Light Pink Tank Top

Here's a tank top shirt I made in May 2021 for Eesa. I used a combo of some Ellie & Mac patterns, but it turned out a bit too big...better too big than too small though! The under arms gaped, so I sewed in an extra piece of white fabric to make it more wearable. She wore it a few times and has kind of grown into it, but I think in 2023 it will fit her better! I used some really thin, pale pink knit fabric from the Walmart bargain bin, and I had to double the fabric, in order for it to be not see-through:

Color Blocked shirts

Here are a bunch of pictures of the Color Block shirts I made using Ellie and Mac's pattern. I love that it's a uni-sex pattern. I can sew for my boys, finally! I may have gone a bit crazy with making the kids stuff from this pattern, haha. 

March 2021

I believe this was my first shirt I made using the pattern. Eesa likes snakes (why?) and I happened to have this snakeskin stretchy fabric that also happened to match perfectly with the purple knit fabric I had in my stash. The pattern comes with an optional tie, which I used for this shirt for added interest. Girly liked it and she still wears it to this day (1.5 years later).

March 2021

A few days later, I made Ian a shirt using the same pattern, sans tie. Unfortunately, it was way too small. He wore it once before I gave it away. I made him another one a month or so later, exactly the same expect a bigger size!  

April 2021

I made the boys matching shirts! Again, the shirts turned out too small and were only wearable once or twice. After making these shirts I figured I needed to use a bigger size. I'm not sure if there was an issue with the pattern itself, or the way I printed the pattern, or maybe the fabric shrunk a ton (unlikely since I almost always pre-wash my fabrics). Luckily It wasn't too much of a loss, I just gave the big guy's shirt to the little guy and gave the little guy's shirt to an even littler guy! I don't think the orange fabric I used was stretchy enough for this pattern, notice how the neckline bunches up!

May 2021

I no longer trusted the size I had printed out, but I was able to draft a larger size from it. I made this shirt for Gabe, who was happy enough with the shirt to actually wear it! 

An orange color-blocked shirt for girlie, no tie this time. She doesn't have a lot of the color orange in her wardrobe, so this was nice for a change. I love the shiny, shimmery fabric. Alas, it has started to rub off, so she doesn't wear it much, yet she doesn't want to give it away quite yet.

They both wore their color block shirts on the same day!

Here's the replacement color block shirt for the one that was too small. I stupidly cut two fronts instead of one front and one back, but it wasn't that big of a deal, it just made me feel stupid. As a bonus, Eesa is wearing a tank top I made from altering the color block pattern into a tank.

Tribal Print Outfits

April 2021

Another Walmart bargain bin score! It was nice to find a knit with a print for a change! Most of the bargain fabrics are solid colors. The fabric I found is soft, stretchy, but it tends to catch on hangnails or anything, really! I think it must have some nylon in it...? The problem with the Walmart bargain fabrics is that there isn't a label as to exactly what the fabric is. 

The first thing I did was make myself a dress. I used my dolman top pattern that I drafted myself. I intended to have an elasticized waist, but it turned out that I didn't need to--the bodice was tapered enough. In all, the dress turned out nicely. I wear it occasionally. I did have a scare before I sewed on the skirt part with the pattern being placed in a just the wrong (or right, depending on who you're talking to) place! Thankfully, I had put it on backward, on accident (duh!). No way I'd be able to wear it in public otherwise haha. 

I had just enough fabric left over to make Eesa a top, using the Twist it Up pattern from Ellie & Mac. It's a cute and comfy shirt that she wears plenty.

Oho no way!

Phew. Had the dress on backwards!

Cutie wearing her new shirt.

I also made a pair of beaded earrings that happened to match pretty well with the dress. Unfortunately, I lost one in the grocery store and have yet to make a replacement.

Gray Dress

Here's a dress I sewed up for myself. To be honest, I hardly remember doing it and I don't wear it that often. I should wear it more, it is a decent dress after all. It fits nice and is comfortable. I think I just forget I have it! I'm pretty certain that I used Ellie & Mac's Fall in Love Sweater pattern for the bodice. In order for the dress not to look so drab and boring (it is gray) I put a little ruffle on the sleeves. The fabric was a gray ribbed knit from Walmart, it has a nice weight to it--not too thin and not too thick. It's kinda hard to get good pictures of myself, but I tried anyway:

Neon Pink Shirts

Back in late 2020, I found some very soft, very stretchy neon pink fabric from the Walmart bargain bin. There was also some stretchy crochet fabric in the same exact color so I grabbed that too. Walmart bargain bin fabric is now my go-to fabric. To be honest, I have shopped at Joann's since beginning of 2019. I've found yard and yard after yard of awesome knits (some better than others, of course) at an average of $2 per yard. Can't beat that! Anyway, this neon pink fabric I bought was at least 4 yards worth, maybe more. I managed to squeeze 4 shirts out of it, and I may even have some left. Here's a collection of all the shirts I've made out of the fabric:

November 2020: my sister came for a visit. She was actually with me when I picked out the fabric. I offered to make her a shirt out of it, but to get the exact size, I first made myself a shirt and had her try it on. Everything fit except the shoulders. So for her shirt, I added maybe 1/4-1/3" on the shoulders. Perfect fit! I wear my shirt occasionally, its very soft and comfy. 

Dec. 2020-I made girly a shirt, this time I used the matching crochet fabric as an overlay for just the front bodice. It turned out cute! She still wears it fairly often. I also made a mask to match, but she lost that mask not too long after I made it.

March 2021-I still had plenty of fabric leftover! I don't typically reuse the same exact fabric for another outfit for Eesa, but the last shirt was so cute, and she needed a summer shirt so I made her this using the Ellie & Mac's Twist it up pattern. This is one of several shirts I made for her using this pattern. Cute pattern, cute fabric, cute shirt, and cute girl!

The Fall in Love Sweater

 I did mention in a previous post that the Ellie and Mac patterns also have patterns for men, women and boys, unlike Violette Threads which are mostly for girls under ten (although there are a couple of women's patterns). One of the first patters I bought from Ellie & Mac is a very basic (in a good way--I guess a better word would be traditional?) long-sleeved shirt pattern for myself, called the "Fall in Love Sweater". And fall in loved I did--with this pattern! I started sewing these shirts in late 2020 (November), using what else but Walmart bargain fabric. 

The first shirt I made--and I regretfully gave it away without taking a pic--was a poor fit. Which is unfortunate because the fabric I used was a soft, pretty blue with a strip of crochet lace going down both arms that I quite liked. But it was very uncomfortable to wear because the underarm seam was too small and tight. So I donated it to Goodwill. I'm not sure if I did something wrong or it was a flaw in the pattern (which I did follow). I adjusted the underarms (and therefore the sleeves) on the pattern and I came out with perfectly-fitted shirts for myself! These are 4 of the 6 shirts I have made for myself so far. There's also a neon pink one but I'm saving that for another post, and I already discussed the first. I wear this shirts all the time in the winter, they are very comfy and the fact that they are relativity plain allows for lots of jewelry accompaniment!

My first well-fitting shirt, made out of a navy blue, slightly textured knit cotton.

A ribbed-knit cotton, my second shirt. I have purple beaded earrings that match perfectly that I like to wear with this shirt.

These two I made about a year after the navy and purple shirt, in late 2021, using super, super soft fabric from Walmart. I enjoy wearing these amazingly soft and comfortable shirts! You can't tell at all from the picture, but I actually spritzed a little bit of silver glitter on the gray shirt using Tulip glitter spray paint for fabrics. It's not super noticeable in person-there's just a hint of sparkle.

The navy shirt in action Nov. 2020

Maroon Knit Dress

I believe I actually sewed this dress in late 2019 (December), even though I took this picture in May 2020. This is the Sweetie Pie dress from Ellie and Mac Patterns using knit fabric I found in the Walmart bargain bin. Around this time, I started moving away from patterns that use woven fabrics and more towards patterns that use knits. Ellie and Mac Patterns is a goldmine! They have very basic, but very nice knit patterns. For Adults too! I have a pretty decent collection of their patterns at the moment. Half are for me, the other half are for the kids. Another thing I like about this pattern company is that there are plenty of patterns for boys, and men too! So yes, I've taken a huge step back from Violette Field Threads and have moved toward sewing with knits. My kids are getting older and prefer the knit look and feel, plus I've also discovered its fun to sew for myself, and E&M provides the perfect opportunity. The dress is too small now, but she wore it quite a bit. It was a fairly quick and easy sew. I did have a little trouble with the neckband, I'm not sure where I went wrong but yep it was something I did, not the pattern. Here is girlie in her dress: