Kids Clothes Week 2016

Hi there. It's Kids Clothes Week Feb 2016, the online scheme to encourage you to sew for an hour a day for one week. Having three little 'uns, I always get great motivation from this scheme to replenish their wardrobes with homemade goodies.

My little girl seems insistent on becoming huge and outgrowing everything! I know you can buy kids clothes cheaply, but it feels like an act of love making them something. And actually this outfit - or rather two outfits - cost nothing. I used an old beloved denim skirt of mine, a few scraps from the scrap basket, and a bit of curtain material from the Brighton sewing bee fabric swap!

The pattern is simplicity 1379.  I did pay for this pattern (£3.25 in a half price sale!), but I've already used it twice; and, it goes up to age 8, so I should more use out of it in years to come. I chose it for those marvellous pockets, ready to be filled with toys and tut.

Construction-wise, this was an easy make, with a lined bodice for a neat finish inside. The back is supposed to close with a hook and eye, but I haven't bothered as it doesn't need it.

I really enjoyed making these, and hope she will have fun wearing them. Knowing it's mainly recycled fabrics means I won't need to be over precious when she comes home from preschool coated head to toe in paint! Technically there is one more day of KCW left; but, I am done in, so I'm calling it a day!

Did you take part in KCW?

Autumn: Kids Clothes Week

Happy half-term, sewing friends! Wow, I hadn't realised it had been so long since my last post, never mind. Hope you are all well. Last week was 'Kids Clothes Week', the initiative that encourages you to sew an hour a day for seven days, solely for the little people in your life.

This year, the theme was 'Disguise'. I had lots of ideas, but in the end I went with a button-up shirt for my eldest. The headache-inducing fabric was chosen by the lovely boy himself, and it would work well if he ever chose to disguise himself as a zebra!!! 

 

I have never made a shirt before; even though it's not my finest work, I really enjoyed sewing it.  Oops, just noticed in the photographs: I haven't removed all my basting thread on the shoulders - will rectify that when the boy takes it off.

The plackets caused the most bother; I unpicked and re-stitched several times, but got there in the end.  I even got to use my button foot to sew on the buttons by machine! Cool.

This was also my first attempt at a rolled hem; again, I used a specialist machine foot. It worked fine on a single layer of fabric but as soon as I came to a seam the foot did not want to play ball. But it'll do. It was good practice, and I now want to put rolled hems on everything!

 

The pattern is Design Q from Sew Chic Kids. I love this book and have made several items from it. I find the illustrations and list style instructions easy to follow.  I recommend it if you have kiddos to sew for between 2 and 10. My scrummy boy is 9 and a half; this is the age 8 size but it should fit him for a long time to come.

My favourite feature is the cute pleat on the back yoke; made me feel very accomplished making it.  Always a good feeling!

I am tempted to try again on this pattern now I understand how all the pieces fit together; it should be much easier and quicker next time round. I have a huge list of things to make for ME, though, so it's unlikely to happen for a while! So that's my contribution to Kids Clothes Week. Have you made anything for Autumn KCW?

Kids Clothes Week #2

Hello, hope you're all well. My last week has been an utter right off: the little girl and I have been poorly with cold/flu virus and it's been truly horrid. It felt like my head and chest were stuffed to the brim with cotton wool; too ill to sew, too ill to even think about sewing. Bah!

At last, though, we've been well enough for her to put on the new dress I made during Kid's Clothes Week, and for me to take some photos.

So, my last entry for KCW - a cute birdy dress for my little girl. She is so sweet, I just love making anything for her. When I showed her the fabric I was going to use, she kissed it and danced around singing "a dress for me, a dress for me"!

It was touch-and-go if I could squeeze a dress out of the piddly amount of fabric I'd purchased. No idea why I bought so little. There was a lot of head-scratching and the sleeves are not on grain, but I think it works. My word, though, it could do with a press! A mixture of laziness, and a determination to photo this before another day went by, prevented me from ironing.

The fabric is from FabricLand and is 100% cotton; the print is so cute, and looks just like Muffin from "3rd & Bird", if you know your Cbeebies.

 

The pattern is Simplicity 1412 from the "it's so easy" range.

The only difficult part was telling the pattern pieces apart, as they all looked very very similar. But once I'd re-labelled everything, it came together very quickly.  I think it has a lovely shape. The girl loves it too, particularly its twirl factor!

 

I have really enjoyed KCW, and am looking forward to next year already.

 

Apologies if the photos are a little washed-out and dull, but it is a bank holiday in the UK, so it's only to be expected!

 

Kids Clothes Week # 1

Hi Folks! Here is Part One of my makes for Kids Clothes Week. What's Kids Clothes Week?  It's a challenge to sewers to make garments for children, pledging to sew collectively, an hour a day for one week. Instagram floods with all the lovely clothes being produced, and we all support each other. It's really fun and inspirational, and this time around it had a theme, "Wild  Things".



http://www.kidsclothesweek

I chose to make shorts for my two boys, with added animal applique: snakes for one, and fish for the other.

They are not the best makes in the world; they definitely would not pass for ready to wear, and the applique is fabric from an old thread-bare nightie! But they are fun, I like them, and - more importantly - the recipients like them too.

 

 

 

 

The pattern is my vintage staple from the 1970s "Children's Wardrobe" cut to below the knee to make summer shorts, although - now I'm looking at these pictures - I think I will hem them a little shorter. I increased the seam allowance at the waist to hold wider elastic, more comfortable in my opinion. 

The fabric is a nice double knit jersey left over from my easy pencil skirt here.  So again an essentially free make!

 

My boys really need clothes that are robust enough to stand up to the hammerings they get in the park and then after in the washing machine. And these lovelies are growing at such a fast pace that any fancy sewing would be outgrown heart-breakingly in next to no time! By that requirement, these are a definite success.

 

The best thing about them is that they are the same enough for jealousy not to ensue, but different enough to tell them apart when sorting the laundry at speed.

Wahoo!  But I haven't neglected my darling girl: next up is a dress for her,  made of a pretty bird fabric.

Two birds with one stone

Squeal! My favourite make so far...

This is a fully-lined pinafore dress with cute curved patch pockets, and I adore it.

Those cross over straps! Love, love, LOVE. Oh, she looks so cute in this.

I think the thread and the buttons are a perfect colour match. My first ever buttonholes, too - not bad for a first attempt. I was a little nervous; but after doing several practice runs on scrap, it all worked out well.

She rather enjoyed posing and twirling on the beach to model this dress.  It's fab that my baby girl likes it as much as I do.

This make was spurred on by Kid's Clothes Week 2014 and by A Stitching Odyssey's vintage sewing pattern pledge.

All in all, I'm rather pleased that one dress can tick off two sewing challenges. Wahoo! I love this dress so much that I already have two more (yes two!) cut out already. Below is the picture from the envelope and it is just fab.

The pattern in a McCalls Toddler girl dress from 1975.  It's classified as an 'easy to sew' and I'd say it was. To line it, I just extended the facing pieces to full length.  I sewed the hem by hand (angel halo) only because I was watching the telly. But I think I may sew more hems this way, it has such a neat, clean finish.  It was rather therapeutic too!

Leaving you with one last picture of my little starlet!  Two more of these finished before too long (good sewing karma allowing).