sewing with knits | oliversfancy

Days 5-6: I spent so much extra time finishing up the Bimaa hoodie on day 4 that I kinda burnt myself out, so I took a bit of a break for 2 days- figuring 3 hour’s work on one day = 1 hour of work on 3 different days.
Day 7: I wanted to finish strong this KCW so I managed to find an hour on Sunday and pulled together these Valentine’s Day shirts for the boys. I made some Valentine’s outfits for the shop a few weeks back and felt bad that the boys didn’t have their own versions. Love how these turned out, and I think they’ll be pretty cute in them. This was the perfect, quick and easy final project. Sorry I wasn’t able to get a picture of them wearing the shirts so an Instagram picture will have to suffice.

My final wrap-up thoughts:
I wanted this KCW to be about experimenting with different knit fabrics. Especially when buying online, you really have to know your knits or you will end up with the wrong type for your project. I have done some upcycling with knits in the past but not much with knits bought from the store. I really enjoyed this learning curve and am inspired to do more playing around with knits in the future. They are not nearly as scary as they are made out to be. 🙂 Plus they normally result in practical, comfortable clothing for the boys.
Some tips that I have discovered when sewing with knits:

Use your walking foot- so helpful!!
Lower your pressure foot pressure (keeps the fabric from getting all wavy while sewing).
Always use some sort of stretch/ballpoint needle.
If you want a good resource for knit helps, check out Rae’s Kniterviews– solid gold mine there!

Here’s my collage of finishes from this past week: clockwise-beginning with top left: Valentine’s Tees, Flashback Tee and Fancy Pants Leggings, Bimaa 2, and Bimaa 1

Go check out the Flickr group and KCW website to see all the other goodness that was made last week. There’s some pretty amazing things in there. Looks like the Bimaa was the project of choice this time around. I think it’s always fun to see which pattern is going to be the popular one during the week. And that’s a wrap until spring. What were your thoughts this KCW? Did you get to all your projects on your list? Next up on my agenda: serger and knitting classes. I’ll be sure to keep you informed of my progress in each 🙂

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!