{"id":1392,"date":"2011-04-13T10:09:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T14:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2011-04-13T10:15:47","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T14:15:47","slug":"sweet-swiss-dot-for-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/?p=1392","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Swiss Dot for Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite being swamped by end of term marking, I’ve been taking regular breaks in the sewing room. \u00a0 I find the change keeps me fresh (and sane!) and I’ve made some adorable spring and summer outfits for my niece.<\/p>\n

None too fancy, mind, and mostly separates since that’s when she’s at her most comfortable. \u00a0 A few more buttonholes and one more quick bishop and I’ll call it a season. \u00a0In the meantime, this is one of the tops I made out of the most wonderful, buttersoft swiss dot.<\/p>\n

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I fell in love with the whole idea of this top the moment I saw it last month. \u00a0It was designed by my friend Laura; it’s her “Little Bird<\/a>” e-pattern. \u00a0Her little girl, Ellie, is adorable and knew I had to make my own version when I saw her wearing it in this photo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Just get a spoon and eat her like ice-cream, why doncha?<\/p>\n

My swiss dot is the softest pink and the hand is indescribable. \u00a0It’s stash – remainders from a bishop I am (glacially) smocking and it was nice to see *something* actually made with it, since it’s such lovely fabric. \u00a0It’s hard to find the real stuff. \u00a0I found this last summer, completely by accident, while I was hunting for another fabric entirely. \u00a0It was crammed on the bottom of a jam packed rack of fabrics, dusty and shopworn, but I could tell just by looking at it it was *quality*. \u00a0A little haggling later (I love independent fabric stores for just that reason) and it came home with me for a song. \u00a0It washed up perfectly and looked just like new, which isn’t surprising given how beautifully it was made. \u00a0Yeah for a bargain!<\/p>\n

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The front and back feature a row of release tucks. \u00a0I did three on each side at the front and then seven centred across the back below the yoke.<\/p>\n

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This was actually the fussiest part of the whole top, since I like my pleats evenly spaced and neatly tied off with knots on the wrong side. \u00a0It would have been much faster if I’d simply gathered the lower portions and fitted them to the yoke, which was an option Laura offered, but I wanted those tucks, so the fiddling was the trade-off to get them. \u00a0Each tuck is exactly 3\/8″ wide (3\/4″ total take-up) and 2 3\/4″ long. \u00a0Because the yokes are curved, my tucks fan out, too. \u00a0They’re spaced 1\/8″ apart at the top, and 1\/4″ at the bottom. \u00a0The one right at the centre of the back is technically <\/em>a released box pleat and not a tuck but that’s only because I didn’t want to muck up the symmetry of the tucks by having 4 pointing one way and three the other. \u00a0I’m a bit anal that way \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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Really, I’m going to have to gut my sewing room at some point. \u00a0In its previous life, it was a large walk-in linen closet (yes, I sew in a closet – but it’s MY closet. \u00a0Makes all the difference!) and when the shelves were removed by the previous owners, it left large gaping holes in the not-quite-drywall-some-sort-of-cheap-1930s-pressboard-alternative. \u00a0 They’re everywhere and they’re impossible to avoid when I take pictures. \u00a0Not attractive :(. \u00a0Maybe this summer, me and the putty knife can become one.<\/p>\n

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But home renos aside, I made the sleeveless version, with the small ruffle. \u00a0I could have simply done a single layer ruffle, edging it with a narrow rolled hem, but the fabric is so soft, that I didn’t think it would have the body it needed to stay aloft on its own.<\/p>\n

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Instead, I self-faced the ruffle which saved me from hemming the outer edge and gave it more body all in one fell swoop.<\/p>\n

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And here’s the hem. \u00a0I love this shot. \u00a0I’m not a whiz-bang photographer. \u00a0I go for clear, well lit and functional rather than gorgeously artistic like some blogs with hosts more talented in that department than I. \u00a0 But there’s something so sweet about this picture, I think. \u00a0The tiny rolled hem, the\u00a0back-lit\u00a0texture of the fabric, the out of focus mannequin. \u00a0It just makes me happy.<\/p>\n

Finally, I decided against doing a drawstring casing. \u00a0I like the soft, unstructured look the top has without it and I hope my Ellie looks as adorable in hers as Laura’s Ellie does!<\/p>\n

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Despite being swamped by end of term marking, I’ve been taking regular breaks in the sewing room. \u00a0 I find the change keeps me fresh (and sane!) and I’ve made some adorable spring and summer outfits for my niece. None too fancy, mind, and mostly separates since that’s when she’s at her most comfortable. \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[70,71,69],"class_list":["post-1392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sewing-for-children","tag-ellie-inspired","tag-summer-clothes-for-children","tag-swiss-dot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1412,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions\/1412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairemeldrum.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}