Project Run & Play: Week 2 |Sew Along|

I've been trying to write this post for hours. Really! Not lying! It's been nearly impossible since my daughter is waking up every 5 minutes, crying out loud, my poor thing. I forsee a wonderful night. NOT!

I really thought I'd be posting my outfit for Project Run & Play, second week's challenge by Sunday or Monday morning, but I couldn't finish it until this afternoon. Baby G. has been crying a lot through her sleep the last couple of nights, hasn't been making long naps as usual during the day, and she's begging for attention all the time. New teeth are coming and she's with the cold. Of course, she's my priority. This sew along is just for fun, it's just because it motivates me to start and finish my (hers) outfits, motivates me to keep me busy and use more and more from my never-ending- stash!

But that's fine, that I only get to post it today, because I am still in time to join the sewalong. Again. I made it! Hurray! So, let's get to the interesting part. This week's challenge was Polkadots and Stripes. Could it be any better? Right!!!

I thought it'd be a pretty easy week. I love polka dots, I mean, I  L o v e  it! and I do like my stripes too. But then I realised I didn't have many fabrics that match together, though I have lots of polka dots fabric. I went for the black one with very small dots. It's a light fabric and not so easy to work with.

My outfit was made out of a buttoned shirt and leggings. Let's start with the leggings. They were actually a refashion job. I had a knit size 10 sweater somewhere in my stash, meant to turn into something else. I first cut off the sleeves and turned them into the leggings. That was easy. I actually had them pinned for a couple of days before I actually sew them together, because I felt that it was too sporty to match my blouse.
And honestly I still think it's not a very good match!

I used an already existing leggings to draw the pattern right on the fabric (sleeves). 

But they were so plain. I didn't like it that way... and right before I sewed it together, I free hand painted a card with a fabric pen on one of the legs and filled it with red ribbon, creating a striped pattern at the same time I was adding a little touch of me to it.

In the process. I left the black pen as it is, I did like to see it that way. And yes, there's a little red spot under the heart, it was already there, and I only realised after cutting. 

The time consuming piece in the outfit was my button shirt! I love this fabric, but as I said before, it's not so easy to work with. But I did make it. I am very much pleased with what I made. I love the details, I wasted a lot of time to make them, and I think it was more than worth it.

     Front, back and buttons detail.  Liked the background of this photos? see entire project HERE

When I started this, all I had in mind, was that I wanted to make the front and sleeve details. I was inspired by an already existing blouse G. had. It doesn't fit anymore, it's from CODE, and it's orange. From that one I drafted a new pattern, just bigger. I had to make a lot of adjustments, it didn't turn out exactly as I wanted but I like the way it came out, after all.

 As I went I was having ideas of what I'd like to do, and how to make it better. So, I started with the polka dots and the pattern (a very difficult to achieve pattern I must say!). Then I had to choose the buttons. I was going with some plain white ones, but then I thought it was eye catchy to use the heart shaped ones. I have a few of them for years, which Iwas always saving for a better project. How stupid is it that we buy things, and then don't use it, always hoping for a better project?

Anyway. I love the contrast of the bright red colour. But then again, it was black and white, what would a little red do there?! That's when I turned to the leggings and added the ribbon heart. And when I attached my collar, I saw another chance to add a little red, so a red ribbon came handy again.

On the front I made several pleats on both sides, and then ran a stitch to turn them to opposite sides. Hard to explain, sorry, I hope you can figure it out with the photos.On the back I did a little crimpy and I did the same pleats (as in the front) for the sleeves, but only ran one stitch instead of 3. 

I used this stripped fabric I had left after making my nephew a pair of Flamenco pants. Which I just realised I 
haven't blogged about yet, like a lot of other polka-dotted projects I've made last year. It had grey on it, that's great, sort of matched the leggins. The stripped fabric was used on the peter pan collar; the fists and to reinforce the button holes. It was used in both left and right sides of the blouse. 

Details
The front pleats. The back, which was made out of two pieces and add the crimpy. More from the front pleats and last photo is from the sleeves.

Again, I wanted to make it one size bigger, but not as big as last time. This is a great outfit for her to wear when Spring comes in just a few months. It's fresh and light. The only bad thing about making things bigger is that they don't fit properly on my model for the photo shoot. But I did make one anyway! We had so much fun taking these photos today. She even posed!

It's not usual to have my 18 month old posing for photos, but she even did that! The leggings do fit already, but the button shirt is still a little baggy and the sleeves are too long. The collar looks funny on her =/

And just because, here she is on the move! Can you tell we love Minnie Mouse?!  And that sock monkey? There's a lot of handmade in these pictures! 

Did you realise that my first entry for the sew along fits both first and second week? And the second entry (this one!), does fit the 4th in two weeks, which theme is Valentine's?

And before I finish, I will leave you the links to another polka dotted project - the very first thing I have shared in this blog: my daughter's robe. And a stripes project that I absolutely love: my first mom and daughter dresses.  I'm sorry this came out so long! But thanks for reading it all. Gosh it is long!

Oh! And I promise there will be more colours nest time! Now go and check out other ladies' creations.

EDITED:
I totally forgot to show you the full leggings picture... here it is: