Tag Archives: Sewing for Twins

May 16, 2026 · 5:34 am

Optimistic Spring Dresses

(Please note—I wrote most of this post about a month ago, in late April. I am publishing it at the start of May Long weekend, and there is snow on the ground again.)

A few weeks ago I returned home from work to discover my aunt had deposited a sizeable pile of sewing-related donations on my dining-room table. While these aren’t unwelcome, they can precipitate a bit of a crisis in storage space, give the current (and perpetual at this point) maximum-capacity state of my stash. But this particular lot contained a lot of fabrics of appeal to six year old girls, so I received some more-or-less instant requests. The twins both picked out fabrics for Barbie-inspired dresses and fabrics for spring dresses.

This post is about the spring dresses. when and whether the “Barbie” ones get sewn… we’ll see.

With a day or two of receiving the donation, R provided me with the drawing above, executed on some brown packing paper, if you’re wondering about the colour. I love that she thought to provide me with front and back views, even if I wasn’t quite sure how to interpret the back.

On paging through the kids’ dress patterns on my phone , I ended up on this Anne Adams pattern, a vintage mail-order brand that crops up around here from time to time. I don’t have the envelope for this one to get a date off the postmark, but it’s unprinted and the instructions “feel” old. Most of the mail-order patterns I have are from the late 60s, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a bit older, 1950s or even late 40s.

My pattern is only a size 4, but the width compared to the twins’ measurements was fine… I just needed to add a ton of length.

After carefully extracting and ironing out the pieces, and double-checking the instructions for the meaning of the various perforations, I made some very quick and dirty alterations.

For R’s dress, I added about 6 cm length above the waist, and 19 cm (don’t ask me, it was a random amount the first time and then I measured after to replicate it) to the length of the skirt, and removed the straps, somewhat freehanding the upper shape to create a curved front and dipped back. I’m not sure why, exactly, since that wasn’t a clear feature of the requested dress, but anyway. I think it looks cute but I should move the straps closer to the middle.

The pattern is a fit-and-flare design with princess-seams. Front and back are cut on the fold, with no zipper, and it’s meant to be pulled on and then cinched in with sash ties inserted at the side-seams. This seemed like it would convert relatively well to the kind of criss-crossed back lacing R seemed to be requesting in her line drawing.

Now, R had selected this lovely aqua and purple floral print, made of some kind of light polycotton (or maybe just straight up polyester, considering how slippery it was.) It was, in fact, a straight-up pain to sew, so I didn’t want to fuss around with too many details, like the upper yoke-type decoration in her drawing. The only part that was pleasant, frankly, was turning the little strip of bias tubing to make the lacing loops, which is always nice in a slippery fabric. I found some dark purple bias binding in stash and made piping for the upper edge, and the long straps which cross in the back and then thread through the lacing loops to cinch it in. To ease in the hem, I ran it through the serger with the differential feed turned up to gather it in, though a lower gathering ratio would’ve worked better on this thin fabric.

Then, since it still seemed rather plain, I did the almost-unthinkable and broke out one of my Janome’s decorative stitches to finish the hem. I had to test several to find one that printed out relatively close to how it is supposed to look, but I’m quite happy with the result, and if you aren’t going to use those stitches on little-girl dresses, when ARE you going to?

T’s selection was a much more pleasant-to-handle (probably quilting) cotton in a pink rose print. Some digging through stash turned up some blue cotton bias that looked good with the design, and she had claimed the ribbon to go with the fabric as soon as I pulled it out. The print is actually pretty vibrant, but we both liked the more subdued reverse side better, so that’s what you see.

Since I had made R’s dress first, she had a pretty good concept of it, and was amenable to having hers be from the same basic pattern. Except that it definitely needed a ruffle.

So I laid out the pattern again, this time adding 5 cm above the waist and a similar amount to the skirt length (but then a 15 cm ruffle, so the finished length should be similar, except that I took a 2” hem on R’s.

I felt more comfortable with my construction decisions this time around, so I decided to go for it and draft the exposed top yoke I had imagined for R’s but not had the guts (or masochism?) to go for. I took it slow, making the piping for top and bottom and basting everything in place, double-checking that I liked my proportions, but most importantly that I had all the layers in the right order, which is always a bit brain-breaking when a facing is turning to the outside, and made even worse this time with the addition of the straps, piping, and our choice of “wrong side” of the print. I decided to have the yoke extend around the sides to the side-back piece, but then hem the centre back piece, so it would be more flexible and “crumple” more easily when the dress was laced in. I don’t know if it actually makes much of a difference, but that was my thought.

And that’s about it. In hindsight I should’ve added an underlining to R’s dress, at least for the bodice portion, as the seams are already pulling since she likes to lace things tight. And the top edge flares a bit much—I might have had a better result with proper slash-and-spread style lengthening of the bodice part of the pattern. But they’ve both been wearing them any chance they get, so I’ll take that win. I’ll also take spring, whenever it decides to come and stay.

Perfect for fridge-top tea parties

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April 26, 2026 · 7:21 am

Out-of-season velvet

We’re on the cusp of spring here (although there was also a blizzard this week. Actually, it’s the end of April and we’ve had four blizzards this month), but truly hot weather is still a month or two away. Hopefully, anyway. Because earlier this month (during the first, or was it second, blizzard) the twins talked me into making them track suits.

Or is it loungewear? I’m not sure. But they found some pieces of stretch velvet in the stash, and requested matching outfits.

The patterns I used are Kwik Sew 3498, which I bought sometime around 2013 for Syo, and that old standard Jalie 2805, which I guess has now been replaced by the Tina (Jalie 4672), though the only difference I can see is that the Tina has a nice scoop neck view as well.

Both of these patterns had two big things going for them: they are quick, simple sews, and I had versions traced off in the right size. In particular, I must have made the XS version of the Kwik Sew pattern for one of my nieces, although I have no memory of this, since I had it traced out already but Syo was at least in the L size when I bought the pattern. Anyway, yay past Tanit!

All I had to do was carefully re-add the flare I had removed from the legs when I first traced it out, since apparently flares are back in fashion, at least among 6-year-olds.

Now, R’s set is a bit cropped, which was her preference, but also necessitated by the fact that the bit of velvet she had chosen was only about .7 of a metre—just enough for the leg length I actually cut. Well, cropped except for the sleeves, which she wanted extra-long to cover her hands. I also folded down the width of her XS pattern pieces to remove about 1/2” from each, 2” overall, which got it to just the right width I think.

T’s version was the XS at full width with about 3.5” of additional length added. The fit is great, but I do wish I had taken just a bit more time with the waistband, as she wanted the V-front option, and I didn’t quite nail the insertion in the velvet. At least partly because, well, velvet, which likes to creep everywhere. Hand-basting may have been in order, but I was attempting to bang these out in a couple of evenings. Haut couture, they are not. Anyway, it doesn’t seem to bother her. I also took about 1” off the hem of the shirt when I hemmed it, at her request. I wish I’d made the pants a smidge longer, not because they really seem too short but for the sake of longer wear, since presumably we will be getting summer at some point.

Anyway, here’s hoping these aren’t fully outgrown before next fall, but at least they’re getting a very satisfying amount of wear right now.

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December 31, 2021 · 9:00 am

Further diversions

I’ve been fantasizing off and on about making the twins wee little Regency style dresses. I kept talking myself out of it, but the idea kept popping back up to the surface like an old beach ball that just won’t quite sink.

I do have some white fabric in mind possibly, but my mother recently destashed a piece of somewhat vintage cotton with a lovely woven check and (don’t laugh) tiny old-fashioned selvedges. With selvedges like those, it just had to become something quasi-historical, and these aren’t the kind of colours I would wear myself. So.

Although my fantasies kept taking me over to this pattern from Virgil’s Fine Goods, in the end I went ahead and drafted my own, based on the Danish example linked in this post from the Oregon Regency Society. Partly because I was impatient but mainly I’m also cheap. Although I would love the period instructions for hand-sewing that would come with the Virgil’s pattern, which would I’m sure explain that everything I did here is wrong. But I knew I didn’t have time or inclination to fully hand-sew these dresses.

Gorgeous neckline. Less gorgeous waistline.

Anyway, I followed the pattern for the above dress pretty roughly, with several modifications due to the small scale and rapid growth rate of small children. I added gathering via drawstrings to both the front neck and the “waist” of the dress, for maximum adjustability.

Due to fabric limitations, I made the skirts from a single width of the vintage cotton, which in the end didn’t leave much extra gathering at the back, unfortunately. I really wish I’d had enough fabric to do at least two full-width panels for the skirts.

In theory, as the twins grow the drawstrings are loosened and the dresses keep fitting for a lot longer. If I’d had more fabric I would’ve added more length and put in some tucks for growth, too, but as it is they’re already ankle skimming on Tris. Which, I’m not really sure what the correct length for Regency children’s dresses should be—I’ve seen paintings with the dresses very long and others fairly short. Given the nature of children’s growth, I suppose some variation is inevitable anyway. I could also make drawers for underneath as they get taller.

I also made the sleeves puffy, again to accommodate future growth.

My “plan” was to have one version be as historically accurate as I can handle (meaning machine-sewn seams but everything else done by hand, and the other a quick ‘n dirty version with serged seam finish. In the end this actually doesn’t make much of a difference since the bodice seams are the least of the hand-sewing that was involved. But I did hand-overcast them in the second dress.

The most unexpectedly labor-intensive part was rolling the casing for the top drawstring. I knew I wanted to use the 1/4” stay tape for my drawstring, but I wanted to keep the casing as narrow as possible, and if I didn’t want visible machine stitching on the outside I definitely had to roll it by hand. It turned out that this was doable, but required sewing the casing with the tape already in place, and due to the narrowness, I had to check at EACH stitch that I hadn’t caught the tape with my needle. This took forever. And ever. That being said, I’m very pleased with the look it created.

First dress on the right with bulky waist gathering. Second dress on the left, less bulk but very high on the bodice.

I was a lot less pleased with the casing for the waist seam of the first dress, which I machine-stitched to the seam allowance since it didn’t show. I’m not sure if it was just that my casing fabric was a bit stiff, or if it was too many layers of machine stitching, but the whole seam is stiff and doesn’t gather nicely. I can’t imagine it’s too comfortable against the skin, either, but the twins are fairly stoic about their clothes for the most part, thankfully, and haven’t seemed bothered. For the second dress I used a lighter fabric for the casing, with one edge stitched to the seam allowance and the other to the bodice. This is a bit nicer feeling but does shift the gathering a little higher on the bodice—only by the 5/8” width of the casing, but when your bodice is less than 3” long that’s a fairly big shift.

The dress opens in the back and I cut the edges of the back bodice on the selvedge, and of course the skirt is the full width of the fabric again so the entire back seam was selvedge as well—yay to no finishing required, and an opportunity to show off that lovely vintage selvedge, although I have no idea if it’s actually accurate for a Regency time period. This is an easy closure for a kids’ style, but it does tend to leave a bit of a gap at the back, so I should probably make them some kind of little shifts to go underneath. Feel free to place bets on whether that actually happens.

My biggest departure from historical accuracy (other than the machine sewn seams) would probably be that I decided to put elastic in the hems of the sleeves. I considered both gathering to a band (harder to adjust) and adding drawstrings again, but I also wanted these dresses to be comfy to wear for toddlers accustomed to modern clothing, so I went with elastic. It doesn’t show and doesn’t look particularly different than a drawstring would, I think.

After all this work to make the dresses adjustable, I wound up having not quite as much fabric for the skirt length as I had hoped. While they’re long enough now, I had hoped to have a few extra inches of length to put tucks in that could be let out later. I also would’ve liked to have more fullness for the back of the skirt. But, such is life, and I think I made pretty good use of the two yards of fabric.

While they’re not as long or as full or as “historically accurate” as I might have hoped, I think they still turned out pretty cute. And Tris has actually requested to wear one instead of regular clothes at least once, so I’ll call that a major win!

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December 27, 2021 · 2:31 pm

Pre-Christmas presents

A few weeks ago my husband started cooking with the twins, and since then he’s been badgering by me to make little aprons and chef’s hats for them.

Since I ended up with a free Saturday afternoon when the older girls took the twins to spend time with their Auntie, I figured I could whip up a couple of chef’s hats and aprons for Christmas presents. Some digging in the stash unearthed the rest of the white poly-cotton twill I used to make the twins these pants, so I got to work.

Of course, since the twins were gone I didn’t have them around to take measurements. I did Google around and found a diagram for a kids’ apron (size 4-7) and basically took an inch off everywhere.

They are pretty basic aprons, but the size turned out PERFECT for my rather runty two year olds, and they’re just what I wanted. My husband would’ve preferred a loop around the neck to the ties, but I wanted them to be adjustable and also a loop big enough to go over baby heads would put the bib quite low on their chests.

The angles edges are finished with double-fold binding (made of the same fabric, so they’re a bit bulky… twill tape would’ve been a nice alternative in hindsight). The top has a teeny facing, which I stitched on the right side, which fortuitously turned out almost the same width as the waist band/ties and the bottom hem. The other edges I just turned under twice and hemmed. For the waist ties, I knew I wanted them wider but less bulky, so I serged the edges and just turned them under once and topstitched down. Then I topstitched them onto the front of the apron. I like it.

The hats were even more slapdash. I did Google “size 2 hat” to get a circumference for the band, but other than that I just kinda made it up. The circles are about 30” each since I cut 2 from a 60” wide fabric.

They’re pretty extra, but I was pretty sure that ridiculously oversized would still be ridiculously cute, and I was not wrong, if I do say so myself.

Ready to start their own cooking show.

For the bands (stands? Brims?) I was going through my box of interfacings when I found the remains of a package of thin bag-making foam, and I think it was perfect: soft, cushy, and unlikely to be damaged by two-year-olds mashing it around.

I decided I wanted them a little taller at the front than back, for a slouchy chef look, but not too high. I topstitched the foam to the inner part of the band fabric. I purposely made the foam a little short, and put a short elastic across the gap, so there’s some stretch at the back. I like how this turned out, but I wish I had made the bands just a little bigger. However, I suppose when they’re outgrown I could open up the back seam and add a little panel there, and just adjust the back couple of pleats to fit.

As it is, though, they’re wonderfully, ridiculously, over-the-top adorable. Despite my best intentions, we did not wait until Christmas to give them to the twins. They did get used for making some (not terribly successful) Christmas cookies and any number of other meals, however.

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