Flannel Jumper

This past fall I made a flannel jumper for my four year old daughter.  It was my first time making anything from a pattern (Simplicity #5489) and I learned a lot.  My sister helped by being supportive, giving me great pointers on cutting out a pattern and taking lots of pictures when I was sewing.  The only "mistake" we made was in measuring Hannah.  Her top half was two sizes smaller than her height so we went with the larger size.  Next time I will make the dress to fit around her torso and then add some length.  Since she's super skinny the dress is a bit bell shaped.  Other than that it was really fun.

This is the fabric we started with.  I washed and dried it to get all that nasty shrinking out of the way.  Then I pressed it to make it nice and smooth and easy to work with.  I recently learned that most people do not say pressing, they say ironing.

My sister helped pin the paper pieces on to the fabric. 

One of my favorite steps of this project was cutting out the pieces with my brand new super sharp scissors.  LOVE them!  It is so nice to have really sharp scissors that have not been ruined by children trying to cut random pieces of metal, plastic and trees.

Then I sewed and sewed and sewed.  I don't have a serger so I did the next best thing and used a zig zag stitch on all the seams.  The dress has been washed countless times and the zig zag stitch is still keeping the edges from fraying. 

After the first round of sewing we pressed out the seams so everything looked nice and neat.

Sewing the brown band to the bottom was really easily because it was a double length piece of fabric folded in half, so there was no hem. 

Finally I top stitched everything using a setting on my machine that went over each stitch three or four times and gave it an embroidered look.  It wasn't necessary for structure but it was a nice finishing step.

The pattern called for buttons and button holes but the head opening was large enough that it wasn't necessary so I just sewed the back to the front of the jumper and attached the buttons.

DONE!

My daughter is still super excited to wear something that Mommy and Aunt Stacy made.  (I'd be lying if I said I didn't love that she tells everyone I made it.)  In the fall she wore it with a tank top and tights.  Now she wears it with a brown long sleeved shirt and her fake Uggs (from Old Navy) and it is still super cute!