Short orders

In celebration of National Recycling Week (or because my 'revamp/repair' box was overflowing), last week I whipped up a couple of T-shirts for the boys from three that the Cyclist had discarded plus a bit of my ever-present red cotton.  I say 'whipped up' as if it were no trouble at all, but truth be known that this time last year I wouldn't have even attempted it.  Its amazing what 12 months, a twin needle and an overlocker will do for you!

I used the Headphones/Globe Kids pattern from Ottobre 3/2012, but rounded the neck.  Based on my experience with this shirt, I checked the pattern pieces against some of our existing T-shirts, and ended up sewing a size 134 for both boys, even though they measure a size or two smaller.


The only complaint?  The Cyclist wished that I'd slimmed the shirts down for him instead.

To round it out I made this little 'Sweet Dress' for the youngest.  Using broderie anglaise made it even quicker to sew, and I'm proud that I managed to go from the fabric store to finished product in less than two days.  Considering that most of my stash takes a decade or so to see the light of day that has to be some sort of record!

Instead of wholly encasing the neck elastic I put two buttonholes through the dress front before sewing the casing, and threaded through elastic with some ribbon on each end.  Hopefully that way it'll grow from a dress this summer to a top next year.  I also left off the armhole elastic.


I've been blessed with an unexpected free hour or so, so I'm going to amble over here and here and link up and check out what others have been up to.  Thanks for stopping by!

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!).

In praise of peach boxes

Last week Kirsty put out the call to people on the My Creative Space page to blog about their top tip for staying creative.  I've been thinking about it, and I think that I've come up with my answer (more of that tomorrow), but in doing so I was reminded about the importance of time management in the whole creative endeavour.  I've spent way too much time over the years looking for things that I know that I have, and earlier on this year I adapted a storage idea I've been using for the kids toys for years: peach box drawers.

I love peach boxes.  I wait for peach season because of the boxes more than the fruit.  I've been meaning to dedicate a post to them for some time:

They're strong.
They're a uniform size.
They're stackable.
They have holes you can use as finger pulls.
(If you paint them) they look great.
Things look instantly neater when they're put in them.
They last better than plastic.
When you're done with them you can recycle them.
They're free.

Brilliant!

Here's how I use most of our collection at the moment:

(The one draw-back that I found was that I can't quite get two across into my craft cupboard, hence the mess to the right, but more of that tomorrow too.)

I first brought peach boxes home from the supermarket about 5 years ago, and am pleased to report that they're still going strong despite continuous use.  I have (and still do) use them for the kids toys.  Originally I took photos of the toys which they were supposed to contain, covered them with contact, and tied them on between the holes in the boxes.  In theory that meant that the kids could put their toys away properly.  In practice it made it easier for me at least!  I'm a bit gentler on my boxes, and for my labels I folded plastic A5 sheet protectors and attached them to the boxes with double-sided tape.  I made sure the slot in the top was accessible, that way I can change the labels when I like.

What's your top creative tip?  I'm planning to join up tomorrow and have my say.  I'll be looking forward to seeing what others come up with too.

My creative space

My Creative Space today should be about stripping back this roadside find:

Spotted on a quick trip down the street, and only picked up because I promised the Cyclist that I wouldn't leave it in the garage, that it wouldn't be a 'burden' on me [his code for unfinished project I suspect], etc.

I promised, but in fact the first time it's left the garage since the weekend is when I took this photo this morning.  I know it will be brilliant for little Miss A (the little chair we had for the boys was destroyed by my big boy and the bigger one across the road, so who am I to pass up a free-but-in-need-of-work replacement?), but in the meantime I've been distracted by turning this pile of fluffiness into a fairy skirt for her (photos and how-to to come):

What are you up to in your creative space today?  I'm off to Village Voices to see!

My most embarrassing roadside find

I'm not one to pass a hard waste collection without looking.  I have been known to rearrange car seats to fit in furniture, rope in passers by to help me lift things into the boot, and even to partially dismantle furniture in order to fit it into my station wagon.  However, as I was inspecting my latest pick-up a couple of months ago I felt that I'd reached hither-to unseen levels of embarrassment for my family (I even felt a tinge of it myself).  The reason?  I'd never picked up fabric off the side of the road before, what I was picking up looked like someone's painting drop sheets at first glance, and I was picking it up literally around the corner from our house.  I can see their place from my bedroom window, and it felt just a tad close to home.  The prize?  A mint-condition (once they were washed) set of king size Sheridan sheets.

By way of background, I'd been looking for a grey fabric as backing to this quilt top, but to no avail.  I wanted something with a bit of a fleck to it, rather than solid grey, and was discovering that grey is not exactly popular at present.  The plan was to applique an Eiffel tower onto it to make the quilt truly reversable.  Even from the car, the colour of these sheets were enough to make me stop on my way home and check them out.  They proved to be unaffected by paint, or anything else that I could work out.

In the end I changed my mind a little, and have managed to produce this doona cover for the Schoolboy from the flat sheet:

A little patching was required on the back, covered by some strategically placed red stripes:

I made the matching pillowslip from the leftovers, cut the back of the quilt from the fitted sheet (even this showed no signs of wear - I'm assuming the grey didn't fit with their newly-renovated interior any longer), and have some fabric left over for another project.  Not bad for 3 minutes of cringing by the side of the road!

Postscript:

• The Schoolboy's declared this the best and most comfortable doona ever, but is consistently sleeping with the Eiffel tower facing down?!?
• The Kinderboy's now decided that he needs a black doona cover with a Kiwi on it.
• I'm wondering if either of them realize that we're Australian!

Nothing new under the sun

My creative space this week is a little like Sesame Street.  Instead of being 'brought to you by the letter "J" and the number "3"' though, I'm bringing you my second Girlify post 'brought to you by the blog "Sew Love It" and the blog "Make-it Love-it".

This body suit was too wide and short for my Newbie.  Not to mention that the train would've had people confused about her gender.  This year's summer in Melbourne has been variable to say the least (winter temperatures, rain and wind today, but too hot and humid for my liking just a few days ago).  A light cardi would be a good addition to her wardrobe, so I got brave and cut the bottom off the bodysuit, turning it into a double-breasted cardigan.

I then set about embellishing it and hiding the train.  In doing so I used:

• The ruffle and gathering ideas from her red ruffle pants to create a ruffle that extends from the top press-stud inside, around the neckline and the bottom edge, back to the bottom press-stud at the front.  I used 1.5" wide fabric strips, with contrast thread for the zig-zag on the edges, and gathered it down the centre.

• The flower ideas I had for the Girlfy pyjamas, but I used eight narrower petals of two separate colours, stitching them together in pairs.

• This idea for covering a button for the centre of the flower

It took me about a week to complete due to the craziness of life in our place at the moment, but the actual sewing time was pretty short.  If you've got a wrap body suit that isn't quite right I'd highly recommend taking the scissors to it!!

Girlify

One of the advantages of having two boys is that I have a stash of clothes for the Kinderboy to grow into. Having said that, at the rate he's growing, they will be wearing the same clothes by the end of the year.

What to do then, with the Newbie?  There are heaps more girls clothes out there in retail-land than boys clothes, but why discard what you can re-use?  Also, 95% of what's available for girls is heavily loaded with pink and mauve.  Not my cup of tea.  I've been through the pile of clothes that the Kinderboy's grown out of, and sorted between 'bin', 'op shop' and 'girlify'.  Hopefully over the coming months/years I'll be able to salvage some hand-me-downs without making my little one look like too much of a tomboy.

Here's the first cab of the rank:

A cute little onesie that's pretty simple, but I thought that the blue might need a little dilution to appease those who think that all little girls should be decked out in head-to-toe pink.

These pins gave me inspiration:

Source: craftinessisnotoptional.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: marthastewart.com via Jackie on Pinterest

I used the Martha Stewart version, but with six petals of deep red felt, with a mid-blue circle beneath the button.  Because I wasn't sure how it'd wash I attached it to the onesie by press-stud so I could remove it to wash the rest:

Hmmm.  I've decided that its too big and dark.  I made it this size as I needed to cover both the teddy bear and the writing, and although it doesn't look so dark and imposing in real life, I think a lighter colour would have been better.  I nearly didn't post this as a result, but in the interests of transparency...

I have another project on the go, so hopefully it'll be more successful!

Pillowcase Dress #2: Simplicity 4243 (yet again)

I've completed my second pillowcase dress (although I realise now that I should have ironed it before taking photos!), and am hoping that I'm meeting my aims despite the fact that I've used the same pattern as I did for Dress 1!  It had been my plan to invert the pleats at least, only I didn't think through the implications of that around the neckline, and it wouldn't work (I am planning one final version of this pattern, with the pleats on the outside, and I'll show you what I mean and how to adjust the pattern as part of that post).  This is View E in Size S, and should fit the Newbie soonish.

I saved time and made a floral version in Size M at the same time - hopefully it'll fit next summer.

I'm loving the decorations - the little white flowers came from my Grandma's stash, and I suspect they date from when my sister and I were little.  The buttons on the floral dress have been in my sewing kit since high school, so it also feels good to give them a nice home!

'Spring cleaning'

I'm doing a progressive spring clean of our house.  It started with the boys toys, and was originally born out of necessity, as there was no way that the birthday and Christmas presents could fit in the house otherwise.  I'm now picking off shelves/drawers at a time, and this week I tackled some of my clothes.  I'm trying to balance between what'll [hopefully] fit in 6-12 months time, what really should be binned, and what could be re-configured / should be given away.  Yesterday afternoon I tackled my sleepwear drawer, and turned a tank top I've never been that keen on into another pair of pants for the Newbie.  I used Rae's pattern again, with some adjustments...

Pattern:  Rae’s Basic Baby pant

Materials:  

A tank top of mine

Modifications:  

One of my goals for the next year or so is to begin to see patterns as a starting point - to look beyond the illustrations provided and make each garment 'my own', rather than simply sewing them as drawn.  These pants are a simple way to start!  They're also a starting point for getting a bit more comfortable with knits, which's another of my goals.

As with the previous pair of pants, I used the bottom hem of my top as the hem of the pants, doing away with the need to hem them separately, and added the length of the hem (ie. I lazily lined up the bottom of the pattern piece with the bottom of the T-shirt).  

Ribbon

I used some ribbon we'd been given around a present for the Newbie to decorate the bottom of the pants, tying a bow at the side of each leg, and sewing it down before sewing the inside leg seam.  I also used a little on the pocket, and the rest for the waist drawstring.

Waist

I took a bit of inspiration from the Kinderboy's bathers for the waist of the pants, switching the elastic for a drawstring.  I created a break in the centre front seam from a point around 2.5cm from the top to around 4cm from the top of the pants (see blury photo below):

I then stitched around the full waist casing, without leaving a gap for the insertion of elastic.  When I'd finished I threaded a ribbon/elastic combination through the waist via the opening I'd created, tying it at the centre front.  I used around 30cm of ribbon on each end of a 35cm long piece of elastic.  This gives the flexibility of an elastic waist, but will also effectively allow me to let out the waist of the pants as she grows.  I stitched through the pants and the elastic at the centre back to stop the drawstring being pulled all the way through the pants (the ribbon/elastic combo is also longer than the waist of the pants, so that the ends of the ribbon won't get lost inside the casing either).

Pocket

I used an offcut to create a pocket for the back of the pants.  No science to it I'm afraid, I just noticed that some of the offcuts looked a bit 'pocket-shaped', trimmed one, gathered top and bottom, then stitched it on (the top of the pocket is the bottom of my original top, meaning that no hemming was required).

Ruffle bottom pants - a tutorial of sorts

I'm proud to say that last night I made my second ever garment using knit fabric! I made the first one about 25 years ago, and only sent it to the op shop this week (I think I wore it on average less than once a year during all those years), but I don't expect this week's attempt to last anywhere near that long in our house at the rate the Newbie's growing.

Here's the details:

Inspiration:

The ruffles were inspired by a pair of pants that the Newbie has outgrown because of the added bulk of her cloth nappies, and also by similar projects such as this one at Makeit-Loveit.

Pattern:  Rae’s Basic Baby pant

Materials:  

An old T-shirt of mine which had seen better days

Modifications:  

I used the bottom hem of my T-shirt as the hem of the pants, doing away with the need to hem them separately, added the length of the hem (ie. I lined up the bottom of the pattern piece with the bottom of the T-shirt), and added ruffles to the back of the pants (see tutorial below).

Lessons/Comments:  

I suspect that I mis-measured the Newbie's waist, as when I used Rae's 'waist  1"' instruction for the length of the waist elastic the result was about 2" too long.  The pants are on the long side though, so instead of cutting off the excess elastic I've doubled it over, and will let the elastic out as she grows.


Make your own ruffle pants:

Lie the T-shirt flat, then fold along the centre front/back.  Pin pattern piece along the fold, matching the bottom of the leg with the base of the T-shirt.  Cut out.

I then cut two 1" strips from the width of the T-shirt, cross-cut them into rectangles which were as long as possible, creating four strips.

I wanted a rounded edge to my ruffles, so I cut a curve on one corner of each end of each strip.

I then stitched all round each piece with a mid-width zig-zag (top strip above).  You could also leave the edges unfinished, or overlock them if you have an overlocker, but personally I like the texture of the zig-zagged edge and the stretching of the edges of the fabric for this project.

To gather the strips I adjusted my stitch length as long as it would go, and set my machine's tension as high as it would go.  I then stitched along the long edge of each piece, approximately 1/4" from the edge which still had the squared corners.  This gathers up the fabric without the need to pull up the bobbin thread separately - a trick I learnt from a blog recently (sorry, I found it after following a trail from one blog to the next, and now have no idea who to credit with the idea!).

I sewed the centre back seam of the pants, then used my patchwork ruler and a soft pencil to mark lines on each side at 3", 3.5", 4" and 4.5" from the top.

I then adjusted the gathering on my strips, making minor adjustments to the width of some of them at the same time, and tying the gathering threads at each end when I was happy.  My strips ended up being around 8" long each.

I then pinned and stitched the strips onto the pants, matching the gathering stitch with the pencil lines, and starting with the bottom line.

The ruffles will overlap with one another slightly:

When all four had been sewn in place I sewed the centre front seam and the inside leg seam as detailed by Rae.

Obviously you could add the ruffles to any pants / nappy cover you like, but having now made my first pair of 'Basic Baby Pants' I know I'll be making more from this pattern.

Pillowcase dress 1: Simplicity 4243

I've finished my first pillowcase 'dress' (actually, its tunic length on the Newbie, who's a month old today!).  I love the finished product:

Here's the details:

Pattern:  View D of Simplicity 4243
Size:      XS

Modifications:  
Added sleeves as per Views A and B, and added a button placket with two buttons at the back, rather than the recommended zipper

Materials:  
Pillowslip (including lace from base), buttons and bias binding from the stash

Lessons/Comments:  
Read the instructions rather than charging ahead!  The construction process would have been a lot easier if I had have inserted the sleeves before sewing the side seams (as detailed in the instructions) rather than after.  I found the bias facing for the neck difficult to use due to the reasonably tight curve on the neckline - will try a different approach next time I think.

After more inspiration?  I'm linking up here, here and here.

Pillowcases 6 ways

I have a collection of 6 'nearly-made' pillowcases that have been sitting in my cupboard for at least 15 years.  I'm not sure if they're a relic of my mother's Artex fad of the 1970s, or an unstarted embroidery project that I inherited from my Grandma*, but I've never really been sure what to do with them.  They're a tubular cotton fabric, and because there's no edge to tuck around a pillow I've never been convinced that they would actually work as pillowcases.  Each has lace and a printed flower design at one end (two of one design, four of another), and a raw edge at the other.  The lace edge isn't exactly straight on all of them, as you can see on the pillowcase on the right:

I rediscovered the pillowcases when I moved the office/craft space last year, and combined with the tutorials I keep coming across for 'pillowcase' dresses, set myself a challenge.

I'm starting today, so here's my self-imposed rules:

• I need to make at least six garments for the Newbie from the pillowcases.  The plan is to make dresses, but a top or two is acceptable.

• I can 'borrow' fabric from one pillowcase to complete a garment made from another (eg. I plan that one of the dresses would include two of the flower prints, whilst another won't have any).

• The dresses need to be in a range of sizes.

• I need to make them look as different from one another as possible.

• I should avoid the 'standard' pillowcase dress design.

• I can use additional (coloured) fabric for highlights, but each garment needs to be predominantly made from a pillowcase.

• I need to use as much of the pillowcases as possible.

* Just found the painting instructions - a remnant of the 70s they are (just in case the mystery was keeping you awake at night!).

Turning the bookcase(s) upside down

My bookcase project is nearly complete!

You might recall that I had two of these bookcases in need of a revamp:

'before'

I'd made them about 15 years ago, then added the doors when the Schoolboy was a baby to stop him climbing on the bottom half.  Somehow I'd never gotten around to painting the doors.  With the Newbie on the way and in need of office storage I crafted a plan to re-use them as part of a hutch over my new desk.

'after'

I need to paint and add some trim on either side of the fabric (Verano Petals from Yardage Design) to neaten the edges, and finish painting the shelves, but I'm so excited that I thought that I'd share their transformation now (its also your last chance to see this desk looking so clutter free!).

Here's the process in brief (fabric decoupage tutorial to come):

Upside down, with the old top cut off & sides shaped...

Painted and in place...

With the doors added...

'mini-desk' from offcuts and $1 'seconds' from Mitre 10

I should be working right now, but I'm off to check out more creative spaces over here instead!

More freezer paper

As promised I've been doing some more freezer paper stencilling - a Star Wars logo at the request of the Schoolboy, who loves his '86' tee so much he's determined to show it off to all rather than save it as a pyjama top.

This time round I actually did three coats of paint (a little thickly I think - perhaps thinner coats wouldn't have bled so much?).  The colour does look slightly more solid than my previous efforts, but isn't darker - when buying fabric paint in the future I'll be tempted to go a shade darker than what I'm looking for to account for the fact that it does seem to dry lighter.

I have another (actually, another 5!) project on the go, but for now I'm heading over here to look at what other people have been up to.

First-time on a Friday

I've been wanting to try some screen printing for a while now, and have read lots of blog references to simple printing using freezer paper.  I'd never heard of freezer paper before, and kept forgetting to check if they had it at the supermarket.  I finally got around to asking at Spotlight last week though, and at less than $2 a metre I figured that I should 'just do it'.

Today I quit procrastinating and tried it on some tops I bought as pyjama tops for the boys.  I used my Creative Memories cutting system to cut some ovals, then traced numbers (up there for creativity I know!  I'm so original that the numbers even correspond to the size of the tops they're on - '68' = '6-8').  Not perfect, and certainly not the height of originality, but I'm pretty happy with the result.  Next on the agenda is a long-sleeved version for the schoolboy with a 'Star Wars' logo, and maybe some fabric for a cushion.

I found this tutorial to be quite thorough, although I only left the paint to dry for about 3 hours.  My paint also said to iron it for 5 minutes to set it.

I used Setacolor Opaque paint in Indigo, and with a single coat found that it was lighter than I expected.  A second coat may have darkened it up more perhaps (I'll let you know after round two!).  I bought the paper from Spotlight (less than $2 a metre), but should have also checked the supermarket I guess.