Project Run & Play Week 3 - Earth Day

This week's challenge at  PR & P was to "Design an earth friendly children's outfit".

I've been wanting to try dyeing fabric for awhile, and took this opportunity to do it.  To keep with the earth friendly theme, I dyed my linen fabric using natural foods: turmeric and coffee.  Then, I made Anja a little colour-blocked sundress with the newly dyed fabric!

 Here's how I did it!

I am very passionate about using/creating eco-friendly products (such as my cleaning supplies) so I am very excited to have found a way to dye fabric in a natural way.

Here is a tutorial on how to make the inverted pleats that I used for this little dress.

Natural Fabric Dyeing with Tumeric & Coffee

 What you need:

 about a half metre (a little more than half a yard) Linen Fabric 

(or try any white or light coloured 100% cotton fabric)

Turmeric

Coffee

White Vinegar

Large Pot

 (I used 2 cups vinegar, 8 cups water)

This process preps the fabric so the dye will adhere to the fibres.

Machine wash in cold water and dry before sewing!

PR&P Week 3 Results & a Sneak Peak...

WOW!!  The lovely Sew-Along Judges at Project Run & Play selected my Toddler Sportswear Chic outfit as the winner this week.  

I'm seriously shocked, because if you take a look at the competition out there on the flickr group, you'll see why!  There was such a wide variety of amazing ensembles that reflected just about every aspect of sportswear imaginable.  I'm so thankful for the chance to create outfits along with all the other ladies who are sewing for their little ones.

Next up is the Earth Week Challenge.  I'm quite excited about it because I tried a couple of completely new (to me!) techniques, one of which will be obvious from my sneak peak...

COLOUR BLOCKING!

:)

Project Run & Play Week Two - Sportswear

I'm going to be honest...the fashion term 'sportswear' is somewhat confusing to me.  Before I watched Project Runway, I thought sportswear was track pants & hoodies.  But when the designers created these sophisticated ensembles, I was introduced to what American Sportswear really is.  Well, maybe not exactly what it is, but more, what it is not.  It's not formal evening attire and it's not casual loungewear...it's basically anything in between.  I'm not entirely sure that's accurate, either, but that's my personal understanding of it.  If anyone wants to correct me, please do.  The more understanding the better!

For Project Run & Play's Sportswear Week, I decided to do something a little dressy, but also comfortable, and easy-to-wear: a trench coat, mock wrap dress, and leggings.

Here are the original sketches (you can see how much I change things as I sew).

The Trench

This season of PR&P, I really want to focus each week on doing something I've never done before, such as work with a different type of fabric (e.g last week's silk), or learn a new technique.  This week, I did french seams for the first time.  It's such a great way to achieve a finished and tidy look without having to line the inside of a garment.  It's also often used on sheer fabrics.  

The "Wrap" 

Reading this, inspired me to make the wrap dress:

"Diane Von Furstenberg’s wrap dress has become an icon of American sportswear. After all, only the most prestigious and truly innovative design pieces make it into the permanent fashion collection on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and DVF’s wrap dress is one of those pieces. It’s truly the one and only dress that never quits."

source

I'm so glad I came across Diane Von Furstenburg's designs in my research this week.  There are some incredibly gorgeous pieces in her collections.  This year, she launched a children's collection that is being sold at Gap.  If you haven't seen it, check it out.  There is definitely some cuteness there!  

The style of this toddler wrap dress inspired mine: 

source

Normally, I wouldn't necessarily pair pink & red together, but the print in dress brought it all together.

The Leggings

 Elegance & Elephants

 I was so excited to receive my labels in the mail this week!  I ordered them from two different etsy shops.  I would like the highly recommend Michelle at inked papers for her twill labels.  

So, why Elegance & Elephants?  Well, Tobias' love for elephants started the idea, and the two words together came to me and just stuck.  

It's so neat to see 'real' looking labels in my garments!  And Tobias is so anxious to have little elephants attached to his clothes.  :)

Project Run & Play Week One - Remix Two

This is my second remix of the circle skirt at made for the Project Run & Play Sew Along at Home Contest. The fabric is a delicate silk/cotton blend that was perfect for layering. The waistband is a quilting cotton I picked up at a local quilt shop. Having never worked with silk before, I was surprised at how manageable it was. My greatest difficulty with it is how easily it wrinkles, so probably not the most practical choice, but I can't help loving how the silk drapes. 

UPDATE:  Just entered this in Skirt Week 2012 at Crafterhours

Crafterhours

Project Run & Play Week 1: Circle Skirt Remix

Project Run & Play Season 4 has begun!

This week's challenge was to remix this skirt at made.  It was a pleasure to work with such a great pattern from a blog I've followed for quite some time.  So much so, that I remixed it twice!

Here's the first remix, inspired by this tutorial:

Remix #2 to follow once I get the photos done!