Building on the basics

Still catching up on the procrasticrafting makes... As I thought I was nearing the end of my self imposed sewing distractions, I was handed a couple of others. Bring on the quick, easy distractions I yelled, and dove straight in.

First up, my mother in law was knitting a new dress for A and suggested she needed a slip to wear under it. She even brought over a small piece of navy slippery lining type fabric. Challenge accepted, I said, immediately putting down my Frocktails dress pattern yet again.

Here I've used the Oliver + S Pinwheel Slip Dress as my starting point. I'm pretty sure I added a couple of inches length as I was leaving off the flounce at the bottom, but sadly I didn't make contemporaneous notes and can't remember.

The main changes I did make was to cut the front and back pieces on the bias instead of the straight grain, and altered the facing to a simple binding. Cutting it on the bias worked exactly as I'd hoped it would and has made a really nice drapey, trapeze-y camisole.

Instead of the deep facing of the dress I just cut a single fold bias strip of about 3/8" finished width and used that as a mini facing. At the corners where the straps attached I just made a little fold in the bias facing and kept going. It's a quick, slightly bodgy method but it's fine for an under-thing.

And once the dress once finished it became clear I would have plenty of time to perfect my camisole bias facing technique as I'll need to make another before time she grows into the dress. Oops granny, it's a wee bit big. :)

Next up, A needed a plain black t-shirt to wear for her gymnastics end of year performance. Easy peasy when you've nothing more important to do.

This is the Oliver + S School Bus T-shirt with a couple of little modifications too. Firstly I shortened and curved the sleeve hem to create a much smaller cap sleeve. Partly to girly it up a bit, partly to get those gymnastics arms out and moving but mainly because it allowed it to fit on a remnant of mysterious black stretchy leftover fabric.

The only other change was to do a bound neckline rather than a neckband. It lowers the neckline a tiny bit, but also saved me having to go rummage for some black ribbing. I'm a lazy procrastinator even when I'm making a thousand things and looking busy!