I wanted a romantic little girl dress, something with a hint of nostalgia but not too fussy. Think English garden tea parties! Something you could play croquet in 🙂
The embellished bottom hem adds a bit of lightness to a clean, polished design but the dress is still comfortable and easy to wear. Two lengths are suggested: top or dress.
Broderie calls for sport weight yarn and comes in sizes 3 months to 8 years. You can find it in my Ravelry, Craftsy, and Etsy stores.
Sweet and simple and super-swingy… The idea was to give that gauzy, “tutu” feel while keeping this top modern and practical.
The result is not too frilly but definitely girly!
Tutu Top calls for aran weight yarn and comes in sizes 3 months to 8 years. You can find it in my Ravelry, Craftsy, and Etsy stores.
This design has been in my head, pretty much exactly as you see it above, for years. The ruffles on the straps, the V-shape of the straps at the back (cute but also ensuring the straps do not fall off of the shoulder!), the side tabs and A-line shape…
I am not sure why it took me so long to knit it and write it up. It’s the perfect instant-gratification project: a very easy knit, it also includes a few “tricks” to make it look polished and practical. It calls for aran-weight yarn, so it knits up extremely quickly, and uses very little yarn. It’s a versatile garment, which could be a worn as a back-to-school jumper/pinafore dress over a shirt and tights, or as a simple summer dress.
I was so impressed with the versions that my test-knitters made that I made a little collage (the photos were used with permission): doesn’t it look completely adorable on all these sweet little girls?
Credit (Ravelry user ID) from top left clockwise: cbahler, buttons29, Cellybelle, Serendipitystitch, LauraPNW, JuneK, blogiete
Summer Into Fall calls for aran weight yarn and comes in sizes 3 months to 6 years. You can find it in my Ravelry, Craftsy, and Etsy stores.
Ta-da!
Claudine Layered Top and Dress: click on image for Ravelry link
Behold my new pattern !
Bravely modeled by my son, Axel, who thankfully hasn’t yet realized that he is a boy 😉
I put together a quick barrette at the last minute because I thought he wasn’t convincing enough as a girl…
So about the pattern: it’s completely seamless and really versatile, you can make a puffed sleeve or three-quarter sleeve version, and it can be knit as a top or a dress. If you leave the collar and sleeves out altogether, you get a very cute flutter sleeve top or dress for the summer. It comes in 5 sizes, from 3 months to 24 months and is available on Ravelry for $5.
Here’s the “top” version:
Puffed sleeves
Three-quarter sleeves
I’m always surprised (and a bit frustrated) at how much effort and time goes into writing a pattern, though it’s true that the process is getting easier. From the idea to the release, this one took about a month and a half!
Of course I have limited amounts of time to work on my designs these days, and between tweaking the prototype, grading, getting it tech-edited and tested… It just seems like it takes forever. But I’m so happy with the result, and I hope people enjoy knitting it 🙂
Vite un petit billet pour vous faire part de ce super tuto par Clevergirl…
Parfait pour le Printemps, non? (je ne désespère pas!!) Et aussi pas mal pour recycler les immenses chemises de son homme – vous savez les fois ou on a voulu bien faire, mais où on a vu un peu trop grand!
Et on ne s’affole pas, pour celles qui ne comprennent pas bien l’Anglais: le tuto est tout en images!
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Before / After via Craftzine Blog
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Just a quick post to share this great tutorial by Clevergirl. Perfect to give a second life to these way-too-big shirts we bought for the men in our lives!
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Yes, the title of this post is random. But I was impatient to show you my first Japanese sewing book project!
Voici ma première robe-tunique tirée d’un livre de couture Japonais!
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Fabric detail:
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It’s the No. 9 dress from this book – actually it’s the dress that’s on the cover – mine is more like a tunic:
C’est la numéro 9, celle de la couverture (la mienne est beaucoup plus courte et près du corps, plus une tunique qu’une robe en fait)
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Here are a few tips for sewing Japanese patterns:
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1- Do not follow the sizing guide. If I had followed it, I would have had to make the LL size! I made the M instead, and it was still a tad big on me (well it was fine but I like my clothes fitted). I would advise going one size down from what the book tells you, and be prepared to adjust the fit further.
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2- The seam allowances and measurements are in METRIC.
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3- Don’t be afraid of the instructions in Japanese. There are clear drawings that should help you figure out what you should do next. These dresses are very simple. If you’re still confused, there are many websites that will help you, such as this one, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post.
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4- You might need to add some length. I actually shortened my dress, but that’s because the length was too short to start with.
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5- Expect to make your own mods/customizations. I removed quite a bit of fabric from the back because I didn’t want it to pouf-out. I made the neckline quite a bit lower. I also french-seamed this dress entirely, because I didn’t like the zigzaged seam. Also, I couldn’t figure out a way to gather and apply the bias neatly, and I was getting frustrated, so I ended up putting an elastic in the bias casing, which worked out fine.
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Quelques conseils:
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1- Ne faites pas attention à la taille préconisée par le livre d’après vos mensurations. La plupart de ces patrons taillent très grand. D’après le livre, j’aurais dû faire une taille LL, et en réalité, j’ai suivi la taille M, et encore, j’ai retiré pas mal de tissu.
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2- Ne soyez pas intimidées par les instructions en Japonais. Les dessins sont très clairs et il existe des sites qui fournissent les traductions des termes de couture les plus courant. Par exemple, Japan Couture Addicts, ici, offre un lexique.
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3-Il me semble que les patrons sont assez courts. Si vous êtes grande, ajoutez un peu de longueur au cas où.
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4- A mon avis, ces patrons, qui sont très simples, nécéssitent quelques modifications, customisations etc. Les miennes: j’ai enlevé de l’ampleur au niveau du dos (environ 11cm de tissu), j’ai raccourci la robe, agrandi le décolleté, mis un elastique dans le biais de l’encolure, et ai utilisé un tissu différent (une chute de vieux Liberty) pour ladite encolure et les manches.
Japanese pattern books are all the rage these days, particularly among French bloggers, and I’ve admired so many simple and elegant creations by people who claim they cannot sew, that curiosity got the best of me.
At first, I was put off by the ebay price tags for these thin books (20-30$), not to mention all the fierce bidding. But after doing further research, I discovered that these books retail at a more reasonnable $13-18 at any local Japanese bookstore (fortunately, I live near one!).
So I splurged a bit and bought 3 soft-covered books a couple of weeks ago.
Of course, these books haven’t been translated yet (if anyone with some business sense is listening, I think there would *definitely* be a market for English versions!) The instructions are heavily illustrated though, so I think it should be manageable with minimal guesswork.
I’ve found a few blogs where common sewing terms have been diligently translated and compiled into a glossary: Moving Hands is a good one. There is a lot of good advice on her blog about these Japanese sewing patterns.
Still, I’m a little nervous about trying this out… If anybody else has experience with any Japanese sewing patterns, I’d love to hear some feedback, or to see what they’ve made
I am finally all done with the Debbie Bliss Ribbon-Tied Dress. It an was easy and pleasant enough process, I mostly knit it watching House and Grey’s anatomy. I’m happy with the result overall, but the pattern had one of these annoying “complete to match first side” bit, which is really not very helpful for not-so-experienced knitters like myself. I tried to guess what kind of decrease to use AND also made silly mistakes (i couldn’t be bothered to look up what exactly “tbl” means). As a result, I frogged the right front about 3 times until I decided that i didn’t know how to make it match the other side exactly. I’m sure there is a way to not have the decreases so visible, but oh well. The other thing that is a bit annoying is how the bottom still curls a bit even though I blocked the hell out of it. Otherwise, I think it’s cute and it has a nice drape to it. It’s bigger than I thought, too (i made the smallest size) but that’s better than the other way around I suppose.
I got 8 balls of yummy Swish DK yarn from Knitpicks: 4 in Nutmeg, 4 in Asparagus: I was thinking I could use the Asparagus to make the Kate Gilbert pea pod baby sweater (I found the pattern here) It looks a little more challenging than what I usually knit, with the really cute lace part. Not sure about the little hat (seems too small for that baby, no? Maybe i could just modify it slightly.)
Why make more baby clothes? Yes, you’ve guessed it, it’s the attack of the pregnant friends! They are all expecting and I like knitting small projects — short attention span — so everybody’s happy that way.
Progress on the ribbon-tied dress is halted: I was doing great last night but ran out of yarn, so I have to wait until my order arrives in the mail.
I’ve been knitting the baby ribbon-tied dress from Debbie Bliss’s Special Knits in wine-colored Baby Cashmerino. I had bought two balls in a while ago, but will need to get more to finish the dress (the pattern calls for 4 balls for the size 3-6 months). This is for Lila, my good friend Boris’s new baby girl. She was born Oct. 10, so hopefully I’ll be done with the dress before she outgrows it. It’s an easy knit, but the bottom edge tends to roll on itself quite a bit, hopefully i can fix that when i block it.
Frogginette Makes Things 
