I picked up a couple of digital copies, and I can see pros and cons of both. I spent time using InDesign to put the bigger pattern pieces onto ledger size paper so I could use some scrap paper from work and have fewer pieces to tape together. Took some time, but I'm happy with that decision. Plus, I could cram more pieces onto fewer sheets that way.
I started off with an Oliver+S Library Dress for Duckie. It seemed like a good choice because I could make the waistband out of a different fabric, so it would be easy to use that same fabric for a shirt for A without them being too matchy-matchy. I was also sold on this tutorial from the O+S blog about using the pattern for knits to mimic a dress from Tea Collection, a dress that I LOOOOVED when A was little and wished to have a girl for. I have plans for at least 2 of these in the future!
The dress went together pretty uneventfully. I read that the buttons weren't necessary for wearing, so I sewed the back bottom half of the dress up on the inside so that I didn't have a whole row of buttons needing to be done up and just sewed the buttons through both layers to fake it. I could have gotten away with doing most or all of them this way, but I think it's easier to have the top 3 open. Fit-wise, I made a 12–18 month, and it's slightly wider on Duckie than I'd prefer, so I'll probably bring it in for the knit ones.
Next up was pants for A, and I went back to the Oliver+S AfterSchool Pants that I'd made him last summer. Last time, they ended up being a bit tight and he got too tall pretty quickly, so I made a size 3T with the length of a 4T by adding to the front and back leg pieces and the sides (I left the yoke alone). I missed something though, because the side panels were a good deal shorter than the fronts and backs, but thankfully not bad enough to be a problem. At least if there HAD been a problem, it wouldn't have meant cutting too much extra, since it'd just be the accent panel.
A seems to really like these, so I see more in my future. They seem to sew up really quickly for all the detailing they have! I'll probably blow his mind sometime by actually using an accent fabric.
For A, I went with the Oliver+S Sketchbook Shirt. I'd picked up the pattern a while back thinking I could make him "handsome shirts" a bit cheaper and with fabrics of my own choosing this way, but hadn't gotten around to using it. I really wish I had. This shirt was almost the death of me. I made the back box pleat backward (I left it). I mixed up the plackets for the fronts and had to rip them out. The collar directions were less clear than most O+S stuff, so I didn't understand what it was talking about until I was too far to go back and do things the way they wanted me to. The sleeves were the easiest part, and setting them in was about the first seam I didn't have to rip out, and that's really saying something, because really, sleeve-setting??? On top of that, I was sticking myself with pins left and right, and I was crying in frustration and fear that A would think I loved Duckie more if I didn't finish his shirt in time. The collar is a little wonky, but A likes it and I finished in time!
I managed to snag a few pictures of them on my own camera, but good luck to me finding the time to get them uploaded here. At least I've got this one of all of the clothes together.
