Groovy Girl got a track suit and a long-sleeved tee

When I said I'd become obsessed with making Groovy Girl clothes, I wasn't kidding. Today I'm posting showing off her new track suit.



The track suit all started with a little sleeveless cotton top for the Groovy Girl. It's a basic gathered-fabric-on-a-band-with-straps style, except that the band and the straps are made out of the ribbing from an old pair of Liv's socks. It turns out that the ribbing works wonderfully for Groovy Girl clothes! And since I had plenty of socks that we're getting rid of, my mind set to thinking about all the other ways I could use the ribbing in a Groovy Girl garment.

First to mind was as a waistband on a pair of pants. Liv's old size 24-36 month Children's Place socks are exactly the right size to go arouned Miss Groovy Thing's waist, so all I had to do was zig-zag the pants body to some doubled-over ribbing. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I made the pants to match the little cotton top, but as I was looking at the ribbing on the waistband I was struck with how much they looked like yoga or athletic pants. Which got me to wondering if the sock ribbing could be used to make little tiny cuffs at the neck, wrists, and waist of a shirt. If so, turn it backwards so the slit that I usually put all the way down a shirt is at the front, and you've got a track jacket to match the pants.



And of course, if you have the track suit, you need a t-shirt to match. I already had a basic t-shirt pattern sized for a Groovy Girl, but setting in the sleeves on something that small usually involves repeated uses of the seam ripper and me cursing like a sailor.

A raglan sleeve tee, I thought. That would be MUCH easier! And so yesterday I drafted and tested and drafted and tested, and made a long-sleeved raglan tee for Miss Groovy Thing.



The gray shirt was my first prototype, and it's a bit snug. Groovy Girls have mighty big hands that are difficult to pull through a more fitted sleeve. A few pattern adjustments, and now I have a pattern for a long-sleeved raglan tee. It's SOOOO much easier to put the sleeves in now!!






Oh, and see that pretty binding at the neck and wrists? That's courtesy of Naomi's tutorial.

Toodles,