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Showing posts from April, 2013

What Kids Clothes Week does to the kids...

Two interesting moments today. Moment 1:  asking Marcus to model a lovely hot pink striped dress. Just the shot I wanted for my blog and to check the fit...complete with a nice flash of his monster alien underpants :) Seemingly wearing a dress is the funniest thing ever. Moment 2:  Issy drawing a picture of us today. There's the dog (looking like a cat...) on the sofa at the top, Mummy on the left, Issy and Marcus playing with toys at the bottom. Let's have a close up of Mummy in that picture: Yes, I am standing at the raised counter bench area, doing some pattern tracing and cutting.  Significant enough impact on her life that I made it into her pictures...Should I feel bad?  Nah...I am seriously considering making this my profile picture :) Here it is again once coloured in, as she did such a nice job. Woo Hoo for KCW!

Days 2, 3 and 4 of KCW

A little behind on the blogging but I have been sewing sewing sewing (with a little knitting thrown in for good measure). Various finished bits and pieces :) A Heidi and Finn Cowl Neck Dress...without the cowl: The little girl who I made this for *hates* wearing dresses and wants to only wear boys clothes.  Am hoping a plainish, non-pink, snuggly "tunic" might be the ticket.  I plan to make some leggings for underneath out of the same burnt orange jersey. I left off the cowl as I thought it might be too dressy and fussy - instead I used the bound neckline option (like the Flashback Skinny Tee, option 2). That bicycles dress was the leftovers from Marcus' hoodie (shown below).  I often end up buying too much but this time I am pleased I did!  I didn't realise I would get a hoodie for him and a dress for someone else... Then...I made another out of the leftovers from Issy's hoodie (not yet finished).  This one is for another friend's daughter w

KCW update

So I didn't yet post for days 2,3,4... but I have been sewing! I have made most of two Urban Unisex Hoodies and two Cowl Neck Dresses (apparently I am rocking the Heidi and Finn patterns this KCW!). Annoyingly though, I have also been ill. So I have been super slack in the blogging :( I hope to catch up tomorrow or Sunday. Meanwhile I am staying at Mum's tonight for some R&R.  But it's still KCW, so I am knitting: My friend is having a baby soonish, but selfishly has not found out the gender.  So I am making the booties above with either pink or orange blanket stitch, depending on what arrives. I am also going to make this matching rabbit: This is super cute. But first (as it's KCW), the booties...

Also NOT for KCW: Elegance & Elephants Bubble Shorts Pattern Test

I was asked a couple of week's ago to test the very lovely Bubble Pocket Shorts pattern from Elegance and Elephants .  I finished my version and then went away for work and haven't got around to blogging this until now.  While I didn't make these in Kid's Clothes Week, the post is at least a perfect fit for the theme :) I ummed and ahhed a bit about whether to put my hand up to pattern test this one.  Mostly because I live in Tasmania, where we are hurtling rapidly towards winter and I wasn't sure of how much longevity this make would have (despite being in Australia, we don't really have a need for shorts in the Tassie winter!).  However, I found a fabric I thought would be perfect, and I think she could wear these with a pair of navy tights over our winter too! I previously tested the Ruffle Top pattern from E&E and was delighted to find the Bubble Pocket Shorts are just as well thought out and constructed.  It's a lovely pattern with two var

Exactly what is my ethos? The "Frenchification" revisited... and the Handmaker's Factory Pledge

Previously on this blog, I have discussed moving away from the disposable culture and my ideal notion of frenchification .  That post was back in October, during the last (and my first) KCW.  The arrival of the next KCW (this week) made me look back over the last, and to revisit where my head was at in those My initial thoughts on this topic are summarised below (from the original post). I would like to buy fewer things, but buy things of higher quality I need to invest in the things that I have, and look after them better I have not adequately prepared for Kids Clothes Week Challenge and am instead procrastinating with lofty musings This resolution applies to more than clothes - am sitting in my very much in need of decluttering house...  I am full of good intentions but probably need some sort of action plan otherwise I might be reposting this again in several months time with no change. Since this post, I have in fact thought a lot about this and have tried to live a l

KCW Day One - Urban Hoodie Modification

I recently saw some super cute plush backed fleece in Spotlight and snapped it up before it was all gone.  I bought three colours - an orange geometric design for me, a grey and hot pink stripe for Issy and some cream with super cute orange bicycles for Marcus. The plush back of the fleece was so snuggly and soft that I wanted to modify the Urban Unisex Hoodie from Heidi and Finn pattern to make it mostly unlined, so the plushness wasn't wasted.  For my first "hour" (it was somewhat more!) of KCW I worked out how to change the lining into a hood lining and facing, then got sewing.  As you can see from the picture above, I got a lovely orange rib to make the lining/facing from which goes very well with the bicycles on the fleece. To do this pattern modification I had to draft a couple of new pattern pieces, which were really just thinner edge versions of the main pattern pieces. Here is the (rather insignificant looking) back facing: And this was the front

NOT Day 1 of KCW - Urban Hoodie for Marcus

I made this a week or so ago, so this is not really a Kid's Clothes Week post, despite this being day one. I bought the Urban Unisex Hoodie from Heidi and Finn a looong time ago (as part of their five for $25 pattern deal) and never got around to making it.  I don't know why I waited so long as it's gorgeous! I think it was probably just a lack of fleece / hoodie material that I liked.  I eventually got to it recently and here is the result: I found this star printed fleece at Spotlight and immediately saw this small person in a hoodie or zippy top made out of it.  It's lined with a plain grey rib, which is reasonably thin, but even so this is super snuggly. The only issue I had was that the pattern only went to size five, and my enormous three year old has grown!  I didn't try it on as I went, so I had to remove the original band around the bottom and replace it with a larger one.  I think it looks better with the smaller band (better balanced) but it

Two Skinny Flashback Tees

As part of a sew-a-long with the lovely Amanda , I recently made a couple of Rae's Flashback Skinny Tees for the kids.  Amanda has already finished and posted her Star Trek effort - which I love, though I think she considers it kind of like a muslin... So here are mine: Man they look like criminals in this one... Did you spot the deliberate error?  Yes, the only pictures I have of the kids in their tops so far is before I finished the necks and sleeves and hems.  To be honest, you get the idea.  And actually, I am kind of digging the boat neck vibe that Marcus has going on and I might make a wider, shallower neck version of this at some point as a result :) Here are the finished ones:   This is a Michael Miller stretch from fabric.com.  It is kind of firmer than a jersey knit and I quite like that it gives the top a smarter look. This is Marcus' tee once finished.  A striped jersey, again from fabric.com.  I love the way the neckline looks in the str

First Wearable Chloe Pants!

As previously mentioned, I have been working on successive muslins of the Tessuti Chloe Pants .  The first muslin was a straight make of the pattern, with some adjustments for sizing only.  It was made in homespun and blogged here .  For the second muslin, I moved the zipper to centre front and added a waistband with a tab closure.  I also adjusted for my somewhat flat posterior, and considered adding in seam pockets but didn't.  It was made of black homespun and blogged here . I finally felt ready to make a "real" version - and this is the result. I am a bit annoyed with myself in my fabric choice for this.  I found a remnant of dark denim which was a serendipitous match as I think it came from the remnant table at Tessuti.  I didn't really think about until I started cutting, but there is actually some stretch in this fabric, which wasn't really what I wanted for this make, it meant I wasn't really comparing apples with apples in terms of fit. Havi

Chloe Pants - Muslin Two

So I have been away from blogging for a while, mostly (excitingly) because I have been sewing.  I have been getting on with a second muslin, and a first wearable of the Tessuti Chloe Pants . As you might recall, I had some issues with my flat ass in my first muslin below: This is the second muslin - this time in black homespun.  As you can see below, the fit is a lot better in the seat.   These aren't finished at the leg hem or similar, so they look a bit more baggy in the leg because they are sitting on the ground.... In this version, I added a waistband and moved the zip to the front.  Please ignore the fact that I used a beige invisible zip which shows horribly - I was too impatient to wait for a trip to Spotlight! Similarly, the waistband sits out in the picture below as I haven't actually put buttons and hooks on the tab of the waist.  I wanted to move on once the fit was good to the first proper pair, which is coming in the next post :) Happy sewin

Handprinted: A Fabric Swap III - All Finished!

I think I already mentioned that I signed up for Handprinted: A Fabric Swap III , which is hosted by Leslie Keating over at Maze & Vale .  I was initially a bit intimidated by signing up, as the fabric Leslie produces is amazing.  I have a stash of it ready to make some cushions with when I get to it! But meanwhile, I took the plunge and got stamping.  There are some work in progress shots here .  The swap rules were pretty simple - you were to use natural fibres for the fabric, and had to send a fat quarter each to your four swap buddies.  I ended up making four different fat quarters as I was having fun playing with the different fabric bases and colours: My first effort was a kind of wedge shape of teal on white linen.  I went all old-school (or indeed primary school) and used cut up sweet potato for this stamping.  This is one of my favourites of the four and was very artsy-fartsily based on the shells below. Our last holiday with the kids was to Eaglehawk Neck in