Late summer in Vermont

This is Shepard.  In late August, the humans took me up to Vermont for a weekend of sightseeing and general relaxation.  We stayed in Montpelier, at the Capitol Plaza hotel across the street from the statehouse.

It was an amazingly nice weekend, though we got there too late to visit the museum.  We did get to wander the streets and do a bit of shopping.  I did not come home with a quidditch set, much as I wanted one.

 We also visited Bragg Farm while on our way to the Caledonia Distillery.  The human was too busy eating her maple creamie to take pictures of it.  I, on the other hand, enjoyed the rural Vermont scenery.

For this trip, I did get the new button down shirt with real buttons with a resized pattern from Jenwrenne (original here).  The shirt has a nice loose fit for layering over tshirts.  There's no instructions but it makes up like a human shirt would.

AG Buttondown Shirt Pattern

For Science!

Kana here.

The good news:  the human has a real job and a real paycheck, so we get more toys.  YAY!
The bad news: the human has much less time to actually spend with us...  BOO.

And that is why it's been so quiet over here for the last month or so.  That said, the human is still making things for us.  It just takes longer.

What happened this time was that the human discovered a source of science themed novelty prints  And then inflicted them on us.  (OK, so at least half of that was Lily begging for a Ms. Frizzle cosplay, but that shouldn't involve the rest of us.)  There will be a proper photoshoot as we set up a massive doll-scale science fair in the coming weeks, but for now, the quick and dirty photoshoot in the parlor will do.

Most of us are wearing periodic table applique t-shirts with somewhat coordinating skirts or shorts.  Cauthrien's shorts have contrast cuffs, which are super cute.  I got the nice black-and-white dress, which despite having rather large-and-out-of-scale print, looks pretty darn good on me.  Also, Shep and I match.  Kind of.

Take chances!  Make mistakes!  Get messy!

And of course Lily got what she wanted.  Except the actual frizzy hair.

Because we're feeling super generous (and because misery loves company), we're providing the pattern for what I'm generously calling 'The Frizzle Dress'.

The Frizzle Dress

The pattern has the bodice, collar, and placket pieces.  The waistband is 1.25" wide by however long the waist is (about 12.5", but cut 13" to be sure and trim it back.)  The skirt is a straight skirt 7" long by the width of the fabric.  The human used the sleeve piece from Molly's blouse pattern (here) for Lily's dress and the sleeve from a free BunnyBear pattern (here) for mine.  The cuff is from Samantha's patterns.

I think we're all assuming that if you're using the human's patterns, you kinda-sorta know how to sew already.  The hardest part with this dress is the placket.  Just make a faux one if you want.  Just follow any of the Kirsten or Samantha dress patterns for how this should go together.

See you at the science fair!

Now with lightsabers (Free Star Wars doll clothes patterns)

Lily and Shepard here.  We're evil twins.  Or evil clones.  Or something of that sort.  (Only since Shepard is such a renegade, I think I might be the good twin by definition.)  But we're both persuasive, and in this case, we convinced the human to finally do something with the giant pile of old clothing in her sewing room.

With all the talk about the latest Star Wars movie, and the fact we *already* own a droid, it was only fair that the human should make us Star Wars costumes.  I'm dressed as Rey, and Shepard is dressed as Luke from 'A New Hope' (desert planets are pretty much the same, right?)

 Shepard is wearing a modified Japanese hippari and monpe made from an old gi.  Turns out there's no better way to get the weathered and worn look than actually using weathered and worn fabric.  The leg wraps are a pieces of woven brown ribbon, and the belt is a piece of nylon strapping with a buckle.

And I'm wearing a tunic and a pair of shorter monpe made from the same gi fabric.  It's a lightweight twill.  The sash is a piece of vintage Japanese cotton 3" wide by about 45" long.  The belt is all one piece with two buckles.  The arm wraps are the same woven ribbon as Shepard's leg wraps.

Download the patterns here!

These is a modified and resized version of the Little Darling in Japan patterns offered by JenWrenne.  Her instructions for making a hippari and monpe are here.  The pants have elastic waists.  Rey's tunic closes in the back with velcro.

Also, you can buy the lightsabers at the Museum of Science store here.

And now for some more pictures! (Yes, the lightsabers actually light up when we hold them.)

Dual wielding!

LIGHTSABER DUEL!

This should be a book cover pose.

Fun with Chirimen Crepe (plus FREE jeans/pants pattern)

The human bought a small collection of Japanese chirimen crepe when she and Shepard were off at Seattle last year.  (Wow.  2015 is now 'last year.)  This would normally not result in clothing for us except that the human has also acquired a large stash of free patterns she hasn't tried before and some ever elusive free time.

And so I was pressed into service as a model for the latest batch of creations.  The ultra-bright colors looked best on me.

Each piece of chirimen was slightly bigger than a fat eighth (so about 11" x 19"), and the human had two each of 5 different prints.  The fun was trying to figure out just how to get a two full outfits from each print.

 First off:  a red drop waist dress and a peasant blouse with a pair of jeans.

The human has been playing with the free patterns offered by Phoebe&Egg, and the pattern for the peasant top and the dress came from there.  The top is about an inch too short to really look good, I think.  And chirimen drapes well, but does not gather well at all.

The pattern for the jeans came from a pattern the human modified.  We have yet to find a good free pattern for non-elastic pants, so the human finally lost her temper and made her own.  This was the first revision, and the legs were way too wide.

 Next up: the Oliver and S popover sundress, which only took half an hour to make up, and the 'Inspired by Zooey' dress by Matilda Jo patterns.  This is where the human learned just how slippery chirimen is, and how she can screw up the cutting if she didn't pin everything down first.  (There was, suffice to say, a large amount of 'language inappropriate for young ladies', but I was the thesis buddy, so I've heard much much worse.)  You can't see it in the picture, but part of the skirt is actually patched together to make up for the bad cutting.  The human managed to get the print to match perfectly, so you can't tell unless you're looking for it.

Finally, a retro pink dress (Phoebe&Egg) and a LJC bandeau top with white jeans.  The jeans are the second version the human made, and fit much better.  I'm not swimming in the legs, for instance.  It could probably be refined more for more styles, but I actually like plain straight-leg jeans.

 And now, for that elusive free pants pattern:

Pants Pattern Download

What this pattern has:  variations for both jeans (with pockets and a back yoke) and a plain pair of pants.  This was based off of the shorts pattern from the Lee and Pearl Paris pattern set.

Instructions:
(Follow the instructions from the Lee and Pearl Paris set if you have them.  I'm giving just the bare minimum to work with.)

1.  Sew front and back of each leg together.
2.  Finish seams and hem leg.
3.  Sew up inner leg seam of each pants leg.
4.  Place legs one inside the other, right sides facing.  Sew back seam and about 1/3 of the front seam.  Go from 1/4" seam to 3/8" in the front.
5.  Attach waistband and line.
6.  Zigzag stitch or serge front opening.
7.  Attach velcro in front.

1960s Dresses and other projects

Wren*Feathers has been offering free 1960s dress patterns for AG dolls based on old Chatty Cathy outfits for the last few weeks, and if you make one or more outfits from those patterns before January 1, you can get two more free patterns.  So of course the human had to do this.  And so Sam and I are suffering through the latest bout of sewing.  Because you see, when the human tries out new patterns, she uses random remnants from the stash instead of the nice fabric that we know she has.

I'm wearing the Chatty Cathy smock dress (free pattern here) made in a lightweight turquoise corduroy.  The pattern came together really easily.  For the sleeve cuff, the human used the sleeve cuff from Samantha's Pleasant Company patterns.

 And Sam is wearing a pink cotton blouse (vintage Japanese cottons) and a floral stripe corduroy jumper (free pattern here).   think I got the better deal, honestly.

The human was busy doing other things instead of throwing us a Christmas party, but we got our fair share of loot.  Those are all the new books we got in the last week. 

From left to right:

• Jane Eyre
• Pride and Prejudice
• Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Return of the King, The Hobbit
• A Little Princess, The Secret Garden
• A Girl of the Limberlost
• The Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, the Emerald City of Oz
• Peter and Wendy
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
• Robin Hood
• The Boxcar Children
• Little Women
• The Baby's Opera, The Baby's Own Aesop, The Baby's Bouquet (we got them for the wonderful illustrations by Walter Crane)
• A Floral Fantasy (another volume of Walter Crane illustrations that doubles as an herbal)

At this point I can safely say that we have every book that Pleasant Company/Mattel ever made for us historical girls.  And then some.  A good number of these books will show up on Etsy come the new year.

And R2-D2 is holding onto my new lunchbox for me.  I think he'll give it back.  Maybe.  Droids don't need food.

Sailor Suits (Free Sailor Blouse Pattern)

Nothing says 'classy magical girl' like sailor suits

The last batch of sewing turn out these two little sailor suits for Sam and Nellie.  Aren't they cute?

Sam's outfit was made from the free sailor suit pattern by JenWrenne in the style of a Japanese school uniform.  The top is made from white linen and the collar, cuffs, and skirt are from a navy linen.  I used 1/8" ribbon to trim the collar and cuffs.  If you're using the contrast cuffs, reduce the length of the sleeve by 0.5" to 0.75".

Nellie's two piece suit was of my own design with a sailor blouse over a pleated skirt with an attached undershirt.  I was going with a more traditional 1900s play outfit with this.  The tunic and skirt are made from a light blue check suiting.  The undershirt, collar, and cuffs are from white linen.  The pattern for the sailor blouse is here.  It includes the tunic and the collar.  Use the sleeves that come with Samantha's Christmas Dress here.  Sorry, no instructions this time.

To Boldly Go

 Meet the latest crop of Starfleet officers!

 The dresses and tunics were made from a slightly modified T-Shirt pattern (LJ Trendy TShirt Pattern), or, if you have it, the LJ Tshirt variations pack.  The pants are from the free MiloMila pants.  I used old tshirts to make these.

Instructions to make the tunic pattern:

1. Lengthen tshirt sleeve to wrist length or use the long sleeves from the tshirt pack.  WIDEN THE SLEEVE EDGE BY 0.5".  Once you attach the ricrac, it restricts the stretch and you won't be able to get the sleeve over the hands.
2. Widen the bottom edge of the front bodice by 0.25" on either side.  Widen the bottom edge of the back bodice by 0.25" along the side only, not along the center back.
3. From the bottom of the armhole, draw a line to the new ends of the bottom edge.  Repeat for the back.  This gets you an A-line tunic.
4. For the neckband, cut a 1" x 8" strip of fabric.  Trim to fit as needed.

For the dress:  This is actually 2 pieces, an undershirt and an overdress.  The undershirt is a crop top.

1. For the undershirt, take the basic tshirt and move the hem up front and back by 2".
2.  For the overdress, cut a neckline 0.5" lower than the original.  Lengthen the front and back bodice pieces by 1.5".

 Closeup of the insignia and rank braids

Science officer and Engineer

Redshirts.  They're doomed and know it.

Snow Day Arts and Crafts (Free Valentine's Day printables)

Hi, this is Samantha speaking.  Or rather, writing.  Nellie and I took over a table at the local generic restaurant (in a place that looks an awful like Tyson's but serves more than just ice cream) to escape from the snow today.

We brought some Valentine's Day activity books and coloring books with us.  Each little book has 6 pages of puzzles and coloring pages, and the front and back have prints of vintage valentines.  We also brought extra coloring pages in case we finished everything else.  They're of really cute cakes and chocolates and desserts.  Our human found the images from the Dover samplers and scaled them down for us.

We also brought our new scrapbook and filled it with vintage Valentines that we found.  The scrap book was made by cutting two sheets of card stock into 8 pieces each, punching holes in them, and tying them together with a piece of ribbon.  The front and back covers have metal eyelets for a bit of decoration.

And finally, because there's nothing like hot food on a cold day, Nellie and I had bowls of ramen with pork.  (And cakes, because our restaurant serves whatever we want.)

Tomorrow's supposed to be another snow day in the Northeast, so we'd like to share our valentines with you.  

Coloring books and vintage valentines: here.

Instructions for folding the books:  here