Last month I picked up a copy of Little Girls, Big Style: Sew a Boutique Wardrobe from 4 Easy Patterns from local Atlanta author Mary Abreu, published by Stash Books.
Since my older daughter is desperately in need of clothes and will only wear skirts that I have made her, I let her pick out some patterned corduroy from Bunte Fabrics and pulled it together with some fabric generously given to me by my friend Simone, who is moving to Singapore with her family next month. (Like I needed to come home with a car-load of fabric and sewing supplies!) I was actually surprised that my daughter chose all of these floral fabrics since she’s not such a “girly-girl”, but she is much more willing to wear things if she’s part of the process.
Anyway, I made two of the No-Hem Skirts, with varying fullness. Then I made one more basic corduroy skirt (the aqua with flowers) while I was at it. What I like about Mary’s book is that she has multiple variations on basic patterns, so you can change them up according to your own preferences or skill level. Perfect for me with two girls who have different styles. I’ll be sewing some of the Twirly Girly Skirts for my younger daughter, who likes things as frilly as possible.
You can look inside the book on amazon and read Mary’s blog here.
I am so happy to see you got a copy of Mary’s book! I have it and have promised to make most of the girls’ nicer outfits for spring using Mary’s patterns. What I like is that the variations of the patterns give me choices for our wide age ranges. It isn’t always easy to please a 3, 7, and 10 year old. And thanks for the link to the aqua flowers fabric. The fabric reminds me of the Room Seven outfits I love so much.
Love the skirts! I’m going to have to grab some of that aqua fabric, too. So my style! Thanks so much for the shout out — totally made my day. 🙂
This looks like such a fun book! I was looking at it on Amazon and it said the patterns started at size 2. Do you know- does that mean size 2T?
makes me wish my third boy just born was a girl 😉
~Samantha
the sewing supplies in singapore could be quite pricy.. tell simone to get her sewing stuff (zippers/scissors etc) from chinatown (everyone speaks english in singapore), there’s really good deals for japanese yukata cloth which is really cute..
Wow Ellen! The skirts came our beautifully and I am so glad that you are already using the fabric. You were the perfect friend to adopt the goods!