Can I buy a model please?

I've been sewing what I think is just about THE cutest outfit.....

....And I do have a pretty cute daughter. But do you think she'd team up with the outfit for the sake of some blogging pictures? Definitely NOT!!!! I'm starting to wonder if I should raffle off one garment a month on the blog as I can't stop making things and she can't stop saying no to me (sigh).

 First up was a wee pair of Size 2 Field Trip Cargo pants. I've made two pairs of these for P and when Oliver + S had a recent half price pattern sale of course I just had to have the smaller size for A.

The fabric is a designer stretch, cut corduroy that I found on sale at The Fabric Store. I bought a metre and a half each of this pale aqua and some pale pink.

It seemed a bit stiff at first and I almost got a great photo of the pants, during construction, standing up entirely by themselves waiting for the waistband to be ironed. As I sewed it softened a bit with handling and I think they'll be superb after a wash or two.

This time around I did all the topstitching with just a single thread of co-ordinating cotton so I saved myself all that re-threading.

The feel as you run your hand along them is divine, and while my daughter agrees they're lovely to pat she still wasn't putting them on for a photo.

So, here are some more pegged-up pants pictures...

 

And then, to go with my Cargo pants I had just enough Miller Miller flannel leftover from these pyjamas to make a little Music Class blouse. Bless the fabric stash fairy as those aqua dots perfectly match the pants.

This is definitely a multi-night garment for me. There's one evening's work just in those little pintucks and assembling the front and back panels. Another in the collar and preparing the sleeve plackets, and then 1 or 2 more, depending on how late I'm prepared to go, in setting the sleeves in, sewing the cuffs and then seven little buttonholes and buttons.

One thing I do save a bit of time with, is in not hand sewing the collar down before edgestitching it. I use 1/4" Heat'n'Bond quilters fusible web and just iron it together. Then there's no pins to sew over and everything remains nicely where it should be so the inner collar looks (almost) as neat as the outer.

The same trick works well on cuffs. I made this shirt once before in a flannel and I just love it. This time I remembered to sew the buttons on vertically. How professional of me that I know that kind of stuff now. :)

So there's my lovely outfit for A. hopefully I'll get some modelled photos another day.....

Here's teddy, putting in a cameo as Iron Man and photo-bombing the blog shoot (at P's insistence)!