self-drafted pants pattern

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!

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.