School Days

2014
Tildy's first year at School
No more Kindy-girl 

Tildy wearing and Oliver+S Jumprope dress

The first day went so well!

Our school is just lovely.

With neat and tidy grounds.

Arriving at the Junior School.

Hanging up her school bag for the very first time!

So exciting!

Are you ready?

It was terribly hot, 42d (celsius) but clever Miss Sommerville and Mrs Twelftree had a brilliant activity planned.

Numbers frozen in water balloons!

The children were able to touch them and examine them with a magnifying glass.

What clever clever teachers.

We feel privileged to have our children at such a lovely caring place of learning. 

Hugo in Kwiksew polo top and O+S Sketchbook shorts
Zara&Elsa in Deer and Doe Bleuet dress, Liddy and Tildy wearing O+S Jumprope dress.

School Days!

xx N

Sneaky

Tildy starts full-time school this year.
Sob!

School dresses are required.

 So, I decided a couple of Jump-rope dresses would be the go.
First up, I made view B.

This dress has such sweet sweet details.
What about this dear little button tab?

And the front placket.
Who doesn't feel like a Rockstar after completing that placket?

As the school uniform fabric is a bit unaspiring I 'sneaked' in a wee bit of Liberty.
Shhhhhh
(Unfortunately, the nasty poly/cotton shrank and the Liberty didn't so the collar ending up with some edge 'peepage' 
I sort of like it, its like teeny tiny piping.

At Zara's suggestion I added a webbing tab for school badges to be pinned to.
(Our school is tiny and my children are joiners)

I am currently working on a view A
Through my tears.....

xx N

Vintage- Modelled@The Beach

Re-cap
Zara chose a vintage blouse

And here it is, modelled at the beach.

She looked stunning in it

The voile was floaty and fabulous

The mottled spots and vibrant colour made it very 'now'

She got some very admiring looks

And she was quizzed by the proprietor of a fancy beach wear shop as to where she got it

Mum made it.
He he-love it!

By the way, Zara's fabulous thongs are on sale here 
As Tildy would say, 'You are most welcome'
xx N

Vintage

Zara's choice
Very very vintage.
1979 'ish' 
Spotlight voile from the lovely Justine.

 Very very gathered.

Very very full.

A neat shaped back yoke.

Beautifully shaped sleeves.

Sweet little mandarin collar.

Which fastens with (my signature) mother-of-pearl buttons.

I loved sewing this blouse. With all the gathering and careful pressing involved it was reasonable amount of work.
But I loved every minute of it!

Modelled pictures soon, I promise! 

Swim

Its technically still Zara's turn, but Elsa had an invite to a pool party and negotiated to jump a spot.

Her request?
A rash vest and board shorts.

As I didn't have anything she fancied in my stash she purchased the fabric herself.
Proper grown up.
 For the rash vest she chose a grey&black stripe swim suit knit.
And the shorts a bright red taslon.

The Twins love the firm fit of Oliver+S Field Trip tee so I went with that pattern.

 The last time I was in Spotters I picked up these ball point pins.
They are just the job!

I was keen to match the stripes as best I could, so I marked the pattern to help line up them up.
It worked okay.

Have you seen this before?
Its a Goddess sheet. The special properties of the cloth let you press synthetics at a high temperature without burning.
Perfect for swimmers!
I sewed three of the four shoulder seam.

Then I attached the neck band strip by sewing the right side of the band to the wrong side of the top.
I sewed with a big stitch length stretching the fabric as I did so it would have ease once relaxed.

I trimmed off any straggly bits and pressed the seam towards the neck band.
Using my Goddess sheet.

I then folded over the edge as you would do with a normal bound edge.
I did this at the side seams and then eased and pinned the rest.

After that I sewed again, with a long stitch, stretching the neck band as I did so.

I baste the final seam before running it through the overlocker as the neck band end is quite thick and the over locker can be a bit fussy.

 To keep the neck seam sitting nicely, I use a piece of interfacing to hold it down(Goddess sheet, anyone)

And then I topstitched it down from the right side.
Next time I will use this method

I have a coverstitch machine but I don't get on with it. I find this wavy stretch stitch on my sewing machine give me the longest lasting hemming stitch.

There we have it.
One rash vest.

Now for the shorts, they needed to be sturdy.
Evidently someone (no names) at school split theirs!
The shame.
I used a vintage pattern I had previously made the top and bottoms from.

So I re-inforced.

Split these Baby-Baby.
(Actually, please, don't)

The cord is purely decorative.

Good high coverage over the derriere.

Cute little side vents.

Lowered just a wee bit at he front.
Several inches off the length of the rash vest.

Yes, she is beautiful.

Have fun Elsa!
xx N