PRP week 4

 I can't believe it's week four and I'm still here! I am extremely grateful for anyone who voted for me the last few weeks. I am a sonographer and NOT a designer; I have never done as much modifying and drafting as I have in the last month, and no matter the outcome, I'm happy. Also, I'm very tired--since I didn't expect it to make it this far, I only cut out my outfits Wednesday and began sewing Thursday.  I kept my theme of song titles for my week four designs, Wildflowers, which also gave me inspiration for my designs. We live in the middle of Illinois prairieland, and wildflowers are starting to pop up (though not enough for a good backdrop for pictures, so use your imagination here). 

We tend to be very casual, with few occasions to get very dressed up, especially in the last few years. When I make clothing, I want it to be worn over and over, even if it's just to play in the yard. I'm not sure the correct term to sum up my "signature style". My style choices tend to be simple and timeless. I like details, but not frill. If there's an optional ruffle, I'm usually going to skip it. I love solid colors, chambray, denim, seersucker, gingham, double gauze, florals, buttons, hand embroidery, cotton lace, eyelet. I think all of my makes through this competition have been true to my style, and together sum me up well. 

For Juliet's outfit, I thought back to what I made when I first was learning to sew. I started with pillowcase dresses, and soon my oldest daughter, Claire, had a bunch of them. I had that in mind when I drafted this top. Instead of the standard pillowcase/rectangle shape, I wanted it a little more fitted and less bulky at the neckline. I used the front and back bodice pieces from VFT  Teagan as my starting point, and made modifications to add casings and a gathered neckline. The tie neck is tacked in place to stay gathered neatly and for safety reasons. An elastic casing keeps the crop length in place. The fabric is a stretch woven gingham I picked up from Fabric Outlet a couple years ago. For her skirt, I used the remnants of the Kaufman chambray double gauze from sponsor Cali fabrics left from my week two dress. 

I know a lot of people despise it, but I love gathering, so I made a tiered ruffle skirt. One of the first tricks I learned was how to do elastic shirring using this tutorial. I was shirring everything I could get my hands on to avoid buttonholes and zippers (to be fair, I didn't have all the appropriate presser feet for my grandma's machine to do those things). So for that reason, I did a shirred waistband for Juliet's skirt. 

As you can see, I brought in the big guns this week (or my big kid rather), my 14 year old daughter, Claire. She was my reason for starting to sew in the first place, so it seemed appropriate. Sewing for teens is hard; they have lots of opinions and they can change their minds without much warning, or outgrow their clothes overnight. But you feel like you've hit the lottery when you make something and they love it. 

I don't (and probably never will) have the confidence to make jeans, but I used VFT Remi to make some jeans shorts using Cali Fabrics denim. Remi has a relaxed fit, so it's less intimidating fitting them. I modified them by adjusting for height, adding back pockets, omitting the patch pockets and changing them to diagonal seam pockets, and swapping the tie belt for a tab waistband. I added topstitching to the seams and pockets, a little bit of embroidery, and distressed the denim a little bit to soften it up. 

Check out those perfect earrings!

For her top, well, I just wanted to make a wrap top. She didn't have one yet, and it turns out she really likes it, and tells me she's going to wear it when she goes to New York in June because it's fancy. I used Made For Mermaids Isabel dress bodice as my starting point. I modified it by omitting the shoulder seam and adding front and back yokes (which I now realize I didn't photograph 😑) with gathering. I increased the waist tie to make it both wider and longer so it would wrap all the way around her waist, raised the neckline, and swapped out the fitted sleeves for the long flutter sleeves from the Poppy pattern. I also extended the bodice several inches for a little more coverage.  Fabric is rayon spandex (I think!) from a Knitpop auction. 

Again, thanks for taking the time to vote, I really appreciate all the support the last four weeks. 

Today I learned it's very hard to get flat lays of teen sized clothing.