Thursday, January 26, 2017

January Blues and Flus

I did it again. I went AWOL. But now I'm back! I normally get winter blues right after the holidays, and this year was no different. Then, just when I thought I was bouncing back, we all got slammed with a vicious stomach bug. Yay.
So, today while my girls spent the day recovering from the past two days which I won't describe in detail, I washed all the bedding, and santized the house. Here's hoping that we have the bug beat, and out of our house!
What I also did today was some alterations, which means sewing. Yay! (Btw, that was an authentic yay).
Living in a cold climate, my daughter has been in desperate need of leggings to wear under her dresses and skirts. She did get some ready to wear ones as gifts awhile back, but they were much to wide in the waist.
For starters, I had to find a leggings pattern that I was happy with. I decided to muslin the Bonnie leggings from Made for Mermaids. I had a couple of free ones to pick from, but these had the most realistic looking crotch curves.
The muslin turned out great! I'm not too particular with the fit on leggings for kiddos, because a) they wear them under tunics, dresses and skirts and b) they outgrow them really quickly.
I did the muslin in shorts length, to save fabric in case they were a flop. Turns out they're just fine, and now Miss 8 has some shorts for the summer.
Then I picked apart the ready to wear leggings, and use the pattern to re-cut the crotch curves, and waist. It was so much easier than I thought it would be.
These are the grey ones after I recut them. I haven't sewed them up yet. I didn't keep the existing elastic waistband, and I want to add a yoga waistband as per the pattern, I just haven't decided on which fabric to use. I'm on the fence on whether to go with the light grey cotton lycra I have on hand, or wait until I have black. (Comment below on which one you'd choose?)

These are the other pair, finished. The waistband was part of the fabric, not sewn on, so I kept it. These had no crotch seams, so I just cut them open along the inner leg seams and then cut open down the center front and center back. I opened up each piece, marked the fronts and back, and used the pattern to cut the crotch seams.  Then I sewed up the crotch seams, and then the inner leg seams. It literally took me 15 min total, from cut to finish. She absolutely loves them!
I'm really happy, because they're not falling off her butt, and there's no sagging fabric in the front, or wedgies in the back like there was before.
I got some new fabric in, so now it's time to sew me up some items! I've got at least summer tops for me coming up, because I'm dreaming of summer. I'll just wear them with a cardi until summer actually comes.
Isn't that peacock floral dreamy! I'll be pairing it with the bright pink on the right. I've also got two pieces of poly-lycra that I'll be sewing up.
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