Striped Confetti Dot Sweatshirt

This week's theme for Project Run and Play is... Polka-Dots and Stripes. Fun! I had purchased an athletic shirt for my sister for Christmas that was grey with hot pink mesh stripes, similar to this one here, but the mesh part was a little meshier. Ok, so meshier is not a word but the holes in the mesh were a little wider, it reminded me of... Polka-Dots! I loved it so much I considered going back and buying one I could refashion for Kylie, but I wasn't so sure about her having a shirt with all those holes in it. Maybe not so appropriate for my little girl. But I was digging the athletic/girly vibe and I was still thinking hard about it when I was browsing Jo-Ann's website and out popped some bright fun Confetti Dot Fabric! So that filled the polka-dot theme for this week and sewing them in stripes filled the other half of the theme, perfect! I found an old sweatshirt in my stack of clothes to refashion and I was good to go!

So I present to you Kylie's new Striped Confetti Dot Sweatshirt:

 And a bonus pair of flashy confetti dot leggings:

Do you think the leggings are a little much? I hope not because I seriously LOVE them! I'm not really a blingy (also not a word) type of gal, but when it comes to a five year old's wardrobe, I find it completely adorable. I can imagine those leggings paired with a simple black tunic or tank top, anything simple would work. The leggings are lined with a pink jersey because the confetti dot fabric is see-through. 

I had never sewn with Confetti Dot Fabric before, so I did a little research before tackling it. The number one piece of advice was USE WAX PAPER. Otherwise the glue that holds the confetti dots gum up the needle and you start skipping stitches. So I took the advice, everything went smoothly until halfway through I thought "I wonder if this stupid wax paper is even necessary?" and guess what? It was. The needle would get all gummy after only sewing a few stitches. Eve loved pulling off the wax paper. Every few minutes she would run over to see if I would need help peeling it off. She was actually very helpful and meticulous with it.

This was actually more time consuming than I originally thought, but I love the end results. Many times I kept telling myself  "Just one more stripe, just one more, you can do it and then you can go to bed!" I'm not a fast sewer and I highly value my sleep, so my projects are usually on the simple side. But I kept with it, and Kylie is very happy that I did. She told me that one of the kids in her preschool told her she looked "fantastic!" Haha, I love the preschool age!

My favorite part? The stripes actually match up! I was terrified that they wouldn't and I was wasting all this time just to have sloppy results, but I kept measuring as I sewed and finally breathed a sigh of relief when I sewed up the finished project and they matched up: 

The pattern was self drafted, but extremely basic:

The selvage of the confetti dot fabric did not have any dots and was stretchy, perfect for the neck and for a simple band at the bottom of the sweatshirt: 

Because the fabric had dots in a uniform pattern, it was pretty easy to cut the fabric in straight strips of equal size: just count the dots! It was also easy to sew on straight because I just folded the fabric over two dots thick as I pinned:

Kylie really wanted to set up the exact same set-up that I had for Eve's pictures of her pouffy dress. I told her the lighting was awful but she told me the lighting was not awful. Guess who was right? Yep, that lighting is pretty bad (and so is my set-up, I wasn't going to put any effort into it knowing it wouldn't work!) We didn't have much options for picture taking though, it was starting to get dark but I was working every other day of the week and by the time I would come home, it would be dark. And no pictures outside either, way too cold!

And Eve was not about to let her big sister steal the spotlight! Little photobomber! Notice her big pouffy dress? It's her favorite, one I had hidden back in the back of the closet thinking maybe she would wear it to her sister's dance recital. But Eve found it. And wants to wear it all the time.

And a shot of Kylie dancing, this girl loves to dance! Dramatically!

This next one reminds me of the pictures I took as a child: I was convinced pouty model was the way to go! My parents hated it, but laugh about it now! (Right, Dad?) I'm so proud of Kylie, what a natural she is!

 This next one is so Kylie.... that's my girl!

 

And one more shot of the pants, just for fun!