Beautiful Buttons

Ready or not, here we come! We are finally sitting here at the first week of Season 14 Project Run and Play! And welcome to my blog! Thanks for coming on over to check out my first contribution for this season (oh, and hopefully not my last!) Be prepared for photo overload. I REALLY hope you love what I’ve made as much as I do. If you’ve stopped here first, please note that the voting happens on the Project Run and Play website here!! DO NOT FORGET TO GO VOTE THERE!! 🙂

This week we have buttons as our inspiration and I had to really think this over. Buttons are to be the inspiration and do not (necessarily) need to be hot glued all over my daughters to be true to the theme. At least that’s what I told myself. So with that said, here you have my button inspired look. The buttons are most definitely an important feature on each piece. And I noticed each piece sort of “came alive” as I added the buttons. In the end I was SO happy to see that they really did accentuate these clothes perfectly!

So, let’s start with the overalls. This huge labour of love that was sewn together only to be taken apart at nearly EVERY. SINGLE. SEAM!! And, yes, I had already done the double topstitching so that meant lots of seams were actually 3 rows that needed to be seam ripped! Grrr! Long story short, I shoulda made a muslin because the sizing was quite a ways off. They are still, for me, the star of this show and that’s largely due to the fact that I’ve never made jeans or anything like this which means this was like doing something fairly advanced.

The original pattern has knots to attach the straps, but this is about buttons!! I never did quite get into that knotted look for dresses and such so that was an easy change for me to wrap my head around. I still needed them to be somewhat adjustable though. After working through a few different options I decided on this 2 button contraption that my husband tells me are parts of suspenders. It’s exactly what I needed. Immediately I felt better about that detail so I pulled out the faux leather and created these apparati.

The other fairly noticeable change was the piecing on the legs. I had no denim in my stash, but my husband gave me a pile of his old jeans awhile back and I knew that I could probably utilize those. So I chose a few pairs that were a few different shades of blue and then grabbed that faux leather that I picked up on my holidays this summer and got to work. I really love mixing textures when I sew.

For the back I was able to get a piece of denim from Trish. (Those who already read my blog will know who that is. All others might need to take a trip over to this post and it’ll all be clear. At least know that her house is my closest fabric store for miles around. Like LOTS of miles.) I hummed and hawed a bit about how much of the repurposed jean fabric I should use in total. I think there’s a line between nice patches and three ring circus and I didn’t want to cross it, but I also wanted to make sure the look blended all the way up. I pulled out the lightest colour of the jeans and used it for the pockets just enough to peek out a bit and then for the belt loops. Then I used the faux leather for the back pockets and the one front bib pocket. I took the opportunity to add another small touch of the jeans to the front pocket which pulls the look all the way up without getting too “patchy”, although I realize that is all in the eye of the beholder.

The last detail I’ll point out about the overalls is that back pocket. I’m not sure where that idea actually came from, but it’s cute! This is truly me. Overalls are my new favourite jeans.

Moving on to the shirt! Some may recognize the basic shape and back placket as the Helena by Simple Life Pattern Company. I settled on this as my starting point because while it’s clearly all about buttons, it’s not garishly so. (Ooo! I’ve never used that word before!!) My first time at sewing up the overalls that back yoke was quite a bit bigger and covered all the buttons on the blouse!! Not good. So when I had to take them all apart, I made that section a bit smaller.

I did make some significant changes to the overall look of this top. First, that scalloped neckline. I widened the neckline just a bit into a boat neck and interfaced the lining for support. I used rayon so it really needed the interfacing. While I love this fabric,  it looks pretty awful on us pale blondies. The kid with the most Guatemalan in her got this one!

The cuffs. Do you love those as much as I do? I got that idea from the bottom of a dress that I’ve long stopped wearing. They turned out even better than I imagined. The second attempt, at least. Considering that’s not always the case, I was pretty pumped! And then I whipped up a little hair bow to match and she looks like a ridiculously cute little farm girl.

And speaking of that dress, can you see what I was talking about?! I wasn’t intending to make a second look for this week but I was feeling like I didn’t have enough buttons to really feel comfortable. I think most of us contestants will tell you the same. So I went searching for inspiration in my button box, in my fabric stash, and in my pattern collection. Once those wheels starting spinning there was no turning back! I chopped off of the bottom of this dress and added it to a modified Zephyr bodice by Lil Luxe Collection. I’ve been wanting to use that pattern for months (at least!) and finally did, but this isn’t at all what I had in mind! Funny how different ideas take over.

You can see that I kept with the repurposed denim and bits of faux leather for this. The skirt was already the perfect accent to the rayon from the shirt of the first look so I was able to really tie the two looks together. I kept the piecing a bit more subtle for this dress. I used only 2 different denim shades and created the lines over the shoulders. I thought of doing piping with the leather, but decided to do an inset strip instead. While it looks really good, it sure was tricky when adding the skirt due to the bulk at the bottom of those inset pieces. Not enough to stop me though.

On the back I added another point for a second button. I purchased exactly 2 of these buttons on our road trip this summer and since this is about buttons I wanted to have more than the one the pattern calls for. It made for a cool zig zag across the back.

To top it all off I made a Delilah Necklace. The pattern was from Violette Field Threads and I didn’t hack or change it. I just took the opportunity to add a whole bunch more buttons and it was a perfect hand sewing job for while I headed to the city on the plane over one weekend. It suits the neckline of the dress and for my girls that love being girls, it was a perfect choice. The buttons in the hair were this girly’s idea and she wanted to make sure that I let you all know that! It was a pretty sweet idea!

I’m so glad I ended up doing both of these looks. Not all outfits end up being ones that our kids like wearing, right? But I’ve been told a few times already that they love these ones.

And that’s all! (She says as if she hadn’t just posted a million pics and wrote a short novel.) Please go vote! It’s on the Project Run and Play website, as I mentioned at the beginning! And take a look at what the others have made if you haven’t seen yet. Fingers crossed, I’ll see you next week.

I’ve mentioned the repurposed fabrics, but the fabric for the shirt is Art Gallery rayon from the Ethereal Fusion line.

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