Sunday, February 2, 2014

week 4: Signature Style

  Phew - time sure does fly when you are having fun. Last week of Project Run and Play..... and even though this is my second time sewing along - this season is my first time I was able to sew all 4 weeks. 

This week is signature week and I tried to incorporate all that is important and fun for me in an outfit.

Things I consider to be my signature style.....

  • I always try to sew comfort even for myself I love comfort yet stylish! 
  • FLIP - I rarely sew a pattern just as is. I love to keep the basics of a pattern so I don't lose the designers hard work but like to add my own spin.
  • Mixing textures ( different types of fabrics) and matching different colors.
  • Using art forms of the sewing craft- embroidery,knitting, applique etc.
  • pin tucks, ruffles and shirring are favorites in Isabella's outfits
  • And finally ACCESSORISE - hats,headbands,hairpins and in this case Legwarmers.
So for this season this is what I came up with......

I have a  short shirt-dress, a long-sleeve shirt, go-to leggings, legwarmers and a felt flower headband.


The felt flower I made with a poinsettia  tutorial I saw over Christmas ( sorry I cant give credit to whom it is due I just cant find that tutorial) but Isabella fell in love with the bigness of it so I made a mustard colored one in felt and made a headband to add it to. Surprisingly it stayed on her head through both Picture sessions and some ......


both shirts I used one of my favorite simplicity paper patterns NR C2019. It is a tiered ruffle dress but what I really like about the top part is the gathered neck line and recess sleeves. 
For the long sleeve shirt I extended the body, added shirring around the neck and middle, lengthened and narrowed the sleeves. The fabric is Feathers on White cotton jersey knit blend by Girl Charlee. I bought it a while ago and it went perfect with my color scheme for this outfit.






 One of my challenges with this outfit were getting the right needles for the legwarmers. I saw a little girl with leg warmers the other day and started googling legwarmer patterns for toddlers. It seemed that what I was going to need is a circular needle. my knitting abilities are limited to the basics , I've never used circular needles before and  two trips and 3 pairs of needles later I ended up with these little circular needles . As I was looking at  it I had no idea how I was  going to manage such tiny needles - but I succeeded .
 Cast on was 36 stitches followed by 8 rows of 2k2p and then 4 rows of knit with the teal followed by 4 rows  knit of purple (52 rows all together repeating colors beginning and ending with the teal) and finally the ribbing again which was 8 rows of 2k2p. 


The dress/shirt I used the same pattern for the top. I added pin tucks to the front and a functioning button placket. The sleeves I widened and lengthened. I used traditional sweswe for the top piece from my stash that my mom always bring from South Africa when visiting....


The purple buttons I found went perfectly with the purple of the sweswe


the skirt part was a self drafted skirt. I made bubble ruffles with a mint green knit fabric and added a high-lo skirt made with  Koi VOILE by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cloud 9 .


the weather  was kinda yucky today so we had to hurry for a few shots before the rain came but we really need it here in California so we are thankful for Rainy day Pictures!


I cut the headband wide on top so it keeps a lot of hair away from the eyes but narrower  around the ears and back for comfort. It works very well and I will be making more like this.


The headband has elastic in the back to make it fit easily around the head.


as I said COMFORT is key...




And so the season has come to an end and I had so much fun sewing along, and admiring all the contestants and sew-along entries. I've learned a few things and stretched my imagination and boundaries. Here are my entries. I loved them all but my favorite this season was the Movie week. I had fun, the kids had fun and that made for a very special week for me......


and as always I have to end the post with one of many funny faces and seeing that Valentine's day is around the corner let's do it with love....


Till next time......


9 comments:

  1. I'm so impressed that you knitted legwarmers, there isn't much knitting with PR&P.

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  2. I'm so impressed you actually knit those legwarmer. They are darling! My favorite shirt is the first one...but really, really nice job on the whole outfit. Did you also make the mustard headband with the flower?
    http://xoxograndma.blogspot.com/

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  3. Cute and fun! Love the mix of colors. The legwarmers look so warm and comfy!

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  4. I love that you knit the leg warmers. I'm impressed that you had enough time! The bubble layers are so cool in the front of the shirt. I really like how they look. And the feather dress is really stylish. It's been fun seeing your posts this season.

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  5. Wow, I feel like I could have written your signature style bullet points! And you'll see a lot of similarities in our sew along submission this week too...felt flower, knitting, etc! http://skirtfixation.com/2014/02/t-shirt-dress-outfit/

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  6. I am just in love with your colors and fabrics!! Both are fantastic but that first one is my favorite!

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  7. The whole look is great! Now I want to knit some leg warmers!

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  8. awww, love your signature style!!! especially because it included leg warmers!!! also, i nominated you for a liebster award over on my blog!!! not sure if you've heard about it, but go check it out: http://cottingtonssocrafty.blogspot.com/2014/02/liebster-award-nomination-holla.html

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