Golden Girl

Today the next week of Project Run and Play starts! This week the theme is "All That Glitters," and I am very excited about my creation. My daughter loves all things that are shiny and sparkly, so this was the perfect time to make another outfit for her.

I gathered my materials, and drew a rough sketch of what I wanted the outfit to look like. Last week as I was checking out the other sew-along contestants' looks, I found this shirt that inspired my design. It was so pretty, and I wanted to make one like it! There is a cool tutorial that goes along with it, but I don't have the pattern the tutorial works with, and I ended up making up my own design and process.

My daughter has a raglan shirt that fits her nicely, so I used it to cut out the shirt front and back. I cut it out of a cream colored cotton knit fabric. 

After placing the lace over the top of the front piece, I gathered it into pleats and pinned it down, then cut it out.

I didn't take any exact measurements, I just eye-balled it and pinned it down where it seemed to fit and looked nice. 

Time to sew it down! I did my best to sew slowly so I didn't mess up my pleats. 

That gold fabric is so shiny. I love it. I think it is a type of dance stretch knit, but I didn't read the label very well. I made a trip to the fabric store to pick up the cream knit and the gold fabric, and the cream colored lace was already sitting in my fabric closet. It was a find from the remnant bin several trips ago. 

I think the fabric store workers are starting to recognize me...

I used the sleeve from the raglan shirt as a pattern to cut the sleeves from the gold fabric. 

After they were cut, I sewed them to the shirt front.

I made sure it all looked okay, and then sewed the sleeves to the back as well.

When I cut out the shirt front and back, I lengthened it and flared it out on both sides to give it a more flowing silhouette.

I realized the sleeves were a little longer than I wanted them to be, so I cut them down to a better length. After I sewed up the sides and the bottoms of the shirt, I added the collar. 

The shirt was finished! I really like how it turned out. The golden sleeves really give the sweet, lacy top a hearty dose of attitude.

It was time to start on the pants. I took a pair of my daughter's pants and used them to cut out new pieces from the cream fabric.

I wanted the pants to have some sparkle, too, so I stamped them with gold fabric paint using a pencil eraser. The fabric was thin enough to lay the fabric over the top of my cutting board and use the grid as a guide for my polka dots. 

After the paint dried, I assembled the pants. I was worried the cream fabric might be too thin, and I didn't want my daughter's underwear to be visible through her pants. To remedy this, I cut out two more pieces of cream fabric in the same shape as the pants pieces to make an extra layer. I left the bottom of the legs unfinished, and rolled them into a cuff. I think it is cute, and when she grows I will be able to unroll it to accommodate longer legs.

Here is the finished product! This is the front view of the shirt...

...and here is the back view.

I love all the sparkly polka dots. 

The pants turned out completely different than my original drawing. I used cream knit fabric in place of the pink knit in my original drawing, and I'm happy I changed my mind. I think the pink would have been too distracting and taken emphasis away from the sparkle and shine.

My daughter is very happy with her new outfit.

She loves the gold and all the sparkles.

The pants are very comfortable for her, and nice and cozy with their two layers of knit fabric.

I'm very happy I chose to sew along again this week. This outfit was more challenging for me than the last, but I love a good challenge and I learn so much more when I complete a difficult project. 

I'm so excited to see what everyone else made!

-Bridget :)