Ruffle-less Ruffle Top and Hot Pink Ritas

After my success with my first ruffle tunic, I was itching to make another version with piping, like this one from StraightGrain.  Here's mine!:

I decided to use this linen-y material left over from one of my Grainline Scout tees... the long, skinny pattern pieces for the ruffle top made it easy to use scraps. 

And to match, hot pink Lovely Rita skinnies (same pattern as my crazy pants from a few weeks ago, minus the button band on the leg.):

These are made from some stretch bottomweight from Joann's.  I hoping they can also be worn under Zoe's batik bubble peplum top for the fall (she's been wearing it as a dress thus far).  Cute!

Pleated Playsuit

Heidi from Elegance and Elephants (of Ruffle Top and Bubble Pocket Shorts fame) offered this Pleated Playsuit pattern for free on her blog... who am I to turn down something free, especially something this cute?

I made it with some flowered quilting cotton fabric I bought at Joann's a few years ago, and used some green-on-green striped Lisette fabric that the Real Martha bought me as the accent on the straps, cuffs and pockets. 

I cut the shorter version so maybe Zoe can wear it this summer, but the long version is pretty awesome, too.   I cut both parts of the pocket out of the accent color so the contrast color would show at the hips, but otherwise I didn't make any changes to the pattern.  I found the pattern extremely easy to follow, except for maybe the cutting, but that's only because a few of the pieced were printed in layers on top of each other.  It just meant I had to pay a little bit of extra attention when cutting the fabric, not too taxing.  All-in-all a cute, easy to put together pattern that looks more complicated than it actually is!

Batik Bubble Pocket Shorts

Another list item, checked off:  Bubble Pocket Shorts.

Another cute pattern from Elegance and Elephants, made with navy batik (leftover from this Scout tee and the bandana I made Scuba Steve... I am getting my money's worth out of this piece of batik!).  I used the batik's border print for the cuffs.  I alllllllmost got the batik to match up across the seams, almost.  Completely inadvertent.

Here's a side view of the bubble pocket:

These are for Mr. Ben and Erin's baby, due in a few months.  I made the 6-12 months size and it was quite easy to put together.  The only problem I ran into is that the leg cuffs were a little large for the legs, but I am pretty sure that's due to a late night measuring error on my part.  More of these to come, for sure! 

Batik Ruffle Tunic

One of my to-do list items, check!

 

This is the ruffle top pattern from Elegance & Elephants, the tunic version... for Zoe, of course. 

Quite cute, very easy to put together...  I made it with some bright pink batik left over from the Grainline Tiny Pocket tank that I made before Christmas.  The batik had a border print that I left off the tank top because it was a bit twee for an adult, but it worked perfectly here for the ruffles!

I could definitely see lots of variations for this top.  I love the versions with contrast side panels that I saw on imagine gnats, as well as the ruffle-less piped version at StraightGrain.

Lincoln tried it on... he thinks it's cute and comfortable, but not his color: