Outfit for Annie

I purchased the Britches and Bloomers Pattern, by Jackie Clark, a while ago, but had not yet gotten around to actually making any britches or bloomers. The pattern needs very little fabric, only 1/2 yard for the smaller sizes, so it seemed like the perfect way to use up some of the fabric in my stash.

I made the pants first. I had some very soft brown corduroy left over from another project, but not quite enough for the full length pants. I dug around and found the aqua print, which I think came from Joann (bleh). This was the first project that I have actually used the overcasting stitch on my sewing machine, and it worked nicely to finish the raw edges. The only tricky part was making the blue cuffs even, but even that wasn't too hard. The pattern was easy to follow and the directions were great, even for a beginner like me.

After finishing the pants, I really felt like they needed a little top to go with them. I had enough of the aqua, so I made a pattern from a shirt that Annie already had that fits her pretty well. Figuring out how to line the top was tricky, but I figured it out. Adding a lining in the top part meant a lot less raw edges to finish. The lining also helped stabilize the button holes. I used my old friend Heat and Bond Lite for the applique, stitching around it with a zig zag sitch. For the bottom, I used some bias tape that I had left over from a quilt, but binding a single edge did not work quite the same as binding a quilt. I can't figure out why, but it just didn't fold-over right. Next time, I think I need to use double-fold instead of single fold.