Monkey Bar Skirt!

A productive sewing weekend!  Less productive on other things... oops!

 Using the leftovers from my rainbow dot Moneta, I whipped up the brand new (free!) Monkey Bar Skirt pattern from Hey June (remember I made Hey June's Greenpoint cardigan late last year?) as my first weekend project.  

Such a cute pattern and great idea... at first it looks like a simple skirt, but then, booyah!!!

Little built-in bike shorts underneath:

This sounded perfect for Zoe, who is spending the summer playing on her new (to her) swingset. Does the Monkey Bar Skirt count as a skort? I'm gonna vote no, because that word has bad '90s connotations for me.  Anyway, can't wait to see it on Zoe!  It's just not quite as cute when photographed flat as I'm sure it will be on her...

In any case, the skirt is crazy easy to put together. It took me several hours, but only because my serger ate the first skirt (tears!)... turns out if you don't change the needles on your serger, bad things happen.  Namely, knit fabrics start getting sucked/pushed into the loopers, ripping a hole in your project and making a giant tangled mess in the machine. Consider this a public service announcement... change your needles! Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.  Luckily the shorts and waistband part from the first skirt were undamaged, and I was able to fit another skirt out of my scraps by cutting it the non-stretchy way, which Adrianna reassuringly said in the instructions was fine.  Woo!

Ash Halter Top and Monkey Bar Skirt

My first Monkey Bar Skirt for Zoe came out so cute, I immediately made another one.  This time, though, I used woven fabric for the skirt... a super cute cotton/poly blend with watercolor strawberries from a local shop here in Bangkok.  The green waistband and shorts are made from this emerald heather jersey blend from Girl Charlee (super soft!).  Love it!  Download this free pattern from Hey June if you haven't already!

I also made a top to match: the adorable halter top portion of Willow & Co's Ash jumpsuit.  Zoe looked so cute in the pink seersucker Ash jumpsuit I made here that I thought I should make it again.  The halter doesn't have a lot of hanger appeal (or kitchen table appeal, as it were), but I know it will look awesome on her:

The whole outfit is pretty damn cute, huh?:

Union St. Tee x 3

Basics, basics, basics. That's what Me-Made-May showed me is missing in my wardrobe. V-neck and crew-neck t-shirts are certainly basics. And I certainly need more of them... after 3 and a half years of living in Southeast Asia, where it's constantly summer and I don't have a dryer, all my t-shirts are pretty grubby and stretched out.