Oh yes, my niece is so lucky that she’s getting not just one but two Hannah Montana outfits this Christmas (even so, I’ve still got leftover fabric in my stash…)!
From the Fall (Herfst) 2008 Knippie idee magazine, I made #6 and the knit trousers from #19:
You’ll notice that #6 is actually a dress, but I saw the potential here for a great, basic long sleeved teeshirt by simply chopping off the pattern at the first frilly tier. Since my sister-in-law said that Megan’s not into frills anyway, this seemed like a perfect solution!
I’m absolutely thrilled with this teeshirt pattern – it’s a great basic that can be easily modified for shorter sleeves, different neckline shapes, different neckline bindings or collars, and an infinite number of appliques or painted designs. Here I chose to use the Hannah Montana fabric in the neckline binding and applique stars to tie it all together with the trousers as an “outfit”. It was remedially easy to sew together, and used a scant 0.5 metres of fabric, so if she likes this, I may be making her more in the future to use up my knit remnants.
The trousers I’m not so convinced with – I’ve got a sneaking suspicion they might be a FAIL when she goes to try them on, but I thought I’d send them along anyway just in case she can wear them as pyjamas or something.
The problem lies in the pattern, I think. The design photo in Knippie idee shows them being really baggy around the waist and crotch (refer up to the gnome photo above), so I investigated and measured the pattern itself. This is a one-piece pattern so the waist should measure approximately half my 6 year old niece’s waist measurement – in reality, it would’ve been baggy on me!!
So I was left to do a bit of aimless hacking on the pattern to get the waist measurement down, and in the process I think I made the legs a bit too skinny (the portion on the right is what I discarded).
My sister-in-law and mom assure me she does have really skinny legs, but these are looking to be a Sid Viscious level of skinniness (or maybe it’s just that pop-punk print influencing me!). And on top of all that, the inseam twists really badly onto the front, which is usually an indication that the pattern piece was cut off-grain. Oops.
But I was pressed for time to get these done and sent off in advance of the international posting dates for Christmas delivery, so I didn’t really have the time or energy to redo these, especially not without a model around to make corrections on. So I’ll see how they fit her at Christmas, and she may be getting a remade pair after the holidays in the same fabric (because otherwise, it’s just going to become knit muslin for me, and I’d rather she enjoyed it!).
So with these outfits finished, I’m now done with Christmas present sewing and my sewing schedule is cleared to make nice things for me for the rest of December! That’ll be my gift to myself, and I’ll show you what I’ve got planned very soon…