Tinny #3

I've had that David Bowie/Freddy Mercury song 'Under Pressure' playing over and over in my head.  The cut off for submissions to the 'Flip This Pattern' Linky party for the Tinny dress is 11pm tonight.
All week long I've been wanting to make another Tinny dress.

Summer is such a busy time around here with guests coming and going (and leaving behind piles of laundry) my sewing time is limited. As good luck would have it, I found 3 hours of uninterrupted time today to get the dress traced, redrafted, cut out, assembled, photographed and blogged.

Pressure pushing down on me

Pressing down on you no man ask for

Under pressure

Since the skirt is a big hit with Miss C, I didn't want to 'flip' that part of the dress this time around. So I concentrated on the bodice and sleeves.

Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor

These are the days it never rains but it pours

To add to the pressure, it was pouring rain here today with thunder and lightning. The power kept flickering on and off.  I was so worried there would be a power surge and wreck my sewing machine or maybe the power would go out for hours (as is usually does) and then my sewing time would be gone!!

Recalling some of the dresses from the 50's I redrafted the bodice for the Tinny to look like this:

Onto the sleeves.
Thinking of some 50's style sleeves I 'flipped' the length of the pattern to just short of bracelet length and added a cuff that looks like this:

When it came to the collar, I didn't use piping.
I always use piping.
Always.
And my pre-made piping stash was calling too.
Nope I said to myself " I want to keep this collar vintage 50's looking."

Watching some good friends

Screaming 'Let me out'

For the final 'flip' of the pattern, I went with a big vintage style sash at the back. My daughter loves dresses with sashes and it won't interrupt the twirl factor of the skirt.

Love, love, love, love

                                                              

The fabric is Modcentury by Moda pattern #30512. The dress is size 5.

I wanted to make another Tinny dress ... #4 ... today but there just wasn't enough time.

This is our last dance

This is ourselves

Under pressure

Got it made!  

Tomorrow Miss C can try it on, twirl, and perhaps I can get better photos. Meanwhile, this will have to do.

Edited 2 days later to add more photos:

Notes to self:
The skirt opening can stretch when cut on the double fold....handle with care.
Add grain line to collar before cutting.

Tinny Flip #2

When I saw this dress from Marie Chantal (children's wear) I Pinned it as a reference to make a similar dress. It's called the Gabrielle dress and it costs somewhere in the neighbourhood of $210.00.

Source

For the month of August on the blog Frances and Suzanne, the challenge is to "Flip" the Tinny dress, a pattern from Straight-grain.

Looking at the pattern pieces for the Tinny dress, I quickly realized that I could use those pieces and with some adjustments make the same dress for my "flip"  

Here's my Tinny flipped to look like a Gabrielle dress. It's size 5.

(We were attempting to get some drama like the above photo and it was difficult to get her to stop giggling!)

Step #1 was to cut the skirt portion and add about 2 inches to the width in order to make large box pleats.

For the skirt pockets, I used the pattern pieces from the free download pattern for the pleated playsuit  from Elephants and Elegance.

While looking for images of the dress, quite ironically I found another sewist who had done the same thing however she was flipping the the Oliver + S Fairytale dress. For all the steps to make the pockets go to her website: click here.

The fabric I chose is a navy suiting fabric. It was $3.00/m and I bought two meters.
I found some navy shiny fabric to trim the collar ....

.... and cuffs.
I made the cuffs similar to Oliver + S Puppet Show cuffs, except the ends of my version meet.
The sleeves were lengthened to bracelet length so Miss C. doesn't have to wear a sweater when the weather gets cooler.

I made a makeshift belt from the navy shiny fabric but have ordered a silver faux leather belt that I was hoping would arrive before I posted this.

Lastly, I made 2 self covered buttons.

Overall, this was fun "Flip" and I'm pleased with the results.  Mom and Miss C are also pleased.

Initially, I wanted to make the dress in a grey or light brown tweedy fabric but in the past my daughter has said she isn't fond of browns and greys on our little girl so that's why I went with navy.  When I showed her the original Marie Chantal dress she said she would have preferred grey or a light tweedy brown fabric instead.  Gah!  The conversation reminded me of the 'dark years' when she was teen.

I've got another Tinny flip in mind as well as an outfit for the Secret Squirrel for August. However, my sewing room just got flipped into a guest room so those projects will have to wait until all the guests have gone.

This "Flipping" business is fun!

Tinny Flip #1

The first version of the Tinny dress for Flip This Pattern is more or less a wearable muslin.
I made it up quickly to see how it would fit as well as how it would be received.

For inspiration I looked at vintage patterns because the Tinny dress certainly has a vintage feel.

I came up with this........

I know, it's kind of lame and all I really did was dissect the bodice to put in some white. The sleeves are lengthened a little bit and the cuff is a simple white band because I was in a hurry.  But hey, it is flipping ... isn't it?

With dress in hand I asked Miss C.,  who was busy having fun at her brothers birthday party,  to try on the dress.

She agreed most willingly, except she wasn't prepared to take off her t-shirt and shorts, so the dress went over the lot and I followed her around like the paparazzi.

She loved the dress.  Her mom loved the dress.  And they both loved how it twirled.

 "Make more," they said.  

"I'll get right on it," I replied.

So another Tinny is on the way that has been Flipped.

Monster Party

This little monster is turning 2 next week and he's having a Monster themed birthday party.

So my daughter asked me to make as few items to help her out.
First up, she wanted  Softies she had seen on a website for the loot bags.
In hindsight, I wished I had used fleece instead of felt as they were difficult to turn inside out.  Plus that, they were extremely labour intensive.

She saw an image of duct taped drink boxes and asked me to make them as well.
I wish fancy patterned and brightly coloured duct tape was available when my kids were little.  I would have made all sorts of characters on their drink boxes.

She also wanted crayon holders based on another image she Pinned.
They were less labour intensive but still took a good deal of time because I had to keep changing thread colours in my sewing machine.

I found barely enough green coloured elastic to stitch into the side so the little felt holders can be rolled up and put inside the Loot Bags.

Another image she Pinned was a monster bean bag toss board.  My husband cut it out of scrap plywood and spent the day painting it.

While he was painting, I made bean bags.
I filled plastic sandwich bags with navy beans and stitched them to the inside of the poly/cotton bags.  If the bags get wet from damp grass or spilled drinks they won't sprout later was my thinking.

The bean bag toss game was the easiest and fastest project for the party that we had to make.

But we're not done just yet.

She has asked me to bring to her house my sewing machine with... get this ..... "special paper machine needles". I guess it's obvious she doesn't sew at all!
Anyway, she wants me to stitch together some crepe paper and glue it on bristol board for a "Pin the Eye on the Monster" game.  Once again, the idea came from an image she Pinned.

Also, there are clear cello candy bags to fill and decorate with googly eyes.

Meanwhile, she's ordered a fantastic looking monster birthday cake as well as monster pop cakes. She's made pennant bands to string around the kitchen and living room and lots of crepe paper monster eyes to hang from the ceiling.

It's going to be a fun party but like all parties, well for me at least, the most fun is in the preparation.