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...

the leggings are the Go-to-Leggings from Go to Patterns.

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......