Hosh Pants & Skater Sweater Refashion

I am so behind in posting all the things I've made Ella over the last couple of months, so I hope this little outfit will inspire someone who is having cooler weather right now.  It's already warming up here in the south which really limits the days she has left to wear outfits like this.

Today I'm featuring the Hosh Pants Pattern by Lou Bee Clothing and a ladies' turtleneck refashioned into a girl's turtleneck using the Skater Dress Pattern by Kitschy Coo.

First, the pants are incredibly simple to make using Sarah's Hosh Pants Pattern.  The pattern has one piece for the legs, so there are no side seams.  Plus she shows you in detail in the pattern photos how to make an adjustable waistband using buttonhole elastic.  Since the pants have a flat front and my daughter's waistline measurement hasn't changed much, I opted to keep things even simpler and just make a casing to run regular elastic through the back waistband.

After consulting the pattern's sizing chart, I opted to make Ella the size 4T and added about an inch and a half to the length (she's tall for her age).  The fabric is a polyester/spandex suiting remnant that I bought from Joann's ages ago.  The fabric is so soft and was a breeze to sew.  Another plus is that it does not wrinkle!  I wash them and then hang them up to dry.  They have never needed ironing!

To make these pants look a little dressier, I added a pocket flap to the back.

All I did was take two rectangles of fabric, place them right sides together, and sew around the edges leaving an opening for turning.  Turn right side out, press, and then topstitch all the way around the rectangle closing the opening in the process.  I then stitched it on the back of the pants and sewed a button on it to keep it down.  No buttonhole required!

Since the legs are tapered and narrow at the bottom, these are perfect to wear inside tall boots.  The whole outfit looks like she is ready for a horse riding lesson!

I have a lot of sweaters that were once my mom's, but they are too big for me.  I've been holding on to them for so long and just can't seem to part with any, so I decided I would take some and try to refashion them into things for Ella.  

The sweater started out as a Land's End Fine Gauge Turtleneck Sweater in a women's size medium.

I thought about using the Bimaa Sweater Pattern from Lou Bee Clothing for the refashion, but I didn't have enough fabric from the sweater to make it.  It's a great pattern, too.  You can see the first one I made here, and I'll be blogging about a second one I made later this week.

Instead, I decided to use the Skater Dress Pattern from Kitschy Coo for the turtleneck refashion.  The Skater Dress is an awesome pattern that I got to try out as part of the pattern blog tour earlier this month.  Here is the link to the Skater Dress I made for Ella.

Sorry I didn't take pictures of the process, but it was really simple to do.  First, I cut off the sleeves along the armhole seam.  Then I used the bodice pattern piece and matched up the existing shoulder seam to the top of the shoulder on the pattern while positioning the pattern fold line along the center of the sweater.  This allowed me to keep the original turtleneck.

Next, I used the Skater Dress skirt pattern piece to determine the top and bottom width of the skirt and estimated the length needed.  Ella had tried the sweater on before I began cutting, so I knew roughly how much of the length I needed to remove.

I then cut the seam of the sleeves open so to give me flat pieces of fabric.  I then used the sleeve pattern piece by cut out the sleeves that fit Ella.  I made sure to use the hemmed edge so I wouldn't have to do any hemming!

Sewing the sweater together was quick (like maybe 30 minutes) and all on the serger.  When I finished the ensemble, Ella exclaimed that she now had a Moma outfit!  She was so giddy!

I just love the fit and overall look of this entire outfit.  It quickly became one of Ella's favorite things to wear, so I hope it will all still fit in the Fall.  She loves the softness of the pants fabric, and the fit is so good that she does not constantly tug at the back to pull up the pants after she squats down to play.

I'll definitely use both of these patterns--the Hosh Pants and the Skater Dress--again in the near future.  In fact, I might just make a pair of Hosh Shorts and a Skater Tank Sweater for this Spring/Summer.

I hope you'll come back all this week to see other pants I've made Ella recently.  At the end of the week, I'll post a round-up of all of the pants posts I've done on sewVery!  See you tomorrow!

Refashioned Sweater Set + Tutorial

For months now, I've been wanting to resize this green sweater set so my daughter could wear them.  Both sweaters were mine, but after having Ella, I lost a lot of extra weight from nursing her.  In fact, I got a little too thin at one point.  Anyway, the sweaters don't fit me anymore--they're too big!

So last week, after I made the Paisley Corduroy Jumper and realizing I had enough of the same fabric to make shorts, I remembered these sweaters and thought they would match.  I've been a little scared about refashioning existing clothing items, but this time, I just went for it!  I grabbed one of Ella's sweater vests (sorry I didn't include a picture of it) and started cutting away at the green sweaters.

I wanted to use the existing hem and neckline since both were finished with a bit of detailing, so I had to cut some of the extra length off of the top of the sleeveless sweater.  Just look at the following pictures for how I went about cutting it up and sewing it back together.

This is the original Size M Junior's Sweater

That's all there is to it!  I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of how I sewed the bias tape to the armhole opening, but I'm still learning how to put together tutorials.  It takes some getting used to to remember to stop what you are sewing and take a picture every step of the way!

I decided to make a bow from some of the left over scraps that were longer.  I just trimmed two of the side pieces (like I labeled in the pictures above) to the same length and width and sewed the two pieces together at the unfinished end so I would have one long piece.  I then just tied it in a bow and sewed a pin onto the back so we could remove it when we wash the sweater.  I think it added a nice touch.

The sweater fit Ella pretty good, but it is a little longer than I expected.  Still, I think she'll be able to wear it for a while, and as you can see below, we chose to tuck in the sweater anyway.  

Now, I also refashioned a matching cardigan sweater to go with the sleeveless one, but I didn't take any pictures of how I cut it up.  It's pretty easy to figure out though, and I'll try to point out some of the specifics in the following pictures.

For the cardigan, I decided to not to cut the neck binding because I didn't want to move the buttons up any higher on her chest.  I cut off the sleeves and then cut off the side seams as I did in the sleeveless sweater.  I then put the top of the sleeveless sweater even with the top of the cardigan to get a length measurement.  

Since I wanted to keep the original hem, I cut it off about a 1/4" above the detailing and then cut off the extra length of sweater before sewing the hem piece back on.  I then top stitched it down.  You can see this in the picture above.

I made the pockets out of the two pieces of neck binding I cut off from the sleeveless sweater (as noted in the tutorial pictures).  I didn't try to turn them under to hem because they were so small already, so I just sewed them on as close to the edge of the pocket as I could get.  I then made the two little bows out of the pieces I cut off the width of the sweater.

For the sleeves, I used one of Ella's cardigans to get an idea of the sleeve length I needed.  I then cut off the extra sleeve length at the top of the sleeve and then sewed it back on.

So I finally made these into something Ella can use!  Have a great day!

Check out these link-up parties where I've linked up this post!