Holly Sea Princess

Kids' Clothes Week just ended and whilst I didn't do much in the way of sewing for my kids, I did get some knitting done. I spent at least an hour a day for the first four days of the week, and finally completed this Sea Princess cardigan for Amélie. The Sea Princess pattern by Elena Nodel, is available from Ravelry, and I recently discovered it is also on Craftsy*.


The pattern comes in sizes from six months through to nine years, and has quite a few options including double or single breasted, different sleeve lengths and shapes, as well as variations on how elaborate the cabling is. I chose long sleeves with the elaborate cables and just one row of buttons. I particularly love the detail on the back.


I knitted the cardigan on my Knit-Pro interchangeable needles from the top down. You knit it all as one piece, so there is no stitching up at the end. It starts below the neckband, and you knit front panel, shoulder, back panel, shoulder, front panel. You keep knitting, back and forth with some increases until you get to the underarm point, where you slip a bunch of stitches off onto a stitch holder for the sleeves, and then join the front and back panels together at the sides. There is a twisty cable that runs down the side "seams" between the front and the back. After you have completed this, and bound off at the bottom, you go back and knit the neckband, and then you knit the remainder of each sleeve in the round. All there is to do after casting off is to tidy up a little under the armpits and weave in all the ends. You can save yourself some trouble by knitting half of those ends in as you go. One of the fun things about knitting on interchangeable needles is that it is easy to try on as you go.


I used Bendigo Classic 8-ply in Holly to knit this cardigan. It comes in 200g balls, and I used about one and a half balls, leaving me 123g of yarn to knit something else. I might mix it up with some grey and knit some stripy hats. We will see. The yarn is only $12 a ball, so quite a reasonable price for good quality yarn.


When I finished knitting, Amélie and I went to the shop and chose some buttons. I picked up some that were red with teddy bears on them, but she wasn't interested in those. It is clear that she has more sophisticated taste than that.

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Kids Clothes Week October 2013

Well, I didn't sew EVERY day for the kids this Kids Clothes week, and I even sewed something that wasn't for the kids, but I do think that three items of clothing isn't too bad. I love this pattern from the Autumn 2013 issue of Ottobre. It's a very basic raglan style tee-shirt with long sleeves and a cute pocket. Perfect for both Autumn and for Spring. Raglan sleeves are great for small children and for babies, as the arm opening is quite large and it is easier to guide small hands through than a set-in sleeve is. They are also easier to sew as it is pretty much a straight line, or in this case a very slightly curved one. I also love the retro look of a raglan sleeve and feel it works really well for mixing and matching fabrics.


I borrowed Mum's cover-stitch machine to do the hems and the bands. Mum was very generous lending me the machine, as it was just back from being repaired and she hadn't even had a chance to use it herself. I can report that it is now making a perfect stitch, and I am having no troubles with the tensioners. You could use a twin needle to do the hems if you don't have access to a cover-stitch, although I do prefer the finish the machine gives, I would love a cover-stitch machine of my own one day, but Mum's will do for now. You could also do the hems with a zig-zag or decorative (stretchy) stitch, or just standard bands and put a band on the bottom as well.


The fabric I used is from Crafty Mama's Fabrics. The Hot Air Balloons, the Pirates and the stripes are all Lillestoff. I added Hilco ribbing to the cuffs and neckband for Noah's tee-shirt. I followed the instructions for the neckbands according to the instructions on page 45 for "binding cut from knit used for the garment" for Amélie's tee-shirt, since the stripes have the same stretch/recovery as the rest of the tee, and for "binding cut from ribbing" for Noah's. When I was cutting the cuffs, I accidentally mixed up the pattern pieces and cut an Amélie sized pair of cuffs for Noah's t-shirt. I figured that we could apply the same theory as for the neckbands, since the ribbing is stretchier than the other knit and didn't bother cutting larger cuffs. There wasn't a heap of difference in the two sizes anyway, maybe as much as the seam allowance?


I also made Amélie some leggings. The pattern I used is from the same issue of Ottobre, and they are the Uncomplicated leggings. To be completely honest here, I wasn't really thrilled with these. The legs have a really close fit, but they are really loose around the bottom and tummy. I guess they are designed to wear over really bulky cloth nappies? I also had to match all those stripes down the outsides of the legs, which makes them not really that "uncomplicated" when you have to do that, although I managed it fairly well. I would rather have mis-matched stripes on a crotch seam that is hidden under a garment than down the sides of the legs where it can be seen by everyone. I liked the way that the waistband was done, though. You put a button-hole in the inside of the waistband before you stitch it down and then thread the elastic through. This means that the elastic can be easily removed and replaced if it is too loose or tight without having to unpick anything. I will use a different pattern next time I make leggings, but I will be stealing that waist elastic idea though.


The kids are loving their new tee-shirts. Noah wanted to wear his to kinder today, but it was all dirty from having been worn yesterday, so I had to wash it for him. As for Amélie, she got way more excited about her tee-shirt when she saw that Noah had one nearly the same.

As for the Sew Your Stash Thin challenge, I used approximately 8 fat quarters making these clothes.
SYST13 Running totals: in = 107, out = 111, total = -4

Amélie's Jump Rope Dress

As part of Kids' Clothes Week I decided to make Amélie the Jump Rope Dress by Oliver + S. I bought the pattern as a download late last year and it has been sitting in my to-do pile ever since. There were lots of different fabrics in my stash that I would have loved to use for this dress, but it required more fabric than usual. Most things I have about 1m of, but I needed about 1.5m for this dress as the skirt is quite full.

There are some awesome details in the dress. I love the pockets. I was initially thinking that navy or red buttons would be nice, but finally decided on pearl snaps. Pearl snaps may just be my "thing". I love the way they look and they do make getting clothes on and off much easier.

I also love the little tabs that hold up the sleeve cuffs. For the pockets and the sleeve tabs, I just used a snap, the way you would use a stud - with just the female part on the back. They don't need to come undone.

The dress used about 1.5m of fabric, which is equivalent to six fat quarters.


SYST13 Running totals: in = 168, out = 44, total = +124

Kids Clothes Week

It's time for Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week. This year it has had a revamp and now has it's own blog and happens four times a year - one for each season. Although it is hosted in the Northern Hemisphere, we can still join in "Down Under", we'll just be sewing in the opposite season, so this time I plan to make Autumn and Winter clothes.



At this stage, I have plans to make Liam a few items for school (oh, I know - booooring!), as well as a dress for Amélie. I'm not sure what else I will make at this stage, but it will most likely be Oliver + S, Ottobre and Kwik Sew patterns I will be using. I might even whip up something from the book, "Sewing Clothes Kids Love". I hope to get some stretch sewing done, as I have some lovely stuff from Crafty Mamas fabrics that is tucked away in my stash. Speaking of Crafty Mamas, if you're a member of their forum, they are having a bit of a Winter Sew Along as well, so if you wanted, you could go and sign up and join in with the fun over there, too.



If you are looking for some inspiration, you can see some of my previous efforts from the challenge here, or you can check out the Kids Clothes Week blog's Flickr group as well.



The challenge runs for seven days and all you do is sew for kids for one hour (or more) per day. You can join in the challenge and check out the blog for more details, by clicking the icon, below.

If you're joining the challenge, especially if you are a fellow Aussie, I would love to hear about it. What are you making?

15. Dortje

I have a little confession. I kind of fell off the Kids Clothes Week Wagon on Saturday. I got a little busy with a different project, but once that was finished, I was back into it. I did my hour (or so) that I owed from Saturday, today instead, so we're all good and caught up.



These pants are the Dortje pants from the book Sewing Clothes Kids Love. I recently had this from the library, and I did not want to give it back. This is actually the second time I have borrowed this book from the library, but now Amélie is almost big enough to fit the smallest size.



The pants have such a lovely shape. They are a little big for now, but I've put some buttonhole elastic in, so they are cinched in a bit, but can be let out later if need be. Once they start getting a little short, I am sure I could let them down and perhaps even add a ruffle to the bottom.



There are a heap of things in the book that I would like to make. I do find the pictures a bit busy, which makes it tricky to be able to make sense of what exactly the models are wearing (though, they do all look very beautiful), and would have preferred it if the patterns were on proper paper, rather than tissue paper. Having said that, I still want this book. I have heard that there is an edition with paper patterns, does anyone know which edition it is, so I can make sure I get that one?

12. Chevron Skirt

Here's my work for days four and five of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. A chevron skirt. Remember I was saying that I had an idea and used the Oliver + S Skirt as a bit of a toille? It was for this. It was really for sizing. With all the changes I made to the pattern, it isn't really the same skirt.



Before I cut out the skirt, I "made the fabric" by joining alternating colours of corduroy strips. I cut the skirt out on a 45 degree angle, using just one pattern piece for each of the four sections of the skirt, two pieces leaning in one direction and two flipped over and leaning in the other direction. I then overstitched each join with a decorative stitch, rather than using straight lines of top-stitching.



In order to get the chevron effect to match up at the sides of the skirt, I made the front and back the same size. To simplify the skirt, I also eliminated the pockets and the kick pleat. Because the front and back were the same size, I placed elastic all the way around the waistband, rather than just at the back.



There was lots of careful pinning when I stitched the seams together to get all the joins to match. I also had to pin more than I usually would when I joined the waistband to the top of the skirt. The top of the skirt was cut on the bias, so there was a quite a bit of stretch in it. I possibly could have reined this in by sewing a stay-stitch along the top edge, but pins sufficed.

10 Kids Clothes Week Day 3

Karen over at And So, I Sew is hosting the Great Pattern Destash. This is not about getting rid of patterns, it is about freeing them from the packet, and using them for their intended purposes! If you've got patterns, stashed away, never seen the light of day, then you might want to pull some out and dust them off and get sewing. I'm going to commit to using three patterns from my stash this month. What about you? Pop over and let Karen know that you're going to join in.



I've started with this "Snappy Tie" Creative Card by Make It Perfect. My making this was actually a compromise. Noah and Amélie were both having afternoon naps and Liam wanted me to play Mario Cart with him. I wanted to sew. I was sew not interested in playing video games. So I suggested we make him a tie. It was a quick enough project that I was able to hold his attention for long enough to make it.



And of course, because I made one, I must make a second (and potentially a third, we'll see how we go). Noah and I made this one this one this morning, whilst Liam was at Kinder and Amélie was napping.

9. Kids Clothes Week Day 2

This is the Oliver + S Sunday Brunch skirt. I made it using some fabric that was already embroidered down one selvedge edge. The embroidery is cute, but makes for a bumpy sewing experience.



It has a cute little kick pleat in the back, which would have been captured awesomely in action in the above photo, had it been in focus. Amélie is proving to be a difficult model these days. A lot of the photos are of the back of her as I chase her through the garden, and the rest are usually close ups of her hand or of a nostril. Hopefully this will improve with time.



One of my favourite things about this pattern is the pocket. The pocket and facing pieces are joined in the middle, which means that the inside of the pocket doesn't pop out, like it does in another skirt Amélie has. Does anyone know why the inside bits of (commercial) pockets always seem to be white (and kind of stand-outish), even when the main fabric is dark?



*For the lady who asked, the cardigan Amélie is wearing is the Kina Cardigan by Muriela - details here: Knitting Weather

8. Kids Clothes Week Day 1

It's day one of Kids Clothes Week and I've started with the skirt from the Oliver + S Sunday Brunch pattern. I have an idea for a skirt, and wanted an A-line pattern to base it on. I purchased the digital version of this last night from the Oliver + S website and now I'm about to make a toile using this cute embroidered fabric before I get stuck into the real deal. Of course, I have discovered I have no matching thread so I'm off to the local fabric shop with three kids, just as soon as Amélie wakes from her nap.



How is this for a happy mail day? No bills (always a good start) and a trifecta of little goodies for me! Some snow pea seeds from Yates, a New Look pattern from Patternplus (thanks Lara for sharing this store - my pattern was only $4.80 inc postage) and a copy of the Homespun magazine in which my snakes & ladders project is featured.

5. Kids Clothing Week

Twice a year, Elsie Marley hosts the Kids' clothing week challenge. I joined in with this last time and made Liam some jeans and the kids winter pajamas. The button says Fall, but here in Australia it is Spring. So I am not really sure if I am joining the spring challenge or the autumn one, but I am going to spend at least one hour a day, for a week starting Monday, sewing clothes for my kids. Hopefully they will all receive some new clothes by the end of the week.

Will you be joining in?

Pajamarama

1. DSCF1290, 2. DSCF1295, 3. DSCF1334, 4. DSCF1296, 5. DSCF1339, 6. DSCF1301, 7. DSCF1321, 8. DSCF1310, 9. DSCF1313

I managed to get all the pajama pants finished yesterday! I'll be back tomorrow with the tops. I had a little set-back today with no suitable buttons in my stash, so I had to go on a bit of an expedition to find some. The boys are happily wearing new pajamas to bed tonight. Amelie seemed a little disappointed that there weren't any pajamas for her, so I may need to make her some too now.

Production-Line Pajama Pants

Since I cut out six pairs of pajamas earlier in the week, I'd better get them finished. I managed to get a pair of jeans out of the UFO basket, and it would be nice to have less things in there than what I started with.

Yesterday, I didn't get much chance to sew during the day, so I spent a little time after the kids went to bed last night, getting these pajama pants to the point where they need elastic in their waists and a hem at the bottom. Hopefully the pants will be finished today. Oh, and then I have six pajama tops to finish....

Paperback Writer

As part of KCWC , I finally moved these jeans from my UFO basket and completed them. They have been sitting in the basket for months waiting for me to sew them together.



The pattern is Paperback writer, or design 31 from the Winter 2010 issue of Ottobre magazine. I really like the name, the song was playing in my head whilst I was making these jeans.



These jeans are made for boys with long, very skinny legs. It is recommended for those that have a waist size 4cm smaller than the charts in the magazine, so if you've got a skinny-mini, then this pattern is for you.

One thing I would do differently, is I wouldn't add a seam allowance to the curved edges of the front pockets pieces and facings. I did for this pair, but I've gone and chopped it off my pattern pieces because the pockets get in the way of the fly area.



I've added rivets to the top corners of the back pockets and to the side-seam corner of the front pockets as well as to the top corners of the coin pocket. One of the rivets on the coin pocket is completely hidden, so was un-necessary. I would recommend that if you plan to add rivets to the jeans, they can all be added at the end, anyway, so that would be the way to go.



Another point with the rivets is that I have used two kinds, only because I started with one type, and then realised I didn't have enough. So the two rivets on the sides of the pockets are different to the other rivets. I prefer the look of the other rivets, and they also have skinnier post, which means I can push them through a smaller hole more easily.



I used three sewing machines to put these jeans together; my regular machine for the seams, my over-locker for neatening the edges and also the industrial machine for the top-stitching. You could make these jeans on one machine, but by using my industrial machine for the top-stitching, it saved me threading and rethreading my machine over and over. I used Gutermann upholstery thread, in colour 968. This is a 100% polyester thread and is quite a bit heavier than the regular, sew-all thread. A 100m reel is about the same size as a 250m spool of sew-all. Sadly, I have heard rumours that Gutermann are discontinuing the upholstery thread, so I will be on the look-out for a suitable replacement.



I think the most exciting part of making these jeans is that I got to try out my new jeans snaps and dyes for the snap press. I really need to be making lots more jeans to make the investment worthwhile, but don't they look fantastic?!