Monthly Archives: October 2012

KCWC fall 2012 Final Update

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I thought I would give a final update as to my results for KCWC. As normally happens, my list morphed during the week, and my end results are not quite the same as my to-do list, but in this case I am very happy with the amount of work I was able to accomplish.

The before list:

  • Charlie tunic
  • Green cords
  • 4 Raglan Tees
  • Appliqued onesies- hopefully 10

Actual Accomplishments:

  • Charlie Tunic
  • Green Cords
  • Grey Cords
  • 2 Raglan Tees- one with hand embroidery
  • 1 Raglan Cardigan
  • 6 Appliqued onesies- still need final machine stitching.

Whew! That was a crazy week! I will be taking a break from that kind of crazy sewing and will be getting caught up with all my other things piling up. First thing to do is to clean my mess of a sewing room. Then the rest of this week will be spent working on items for the craft fair- only 3 weeks away! Be sure to check out the flickr group to see all the amazing things everyone else produced this week!

I will leave you with a picture of Oliver in church nursery yesterday wearing his mama-made clothes as proof that the Charlie tunic now has buttons. 🙂 Oh and can just say how nice it is to have a community who understand the need to make things. I got some comments this weekend about making Oliver’s clothes… “I’ve never met a mom who makes her kid’s clothes” and “how long will you keep making him wear things you make?”. These comments made me feel like I was a bit of a freak for enjoying the art of constructing clothing, and then I remembered Karen’s beautiful post and all the wonderful peeps participating in KCWC and I know that I am not alone! So glad to have a community to back me up!

KCWC Fall 2012 Day 5

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Today’s update isn’t anything grand and glorious.I used up so much energy the beginning of the week that, honestly, I was kinda burnt out to sew today. But then I read Meg’s encouragement to push through and I saw that we made it to her front page (yay :)) so I pushed through and worked on some craft fair projects today- still counts as kid’s clothes even if it’s not for mine, right? I was able to get 6 onesies appliqued today. I still have to sew around the appliques but the hard work of cutting them out and  fusing to the onesies is finished . Yay for some of my to-do list out of the way! Especially since I only have 3 weeks till my first show! I used some Christmas fabric that I picked up last weekend in preparation for this week as the bow tie appliques. My thoughts are that these will make great outfits for little boys’ special Christmas events.

We are headed out of town this afternoon for our church retreat, so I won’t be able to participate tomorrow. But I want to participate on Sunday and get all these onesies sewn up. I’ll be back Sunday night or Monday morning with my final update and KCWC wrap up.

Project Run and Play Week 5- Fall Holiday

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Well I totally got my wires crossed for this week’s challenge. Up until Monday afternoon, I thought this week’s challenge was your signature look. Oops. I thought about sitting this one out, but after reading Deborah’s post on Tuesday night, I was inspired with some great ideas for Thanksgiving. I designed an outfit that Oliver can wear to the Thanksgiving dinner table. I love the idea of having a special outfit he can wear for this often-overlooked holiday! And yet it’s still super comfy for him to run around in after dinner.

First off, the cardigan!! 🙂 I got this idea after seeing several Greenpoint cardigans in the KCWC flickr group. I am sure that is a great pattern, but I decided to take a stab at drafting my own pattern. I used several old tees from Goodwill as my fabric. I took the raglan tee as my base and then completely dissasembled and rearranged it. I moved the fold line over several inches in the front, back and sleeve pieces so it would fit more like a sweater than a skinny tee. Then I cut the front piece straight down the middle and created a curve down the front. I sewed the base cardi together- enclosing all raw edges and made all the binding- for the sleeves, bottom, and neck/buttonhole facings. This I sewed on in similar fashion to adding cuffs. The only thing I didn’t do quite right was to take enough off the neck to account for the binding so it was a little big/high in the back. To fix this, I made something similar to a dart down the middle of the back of cardigan. It’s still a bit big, but it is supposed to be a sweater and it will give him time to grow into it. I am already thinking about how I will make the next one!

The pants- self-drafted pattern using what I learned from the green cords. (made these a little smaller and shorter.) They have a faux fly, lined pockets, flat fell seams, flat front with elastic back, and hand embroidery on the back pockets.

The tee- I knew I wanted to make a tee to coordinate with the cardigan and wanted it to have some sort of applique or embroidery on it. My hubby suggested the word THANKS. I embroidered it with Perle Cotton. The pattern is the Raw-Edged Raglan, but I enclosed all the seams on mine instead of leaving them raw. I used a ribbed knit for the neckband (and enlarged the neckband by 2 inches:) ) and it fits great! No problem fitting over head.

the photoshoot came to a sad and abrupt end after a fast trip down the slide ended in a face full of mulch and a scratched and bloody face 😦

This is also my update for KCWC days 3-4. Whew! I have enjoyed both PRP and KCWC but I am looking forward to a break in order to get to all my other sewing lists piling up around me! I think Oliver will be well-stocked with handmade clothing once this week and next are over!

KCWC Fall 2012 Day 3

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Today’s project update is just a sneak peek of the outfit that will be revealed in full tomorrow night. Last night I got a brainstorm for the Project Run and Play challenge, and today was spent attempting to create the ideas in my head. Oh, and I spent way more than an hour today! Oops. Here’s a little peek at the, as yet, unfinished Thanksgiving Dinner outfit…

KCWC Fall 2012 Day 2

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the pattern: Charlie tunic from Rae

the fabric: I used a cotton/linen blend I bought at Purl Soho this summer for the main fabric. The facings are made from a Birch fabrics organic cotton (picked up at Whipstitch earlier this year).

the sewing: Love how easy this pattern was to follow! The only headache I ran into was sewing on the sleeve facings. It’s just plain hard to sew with that small of an opening- but the end result is so cute that it was worth it! I was in such a hurry to show this to you tonight that I took pics without having buttons on it. Little Man was so grumpy and ready for bed that I couldn’t wait if I wanted to get this up tonight. So excuse my grumpy looking model and check out his cute new shirt ! This is a great fall shirt because he can wear a tee underneath it and be nice and warm on the chilly days. Also I just think the swingy silhouette of the tunic is so cute. I will say that the 18 month size just fits him so when (definitely not if 🙂 ) I make another, I will make the next size up since there’s not much give as you pull this on.

KCWC Fall 2012 Day 1

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I don’t know that I’ll get a chance to blog every night this week but I’m going to make a valiant attempt. Meg has a great simple form to fill out that makes the blogging much quicker. Also in the effort to get lots of sewing done, you will have to be content with more instagram/phone pics than usual because I don’t have time for big photo shoots every day! This is actually 2 days of work because I started on the pants last night since I will be out of town on Saturday and losing that day.

the pattern: Pants: Self-Drafted using Dana’s guidelines as a help. Lined front and back pockets, baggy leg (decided to break out of my skinny pants trend), elastic waistband, faux fly, rolled bottom cuff to allow for lots of growing. Tee: Raw-Edge Raglan Tee from Sewing for Boys

the fabric: Pants: Green corduroy I picked up at my big Joann’s trip a few weeks back in anticipation of KCWC. I’ve been wanting to make Oliver green pants for a while! Tee: A favorite old t-shirt of mine that has been too small for quite a while but I just couldn’t part with it- nerd, anyone? 🙂

the sewing: Pants: Turned out a bit bigger than I had planned, so I had to do a full elastic waist rather than the flat front with elastic back that I wanted. Loving the look of all my flat fell seams though! I’m getting much quicker at sewing up pants with all the practice I’ve been getting recently. I still am not 100% satisfied with my ability to self-draft a pattern, but I see definite improvement. Tee: changed the pattern a bit this time to keep the side and arm seams on the wrong side. I like it both ways. Also I added an inch to the neckband, but it is still quite snug to get over his head. Need to figure out how to fix this- any suggestions would be appreciated! I used the small zig-zag recommended in the book but I don’t think it’s allowing for enough stretch.

This Weekend- and An Announcement of Things to Come

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About time for another weekend update around here, isn’t it? I find that I am much more efficient with my weekend time management when I throw my to-do list out for the blogosphere to read. 🙂

Friday night I finished up some baby gifts for a shower this weekend. I have another shower coming up in 2 weeks and will share all my creations then so as not to tip the second shower recipient off to her gifts since I know she does read my blog on occasion. 🙂 I am really happy with how those projects are turning out!

I spent the majority of this Saturday cleaning up my craft room. The crazy storm of PRP had caused a chaotic mess to form in my usually neat and tidy space. Oh who are we kidding here, it never stays neat and tidy for long! I get it all nice and squeaky clean every few weeks and then get into a project and mess it all up again- the nature of the beast, I’m going to assume. With KCWC and PRP both occurring next week, I wanted everything to be super organized and neat to enable me to get lots done.

I have my fabric and patterns set out for KCWC and am hoping for great things! My final list is: Charlie tunic, Green cords, 4 Raglan Tees, and as many appliqued onesies as I can produce- hopefully 10. That leads me to my big announcement- I am in 2 craft fairs the next 2 months! The first is the GCA’s Fall Festival and Holiday Market on November 3rd here in Greenville (only 4 weeks away- yikes!) The second is The Crafty Feast on December 15th in Columbia, SC. While I am super stoked to be trying my hand at these fairs for the first time, I have quite a bit of work to do in order to be ready for them. Thankfully this first one is a smaller affair, so I am viewing it as a practice to see what will sell well for the larger show. I laid my plans this weekend for the merchandise I want to have ready and mapped out a sewing schedule for the next few weeks in order to get it all done. I am determined not to stress about it and just have fun- I will keep you posted on how that goes. 🙂 Hope to see some of you there at the shows!

My goal for the rest of the weekend is to get some fun family time in, organize my creating space a bit more, and maybe even start cutting into the Charlie Tunic. Do you have any fun plans for this weekend? I linked up here for Sew & Tell Saturday…go visit and see what other cool things are linked up!

And since a blog post without pictures is just so boring, I leave you with a picture from our apple orchard adventure last night- a favorite family tradition! Notice the two handmades- a Tova top and the Raglan Tee. 🙂

Project Run and Play: Week 4- Boy Challenge

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This week’s challenge was boy week. Because I always sew for a boy, I wanted to do something a little special for this challenge. I wanted to stretch my skills and make something cool and fun. Well it was a crazy amount of work, but I’m very happy with how it all turned out.

I made a 3 piece outfit: skinny jeans, t-shirt, and a flannel jacket.

For Oliver’s David Beckham outfit, I drafted the skinny pants based on a pair of his pants. I was going to use that pattern again, but then I saw that Jessica had created a pattern for a pair of skinny cords that just happened to be in Oliver’s size. I loved the pockets and yoke detail on her pants, so I decided to try out her pattern. Note to self: little boys are bigger than little girls! We ended up with super skinny hipster pants. He has to wear his disposable diapers with these pants because there’s not enough room for the cloth diaper bum. Also with the super skinny bottom, they continually ride up so they look a little short, even though they are not. However, I can’t help but think the little hipster look is too cute on him. 🙂 I used a blue stretch denim that I picked up at JoAnn’s this weekend for the pants fabric.

The t-shirt is the Raw-Edged Raglan pattern from Sewing for Boys. This was my first foray into sewing with knits, and I am now hooked. Seriously, no hemming! I used an old t-shirt of Ian’s for the fabric, and it is just so fun to see the Little Man in a loved shirt of his Daddy’s. I had to adjust the pattern a little because even though it says that it starts at 18 months, my pattern sheet begins at 2/3. I took about 1/4 inch of all the sides of the 2/3, and it turned out great. I love the skinny fit and super long sleeves. The only problem we ran into was that my child must have a big head because I had to stretch out the neckline quite a bit to fit it over his head. Thankfully, I was able to stretch it enough to fit without having to re-cut and sew a new neckband. FYI using freezer paper as your pattern piece makes cutting out the knit fabric so easy because you iron on the freezer paper to the knit and then pull it off to reuse after you cut the fabric.

The jacket is also based on a pattern from Sewing for Boys. It is based on the Out on the Town Jacket with modifications. I wanted to have a straight-across neckline, not a sloping one like the pattern shows, so I just decided to wing it and cut out the neckline how I had pictured in my head. Guess what- turned out perfectly! Love it when that happens. I used a flannel from JoAnn for the outer and the same stretch denim for the lining. I was going for a look that was kinda in-between a button-down shirt and a jacket. If I do say so myself, I think I nailed it. This is the perfect jacket for a casual fall outing- especially around here where we are starting to get a bit of a chill at night but still have 80 degree days. This jacket came together so quickly- quite an easy sew- up until the buttons! The buttonhole foot on my machine is such a pain in the neck! I had to re-do several of the buttonholes because they were all uneven- and then the thread on the bottom was a nasty mess. I think it’s because of the thickness of the jacket that the machine didn’t feed well. If anyone has any advice for good buttonholes, I’d be glad to hear it!

So that’s my outfit for this week- if you are still reading after a super long post. I really enjoyed learning even more new skills and having fun with an outfit along the way! I have now added more raw-edged raglans to my list for KCWC next week! FYI there was a great post on Project Run and Play this week on sewing boy clothing, She echoed some of the same thoughts that I’ve had. Oh, and I have to give props to the hubby for the photography. He took all the pictures (for this shoot and the Beckham shoot), and I followed along as photographer assistant. He has a much better gift at photography than I do!

Kid’s Clothes Week Challenge Fall 2012

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It’s almost that time again! My second time to participate in the KCWC. I am so excited about this week. I love seeing the Flickr group explode with projects and get inspired by all the cool stuff everyone makes. I feel that I’ve been doing a little prep by working on Project Run and Play entries. Not counting the last two weeks, I have been so busy on selfish and other sewing recently that I haven’t made much kid clothing. Now that I have had two weeks to get back into the swing of kid clothing, I am feeling inspired to make some fun stuff! It helps that next week’s PRP challenge is to make something that reflects your personal style! I don’t have my full to-sew list made, but here a few things I know will be on the list

  •  Green cords- using Dana’s basic pants pattern as a guide
  • a Charlie Tunic– finally broke down and bought it when it was on sale last week.
  • Appliqued Onesies- working ahead on some baby shower gifts.

I hope you will consider joining in the fun this time! Go here to sign up and make sure to read Elsie’s blog this week as she features some fun variations of the basic pants pattern. I’ll be sure to keep you updated with my progress. I know I can do that challenge for all but one day. We have a church retreat that Saturday, but every other day is fair game for me!

Also, on a PRP note, I am busy working on my entry for Boy Week. Easy one for me right? Excited to see my ideas come to fruition! Check back in later this week for an update!