KCWC: Day Six

I made another nightgown using the Badminton Dress pattern.

I'm more motivated than ever to find a soft drapey beautiful fabric to make this nightgown again. It's a bit stiff like the first one I made. 

I had a terrible time taking photos of this white dress.  Sorry for these shitty pics. I also should have pressed it before it made it's debut. Sewing this a second time around was easier. I am happier with the topstitching.

KCWC: Day Five

I've been sewing like mad... between all the normal things like a screaming toddler, an IEP for Rocco and life. Sewing this much after the break in garment sewing makes me realize how much I really enjoy making clothes for my kids.

 I just wish I had more time. And I miss making clothes for babies. I want a little girl to sew for. No, we are not going down that road again. Three is enough.

So it looks like I'm stuck making slightly girly clothes for my little boy. Sigh. I imagine the striped leggings would look fine if we would actually cut his hair.

Yes, I agree that this star waffle print is gender neutral, but paired with the leggins and his long blond curls I think I'll get more "oh she's so cute" comments than ever before.

The shirt is another Flashback Skinny Tee

Pants are self drafted and I literally just finished them tonight so I hope they fit. They look like they will fit great. Fingers crossed.

KCWC: Day four

Just in time for a cold rainy day...

I made a short sleeved tee and a pair of clam diggers. After the heat wave last weekend I guess a little rain was in order.

I found the koi fish image on Google images. Not sure if it's copyrighted so I'm not sharing the download, but there were a lot of neato images if you are so inclined and handy with an Xacto knife. It actually didn't take all that long to cut out the image (on freezer paper). I did it yesterday afternoon while the kids were doing homework. I used So Soft fabric paint. I've had good washing results with this paint in the past. I dabbed the paint on with a sponge brush using three shades of blue.

T-shirt: Flashback Skinny Tee

Pants: Easy Fit Pant

Fabric: Probably from fabric.com. The white is a 100% cotton sweatshirt fleece. Stripe has a lot of Lycra and possibly some polyester cotton blend.

KCWC: Day three

I bought Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern on Friday and I love it!

I kind of promised myself that for this entire week of sewing I wouldn't purchase any new fabric so there will be a lot of fabric this week that you've seen here before. 

I've made t shirts with both these fabrics before. The next two are fabric I've had for a while but I haven't made anything with these fabrics before.

I'm glad I set aside the dolls for this week. It's been so long since I've sat down and pumped out clothes like this. I have a pair of long shorts cut out in a totally inappropriate toddler color... white. What was I thinking? Well, I wanted to get rid of the fabric and I am doing a freezer paper stencil on it and white was the only color that worked for the design I am using. 

Well I'm off to the machines. It's a minimum day at school so the kids will be home early. I wanted to call the school and ask them if they knew that it was Kids Clothing Week Challenge. How rude!

KCWC: day two Spring 2012

I made my first garment for the week. I used a new Oliver + S pattern to make a summer nightgown for Luca. The pattern is the Badminton Top/Dress. I bought the pattern specifically to make nightgowns for Luca.

I used a quilting cotton and it's a bit too stiff for my taste. I wish I had a huge stash of Heather Ross Mendocino to make this nightgown because that's the kind of weight fabric I would love. 

I totally messed up on the neckline. My understitching is showing. I did it on the wrong side of the yoke but I'm choosing to ignore that little oopsie. One thing that kind of bugs me is the top stitching. That is an area that I'm particularly picky about.  

This pattern has some fiddly parts to it but as usual the instructions are perfect and I felt the pattern was pretty easy. I have a white nightgown cut out but it's Kona cotton so it's going to have the same stiffness to the finished garment. I should have used and old white sheet. One with high thread count to give it a softer feel to the skin.

KCWC: Day One... realization sinking in

On Saturday we had a bit of a heat wave and I realized I have no shorts for Vinny. Then I realized that none of the projects I had planned for the KCWC frenzy are shorts. I need to remedy that stat.

 I did pull out a pair of pants that I made for Vinny almost exactly two years ago for the KCWC challenge and they fit. As shorts. I was totally shocked. That's one reason I love the pattern so much. It's really quite a roomy fit. They are below the knee totally adorable surfer style. They looked cute for about 10 minutes.

Then he discovered a mud puddle we created for our duck. Our duck Quackers was pretty upset that he took over her earthworm hunting spot. 

Needless to say, these "new"shorts are totally ruined.

You hear those crickets?

KCWC coming to a close and you can hear crickets coming from my sewing machine. Actually I was too lazy to re-thread the serger for these pants (black is currently on it) so I just pinked the edges. Whoo hoo for old style sewing.

It's been a less than productive sewing week. I really wanted to get so much completed, but I lacked a proper plan and ended up cutting about 12 pair of adorable little boy undies (for the little boy that is light years away from potty training and currently out of anything to actually wear). I is smaht.

I have no idea what the fabric is called. I bought it from Etsy a while back. I loved it because it has San Francisco, Chef and I lived there for a few years before we were married... and it has Rome, quite close to the town that we were married.

Since this fabric was purchased to make a Summer pant and we are headed into Winter, I lined it with white Kona cotton. I guess I would have preferred to use a flannel but I didn't have a solid that coordinated and I wasn't about to head to our local fabric craft shop to find some. Did you know that even JoAnn's is about an hour drive for me? Also all the lovely little brick and mortar fabric and sewing machine shops have closed down in my area. We have one quilting store but they carry quilting fabric that just isn't my cup of tea.

{image source}

I'm not sure what this style quilting is called, but there are a lot of examples like this on the walls of that store.

Guest Post

Today I'm showing a few variations of pintucks over at Elsie Marley. Here's a preview of one of my favorite new little ideas. I'm thinking I'll have to try this again during next weeks KCWC.

I'm really excited to see what everyone out there in Blogland makes for the challenge week.  I always find great new ideas that I want to try and this year I'll be able to keep things organized by Pinning them. Yay Pinterest!

Union Jack

I made a 90 minute shirt with a men's XL t-shirt from Target. This one is definitely a keeper. I totally love it. The pants are from a blue ticking called a 9.4 oz. denim from fabric.com.

I know this should feel like a productive week for KCWC, but I didn't finish a few items from that pile of already cut garments.

Sailboat Top

Although it wasn't on my original list of things to sew this week, for some reason I felt like making an Oliver+S Sailboat Top.  Their patterns are always impeccable and full of detail which makes for not a quickie project. I do appreciate the attention to detail though. I also had to trace a new size since I had only traced 18 months. I really hate tracing patterns. I have stacks of patterns ready to be traced. 

There are so many ideas swimming around in my brain. It's only gotten worse since I started adding to my "Things to make" board in my Pinterest.

p.s. I made a royal mess of the buttonholes on one side of this top so those buttons are faux buttonholes with the buttons stitched permanently closed. The other side turned out fine and I'm hoping his big head will fit through the opening. I really don't need another sewing fail this week.

Cotton Knit Fabric - Fabric.com

Cotton Rib knit - JoAnn's

Be A Hero ribbon - Farbenmix

Drat!

Yesterday I thought I could quickly sew up another pair of Monkey Spats and another Happy Animals shirt. Actually the pants are a little different than yesterday. These are the Monkey Spats, the wider leg without cuff is the Monkey Pant.

My problem was thinking I could sew while all three rugrats were home-awake-crying-pooping-bothering, you get the idea. On the pants above I did not intend to have the cuff serged onto the pant with the stitching showing. Turned out looking cute so I'm okay with the first blooper.

Upon first inspection everything seems fine. Not true. The lap shoulder is stitched backward. On the hanger it all seems like a slight imperfection. In reality it cannot be worn without looking plain silly. The worst part is this is not my first time to this particular rodeo. I'm pretty sure this exact same thing has happened to me FOUR TIMES! The strange thing is that it has happened with this fabric before. The giraffes must mess with my eyes.

KCWC

Shirt is "Happy Animals" from Ottobre 3/2011

Pants are a PDF patterb from Dans la lune  called Monkey Pants

Fabric from Fabric Fairy.The Guitar fabric is by Kumquat and there is a little orange dot that ties it together with the orange stripe.

 

I Finished the shirt last night and the pants today at naptime. I made the pants in a size 2 and he's 21 months old, so probably a little big. The shirt I made in a size 98 (lord knows what that translates to). When Cenzo woke up I quickly raced to try them on...

The shirt is a little long, but it's a keeper. The pants I need to work on a bit. I have him wearing a disposable diaper and these are definitely going to be better with cloth, so all you cloth diapering mamas rejoice! No alterations needed. That's a first. I have been putting him in disposables when I bring him to day care at my gym so off the rack clothing have been fitting him. I must say I love how cute he looks in jeans. I digress.

The fit of the back circle panel is a little off so I'll have to see what I can adjust for the next pair. Also, the fabric choice although adorable, reads pajama. At least the pants look very pajama. Since we rarely have short sleeve p.j. nights here, I'll make a long sleeve top in the same guitar fabric so these will become Summer p.j's. The orange stripe with blue rib knit trim will look great with denim. I'm clearly a fan of orange and blue as seen here.

I have to say I bought this pattern the nanosecond I saw this post. 

Getting Started

I did some cutting last night.

In preparation

for

some kids sewing this week.

It's such a small pile, measuring only 4 1/2" high.

hopefully soon it will become...

two hats

three knit pants

and

two knit shirts

Hopefully

Preparing

Kids Clothes Week is coming up and I figured I better commit myself by at least documenting one item that really needs to be completed.

Someone's head grew and is in need of a Summer hat, or two. Don't you love how the hat is just kind of sitting on top looking rather silly? After I took this photo today it fell off into the kiddie pool. 

I've traced off the Bucket Hat pattern from Little Things to Sew. Hopefully I can get more accomplished that week than a little hat, but I'm thinking baby steps right now. The only problem is I'm not sure I have fabric I'd like to use for the hat and if I order it online I may not get it in time. Locally the selection tends to suck big time. 

What are you planning on making during Kids Clothes Week? I actually really need to consider sewing some basics. None of the kids have Spring pajamas and the baby is in need of pants of all sorts. There I go, leaving those baby steps behind.

Oh and totally unrelated (I've been doing that a lot lately on my blog and in person, changing subject), why can't Cenzo poop his diaper and put his hand down the back and grab a fistful of poop when I'm not home and Chef is watching him? Just once?

KCWC - Fin

A while back I bought some Heather Ross Munki Munki carnival fabric. Well, actually it's pieces from a pair of pajamas. I bought a back panel of a pajama top and a leg panel of pajama bottoms. I love all things Heather Ross so I had to have it. 

I used the Easy Fit Pants pattern and just added a pocket on the side. I used a raglan sleeve top from Ottobre (4/2010). It's my first try with the top and I have to make the neck a little smaller on the next go around. I usually like making lap tee's but the raglan sleeve tee was so fast and easy to make. I'm not sure how most of you attach the neckline to a raglan tee but I liked the method Ottobre used. You stitch three shoulder seams first, then attach the neckline, followed by the final shoulder seam. I wasn't paying attention to the instructions and I stitched all four shoulder seams so there was a little seam ripping going on. It still was a quick top to make. 

p.s. Aren't photographs just wonderful? I am seeing that the left leg (with the pocket, pictured in the far right photo) is longer than the right leg. Hmmm. I will have to investigate and get back to you on this matter.

KCWC

I finally finished these pants. I used the Oliver + S Sailboat Pant pattern. I forgot to alter the pattern to accommodate cloth diapers so I think they won't even fit the littlest booger. It is made from a stretch denim so maybe they will work. I'll have to wait and see when nap time is over.

KCWC

So yesterday I made the Pixie Hat from a thrifted cashmere sweater. I wish I had taken a photo of the sweater before I cut it all up. It was a men's XL sweater so there is a lot to work with. I cut off both sleeves, created and inseam and used the mock turtleneck as a waistband. I used twill tape as a tag even though the front and the back are identical. I just like having tags in clothes. So there it is. Maybe tomorrow I can revisit the Pixie Hat and try to make one that fits. I have a pile of wool sweaters that I bought to make longies (diaper covers) out of. It's just one more project added to the list.

Pixie Hat

KCWC

 I am so motivated to sew these days but I can NOT seem to find the time. Slightly frustrating considering it's one of my favorite inspiration weeks... KCWC (Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge). It's so much fun to see what everyone is creating and to post about what I am creating. I have a zillion projects (what's new) in mind, but I'll be lucky to get a few little things done this week. 

I was inspired so much by the adorable brown hat that Meg posted that I just had to try making one. I made it out of a thrifted cashmere sweater (pants hopefully soon to follow). It's sooooooooooo dreamy and soft. I lurve the knit. It fits like shit but that's what I get for designing something from scratch for the baby while the baby is sleeping. It was very quick to make, but the cashmere was wriggly and I had a hard time sewing the bias trim on. For the next hat I'll try using a rib knit.

You can't tell by the photos but the baby hates wearing hats. What you can't see in this photo is Chef holding both his hands. Nice huh? We're great parents. As soon as Chef let go he took the hat off. I would show a picture but he ripped it off so fast my camera wasn't prepared for such lightening speed.

I stitched a cute vintage button on le hat which will have to be le removed since the hat doesn't fit and he'll never wear it. If I make a hat that finally fits I'll upload the pattern piece. It should be easy to size up or down. It's a great way to use old sweaters.