Saturday, April 11, 2015

J is for Jumper


We've made it all the way to J and we're wrapping up week two of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. I'm still amazed at how quickly this makes the month go.

Today, J is for Jumper. I'm pretty proud of this one...for a couple of reasons.

1. It's the first item of clothing I've sewn from scratch that wasn't purely for dress up.
2. It's the first item of clothing I've sewn with a proper liner.
3. It's sewn from my own hodgepodge of three different patterns. Per usual, I can't just follow instructions, I have to do things my own way.


The idea for this project initially started with Butterick pattern B5914. I was looking at making the dress for pattern D. How cute are those little ruffles? But...I have little patience for patterns and I had a little girl who needed a present for her 4th birthday. I wasn't wrestling it.

I was working on making her the Anna Cape I shared earlier in the A to Z when I thought about making her an Anna jumper to go with it instead. I just happened to have a tutorial for one from Snugglebug University pinned to one of my Pinterest boards, so I went out and tracked that down...

This is where indecisiveness took over. I got sucked into the Pinterest boards and got mesmerized by the cute little Kitty Skirt from Flamingo Toes.

What's a girl to do? Well...combine all three, of course! I took Snugglebug's pattern and tweaked it to more closely resemble the Butterick pattern (totally ignoring the actual pattern pieces and focusing on the photo on the pattern instead...because I'm crazy like that).


I snagged a little bit of felt I had hanging around and cut myself out a little kitty cat like the one from Flamingo Toes. I embroidered a face on him and used a couple of metal brads for some shiny eyes.

He was later stitched on by hand because I'm occasionally a little special and I sewed the lining in before I realized that his cute little face was still staring up at me from the sewing table. Drat. Good thing I can work a whip stitch.


I used two different patterns of fabric for the dress. I had about a yard of the gray/pink fabric and just a fat quarter of the plain pink. I debated a few different ways to make it and ended up creating a bodice in the pink with grey/pink flutter sleeves and then the jumper skirt out of the gray/pink fabric.


I made a simple bodice lining using some satiny white fabric I had actually initially purchased in order to make the nieces some Elsa dresses. (Funny how Frozen just keeps coming back in this project.) I still have enough to make the dresses, but it gave me a bonus project as well.

There may or may not have been a TON of turquoise glitter stuck to it from other Elsa bound fabrics that gave me a slight headache...


It's a pullover jumper, so there wasn't a zipper to wrestle with, thank goodness. Once I finished the whole thing, I kind of regretted not adding a sewn-in sash to aid in adding waist adjustment possibilities, but I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out.

Since I totally flew by the seat of my pants making it, I don't really have a step-by-step tutorial, but I did keep my fabricated pattern pieces, so I should be able to make another. Perhaps then I'll share the actual detailed way I managed to put this all together.

The only change I need to make is in the shoulder straps. They were initially too long so I need to shorten them up a bit in round two. I ended up having to hem these ones a little bit once I was all done.


I think this has been my favorite project to share so far. I'm excited about a few others I have coming up, as well. Nothing this year will be quite as involved as my L is for Little Kitchen post last year, but I will tell you that I'm pretty excited for P, S & V in particular. You'll get to see P next Saturday!

Now...I'm going to take my Sunday off and get some stuff ready for letters K through P. I should probably finish making M & N or next week will be a little empty...

Miss any of my A to Z posts so far this year?

1. A is for Anna (Easy Anna Cape)
2. B is for Bath (Appliqued Bath Mat)
3. C is for Child (Children's Growth Ruler)
4. D is for Denim (Denim Bib)
5. E is for Etch (Etched Casserole Dishes)
6. F is for Felt (Felt Hopscotch Mat)
7. G is for Good Night ("Good Night" Envelope Pillows)
8. H is for Hood (Easy Hooded Towel)
9. I is for Insulated (Insulated Beverage Cozies)

Are you visiting from A to Z? 

Be sure to leave me a comment (including your blog link) so I can come over and return the favor!

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and I will see you again on Monday with letter K!

20 comments:

  1. The real question for those of us who are not crafty at all is, when are we going to be able to buy your creations on Etsy?

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  2. That's really pretty, but so not what I was thinking of when I read your title even though I should have known. To me jumper = sweater :) I'll never forget hearing a US fan explain why it was hilarious when UK folks wrote US based fanfics and put big strong beefy men in jumpers ::g::
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  3. That jumper's adorable! You did a great job of merging ideas and patterns. I've been making my own paterns for years because I always like different ideas. My brain is always throwing out crative things to think about. Someday, you'll end up with a big file box full of them, like I have. Don't throw those things away because you may use pieces of them for other projects and they're fun to look at years down the raod. You should date the pattern for fun.

    Sunni

    http://sunni-survivinglife.blogspot.com/

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  4. Hmm...the best answer might be...when I stop finding new things to occupy my time. I need to stop being so A.D.D. with my tasks.

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  5. Haha. I didn't even think about the American-British difference there. Yes...this probably wouldn't be an appropriate jumper in the UK...very limited demographic for this one.

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  6. Thanks Sunni! Good idea on keeping and dating the pattern! I need to find a good way to organize them.

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  7. Your creativity is top notch. As a child I asked to sew a pillow. I did. It was awful. Lol.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Jeff! Practice makes perfect(ish) I suppose. I would hate to look back on some of the earlier stuff I sewed in my teenage years. I'm sure it's pretty awful. I may have blocked it from memory.

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  8. Elle,


    Get yourself one of those file boxes, or a box that paper reams for a copier come in, and put the patterns in there. I even put mine into envelopes and labeled them and drew a rough sketch on the outside so I could see at a galnce what it is. Hope that helps.


    Sunni

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    Replies
    1. This is a genius idea! I'm totally on this. I didn't realize how many bits and pieces of patterns I had until I was trying to get one out this weekend to make a replacement item for my nephew. (Incidentally, it's the objects that are featured for letter "O" coming up later this week...)

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  9. This is so cute! I can'r believe you made that!

    Good luck with the 2015 A to Z Challenge!

    A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy

    http://pensuasion.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I kind of can't believe it either. Now if she'll wear it in public then I'll really feel accomplished. We'll see what happens now that the weather is warming up. Maybe her mother will feel okay putting it on her.

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  10. That's great. You've reminded me that I really need to get my sewing machine out and have a go at figuring it out. You can make so many amazing things when you know how. :-)

    Cait @ Click's Clan

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting Cait! I run away from the sewing machine on occasion myself. Sometimes it just gets to be a little intimidating.

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  11. This is so cute. I wish I could sew.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Pam! I've built my skill set up over the last five or six years. I'm still definitely a novice, but I think it's fun. You never know until you try!

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  12. AdornmentsforDreamsSunday, April 12, 2015

    Cute jumper! Would have sweet on my Elisabet; but she is already ten years old, soon eleven! Thank you for visiting and commenting on my I-post about hedgehogs.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! It's tough when they get bigger. It seems all of the fun stuff to make is geared for the under 8 set.

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  13. I need to be adventurous and try one of these one day. The only clothing item I have made so far is a couple of pillowcase dresses for my niece.

    Sean at His and Hobbies

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    Replies
    1. I still need to make some pillowcases. They've been on the "to do" list for quite a while, but somehow I keep scaring myself away from them.

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