The new Oliver + S spring trunk shows have started making their way across North America. Here are a few photos of the garments traveling in one of our shows.

The first four stops scheduled are:

• Cloth & Bobbin, Narberth PA, March 28-April 7
• Bobbin’s Nest Studio, Santa Clara CA, April 15-April 23
• Olive Juice Quilt Shop (formerly A Stitch in Time), Onalaska WI, April 27-May 7
• Hip Stitch, Albuquerque NM, May 12-25

We’ll be adding to this list over time, so stay tuned for more locations and dates.

If you are a retailer and would like to book a trunk show for your shop, please email us for details.

If you’re in New York, be sure to stop by Purl Patchwork on Sullivan Street to see their Oliver + S window display.

Purl is well-known for its outstanding selection of fabrics. The staff stocks beautiful Japanese prints, a wide selection of Liberty tana lawn, and a number of other exquisite offerings inside this jewel box of a shop.

For these samples Purl selected a sweet floral Liberty print for the Birthday Party Dress and paired it with a coordinating Kona cotton solid for the tab. Because Liberty prints are very light-weight and ever-so-slightly sheer, we used a white cotton lawn for the facings to be sure they didn’t show through. (The Liberty print sold out within two days of setting up the window display, so I’m sorry I can’t give you a link to it.)

The Sailboat Top and Pants are made from a fresh architecture-inspired Anna Griffin print and a Kona cotton.

We raided the fantastic button selection at Purl’s yarn shop just down the street for the finishing touch. Those buttons on the pants are wool felt!

And here are some views of the window from inside the store. How about those giant paper dolls?

I’m a tearsheet fanatic. I’ve always loved pulling and archiving tearsheets. But it wasn’t until I got to design school that I learned I wasn’t the only one saving random pages I tore from magazines and, in fact, that those pages could become part of the design process.

Unfortunately, S caught onto this habit really quickly and now looks over my shoulder when I read a magazine to holler out when she sees something she wants to save. Sometimes I have to explain that we’re not removing pages from a particular magazine. (Marie Claire Idees and Martha Stewart Living are the only survivers on my save-the-entire-magazine list. The others have, sadly, gone out of print: Blueprint, Domino.) Most of the time she gets to keep all photos of dogs and girls wearing pink.

I’ve appropriated a portion of one wall in the studio to act as my inspiration board, and on it are taped a variety of tearsheets and other objects that I like to see on a regular basis. Some of the images and objects have been inspiring me for years. Others get swapped out when I grow tired of them or find something else that interests me more.

This one has been on the wall for quite a while. It’s a Prada dress that I adore and wouldn’t mind wearing, myself.

I came back to this tearsheet one day recently when I was preparing to sew S’s Easter dress. I had selected navy silk dupioni (from Brewer) for the dress, and then I found a wonderful vintage yellow grosgrain ribbon with a moire effect (from Tinsel Trading). I wanted to incorporate some yellow eyelet fabric that I’ve been saving for a while, but I was having trouble pulling it all together until I remembered that tearsheet I walk past every day.

Off came the photo from the wall, and I carried it around for the next few days so I could think about it more. Here is what ultimately came of it: my interpretation of the feel of that Prada dress, done for a little girl.

In the end, I decided on two important embellishments to the Birthday Party Dress inspired by the photo. I added yellow topstitching in a deliberately meandering manner so that it would look uneven and a little “messed up.” And I sewed a strip of the eyelet fabric to the top edge of the hem facing so that it looks like a contemporary version of a petticoat peeking out from under the dress. It was important to me that the eyelet be separated from the hem to the extent that it had some dimension rather than simply looking like lace applied to the hem. By sewing the eyelet to the top of the hem facing it looks like a separate layer worn under the dress. Then I carefully (but not too carefully, since I wanted it to look a little rough) trimmed the eyelet into scallops that peek out beneath the dress.

And here is the dress, being modeled. I have to tell you that if my job consisted of regularly cajoling S to pose for photos I think I’d quit. It’s such a relief to work with an illustrator who does his work without whining or refusing to stand still/remove his cardigan for just two photos/stop making goofy faces/etc. (Dan, do you do any of those things when I can’t see you?)

I’m happy with the finished dress, and S loves it. Which is what counts. But she still won’t pose properly for me.

About six months ago, we published an interview with Dan Andreasen–the illustrator who does the Oliver + S paper dolls.

This week at the studio we came across a brand new copy of Dan’s recent book, The Giant of Seville, and thought that we would give it away to one of our blog readers.

So if you would like to throw your hat into the ring, leave a comment on this post. We’ll pick the lucky winner later this week.

Update: and the winner (thanks to our friendly random number generator) is … Tressa who posted the very first comment. Tressa, please email your mailing address to us at information@oliverands.com and we’ll mail the book to you. Thanks, everyone, for participating.

I thought you might like to see a trunk show we’ve just put together for one of our distributors, Brewer Quilting and Sewing Supplies. Retail stores who carry our patterns sometimes order through distributors, and Brewer wanted to highlight their wide selection of silk dupioni fabrics as well as the quilting cottons of Benartex, who they also represent. Together, we selected the fabrics for these samples that Brewer will display in their showroom, at trade shows, and at some of their retail customers.

The varying stripes of the Sailboat Top remind me of what is often called an “awning stripe” in the fashion industry.

The pants are a sort of variation on a gingham check, with circles in the center of the squares.

I like the combination of silk dupioni with printed cotton on the Tea Party Sundress. And the flat piping in the skirt is also silk, which dresses it up and adds a little texture and variety to the skirt.

You might notice that for the Birthday Party Dress, we widened the ties by an inch to give them a softer, dressier appearance. I think this dress looks ready for a summer wedding. Flower girl, perhaps? Junior bridesmaid? The pleats on the skirt are left unpressed for a softer appearance that suits the big bow and the hand of the silk, I think.

Printed cotton fabrics are as follows:

Sailboat Top: Benartex “City Girl” by Kitty Yoshida, Bar Code Stripe Blue/Green, Style 2318, Color 55
Tea Party Sundress: skirt is Bentartex “City Blooms” by Kitty Yoshida, Yellow/Graphite, Style 2319, Color 12
Sailboat Pants: Benartex “City Girl” by Kitty Yoshida, Squared Bolts, Steel Blue, Style 2317, Color 50

You know it must be spring when the garage around the corner from our studio opens its doors and the ice cream trucks start to emerge.

We’re bracing ourselves for seven or eight months of this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVB7OHgalkc]

I have a favorite pair of canvas sailor pants. They’re French (of course). They’ve got wide legs. They are about as flattering as a pair of pants can be. Did I mention that they’re really comfortable, too?

I was thinking about them when I designed the Sailboat pattern. I didn’t look at my pants for details, though, because I wanted this pattern to be entirely built from the memory of those pants–all the things I love about them, but mostly the feel of them.

Kids’ pants tend to be really detailed and tedious to sew. Boys’ clothing tends to be overly fussy (pockets and zipper flies and elaborate topstitching) or really boring and plain. (Fashion tip: never send your son to school in pants that look like pajama bottoms.)

These unisex pants are neither of the above. They’re easy to sew. Really easy to sew. And easy to wear. Even if your child can’t do a button by himself or herself, the elastic at the back waist will come to the rescue. They’re completely pull-up if need be. But the details are what make them fun.

And as long as we’re at it, why not add a skirt? Same details as the pants but in a sweet A-line, short skirt that’s as appropriate for the playground as it is for school. (I’m thinking about the skirt for girls, here. But, hey, Oliver + S was born in New York’s East Village where anything goes. So if you have a boy who likes to wear A-line skirts, you’ve got our permission to go for it.)

My favorite fabrics for both the pants and skirt are solid-colored cottons and linens. Linen is great for kids’ clothing because it’s really strong, looks better with wear, and gets softer every time you wash it. I adore the look of un-pressed linen–especially when it’s just out of the wash. But wouldn’t the pants and skirt be cute in a fun stripe or print? My first pants and skirt samples were made in mattress ticking and turned out awfully cute. And what about using silk dupioni for a dressy look?

And, although it’s still early, why not start thinking about fall here? Last autumn I made both the skirt and the pants from a cotton herringbone tweed, and S got tons of wear from them. And they looked great with nearly everything in her closet. So great, in fact, that I wanted them for myself.

By the way, you’ll notice that the cover of this pattern features our S doll with the top and skirt But guess what? The back of the envelope features the Oliver doll with the pants and top. We wanted to include both dolls and thought it would be fun if the pattern envelope had two sides. So don’t be misled: you’ll get all three patterns in the envelope.

We always take customer feedback seriously, and one thing we’ve heard clearly in the last year is that people want more patterns for boys’ clothing.

Most boys’ tops are either T-shirts (no fun to make, in my opinion) or shirts with collars and plackets and cuffs and such. In other words, they have a lot of fiddly details that can be very tedious to sew.

Instead of doing something along these lines, I wanted to design an outfit that would be fun, a little different from the norm, appropriate for both boys and girls, and relatively easy to sew at the same time.

While I was contemplating all this, it occurred to me that I adore my old French navy shirt. It’s a little slouchy and very comfortable. I love the navy and white stripes, the soft knit French terry, and the buttons at the shoulder. “Hey!” I thought, “That would be such a great style to re-interpret for kids.” This is my version of that beloved shirt.

Not only can this pattern be sewn from a printed cotton, linen, or other woven fabric, but it’s also great for knits. I made this green-and-white striped sample with interlock, which is my favorite knit fabric because it’s a bit more substantial than jersey and doesn’t curl up the way that jersey tends to do. A couple of friends have been telling me about the many new knit fabrics that are available, which is great because it used to be so difficult to find them. The worst part of sewing with knits is finding matching rib trim. But that’s not a problem with this pattern, fortunately, as it doesn’t require any trim.

For this garment, I stitched the interlock pretty much the same way I sew any woven fabric. I don’t have a serger or use any special stitches on my machine, so obviously those of you who have more experience stitching with knits will be able to do many more interesting things than I did here. One thing I did do, though, is to put a heavier thread in my bobbin when I did the topstitching. And I love the result I got. The stitching really stands out and doesn’t get swallowed up in the stretchy fabric the way ordinary topstitching might.

This top can also be dressed up with luxurious fabrics. Linen or silk with carved mother-of-pearl buttons for a girl? Beautiful.

And what about adding appliques to a solid or a woven stripe (horizontal, if you please) for everyday play? (Never done an applique? I did a tutorial on disdressed a couple years ago that you might want to read.) I’m envisioning all sort of fun designs you could add. Ice cream cones. Lobster. Dinosaurs. Oooh, robots!

You could also use the freezer paper stencil and instructions from the Sandbox Pants pattern to paint fun shapes onto the shirt using fabric paint, which is fast and easy and actually fun to do with kids.

Anyway, the Sailboat top is is seriously the easiest shirt to sew. It comes together in no time, and the sleeve fits the armhole very easily. No messing around with easing in the extra fabric. I could sew these shirts all day and be a happy person. Could probably finish a mess of them in no time, too. I want to teach this pattern for a class sometime soon; it would be perfect for new students who have never followed a pattern before. It’s not difficult to sew, and it scores high on the accomplishment/satisfaction scale. Perfect.

Up next: the sailor-style skirt and pant that go with this top.

When I started designing the Birthday Party Dress, I wanted to create something versatile that could be dressed up for weddings, parties, and other special occasions but that could also be made for everyday wear. With this pattern you can do both. It all depends on the fabrics you select.

But before I get into the possibilities that fabric choices offer, let me tell you a little about the dress.

We rated this pattern as three of four scissors for difficulty level. It’s not our easiest pattern, but I wouldn’t really call it difficult either. It’s just that all of the garment’s interesting details involve more steps than most of our patterns. Of course, it all pays off in the end. And, as always, we walk you through the process in our detailed instructions. If you work through each step carefully, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

The dress itself has three box pleats down the center front. These pleats can be pressed to sharp creases or left soft for two different looks. The dress also provides the option of finishing the front with an assymetrical tab (my favorite) or a soft bow.

The dress buttons up the back, which I think is the nicest way to finish a dress of this sort. Some dainty vintage buttons would look great here, as would simple mother-of-pearl (my stand-by for most occasions). And, of course, we included our signature hem facing, which gives lots of fun options. Do you remember this blue and white polka dotted Birthday Party dress with the orange tab? Well, it’s got an orange hem facing, too. How fun to catch a glimpse of that as your daughter dashes past you at the playground.

Sewn with the bow option (view B on the pattern envelope) and made in silk dupioni, this would be a perfect flower girl dress. In fact, my little sister is getting married in September, and this may be the dress that S and her cousins wear for the event. It would also be gorgeous in linen (I found a metallic linen the other day which I’m also contemplating) or in a Liberty print.

This week we’ve been playing the width of the tie in the studio. If you make it wide it gets really poofy and party-ish (is that a word?) You could use a ribbon for the tie, instead of fabric, if you prefer. I was up at Tinsel Trading on Saturday and found an amazing vintage moire grosgrain. (It’s being used for an Easter dress I can’t wait to show you. ) They also had the most luxurious silk satin ribbons in spectacular colors and a wide variety of widths, if you really want to go all out. Easter is just around the corner, after all.

As you’ve seen with the Moda fabrics we used, the Birthday Party Dress looks equally appropriate in printed cottons and worn as a more casual everyday dress. Not only is it cute with a single fabric for the dress and a little pop of complimentary or contrasting fabric for the tab or tie, but I like the idea of color-blocking the pattern as well. You could do the center pleated panel in one fabric (maybe a tiny floral), the tab or tie in a second fabric (a solid color, perhaps), and the rest of the dress in a third (perhaps a medium-sized coordinating print).

This design provides endless possibilities. I can hardly wait to see what you make from the pattern. So far each version of it that we’ve made in the studio and for trunk shows has taken a completely different look depending on the fabric we used. I’ll be showing you some other versions of the dress in the next days and weeks. I know you’ll make amazing things from the pattern, too. I can hardly wait to see them start appearing in the Flickr group!

We think you’ll really enjoy these two new styles, and we’re looking forward to seeing your creativity with them show up in our Flickr group. Over the next couple days, we’ll be doing more detailed posts that highlight some ideas for what you can do with these new styles.

If you’re interested in the fabrics we used for these samples, here are the details:

• Polka dots: Pepper, from Wonderland, by Momo in color Chai
• Stripe: Candy Stripe from Sweet, by Urban Chiks in color Icing
• Birds: Peeps from Sweet, by Urban Chiks in color Icing