Jump Rope Dress

This is my first Jump Rope Dress, and my first try sewing an Oliver +S pattern. Helen was pretty excited about modelling for me!

 The fabric was more difficult to work with than I expected - a loose weave that kept wanting to fray and twist off grain. Got there in the end, but the plaid isn't matched well in several places.

Going by the pattern sizing, Helen measured as a size 4 with a size 5 waist. I wanted a bit of growing room (we're barely past the middle of winter, after all), and I had also read in reviews that the fit can be a bit slim. So I cut out a size 5 top, tapering the body to size 6 at the waist. The end result has plenty of room - I probably didn't need to make the waist larger, but it's not ridiculously enormous.

Helen wanted the view B pockets.

I can see why some people rave about O+S patterns. It was nicely presented and the instructions were clear. I did feel like the pattern was simplified to suit less experienced sewists, which kind of clashed with my impulse to try patterns and techniques that are too advanced for me. However, simplified means easier to finish when sewing time is limited, so that's probably a good thing.

The pattern sheet was enormous which made it harder not to get marks, folds or tears during tracing. It would be nice if it was split over two sheets, but I guess that would increase production costs.

The collar is a bit uneven, but seems to sit ok when worn. I rushed the placket a bit and the overlap isn't in quite the right spot at the top, but again it's not glaringly obvious. The placket instructions were pretty clear, but I still found it hard to fully enclose the bottom of the cut edge and I think it might fray out over time. I have found a tutorial for another technique to try next time, which looks like it should work better.

I had read that the belt loops were on the long side, so I made the sash before attaching them, and cut them to suit the width of the sash.

Plenty of room for spinning and moving!

Louise to the rescue!

Not long after my recent post about wanting the out of print O+S Jump Rope Dress pattern for Helen's school photo dress, I bumped into Louise, who last year lent me some patterns to use in the EB kids' clothing swap. It turns out that she owns a copy of the JRD pattern in the size range I need and was happy to lend it to me. Thank you Louise!
I have started on a tester dress already; the fabric isn't Helen's favourite and I'll make another if I get time (ha!), but being soft, light cotton it should still get some good use over summer.

Some progresss on the newborn stash

While there is still quite a bit to do, I am pleased to have these fifteen newborn fitteds completed. (There are also some other newborn nappies lurking in my sewing desk and in storage, but only a few).

I had/have plans to make mostly snail shell nappies, but found myself paralysed with indecision about the details, so decided to make some little fitteds, something I'm more familiar with. It means there is a good chunk of the stash completed, even if they're not exactly what I originally had in mind.

The ladybird fabric is from a flannelette sheet set that I bought on sale at Target. I used Target flannelette sheets for some of Heather's stash too, and they held up really well, so I hope this new set proves reasonably durable too.

Some of these are a bit wonky, but they should all work for the first little while. All the nappies have two body layers of flannelette and a layer of bamboo fleece in the bum zone, (as newborns, H & H's nappies got very wet at the rear because they spent a lot of time on their backs). There are two lay-in inserts/soakers per nappy, each has two layers of bamboo fleece and one layer of flannelette.

Seven DDNB (red/smaller pattern). I overlocked the first few but it was hard to do curves neatly with the flannelette, so the rest are turned and topstitched.

Opened up, showing the gusset with inserts in place. the gusset is a strip of microfleece sewn around the insert area, with fold over elastic sewn on the free edge. While the FOE is fast to apply, I found it difficult to get the amount of stretch correct. Most of them are too loose (I hope they tighten up with washing - I didn't pre-shrink the FOE). Sewing a casing is more fiddly but more adjustable.

Opened up, showing the two inserts to the side. You can see I've sewn some satin stitching with purple thread - this is to help match up inserts and nappies, since the inserts from different patterns I used look very similar at first glance.

Eight La Di Da. These are bit neater, being sewn after I ironed out the kinks with the DDNB above.

Opened up with inserts tucked in. Rather than a full gusset, I just did a small one under the back edge, to catch those poos that shoot up the back.

Close up of gusset and green colour-coding satin stitching.

Opened up with the inserts to the side.

Cute tags, from a co-op on Diaper Sewing Divas. Possibly overkill for newborn nappies that might be outgrown very quickly, but I think they give a nice finish to the nappies. I already had the size tags.

You can see I chose to use hook and loop rather than snap closures. The intention is to make the nappies easier to use (bleary-eyed night time changes, anyone?) and more intuitive for others, who may not be used to cloth (e.g. midwives, relatives). I hope it works, because the hook tape is a pain to sew!

It's a gamble making smaller newborn nappies (LDD runs smallish), but this baby will be born about three weeks earlier than the last two, so there's a reasonable chance they'll fit her for a few weeks. The next batch, though, will be smalls that adjust down to newborn size, which will definitely fit for longer.

Another project...

I just realised today that school photos will probably be in September, right when I'll be having/busy with a newborn. I would love to make Helen a new dress like I did last year, but I would need to start pretty soon and have it finished well ahead of time. Not sure whether to attempt it or not! I love the look of the Oliver & S jump rope pattern, but it is out of print. I could borrow or buy second hand, or pick something else from my Ottobre collection.

In the time since my last post I haven't done a great deal of sewing. There is a batch of seven flannelette DDNB fitteds (red/smaller pattern) completed, and I'm about half way through eight LaDiDa newborn fitteds, also flannelette. I don't know whether to expect a small, average or large newborn, since she will be born around 39 weeks - much earlier than my last two. If she's large then these fitteds won't last long, but will be nice to have while they fit.