Tuesday, January 30, 2018

"Introducing......... Adalynn for Girls"

 

The newest pattern from Mamma Can Do It, the Adalynn dress, is a classic, comfortable design with opportunities for wear all year long. The Adalynn uses knit fabric which provides a great amount of comfort and softness for the wearer.

Pattern details:
2t to 16 (includes kids and tween sizing in one pattern!!)
On sale through Wednesday 1/31/18 for $6.50 (regular price $9.99)

Pattern Options:
Short sleeve
Long sleeve
Sleeveless (not in pattern)
Pockets
Ruffle hem
Binding on neck

Other notes about the pattern from print to finish:
Sleeves are not cut on fold
Notches on the pattern pieces that are cut on the fabric that make the cut fabric pieces line up and go together with ease. Most of the time, I use safety pins to "mark" the front pieces of a garment, but because of the notches, I didn't have to worry about it. I simply line up the right number of notches to itself, and it's perfect!!

 



I sewed up an Adalynn dress with long sleeves and pockets. I used ITY fabric. The sleeves are a perfect length--not too long, not too short. They don't pull up when she stretches and don't fall off her hands when she walks--literally perfect! The sleeves will get us through this cold spell and on into spring.

 

I love this pattern not just because of the notches and the ease of putting it together, but because of the size range most of all. Ladybug (pictured here) was always tiny for her age until around her 5th birthday. Then she shot up and out and now, 2 years later, is at the top of sizing for many of the designers I bought patterns from at that time. The Adalynn dress pattern is perfect for kiddos who are harder to fit. Because of the large size range, I am not sewing at the top of this pattern's size range. We have a way to go and that's a good feeling because she's a kiddo--not a grown person. I don't want to eventually have to alter a ladies pattern to fit her. I want to continue using patterns like Mamma Can Do It's Adalynn dress that are designed for girls AND include a wide range of sizes (toddlers to tweens).

 

Sewing up the dress took an hour-ish with my super-wired, always on brain working at the same time. Then it was out to take some pictures. I am just now learning a fancy-ish point and shoot camera. One day I'll get me a nicer camera and learn how to properly use it. Ladybug here picked out her own accessories and was such a good sport walking around town looking for places to pause.

 




One of the things I love about taking pictures of clothes that I make are the pictures that convey Ladybug's personality. She's good at looking serious because she is usually serious about getting done, but when I catch her laughing or heading off to jump in puddles of water, it makes me appreciate what she's wearing even more, because then it's not only something I made, but it's something that she's made a memory in. Below are some of our outtakes/personality pictures.



 


The Adalynn pattern is a great wardrobe staple with a large range of sizes available. The dresses made from the Adalyn pattern can be:

worn all year long with options in the pattern,
played in,
slept in,
worn to school or church or anywhere, and
dressed up or down based on fabric and accessories.

 


We love our Adalynn dress and have more planned!! She loves the fit and comfort, and I love how they fit her so well! I hope you will sew up an Adalynn or two and share your Adalynn dress with the Mamma Can Do It Sewing Group on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Mammacandoit/

Friday, January 26, 2018

I'd like to take a few minutes to showcase our new Girl Size Adalynn Dress pattern. All of these pictures were taken from our fantastic tester team, and they really did their part in helping to make this design the best that it can be.
This post is very picture heavy, but worth it! We needed another place that we could look at more of the creative shots taken of the Adalynn Dress and the little ladies who modeled it.


Check out the binding on this. Look what an amazing job she did! You'll love how this tutorial helps you make the best looking binding ever.

I love the lace here. What a great way to add an extra personality touch to this dress. This is sweater fabric, as you can tell, and I just love the fit!

This dress is without ruffles. So playful and cute!

Here we have a hem of ruffles. It almost looks like her right hand is sneaking into her pocket! These little ladies love their pockets.

What a great fit on this young lady! The Adalynn dress sizes are from 2t-20. That's a huge size range for great fitting tops during their whole childhood.

Love this adorable picture of sweet Anna. She loves purple, so her mamma made her a sweater dress with matching purple leggings!

It doesn't matter if you are going to get your pictures taken, or go for a date at the park. This dress is playful and cute no matter what you are doing!

Look at how sassy she is! Love this one!

Ohhhhhh a sister bundle??
Looks like little sister is in the nb-24 months size Adalynn, and big sister is in the Girl size range.
I love how these short sleeves fit! Perrrrrrrrfect.

Playing at the part in our Adalynn. It's so fun!

Look at this classy little lady! Love that fabric too!

Another classy one. The ruffles are adorable. Check out those pockets! Looks like a keeper!

Boots with an Adalynn. Melt me.




Oh! Cowgirl boots and all. Yes. This shows exactly the style I'm going for!

Perfect fit around the chest.

This is such a playful dress pattern. I love how everyone is comfortable to show their personalities!

A dress worth spinning in.

Oh how we love pockets.

So sweet!

Classy little lady! This dress can be dressed up with a pair of pumps!

Love that purple ruffle!


This is one of my favorites. What a classy young lady. Are you catching the 'class' theme. I just love the adalynn style dress. It's fitted in the chest, but comfortable. The length is perfectly sassy, but long enough that I am comfortable with my daughters wearing it anywhere.

Melt my heart.
You'll love how fast this dress comes together and fits perfectly every time. 

Perfect fit for those teenagers too!

This was such a fun dress to design.

Thank you for being part of our journey.


I hope that you grab your copy of the Adalynn Dress Pattern while i'ts on sale

Thank you for being party of the MCDI family!

We will see you next time!

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Rosie's Ruffled Leggings Hack

Hi everyone!!

I was super-stoked to be asked to offer a blog post on my hack of the Rosie's Ruffled Leggings pattern!

This is my first time ever writing a sewing related post, so I hope I cover all the important parts ☺
Just a quick run-down on me: I'm an Electrician, but I'm currently a SAHM with my 3 beautiful daughters (ages 4.5 years, 2 years, and 11 months). I've been blessed to be married to the most tolerant, patient man for almost 9 years! I discovered a love of sewing after inheriting my Grandmother's Janome sewing machine 11 years ago, but didn't start using it until 3 years ago (I still had it serviced every year, even though it only collected dust). I might have been slow to start, but I quickly fell down the rabbit hole of custom knit fabrics, and haven't looked back!

Last week, Mama Can Do It hosted a sew-a-long sponsored by Simply by Ti Fabrics. I adore sew-a-longs! Not only does it give me the opportunity to purchase *another* pattern on sale, but I can try new designers AND it motivates me to finish, because...who doesn't like the potential to win free fabric?!

I live in sunny (very hot) South East Queensland, Australia. And... its summer, so full length leggings just weren't going to work out that well for me. During the sew-a-long, I realised that I could definitely deviate from the plan! This is an important realisation for me, because I'm usually SUCH a stickler for the rules.

To start with, I measured my daughter and printed out the pattern. After taping, grading out the waist, and cutting, I then measured my daughter's inseam down to the point I wanted her shorts to sit. For my middle daughter, that was 5 inches. I then added in the hem allowance.

*This is important. Otherwise, the pants will end up shorter than intended...ask me how I know.*

I cut the paper pattern off at the appropriate length and then cut my fabric. I cut the bum ruffles as per the chart. I followed the tutorial right the way through up until it came to attaching the leg ruffles.

*Do not use the measurements for the ankle ruffles for your shorts hem ruffle. It won't be long enough*

Because I am not awesome at math, I measured the width of the seat of the leggings (12") and then measured the width of my leg openings (also 12"). In this instance it was perfectly fine for me to cut 2 x ruffles the same as the bum ruffles, but I will definitely be checking this with every pair I make. I ruffled the fabric to 13" (to allow for error) because I didn't want to end up with ruffles that were too short!



I measured up from the bottom of my finished hem, 3/4 of an inch. This is because the ruffles are 1.5" wide, and I wanted the bottom edge of my ruffle to match the bottom edge of my hem. I drew a line with an air-erasable pen (same as with the bum ruffles) to guide where to stitch my ruffles.



After attaching the leg ruffles, I sewed up the inseam and continued to follow the tutorial to finish my shorts. As a side-note, on the Mama Can Do It sew-a-long Facebook page, there are video tutorials too! The construction is slightly different in these videos, but I think its always good to learn multiple ways to achieve the same result, so that I can pick and choose which technique works best for me ☺

Here's my beautiful (scruffy) princess in her finished Rosie's Ruffled Leggings/Shorts:


And let's not forget the all important back of the shorts:


These pants were a looser fit than intended, only because up until about a month ago my beautiful girl was quite chunky and had a toddler belly. She's since shot up and slimmed down, so the shorts don't fit as they should. She has plenty of growing room now though ☺

*Disclaimer: I was not paid or bribed in any way for my post (Haha!). If, however, you'd like to have a squizzy around on Mama Can Do It's page and find a fabulous pattern for yourself, please use this link (aff link): http://MammaCanDoIt.com?aff=106

Also, my photography game clearly needs work, but my love of sitting in front of my sewing machine gets in the way of learning how to take better photos ☺

Thank you for having me! It was a pleasure to write this post, and I hope it can help inspire you all to try a hack of your own!

Monday, January 22, 2018

Doubtful But Determined

The Adalynn Dress is the 4th pattern from MCDI that I've tested for and I just LOVE this pattern so much!! It is so flippin adorable and versatile!!!

My daughter just turned 6 months yesterday and although she's tiny, she is growing like an absolute weed!!! My husband keeps telling me I need to be careful with her laundry because apparently I keep shrinking her clothes! 😬😮 Ummmmm no sweetie - she is actually growing THAT fast! Thank goodness for this pattern - I can make her a ton of adorable dresse and t-shirt dresses, with or without ruffles!! 💜💜

To be honest though - I wasn' t sure about the whole thing when I started. I ADORE MCDI patterns - how they are constructed and explained. Makes me feel like I actually know what I'm doing since they are so easy to follow. However, I had never done a neckband like this and I was nervous that I was going to screw it up. Why cant I just do a neckband like I've done before? What if I cant do it? What if I mess it up? I was used to doing things the other way and a bit resistant to change. 😬  Let's be real..... I was a lot resistant! Hahaha!

I should've just trusted that like all other MCDI patterns, I would LOVE this one too and needed to trust in the process! ❤❤

Thank you Elizabeth Singler for pushing me outside my comfort zone and giving me even more reasons to love MCDI! I know that I am a stronger, more well rounded seamstress because of it!
Thank you for having me as a tester!  ❤❤ I can't wait for your next incredible creation!!

Follow my affiliate link for your own Adalynn Dress https://mammacandoit.com/products/the-adalynn-dress-nb-24-months/?aff=42 and if you are looking for the perfect pair of leggings to go with a perfect dress, check out Rosie's Ruffle Leggings! 😍😍😍
 https://mammacandoit.com/products/rosies-ruffled-leggings-size-nb-36-months/?aff=42

Happy Sewing everyone!
-Jackie Austin

Friday, January 19, 2018

Why the Adalynn Dress will be your favorite baby dress pattern

Here we are in the middle of January and I feel all giddy and excited as if it was the forth of July. Why? Because I have seriously made the cutest outfit for my Joy EVER. I mean, I have made some really cute things, but this dress comes out perfect each time and it's so easy to sew.


When I started to design the Adalynn dress Pattern, I knew that I wanted an a-line style. I love how beautiful an a-line fits on a baby, girl or adult. I set out to make the perfect fitting a-line.


Something that always concerns me, is to make sure that I have an easy to follow tutorial so that beginners can feel confident. Binding has been out of the question....until now! I decided to try a new spin on attaching binding, and it couldn't be more easy. Our testers were full with compliments on the binding instructions.



Look what one of our testers said after we were finished.....

"I just LOVE this pattern so much!! 
To be honest tho - I wasn't sure about the whole thing when I started. I ADORE MCDI patterns - how they are constructed and explained. Makes me feel like I actually know what I'm doing. I had never done a neckband like this and I was nervous that I was going to screw it up. Why cant I just do a neckband like I've done before? What if I cant do it? I was used to doing things the other way and a bit resistant to change. 😬  
But I should've just trusted that like all other MCDI patterns, I would LOVE this one too and needed to trust in the process! 
Thank you Elizabeth Singler for pushing me outside my comfort zone and giving me even more reasons to love MCDI! Thank you for having me as a tester!"  ❤"


Since I was gearing this size range to be from nb-24 months, I knew that I needed something special. What could be special about an a-line? Ruffles! Of course!



But there's something even more than ruffles.....POCKETS! Yes pockets. Who knew that little girls would love pockets so much! So many of our models could hardly stand still for photos because they were so excited to put things in these pockets. Cutest.thing.ever. Totally worth the time spent to place them.


In this baby dress pattern there are perfectly fitting sleeves as well. Long or short sleeves are always a nice option. I will go out of my way to look for a pattern with nice fitting sleeves - and this one has it all.

Look what one of our testers said:
I was lucky enough to test this pattern and it's honestly an amazing pattern to use the instructions are very clear with cleverly placed notches to help you line the fabric up and includes some fantastic pockets for little ones that like to use them. It's a very quick so and would be perfect for anyone starting out with knit fabrics. Once you have made one you will want to make 10 of them I have 😀. It will easily become a wardrobe staple especial for the changing seasons as the pattern includes ...


You'll love how easy the Adalynn Dress is to put together. You'll love the pockets, you'll love the ruffle, you'll love the binding and the sleeves. The entire thing is going to be one of your favorites.



Thank you for being a customer of ours and for sticking with us. Every pattern that you purchase helps the mothers in our team support our little ones. <3
Thank you so much for that.