Sprite skirt

Its the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And me sewing lots of girls frilly gear
It's the most wonderful time of the year
It's the hap-happiest season of all
Making holiday dresses and pink ruffled messes
Oh I have a ball
It's the hap- happiest season of all

[With apologies to Mr Andy Williams]

How I love December and all it brings. Most particularly the chance to sew gifts for little girls. Pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink.

(Permission to slap me: granted).

This is a little party skirt I made for one of my nieces. Its a two-layered, gored skirt with a yoke and elasticised waist. The over-skirt gores have nice vertical gathers, using elastic. I had so much fun making this.



The over-skirt seams are embellished with a bit of pink ribbon.



The underskirt seams are top-stitched with the fanciest stitch I have on my machine. (I call it the cardiogram stitch, but you might know it by something else. Something, ahem, eminently more sensible.)



The prints I used are from Alexander Henry's beautiful Sprites of Tillbrook range. I adore the fairy and toadstool prints. Regrettably, after labouring over positioning of said fairies on the skirt panels ...



... I must admit the yoke cutting was a bit slipshod. Headless sprites, anyone? Hopefully my 5 year old niece hasn't noticed the decapitation situation.



The pattern I used for this little skirt is by Farbenmix. The Insa skirt pattern is available individually or as part of the book "Sewing Clothes Kids Love" [Langdon & Pollehn, 2010 Creative Publishing International].



If you a fan of the whimsical Farbenmix childrens' patterns, the book is a great way to purchase a selection of patterns. There are 10 patterns all sized from babies 18 months through to kids size 12. And the designs are gorgeous.



Skirts, dresses, leggings, shrugs. Frills, flounces, ruffles. So much pretty eye candy. Hmmm ... Clothes Kids Love, you say?

It might not be the sort of book you'd invest in if you had say, eight or nine sons. None of the designs are specifically for those of the more Y-chromosonal-persuasion and only a couple of the 10 are unisex (that is, unless your boy child is open to wearing something twirly called the Feliz Party Dress).

Never-the-less, its a delightful book with beautiful patterns and excellent instructions. My only qualm is with the title. (Though I should think that my alternate title - Sewing Clothes That Boys May Object To - would be knocked back by a marketing focus group.)


My review of the Insa Skirt pattern can be found over here at PatternReview.com

If you would like to enter my 2011 Sewing Calendar giveaway, click here.