St. Patrick's Day Shirt & Ruffle Pants

Well, another holiday is almost here, and it's the perfect excuse for me to use my embroidery machine to stitch up a cute design for a t-shirt for Ella.  Oh, and of course, she needs some new ruffle bottom pants to go with the shirt.  Right?  I'm sure my daughter is in no need of new clothing, but I just love sewing and making fun things for her to wear.  You know what?  She really loves it, too!

Anyway, I stitched up this shabby four leaf clover from Planet Applique in 10 minutes using my Brother PE770 embroidery machine.  I think this is the simplest embroidery project I've done yet!  The only thing I wish I had done differently is position the design a little higher up on the shirt, but oh, well!  It's still adorable and perfect for St. Patrick's Day!

I used medium weight (Pellon No. 40) cut away stabilizer on the back, plus I doubled my fabric by using a piece of white flannel behind each print to give the edges more fluff when they were snipped.  I've tried using other fabrics like white cotton or muslin, but so far, I prefer to use the flannel.

Now it's been forever since I've made Ella a pair of ruffle bottom pants, so I took this opportunity to whip her up a new pair to match the St. Patrick's Day shirt.  I used McCall's M6530 pattern, View D.

These pants were made using the size 4T length and the size 5T width and stride measurements.  I also added a second ruffle by cutting it out 1" shorter than the pattern ruffle measurement and in the same pink fabric I used on the t-shirt.

Finally, I hemmed the ruffles using the rolled hem settings on my serger.  Stitch a label on there and call it done!

These were super easy and fun to sew together, so I know I'll be using this McCall's pattern again and again.  Ella loves these pants and already wants another pair!  Great!  More sewing for me!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Linking up at the parties shown below as well as others listed here.