Have you heard of Project run & play? It’s a seriously fun sewing challenge inspired by the popular show Project Runway, but it’s for moms and their kids! I’m not sure how I only just discovered them since they are in their 10th season! Oh well, better late than never 😉 The challenge has several chosen participants who battle it out over several weeks until there is only one victorious, but anyone can sew along, and that’s what I’m doing this season. I’d love to be one of the participants someday! (Edit: The Berenstain Bears is also a book! And so I’m also including it in the Sew Many Books sewing challenge)

This week’s challenge was to sew an 80’s cartoon inspired outfit. That theme is awesome, and there’s a ton of great cartoons to choose from that seriously take me back to my childhood. I decided to settle on The Berenstain Bear’s sister bear. She has some pretty awesome elements to her outfit that I used as inspiration, namely a pink and white polka dot shirt, and pink ruffled shoulders on a pinafore. I know sister bear wears overalls but I decided to sew a pinafore instead. In hindsight I wish I done overalls but hey, you live and you learn.

For the top I sewed it from this Japanese sewing book in size 110 from the beautiful Nani Iro Pocho double gauze. The polka dots are metallic coral pink which is extremely awesome according to my daughter 😉 Also, that shirt was my first ever project from a non-translated Japanese sewing book!

The pinafore is from this Japanese sewing book which has been translated into English and is a great place to start if you want to get into Japanese kids sewing. I sewed it in size 110 from Kaufman newcastle denim, Kaffe Fassett shot cotton in color mushroom, and I added a pocket on the front from some brushed cotton Nani Iro scraps I had left over from this dress.

I seriously love the details of Japanese patterns. The peter pan collar, the shoulder ruffles, the puffed sleeves! All just perfection.

Here’s a better shot of the polka dot print. Those metallic dots are hard to capture!

For the buttons I used mother-of-pearl buttons I found on Ebay.

Size tag!

Pocket detail.

And now for a few modeling shots!


80’s cartoon inspired success! On to sewing for next week’s challenge 😉
Have you seen the great outfits sewn by the competing participants for week one? Check them out here!