Have you seen all the wonderful Lazy Days Skirts that are showing up in the Flickr group? Lots of great fabric and ribbon combinations, and some really adorable little girls enjoying their new skirts.

Yes, it’s up. My goodness, what a nice reception the fall line is getting!

The infamous S and I will be busy filling orders tomorrow while Megan takes a much-deserved break. I’m glad you’re keeping us so busy. Thank you! It’s very rewarding to see such a wonderful response to the patterns already. I can hardly wait to see what you make with them!

I was chatting with Grandma and a friend of hers the other afternoon. We were talking about sewing and children’s clothing (of course), and Grandma’s friend was reminiscing about her childhood.

Back then, every department store had a yard goods department, usually located on the top floor of the building. When I picture the yard goods area in my mind, it’s always elegantly furnished with rich wood fixtures and row upon row of luxurious bolts of fabric, with kindly but stern-looking shopkeepers to wait on you once you’ve made your selections.

Nancy (my Grandma’s friend) told me her aunt was a seamstress, so every fall they made a trip to the department store to select her fall wardrobe. Wouldn’t that be fun? Somehow it seems so refined and exciting. In my imagination, Nancy’s mother and aunt confer about their selections, debating the merits of wool tartans and long-staple cotton shirtings. And since Nancy mentioned that her aunt also sewed all her undergarments, I’m also imagining drapey batiste and French laces for lovely slips and underwear.

That late-summer ritual has been forefront in my mind the past few days because the fall Oliver + S collection has arrived in our studio. We’ll be opening the website for fall sales beginning this Thursday.

Are you dreaming about the possibilities? In addition to all the wonderful cotton prints available at your local quilt shop, what about fine-wale corduroys, lightweight wools, and striped or plaid shirtings? Fall is my favorite season; the colors can be so sophisticated, and the fabric possibilities are endless.

We can’t wait to see what you make with the patterns. We’re doing a little sample sewing ourselves, and we’ll show you our creations very soon. Start your planning!

For those of you who were interested, the silk Tea Party dresses are now listed on ebay here and here. Cheers!

August is meant for relaxing and hanging out on the porch. At least, that’s what we had in mind for this skirt. It’s about as easy to sew as a skirt can be, since it’s made from a single width of fabric. And when it’s finished you’ll still have plenty of time to contemplate the day from the porch swing.

We’ve been testing it on several little girls, and it’s perfect for dog walks too.

With a simple elastic waistband, it’s also comfortable, which is a crucial element for hanging out during the most relaxed month of the year.

But our favorite part is the ribbon at the hem. You can use almost any sort of ribbon in any width you like. It makes a clean finish to the hem, as you can see.

Download and print your free instructions for the Lazy Days Skirt here. We hope you’ll make a skirt or two, and when you’re finished be sure to post photos of your finished skirt (or skirts) to the Oliver + S Flickr group.

And then go enjoy the rest of your summer. Maybe you’ll find a hammock to share with your favorite active little girl.

I mentioned in last week’s hem facing tutorial that I like to use a blindstitch for nearly invisible hems. It’s an easy stitch to do and looks neat from the inside of the garment as well as the outside. Here is a simple demonstration, if you’d like to try it yourself:

1. Use a single strand of knotted thread and a hand needle. If your thread has a tendancy to twist and knot on itself, you might try drawing it through a little beeswax or Thread Heaven before you start.

2. Unfold the pressed hem and hide your thread knot in the fold of the hem (or hem facing). Then re-fold the hem and pin it in place while you stitch.

red fabric = hem facing; floral fabric = dress skirt

3. Working from right to left with your needle pointing to the left (or vice versa if you’re left-handed) and keeping your stitches loose and very small, roll the hem edge back about 1/4″, and take a small stitch in the garment fabric. Catch just a few threads in the stitch so it won’t show much from the outside of the garment.

4. Then take a tiny stitch in the hem or hem facing about 3/8″ to the left. Take another small stitch in the garment 3/8″ to the left, and continue alternating stitching between the hem and garment fabric, producing a series of small v’s.

5. When you’re finished, your stitches should be nearly invisible from the right side. If you look very closely, you may be able to see the tiny stitches like mine, below. If you use a thread that matches your garment, these stitches will be almost impossible to see.

My other favorite stitch for hemming is the catchstitch, which is very similar to the blindstitch except that instead of working toward the left, work toward the right with the needles still pointing to the left.

The result will be a series of X’s. Leave your stitches a little loose when hemming with the catchstitch. The advantage of the catchstitch is that the thread is unlikely to break if it gets a little tug; the X of the stitches gives the thread a bit of elasticity, which is especially great for children’s clothing, pant legs, or anything that might see some extra wear and tear.

We have posted a new tutorial on blindstitch and catchstitch to the tutorial section of the blog.

So this is Harriet. We didn’t play with her when we were little, but I don’t think it’s because Mom wouldn’t let us; I think that, knowing she was the only doll my Grandma saved for Mom, we respected her too much and didn’t want to risk injury. Isn’t she pretty?

I took these photos in a hurry on the morning we left Madison (where my parents life), so I didn’t have time to let the collar dry after wetting it a bit to finger-press it flat. Sorry. This is the dress the Harriet was wearing when Mom got her:

I’ve been thinking a lot about gathering and ruffles lately, which is surprising because I’m not a ruffle-y sort of designer. But I was remembering from school that, in the garment industry these days, you rarely see a ruffle with a ratio of more than 1.5 to 1 anymore. This dress clearly has at least a 2.5 to 1 ratio, I’d say. I like it. It’s not saccharine despite the fullness of the gathers. Maybe it’s the gray of the dress. Or maybe the extreme fullness keeps it from being too flirty and takes it to a more sophisticated level like Christian Dior’s New Look.

And here is the pinafore that goes over her dress, front and back:

I love grey for kids’ clothes, and this feels so subtle and contemporary to me. I’d love to do a pinafore for the Oliver + S line, but it would need to be updated a bit. Much as I love this one (especially those mitred corners!), we’re not a vintage pattern company, so I’d like to give it a contemporary spin.

My Mom’s aunt sewed this dress for Harriet.

The collar needs to be repaired. But it matches the pinafore nicely:

She also sewed this corduroy coat with velvet collar and jet buttons:

I like the raglan sleeves and the tucks at the neckline to give the coat some fullness.

And this seersucker nightgown, which is missing the gathering ribbon at the neckline:

I love the lace, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen solid-colored seersucker anywhere else. It’s subtle and would also be great for dresses, I think.

Several years ago (ok, more than several), I sewed American Girl clothes for my sisters’ dolls and really enjoyed making them. And even as a child I really appreciated the clothes my Mom made for our dolls; it’s such a thoughtful, intimate gesture, and I think children understand that doll clothes are made for no other reason than their own playing pleasure. That’s a pretty great expression of love, in my book.

We’ve had more than a few requests for doll-sized Oliver + S clothes, and I’m sure that eventually we’ll do something along those lines. But for now, I’m just appreciating all the care and time that went into these. And the details that make them so special.

The hem facing has become a sort of signature feature of many Oliver + S patterns.

It all started with our very first pattern, the Tea Party sundress. I strongly prefer neat, simple solutions to design problems and was dreading the hem on the flared skirt of the sundress; in order to finish it using conventional sewing methods, the excess fabric from the flared skirt would need to be eased into the narrower part of the skirt when the hem was folded up to finish it. Generally, this results (for me, anyway) in much gritting of teeth and, very commonly, a crummy-looking hem, both on the outside and inside of the garment. It seemed much simpler and cleaner to create a separate pattern piece for the hem.

And it worked so well, now we use it on many of our other patterns, too! Here is a little demonstration of the hem to show you how it is sewn:

1. First, the facing pieces are sewn together at the side seams, right sides together, to create a loop that matches the contour of the skirt hem itself. Press the seam allowances open. Then fold and press the top 1/2″ edge of the joined hem facing to the wrong side so the upper edge of the facing will have a clean finish.

2. With right sides together and the hem facing’s folded edge positioned at the top, pin the hem facing to the bottom edge of the dress, matching the hem facing’s seams with the dress’s seams. Sew the facing to the dress with a 1/2″ seam.

3. Press the hem facing away from the skirt, toward the seam allowances. Then understitch the seam allowances on the hem facing and dress, stitching them to the facing 1/8″ from the hem seam. To understitch, you’ll edgestitch on the hem facing close to the seam, sewing through the facing and the seam allowances. Understitching helps to keep the seam and the facing inside the garment, and prevents them from showing when the garment is worn.

understitching from the outside of the dress

understitching from the inside of the dress

4. Trim the seam allowances at the hem about 1/8″ from the understitching. Turn and press the hem facing to the inside of the dress, pressing the seam slightly to the inside so it doesn’t show on the finished dress. The entire facing is now inside the dress, with none of it showing from the outside.

seam allowances trimmed

hem facing from the inside of the dress

hem facing from the outside of the dress (doesn’t show!)

5. Use a blindstitch to hand-sew the folded top edge of the hem facing to the wrong side of the skirt to finish the hem.

The hem facing works especially well on flared hems, but it could be used on streight hems also. If your garment is made from a heavy fabric, you might want to consider using a lighter-weight fabric for the facings so that you don’t add a lot of bulk to the bottom seam. I like to use a fabric that contrasts or compliments the rest of the garment like the plaid facing shown in the photos. The hem facing can be a little surprise when it peeks out, and you could do all sorts of interesting things with it, including embroidering it or using other embellishments to give it extra interest. Have fun with it!

We’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of the fall patterns in just a couple of weeks, and in the meantime we’ve been pulling together our fall trunk show, which will be making its way around the country to show off the patterns.

This season we fell in love with Denyse Schmidt’s County Fair collection by Free Spirit. The patterns and colors are fresh and exciting, with a bit of vintage flavor and a contemporary autumnal color palette.

County Fair has a lovely weight that is very appropriate to fall dressing. It’s slightly heavier than a quilting cotton, with a wonderful drape. Although the line is billed as a “home dec” weight, it’s not heavy or stiff like you might imagine. Instead, it’s perfect for little jackets, skirts, and pants. I’m having trouble keeping my hands off the fabrics and wish I could sew all the samples myself, it’s so wonderful.

If you’re a wholesale customer who is interested in hosting the trunk show, please drop us a line. The collection will be ready to go by the end of August, and we’d love to send it your direction!