On my first attempt I was highly commended and it really boosted my confidence. I love making things for my daughter Miss V, so chose to enter the children's wear category.
The pattern is New Look 6408 and includes a vest, jacket, trousers and a dress.
Miss V and I sat down to discuss design. As usual the theme of cats was requested along with pink and purple. She chose some buttons (cats of course) and then I could begin. Apart from the buttons and some new thread, all the other materials came from my stash.
My plan was to make the vest and dress with some of my own unique touches!
The basic vest pattern is unchanged, but I was inspired by a tiedyedivablog tutorial to alter the pockets into cat shapes. I used fabric paint to add sleepy cat faces.
I was ordered to put a large cat on the back of the vest, so I used a fantastic free Craftsy paper pieced cat pattern by Sewhooked. I enlarged the pattern to make more of an impact. It's been about a year since I last did paper piecing and I'd forgotten how much fun it can be!
The dress had a few more changes. Miss V likes comfortable fabrics, so i made it from a ponte knit fabric and added an elastic waist.
To change the skirt shape, I cut the pattern piece off at the waist and used a tutorial by onceuponasewingmachine to add box pleats in the contrasting cat print fabric. Because I was using a knit, I didn't use facings and just used the cat fabric to finish the neckline and armholes. With the addition of a bow I was finished!
I really enjoyed these makes and Miss V loved the finished result! The only thing I didn't enjoy was trimming the neck seam and accidentally cutting a hole in the back of the vest! I quickly decided that a heart applique was needed right in that spot.
I look forward to seeing what everyone else has done with the pattern.
