Sewing: Clothes

Although I made lots of clothes when I first learned to sew, I haven't done as much in recent years.  I have made a few things for the kids, but not much, simply because they haven't needed clothes.  I realized recently, though, that if I don't make them a few things now, when they're young and will actually wear what I make, I'll someday regret it.  And, as they get older, I'm finding they have more gaps in their wardrobe that need to be filled, so sewing a few things seems like an obvious solution.

So far, Joanna is the first of the kids to receive new mommy-made clothes, as I whipped up a couple of summer dresses for her.  Sometimes, buying fabric can make sewing clothes more expensive than buying new (especially those on clearance!), so I've been trying to be a little creative with my fabric sources.  I found some fabric and a cute tablecloth at Goodwill, and by buying both on a sale day, I made both of Joanna's dresses, and a skirt for me, for about $5!

For this dress, I used the free Summer Picnic Dress pattern from the Cottage Mama.  It was easy to make and turned out adorable!

This dress is a basic "pillowcase dress" (although I made it from a tablecloth instead!).  Cute and simple, this will probably be my go-to design for summer dresses for the next couple of years.  Although definitely more basic than the Summer Picnic Dress, it is still very cute and was so much quicker to make!

I had enough tablecloth fabric left to make a cute skirt for myself.  I used this tutorial, although I followed a suggestion in the comments to eliminate the elastic and make a wider, fold-over waistband from the knit fabric.  It turned out great and the knit waistband is so comfortable!  Although it's technically a maternity skirt, I have a feeling it's going to be especially useful at the end of the summer, after the baby is born!

While I was making a flannel shirt for my dad for his birthday, Seth kept hinting that he'd like one, too. How could I ignore that?  So I made another and managed to get it finished just in time for his recent school trip.  

Next on my clothes list is some summer shorts for the boys, and probably some t-shirts for Benjamin.  This tutorial makes t-shirts seem really easy.