Okay, summer has been crazy. I'm not even sure what happened, I didn't think we had that much planned, but somehow, I still hardly ever had time to sew. But! The leaves are changing colors, the kids are heading back to school this week, and so soon it will be time for me to hole up in my sewing studio and do nothing but sew!
I did manage to sneak some sewing in (like the washable play mat), but on the whole, it's been a lot to even sit down and sew, never mind sit down and write a blog post about sewing. But with the kids heading back to school, hopefully there will more blog posts coming, and on a better schedule!
One thing I did manage to sew this summer is the brand new ballet pack from Rebecca Page! All three kids take dance, and all three of them are tall and skinny, so finding leotards that fit well for them is...well, a challenge would be a massive understatement. So, when I had the opportunity to sew up the leotard, I jumped at it. And everything else in the ballet pack is so cute, I couldn't resist sewing up all of that too!
How adorable are these girls? I ask you.
(The only correct answer is amazingly adorable. Just FYI)
They were pretty thrilled with their new leotards. This pattern also comes with a pancake tutu, which looked amazing, but I did not make it, because I'm pretty sure their dance teacher would ban me from the studio for life if I sent them to class with a pancake tutu.
I don't even want to know what they are plotting in this picture.
The ballet pack also comes with a ballet wrap. This is the one I wanted to make the most, as their dance studio is always boiling hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. Ultimately, I think the tie is too long to actually be useful during dance, but I might try to remake it with a shorter tie, or if nothing else, they can use it while waiting for class to start.
I love that it is a wrap, and so can be tied as loose or as tight as desired. It's short, almost crop top length, and I think it would also work well as a cover for holiday dresses (which are always sleeveless, always, and I don't understand this, because there are many places where it is COLD during the holidays!). I don't like how long the tie is, for dance purposes or not, but I suspect this is a personal preference. If you make this pattern, just be aware that you might want to adjust the length of the tie.
Okay, time for my absolute favorite from the ballet pack! The wrap skirt! This will ultimately be exceptionally useless for us, as their studio doesn't allow skirts during class, so I sewed it up in a very much not allowed, but so fun, rainbow mesh! I love, love, love, how it turned it out. And the skirt itself is such a quick and easy sew. The hardest (and most time consuming) part is adding hook and eye closures. And probably my favorite part is that I picked up this rainbow mesh from a remnants bin, there was about 7/8 yard, but I still managed to squeeze two skirts out of it (it was close. I do not recommend planning that you can do this).
Also, the wrap skirt gave me this picture, which I simply adore.
One thing to note with the wrap skirt, be sure to measure the recipient's waist very carefully before adding the hook and eye closure. The pattern recommends wrapping the skirt around their waist, just to be sure. I was not as careful with my older daughter's skirt, and it was a little loose. It will be fine, I'm sure she'll grow into it, and it's not totally falling off, but it definitely did not fit the way it was supposed to.
The last part of the ballet pack is the leg warmers! Again, I'm not sure how much actually dance use these will get, but they are probably the simplest sew of the whole pack. Really. Cut three rectangles, sew them in a circles, and then attach them to each other. Easy peasy. I think it took me less than thirty minutes to sew two for each girl, and that included time squinting at the pattern saying, "Really? That's all I have to do?"
Overall, I love this pattern pack. The leotard and the wrap were definitely the most challenging to sew (and I'm not going to lie, there were a couple parts of both patterns where I said, "You want me to do what??"), but the final product is totally worth it. The only thing I don't love is that the leotard pattern does not include a sleeve option. It does include a straight back or scoop back option (I did the scoop back, mostly because it seemed quicker), but I do wish it includes sleeve options (did I mention their studio is freezing in the winter?).
If you want to pick up your own copy of the pattern, you can get the leotard here, the ballet wrap here, the ballet skirt here, the leg warmers here, or all four patterns here. I do make a small commission at no extra cost to you if you click any of the links in this post.
Did you make up any of these patterns? What did you think?
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