Plaid Lillian Top and little Pocahontas dress

I was away from my sewing room from the beginning of the year. It was not easy to be away. But life happens and some time is hard to find free time especially with 2 small kids. I was happy last weekend to finally have some time alone and do some sewing. I wanted to start with something easy and familiar so I used 2 patterns that were already open on my table and one of the last year late purchased fabrics. My top id PatternReview Lillian top and Eva dress is from the Pocahontas top pattern from Ottobre :

I made my top without the extra ease on the hip. I think it still makes some unpleasant wrinkles under the arm and I should try and fix that if I will be doing that again. I am just not sure how...I think some sort of bust dart will fix it. I should at least try it.

The fabric is quite unusual. On the outside it looks a bit like Lycra blend knit and on the inside it has a flannel look and feel. I am a bit curious how will behave. It was not hard to sew and it was not expensive so I am happy with it so far.

 Eva's dress is longer and without a tie. I also skipped the neck binding and just turned and cover stitch. I skipped the elastic at the sleeve as well - just cover stitch finish there as well.

She may have liked it a bit shorter and I think it would have been more flattering on her like that. But she is growing so fast so probably it will be shorter soon :).

I also started a new system to help me limit my fabric purchases this year. Every item I sew I get 1 point or so ( maybe more or less sometimes depending on difficulty and amount of fabric used ). To buy a new fabric I need to spend 2 points. So here are my first 2 points for there year and another one for making new curtains for my sewing room :

I have a for other easy tops waiting for some finishing touches and reviews so more points to come soon. Justin time since one of my favorite stores just have a new set of printed knits that have been really hard not to order already...

Little things

I loved having coordinated outfits for us so I decided to make more. For this end of the year I managed to put together quite a few tops and pants for my little ones and one more Lillian top for myself. Used the same paterns I already had on my table with small variations.

The 1st items to make were 2 tops for Andrei and then a tunic for Eva combining the fabrics.

 And one more top from Andrei from a nice Fox Print Sweatshirt Fabric:

Then I did a 2nd Lillian for myself with a real wrap on the front insert this time and bell sleeves. I had to improvise a bit on the sleeves to make them fit in the 1 meter cut of fabric that I had:

In order to be able to do the binding I only sew a portion of the front insert , then the binding and then completed the insert. For this version I also reduced the flare:

I liked my top so I purchased another piece of that jersey and wanted to do something for the kids. I should have gone for a bigger cut... because at some point decided to do more then a top for Eva and I hadn't enough fabric. I made het top sleeveless and put it together from small pieces:

I modified Eva's pattern to have a deeper cut on the front insert and a wrap just like my own.

 I really liked the wrap front insert and I did a 2nd one for Eva:

I really liked this fabric tho wearing pants and top together may be a bit to much. This one matched one of the simplicity tops I made for 1 pattern many looks - here.

The last one I made is my favorite by far for Eva. I used the remnants from the skirt and top I made for my sister and I had to get creative since I didn't had enough fabric to cut the back so I made it with 2 ruffles and a bow. Even of most of the elements were done to hide the piecing of the fabric together I really really like how it turned out and how it fits her:

It is a bit shortcut I think it looks better like that and it is more comfortable like that for toddlers. Even knee length dresses annoys her while she is playing.