We’ve heard your cries for help! Many of you have been searching for the long out-of-print Puppet Show Tunic, Dress + Shorts, and we’ve decided to use this as an opportunity to produce our first PDF pattern.

The Puppet Show is a sweet pattern that can be made as a dress or as a tunic, with little bloomer-style shorts to go with it. It’s got great details: a Peter Pan collar, curved yoke seam, little darts that add fullness to the skirt, and sweet button cuffs at the sleeves. It also includes our signature hem facing so you can add a bit of contrast for a beautiful dressmaking detail, and it buttons up the back.

The shorts are a very simple pull-on style with an elasticized waistband, fun gathered-detail pockets, and a little bit of gathering at the bias-bound hem for the bloomer effect. No side seam on this style, which makes it quick to assemble and comfortable to wear. And just plain fun, I think.

I wrote a blog post shortly after we released this pattern that highlights some of these details. You can see photos of them in that post. And I have to remind you of the wonderful Puppet Show tunic featured in part two of our profile of Marie-Michelle Melotte from last year.

Here are a couple photos from Janice and Jan who were two of the four people who so generously offered to help us test the digital version of the pattern last week.

Based on the feedback many of you provided in the discussion forums, we wanted to create a PDF pattern that was easy to use and that didn’t require tiling together a massive number of pages. I think we’ve done something a bit innovative with this pattern.

The PDF file comes with the pattern pieces presented in two ways so you can choose how you want to print it: as a 36″ x 48″ traditional pattern sheet that you can have printed at a Kinkos, Staples, or another service bureau that can print large sheets and as 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets that you can print on a standard home printer.

The interesting thing about the print-at-home option is that there is minimal tiling involved. We didn’t just recreate the original pattern sheet as smaller pages that you need to match up and tile together to create your own large pattern sheet. Instead, we provide you with all the individual pattern  pieces in a home-printer-friendly format. Where pieces are  small enough to fit on a standard size page, we’ve given them to you that way. (No tiling involved; just cut out the piece!) Where pieces are too large to fit on a standard page, we’ve given you simple instructions for how to cut out and tile the pattern pieces themselves, instead of the whole giant sheet. Here’s an example of how the pieces are presented. That’s a non-tiled piece on the left and a tiled piece on the right.

The pattern comes in two size ranges, 0-24M and 2T-5, and it is available now on our website. When you purchase the pattern, you will receive your copy via email within 24 hours.

We hope you’ll enjoy the pattern in this format. We’re glad you asked for it!

Marie-Michelle Melotte is back with us today to finish the discussion we began earlier this week.

It’s clear that you’re not just picking out a pattern and then selecting a random printed fabric to make it. You’re really analyzing the specific style attributes of the design and then thinking about how you can create an interesting collaboration between the silhouette and a fabric in order to maximize the impact of the final garment. Where do you find the inspiration that helps you do this so well?

I grab inspiration wherever it comes from. I sketch it out lengthily and watercolor it, debating color, fabric and modifications. It usually starts with books. And ends in a museum!

I’ve gathered kilograms of books on art history, theatre costume and fashion design, costume institute catalogues, historical and folkloric dress, and fabric. If I could, I’d spend my life haunting the likes of the V&A and the Musée des arts décoratifs. To touch that eighteenth century brocade! Damn the glass display case!

Back in the day when I was just a shallow and covetous fashionista with no sewing skills, I amassed some exquisite, mommy-incompatible pieces that have provided inspiration along the way. Rifling through a closet, yours, someone else’s, window shopping, street gawking, and patio side ogling can jolt innovation and the creative process in strange and unexpected ways!

Yves Saint-Laurent and Courrèges are always good muses with their simple shapes, clean lines, perfect cuts, and impeccable design. What more can one ask for? When it comes to touch and architecture, Japanese designers are surefire stimulation. Kawakubo Rei, Yohji Yamamoto, and eccentricities such as those of Hussein Chalayan always make me smile. You might not use it but it will trigger something.

Speaking of inspiration, you made a Bubble Dress a while ago that began from a pretty interesting jumping off point.

The Titania bubble dress! A Midsummer Night’s Dream must be one of my least favorite of Shakespeare’s plays. I never quite grasped the pixie flutter although I was spellbound by the headstrong character of the fairy queen. Inspiration here was literally literary.

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds, field dew and sweet peace. A silk chiffon shift dress from Sportmax’s 2008 Spring/Summer collection covered in circular embroidered and sequined appliqués provided supplementary inspiration, and when I stumbled across this dusty rose silk and cotton appliquéd fabric on a German website, I thought its use on a Bubble Dress might quite possibly lead into the delightful world of the wood nymph!

One of the things that I find so interesting about your work is that you avoid prints and allow texture to do all the work of providing visual stimulation.

I am in awe of highly audacious colour combinations and almost hysterical histrionics such as can be found in collections by Kenzo and Christian Lacroix, but I am shy when it comes to pulling it off myself.

For the moment, I’m comfortable working with subdued color palettes where texture has the predominant role. A bit like in Italian tailoring, I like to let the fabric speak for itself. It always will if it’s well chosen and showcased.

Texture (more so than color) means depth, plays on perspective, the tantalizing theatre of light and shadow! How fun and exciting is that?! I have one dress in particular up on a pedestal when I’m thinking about texture in a neutral tone, Madame Grès’ Antigone dress at the Met Costume Institute. And one painting in mind, Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s La cruche cassée in the Louvre. Oh! The classical, not so virginal, bouillonné and twists of loveliness!

Tell us about the Puppet Show Tunic you made. There’s so much of interest going on in this garment, but there’s no print and no color.

This Puppet Show Tunic was made from an Alice + Olivia organic striped cotton and silk voile. The more opaque stripes are soft and slightly raised like on corduroy, leaving almost transparent and thinner stripes in between. Snap buttons covered with flat cotton mouliné buttons were used instead of buttonholes which I thought might weaken the delicate fabric with use.

The col claudine and puffed sleeves make this piece highly adorable and the pattern is one of my favorites. The fabric is soft, light and airy and I thought it would be interesting to use a somewhat “evanescent” cloth on a pattern with strong and well-defined elements, all in the name of contradiction.

You’re clearly unafraid to use high-end fabrics which is somewhat unusual for someone creating children’s clothing. Where do you find your fabrics?

I’m a fabric hound, constantly on the lookout! I spend a lot of time pouring through catalogues, and when I was still living in France, I made frenzied trips across the Channel.

Stragier in Belgium and MacCulloch & Wallis in the UK have true finds, although the price tag can quickly become quite steep. The US  has some great shops (Emma One Sock, Waechter’s, Hyena, Gorgeous Fabrics) when it comes to finding affordable high end fabrics. I have a list of my favorite fabric and haberdashery suppliers in the sidebar of my blog listed under the heading “Fournitures Couture.”

I’m quite squirrelly in that I like to gather and collect items from everywhere around the world, oftentimes ending up with a very international garment. France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, England, Germany, India, the US, Canada. It’s all over the map. High end fabric, quality fabric, interesting fabrics can be found. You just have to dig for them and snap them up once they comes along as there isn’t an abundance of it that trickles out of the Ziploc of haute couture.

One is tempted to believe, based on history, savoir faire, and reputation that France must be a treasure trove full of lovely fabric. True. But it’s not available to the larger public. As with most things in Europe, the best is as hermetically self-contained as might be dandruff in Lagerfeld’s starched white coiffure. Open air markets, web shops, fabric boutiques, vintage clothing shops, estate sales, auctions, eBay, great-auntie’s attic, the remnants of your mother-in-law’s moth-eaten Chanel jacket. All and any of it can lead to the perfect find.

I only choose fabric with natural fiber content and use cotton and silk thread. To me, natural fabric feels fuller, richer, more real, and closest to life and I like to think that it’s a greener solution to man-made fabrics. Sometimes beauty can be very simple as long as you’re betting on quality. Do more with less, or so goes the minimalist motto. But maybe I’m too much of a purist.

Some of the high-end fabrics like these don’t lend themselves to the everyday wear and tear that most kids exert on their clothing. Are these garments you’ve been making more for show than for wear?

Most of the garments I make would be labeled “heirloom” or “special occasion” although that’s not my goal. I think it’s possible to dress children in things we’d initially like to think they shouldn’t wear, like silk and cashmere. Surprisingly or not, these fibers are quite hard-wearing. Sure, sweat suits are practical; throw them in the washer and you don’t even have to iron them! But they ain’t very pretty are they? If you’re wary of damaging clothing in your washing machine, then it should probably be washed by hand or handed over to the drycleaner. Better to spend a little time or money than ending up with a ruined garment.

Spot cleaning is also a good solution, especially on woolens. We often over-wash our clothes when sometimes a good airing out outside (also especially good for woolies) is quite sufficient to get clothes smelling of sunshine. (Please excuse the Stepford moment!) Natural fibers have a distinct smell that some people can find displeasing but that’s all part of the arrangement. Mother Nature has an olfactory label on her wares.

The boy things I make are for my son Félix, and it’s wholly endearing to see him out and about in something I’ve made. But my hands have always itched to make girly things, skirts that swing and oodles of dresses.

So my friends with girls get lucky around birthdays and Christmas! But I’m also looking at starting a small home business to sell the pieces that I make. It’s a way of gaining closet space and supporting my new-found sewing craze. Possibly, hopefully, soon there will be an e-shop.

You can follow Marie-Michelle’s creations on her blog Rastaquouère. She also contributes to the French language group blogs Oliver + S Lovers, C’est Dimanche Addicts, and Défi 13.

We wanted to give you fair warning that the Puppet Show Tunic + Shorts and the Bubble Dress, both in size 2T-5, will only be available for a limited time.

If you’ve always wanted one of these patterns for your collection, now is the time to purchase. Once the small number we have left are sold, these styles will be out of print, and they won’t be available again. (Update: both patterns have now sold out.)

Here’s a little trick that will prevent an elastic waistband from turning and getting twisted.

Leave a little extra space in the width of the casing, and edgestitch the top edge of the waistband before you feed the elastic through. For some reason, that top row of stitching will prevent the elastic from folding over on itself when the elastic is added.

You can use this little trick in any elastic waistband, but it seems to be more of an issue in waistbands that have elastic all the way around; back-only elastic waistbands have less of a tendancy to twist and turn.

Try this little tip in the Lazy Days Skirt, the Bedtime Story Pajamas, and the Puppet Show Shorts and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results!

I just finished making this pair of Puppet Show shorts for S. In past summers she has lived in this style, and I suspect she’ll be doing the same this year. They’re very comfortable with an elastic waistband and fullness that gets gathered into bias binding at the leg opening. But my favorite part is the pockets, which are applied near where the side seam would be. (The shorts don’t have a side seam which makes them even faster to sew up.) The pockets are fun and easy to make and look more impressive than their actual difficulty.

I used a lightweight denim for this pair, but I used the wrong side of the fabric so it looks like chambray. I’ve got a thing for chambray; it looks a little dressier than denim. But I know that because of the durability of the denim these shorts will last through a summer of sandboxes, slides and bike riding.

The Puppet Show Tunic has lots of little details that make it different from most children’s clothing you see in stores.

At first, this pattern had a gathered skirt. But as I pushed the design a bit (nothing like the stress of a deadline to add inspiration to a design, hmmm?), I changed it to a curved seam with two little darts in the skirt. The darts add fullness, making the skirt stand out a little from the body without being too flouncy or frilly. I like the way it curves over the rounded belly of a toddler, too, so that it doesn’t constrict or prevent movement.

The cuffs are easy to sew; when they’re open, they’re a simple rectangle of fabric with a space between the ends.

When buttoned, the gap forms a little pleat that adds volume and dimension to the sleeve. This detail is actually much easier to sew than the more traditional sleeve placket, and it looks cute, too!