Back To School

Noah started school this year, and I must say that he has taken to it like a duck to water. Only he isn't water-proof. Or paint proof. So I made him this art smock. I used the "Don't Look Now" art smock pattern, just as I did last year for Liam.


This year, Liam was able to use the same Art Smock, but he needed a new pencil case. To start off with, I made this pencil case, using this cute tutorial from Gwenny Penny. Whilst it is a cute pencil case, it is far too small for Liam's needs...


...so I made him another one in a more suitable size. I didn't use a tutorial for this one, and pretty much made it up as I went along. There is plenty of room inside this one for all his pencils and textas.


The pencil case features an extra pocket on the side for all those little bits and pieces, such as his eraser, sharpener and his black-lead pencils for writing, whereas all his coloured pencils and textas can go inside the larger section. I think it would be nice to have a go at upsizing the other pencil case for Noah for next year when he needs a pencil case.

Fancy Flappy Welt Pockets

You might remember this pattern from before. It's the Ottobre Relaxed Cotton Pants from the Spring 2013 issue. I made Liam some school pants, using some gabardine back in March.

This time, I decided to include the fancy welt pockets on the back with the flaps. Instead of making button holes and sewing on buttons, I've used my snap press to apply some jeans snaps. I love the way they turned out, don't you?

I also think I may have mastered the fly, although there is a mistake here, can you tell what it is? Clue: these pants are for a boy! Yes, I have the fly back to front, just like Lauren did in The Great British Sewing Bee. I am sure that I followed the directions properly for the fly shield and that dictates which way the fly goes, so I am not sure what went wrong there? Anyway, the fly still works, I doubt anyone witll notice, but next time I will be looking carefully at which way everything goes before I start to put it together.

Oh, and I used a completely different technique for putting the fly together this time too, and I think it really made the whole job way easier and quicker. I watched this video, by Sandra Bezzina on how to insert a fly, but I put the fly shield on first, and just flipped it out of the way as I sewed the rest of the zip (there is no zipper shield in this video) and then flipped it back when I did the bar tacks.

The fabric I used was the stretch drill that mum got for me recently. It is quite sturdy, and has a really good stretch to it. Perfect for climbing all over the play equipment at school as Noah demonstrates here. These are actually Liam's pants, but it was tricky finding time to photograph him in them when the light was right, so Noah is my model.

I also made Liam this windcheater. It's not exciting enough for a whole blog post, so I will pop it in here. I just used a pattern from the Kwik Sew, Sewing for Children book. Between the pants and the windcheater, I estimate I used about seven fat quarters.

YST13 Running totals: in = 172, out = 51, total = +121 

PS. If you would like to add more fabric to your stash, then I suggest you enter my giveaway. There's a rainbow felt pack and an Anne Kelle FQ pack up for grabs!

Duncan's Pencil Case

My nephews from Townsville spent the summer at my parents' farm. During that time Duncan celebrated his ninth birthday, so I made him a personalised pencil case.



It doesn't need to be necessarily for pencils, he can keep all sorts of things in there. His name appliquéd on the outside makes it nice and personal. I matched the lining to the appliqué, and finished it with a matching zip. Everything, except for the zipper came from my stash. Why is it that you can have hundreds of zippers and yet, rarely are any of them suitable for the project you are working on?

SYST: I used approximately one fat quarter for this project.
Running totals, in = 103, out = 22, total = +81

Cute as a Button

I've missed blogging a couple of things lately. One of them is this cute little zipper pouch that I pattern tested for Nikki. I know Noah loves little pouches to put his treasures in, so I made this for him. I really expected that he would choose the monkey fabric, but he chose the buttons instead.



This pattern is the You Sew Girl Coin Purse, which has been re-done with lots of new pictures to show the whole process and is available as a downloadable pattern, so you can get started on your purse right away.



I added this cute little aeroplane zipper pull too. Isn't it cute?

Make It in May - Skirt Complete

I finished my skirt for the Curlypops Make It in May - Skirt sew-along. Using Nicole Mallalieu's A-line skirt pattern and some of the same denim I used to make Liam's jeans, I kept this skirt plain so that it goes with more things in my wardrobe. Nikki's pattern comes with some great instructions to insert an invisible zip (using an invisible zipper foot - if you don't have one you should get one), and the yoke makes for a tidy skirt with no "popping-out" facings as well as helping with that not-so-flat-these-days tummy.



I made the skirt up in the original length and then chopped 13cm from the bottom, before giving it a 2 inch hem. This brought the skirt up to knee length which I think is probably a bit more suitable for running around with the kids.



In addition to changing the length, I added pockets to the skirt. I grabbed a pocket from another pattern and put the pockets into the side-seam. It frustrates me sometimes that I have nowhere to put my keys, especially when out and about with the kids and it isn't always practical to carry a bag. These pockets are pretty discrete, I made them in navy homespun, and nothing falls out of them when I sit down, so I am pretty happy with them.



Have you made anything for yourself lately? What about a skirt? There's still time to join in if you want to make yourself a skirt during the month of May.

You CAN Shorten a Metal Zipper!

In my last post, I didn't think you could shorten a metal zipper. When you shorten a nylon zipper, you are left with teeth, which are fine to sew over, unless they are big chunky ones like in a separating zipper. You certainly don't want to be sewing over metal zipper teeth. Anyway, since the obstacle here is actually just a few zipper teeth, we just need to get rid of the teeth. Oh, and move the little stoppers that stop the zipper head from sliding off your zipper. We don't want that to happen. That might make us jump up and down and swear. A lot.



Some useful tools are some wire cutters. Now, I tried using my cute little pink ones that I have for jewellry making (ah yes, of course I've tried jewelry making, I try everything, remember), but they just didn't cut it. So I pinched borrowed these nice proper professional ones from my man's desk drawer.



Also, you should wear some eye protection. You might be able to have more control over the little zipper teeth, but when I did it, there were shards of metal flying everywhere. Since we don't want sharp pieces of metal in our eyes, put some safety specs on.



Also, put some safety specs on anyone else that is around, or even better, send them out of the room, because they might be distracting and touch things they aren't supposed to.



Just because I'm a little concerned that someone might zip my zipper head off during the process, I popped this safety pin on. To avoid potential swearing.



Anyway, the idea is, you snip off those zipper teeth using the wire cutters without cutting the fabric of the zip. Try to imagine that the teeth are sort of U shaped with the top bits of the U really close together, pinching the zipper tape. If you just snip off a part of that, right through the metal, the rest of the tooth will just pull right off. You need to measure the number of cm that you need to shorten the zipper by and remove the same number of teeth from each side of the zipper.



Measure from inside the stopper, not outside, or you will end up with a slightly longer-than-necessary zip. My zipper originally measured 13cm, and I needed an 8cm zip, so I removed 5cm worth of zipper teeth, or 20 teeth from each side.



Without breaking them, you need to prise off the metal stoppers and pop them down near the last zipper teeth. Squeeze them back together, and check to make sure they are secure. Chop the excess zipper tape off, using pinking shears and another jeans zipper as a guide. If you don't have another jeans zipper to guide you, mine measured about three and a half cms from stopper to end. Just going by the zips in my stash, jeans zippers have more tape beyond the top of their teeth than dress zippers do.



Voila! A shorter zip!

Zippity Doo Dah

I have had these jeans cut out for Liam for ages. As part of the KCWC I plan to complete them. The pattern calls for an 8cm zipper. I went through my stash and the shortest zipper I have is 13cm. I don't like my chances of shortening a zip with metal teeth. I'm not sure I've ever seen a zipper shorter than 10cm. Do they exist? Should I just go with a nylon zip, because I can just shorten a nylon zip? Can you actually shorten a metal toothed zip? What do you prefer to call them, zips or zippers?



PS. I spent more than an hour today cutting out more pajamas and fusing interfacing to collars and facings.Hopefully I don't spend the whole Kids Clothing Week just cutting out...

PPS. Today is the birthday of Gideon Sundback, the inventor of the zipper. Google pays tribute to him with a Google Doodle today.

Today...

I went to the library for story-time and picked up a crafty book that I had reserved. I will come back and do a review later...



I received a little crafty mail.



I went to my local fabric shop and bought some zips... why is it that I have a massive stash of zips, but I hardly ever have what I need and still have to go buy them?



I did a little gardening in the vegie garden...

I cried for my friend who was called in for her lung transplant this morning, only to find the lungs weren't suitable after all.

....and I changed my blog header.



What do you think?

Wren City

This is what I have been working on over the past few days. The pattern is Nicole Mallalieu's City Bag, and I used some of my precious "Wrens" Fabric by Tegan Rose for Ink & Spindle. I've teamed the Wrens fabric with some denim that was in the same dark inky colour.



This is the first proper bag I have made on the industrial machine. I am actually surprised with how easily it came together. I guess all the practice with the machine has actually paid off. The magnetic seam guide helped a little, too!



I even managed to insert a zipper on a curved seam, and an internal zipped pocket with no dramas!



The bag wouldn't be complete without a bit of bling, and I was really undecided whether to go with my usual choice of silver, or if I should go with the brassy rings and feet to go with the natural tones of the Ink & Spindle fabric. I'm glad I chose silver, it's so shiny!



I have spoiled myself with an internal zippered pocket, using more of Tegan's Wren fabric. It's so beautiful, and only I will see it in there, but the bag is for me, so why not?



The next bag I plan to make is leather.... wish me luck!

My Red Nikki Skirt

I finished my skirt by hemming it this morning. The pattern is Nicole Mallalieu Design's A-Line Skirt. I used some red hatched-denim that mum gave to me that she got for $2 a metre. I love that it has a little bit of give because it is denim, but doesn't look like boring old denim - and way more comfortable than jeans.



I also love the yoke on the skirt - no more facings rolling out the top of my skirt. There (as usual) were heaps of little tips and tricks to get a really professional finish in the easiest possible way. The best part though, was the instructions for inserting the invisible zip. There is no need to be afraid of zips - not even the invisible ones!

Bus Stop Bag

Sorry it has been a bit quiet on the blog. I've been a bit busy lately with the kids. Anyway, I have been meaning to blog about this Bus Stop Bag for ages, so now is a good time, I guess. When I made this bag it was all hush-hush as it was a secret squirrel pattern testing project for Nicole Mallalieu's book, You Sew, Girl!. Now that the book has been published (um, yeah, a while ago....) it is okay for me to blog this.



The fanciest part of this bag is the seam binding, which is quite tricky, and one of the reasons the pattern has been given the advanced skill level rating. Never fear though, if you think it might be a bit too tricky, you can put the seam binding on the inside until you are confident with the technique. I would also recommend that you try the toiletry bag first as it isn't as stiff as the bus-stop bag, and therefor a little easier to manipulate on the sewing machine.



The finished bag is quite sturdy and has a firm base with shiny purse-feet. It stands up al by itself and there was enough room inside for the toiletry bag and my hairdryer and a number of other assorted personal items when I was in hospital having Amelie back in January. If you've ever had a baby, you will be aware of all the extra toilety items you need in those early days and trust me, there was room inside for all of these!




If you want to make yourself one of these, you need to get your hands on a copy of Nikki's book, You Sew, Girl! For the cost of a couple of patterns, it is chock-a-block full of tips, techniques and patterns to make all sorts of lovely things.

Robot Hooded Jacket, Revisited

Just over two years ago, I made this jacket. It has been a firm favourite of Liam's and he has only recently started allowing Noah to wear it occasionally. The only thing is, it doesn't really fit Noah any more, either.



I have been meaning to make him another one for quite a while. In fact, I intended to make one last winter. Anyway, I finally got around to it over the long weekend.



The only major difference (apart from the size) was I made larger cuffs, to make more of a feature from the robot fabric. You can see in these photos, that Liam has the cuffs folded back, but it looks the same when unfolded too.