dress. So I put on my thinking cap to see if I could approximate that design and used my Chery Williams basic bishop pattern in size 8 and cut the one yard of the "white" ground floral into a bishop front and back after tearing it in half. That gave me an 18" top, which will be shorter than most I do for her now. But since it is loosey-goosey, I think that will allow it to be cool and comfy to wear. I used the angel sleeve pattern to start the contrasting ruffle and cut the sleeve portions, then laid that down on both the front and back and drew a line the length of the sleeve all across both the front and back dress pattern pieces; then I cut pieces of the contrast corresponding to those pattern markings, giving me a ruffle to go all around the top. I seamed the pieces together, then ran some bias tape on the sleeve section tops only so that when I sewed the ruffle to the dress and flipped it over to the front (sewed right side of ruffle to wrong side of dress), I could press the bias tape down and have enough room to sew a 1/2" casing all around to run the elastic through. Did you get that? I simply serged around the bottom of the top and pressed that under and top stitched around with my 4.0 double needle. I used CC Sara's Skort for the little bottom. So it is a skirt with shorts attached at the waist. I found that little red pin dot fabric at Hancock's yesterday and didn't know at that point exactly what I was going to make to go with the top, so I only bought 3/4 yard. Last night I thought a little skirt would be cute, so I got that pattern out and used my remaining small floral to make the shorts. Instead of lining the skort, I chose to cut my scraps into bias strips to bind the bottom and trimmed it with delft blue rick-rack. Sure wish I had another pack of it. I would have loved to have added the same color rick-rack to the bottom of the ruffle edge. I then fussy cut three of the dominant shapes from the "white" background floral and fused them to the skirt off center toward the right side and then appliquéd them the old fashioned way on my sewing machine. To me this looks like a "big girl" outfit....and that's a little sad.