Monday, October 29, 2012

Shirt for the Schoolboy

I've finally finished the shirt that I was going to make for the Schoolboy during Kids Clothing Week.  I've been plugging away at it bit by bit, and am really happy with the result:



I took a long time lining the pattern pieces up on the fabric for this shirt, and I love the 'invisible' pocket (and his amazement when he found it),


am really proud of the way the back and the yoke line up,


but not sure why it is that I cut the right sleeve out upside down (or why I didn't realise exactly what was wrong with it until the shirt was finished)!

All fabric and button choices were the Schoolboy's.

The pattern is 'Apple' from the Summer 2010 Ottobre magazine, altered to include some snippets of red gingham.  This's the first of the kids patterns I've sewed from the magazines, and I have to say it seems quite slim fitting.  My boys are very different builds (same chest and waist measurements, but 10-12 cm difference in height), and the Schoolboy is both slender and likes his shirts slim-fitting.  I used a size 128 to match his height even though his chest was smaller than the size chart, and am glad I did - a narrower fitting may not have been big enough.  As it is he's slightly miffed that I'm going to make his brother's shirt the same size!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Miniature


Have you been watching Kirsty's neon creations unfold?  I've been trying my hand at some crochet, and whilst its not quite neon, this pink is definitely on the bright side of my comfort zone.  In contrast to this square though, I've been using a single thread of sewing cotton and a 1.5mm hook, giving this little number a finished width of just over 3.5cm.  I think the hook is a bit big for the thread though, and am part-way through one with an even smaller hook.

Oh, and I haven't forgotten the promise in my last post - the crochet is strictly an 'in transit' project, and I have shirts in the pipeline...


Monday, October 15, 2012

KCWC: Leila & Ben's Sweet Dress #2

Hmmm.  Kids clothing week was supposed to be about the boys.  Can't really see either of them wearing this little dress:

The youngest, however, is rather taken with it, and Melbourne may even warm up enough for me to put her into short sleeves sometime in the next day or so.  KCWC is officially over, but I'm going to keep going at it (half-paced as I am, my counter is currently up to 3:41:07.9), and boys shirts are next on my list.  I promise boys.

Here's the details for the spotty dress:

Pattern:  Leila & Ben's Sweet Little Dress 
Size:      12 months

Modifications:  
As with the previous version, I used my overlocker for all of the seams.  I also straightened the hem, because a curved bottom just looked strange with all those dots.

I'm thinking of adding a little embellishment on one of the dots, but more of that later (I still need to be convinced that she won't eat what I have in mind!)

Materials:  
Poly-cotton from my stash, left over from these dresses.

Lessons/Comments:  
I learnt from my mistake last time round, and tried it on her before cutting and stitching the elastic.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

KCWC: Leila & Ben's Sweet Dress

Afternoon!  My KCWC counter is up to 1:55:37.0, which means that I 'steal' more sewing time during the day than I had realised.  Perhaps I should keep the timer up, to make sure my "I'll just be 5 minutes boys" sewing sessions don't routinely turn out to be 25 minutes like this morning's one.  Anyway, enough of the guilt trip, here's what I have to show:



Here's the details:

Pattern:  Leila & Ben's Sweet Little Dress 
Size:      12 months

Modifications:  
I was inspired by this dress, and gathered the neckline and sleeves onto a knit band rather than using elastic in a casing.  I cut the bands the same length as the elastic specified in the pattern, and made them 4cm wide.  The top is also shorter than the pattern (more tunic rather than dress length), based on the length of the brown top I started with.


Materials:  
All from the 'For repair or remodelling' box in my cupboard!  The front and back are from an old top of mine, but as the sleeves on it were too narrow I used fabric from another top for the sleeves, and part of a third for the band (my original top also had blue sleeves and a white band around the neckline).

Lessons/Comments:  
Peasant dresses/tops are super quick and easy (I nearly doubled the time involved by using the neck and sleeve bands), and I'll definitely be making more.  


I finished this dress before trying it on the young one, and found that the neckline was way too big for her.  So my dilemma now is - do I pull the neckband off and make it smaller, or wait until next year for her to wear it (this neck and armholes are similar to some size 2 tops I have).  I love it as it is, so I think I'll put it away for now, but the lesson is definitely to try things as you go if you're going to modify patterns (and also be suspicious and check if a pattern tells you to cut the same length of elastic for a 1 year old's dress as a 5 year old's!).

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Kids in the Kitchen

I love making kid-size apron and chef's hat combo's.  I've done a few as presents since first making a set for my Schoolboy about 5 years ago.  The Kinderboy went to a friend's birthday at Kids in the Kitchen on Saturday.  They had heaps of fun, and I thought that a hat and apron would be appropriate.  I finished it after the party though, so they've made their way to their new owner this morning.

His mother would describe her son as a 'wee little one' (she's a Kiwi and 'wee' is a description I love to hear her use, but somehow it doesn't sound right in an Aussie accent), so the hat's adjustable in case he still wants to wear it when he's bigger.  Six buttons and four buttonholes 'cos my velcro is way to stiff and scratchy.

Don't you love the fabric!  Just the right level of cuteness for a 4 year old I think.

You might have noticed that I've added the Kids Clothing Week logo to my side bar.  I've signed up, and am determined not to cheat and count Saturday's sewing towards the week.  However, life being what it is I can't see any sewing time on the horizon, and I've decided to use my phone's stop watch to tally up the week's sewing to see if I've met the overall challenge or not.  How about you, have you signed up?  What are your plans for the week?


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