Space Nerds
It’s Space Week!! If you read over at Project Run and Play already (Don’t forget to vote!!!), you know I had a lot of ideas that I thought about creating, but later rejected them. I ended up landing on two looks. First, a dress inspired by that school solar system mobile I know everyone has been assigned to make. You know that one where you buy the foam balls, paint them, and string them up on an old metal hanger? Honestly, when I think of space, that’s the first thing that comes to mind. Second a created a skirt set around the idea of the stars. Stars of one of the amazing things about space. They tell stories and when you look up at them it’s almost calming. Together, the solar system and the stars make my look for the week. If you have only been visiting through the course of this season, you may not know that I have twins. They were so excited to get to be in this week’s make. Honestly, I think they were beginning to feel a little left out. 🙂
Solar System Dress
Let’s kick this off with the solar system dress. Ahh! I love it. I started with this idea of having a back feature that resembled the sun and it’s rays. After pondering over how to create the look I decided the Lil Lux Collection Startlight City dress was a great base. (How about that name? Goes perfectly with the theme.) I did a little experimenting with the design and came out with exactly what I was going for. The ring in the center is supposed to represent the sun, and the rays are coming off of it. Do you see? What do you think?
After nailing the design of the back, I started to work on the front bodice design. I made the sun the focal point. Since this design is for 5 year olds, I felt the face with the bow was very age appropriate and it married with our styling nicely. After the sun, I created a look of the orbital paths of the planets around the sun. This was really somewhat difficult because I had to account for gathering and where the paths would need to line up at the seams. I constructed the bodice and added the sleeves. Once the sleeves were attached I added the orbital path stitching to those. For these stitching lines I used a triple stretch stitch because I wanted the stitching line to be thicker so it would stand out more. Next, I created all the planet felties. These designs are from ytdesigns. The designer is making a switch from Etsy to an independent site and as new designs are added, they are placed on an introductory rate, so I got a pretty good deal on them. They are so adorable. I was nervous to use my embroidery machine again since I used it in week one, but they turned out so great I think it was worth it. (The funny thing is that I rarely use my embroidery machine. Probably three times a year.) Lastly I added all the planets to the dress. I really tried to pay attention to “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” except for I discovered with Peyton’s help that Pluto is not longer a planet. So Pluto did not make the dress.
Overall, I think the girls will love wearing this. It is actually made from basic Kona Cotton. Nothing fancy here. Just practical wearing pieces with a little fun and education in the mix.
Star Skirt Set
For the Star themed skirt set I used several patterns. I first created the circle skirt with some help from Simple Life Pattern company. I wanted this skirt to pair well with our “Space Nerd” goal, so I added a star embroidery design. The best part about this is it glows in the dark!! YES!! I wish I had a video of the girls when they saw it. They thought it was sooo cool. Check it out below. First the daytime photo, and then what it looks like in the dark. (PS, it’s hard to shoot photos in the dark.)
After the skirt I wanted a collared shirt that would pair with a bow tie. I took the Ume Dress pattern from Straight Grain and hacked it into a shirt. I love that it has all the things that make a button down official. Back yoke, back pleats, pointy collar. I told my husband I probably don’t have an excuse for not making him one now. A fun feature about this shirt… It was stitched with glow in the dark thread too. So all the top stitching glows… Check it out. I had better luck taking a photo of the pocket to show you. And how about that pocket stitching?!! Again, I’ll give you a daytime and a dark shot.
To wrap up this look I topped it off with a cardigan and bow tie. Mostly, I knew my model would be dramatic about the temperature being cold, so I had to add something to keep her warm. Hehe. I found this fun gray and silver star knit in my stash that I thought went perfectly with the theme. I did a little hacking on the Little Lizard King Library Cardigan to create this. The original cardigan wraps around the front and creates pockets. I didn’t want the pockets to take away from the look so I reshaped the front design to look more like a classic cardigan. I removed the pocket portion and brought up the neckline. I bound the neckline, then added the plackets to the front. I whipped the bow tie up pretty quickly. It snaps on with KAM snaps. The red gives the set a fun pop of color.
Because I like to add fun little last minute details… I did hem this skirt with white bias tape for a little hemline contrast. We forgot to snap a photo of that, so I grabbed one while we were climbing into the car.
All together I have two sisters having a great time in clothes that are just out of this world… (pun intended.) I love the looks and hope these little ladies get some good wear out of these pieces. Now, don’t forget to go vote over at Project Run and Play. This week determines who makes it to the final round!!! As always, I’m going to leave you with a few more photos so you can get your cute fix for the day. Thanks so much for coming by! Leave me a comment and tell me what you think about our look.
