KCWC: Day 7

Sometimes you just need to sit down and work on something easy...  Something that doesn't require lots sharp objects or ironing.  Started this little hat last night and finished tonight.  Hopefully just right for little baby no name to wear home from the hospital.  Hats count as clothes, right?  More details here.

KCWC Day 6: The Henry Shirt

I skipped out on blogging yesterday because, quite frankly, I had nothing to show for it.  I spent countless hours cutting out the pieces for the Henry shirt, prepping the details, and at the end of the day only had a few real seams sewn.  Today I sat down and started sewing and, much to my surprise, I actually finished it.  Sure there were some disheartening moments...  Like seaming the yoke/sleeves to the rest of the shirt:

I understand all too well now why you don't normally see button up raglans.  This seam is pinned and sewn not once, but twice (the second time through three layers) around all kinds of crazy twists and turns.  And then it says, get this, to press the seam.  That seam?  Right there...  Bwahahahaha.  I can only assume that was a joke because how?  It doesn't seem to have hurt it at all.  Finally I flip the shirt right side out and realize two things:

First, it would seem that I am actually making a bowling shirt.  An honest to goodness bowling shirt.  Sheesh.

 Second: which of these should go on the outside?  I'm honestly not sure...  But I think it's probably the one I put on the inside =P



I think I can live with it.  I do not know if I'll be making any more of these...  Perhaps I'll make him wear it awhile before deciding.  I used a recycled men's shirt (the white) and some fabric I picked up at the thrift store.  The nice thing about using a RTW shirt is that I didn't have to do the button band or snaps,  I just cut the fronts and button bands together (minus the seam allowance, of course) and otherwise sewed everything up pretty much the same.  Buttons and buttonholes included =)

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He's wearing it over a white shirt here which was probably not the best choice, but you get the idea.  I used these fabrics so I wouldn't be too upset if it didn't turn out quite right and, to be honest, I don't love the way they look together.  It's okay, though, hopefully it'll grow on me.  And if it does he'll have a matching shirt/pants set because I used the same fabric paired with denim on the Treasure Pocket Pants I made but have yet to blog about.  I think that'd be too much...  Or maybe it's just about right...

New skills: using fusible interfacing! and whatever you wanna call that collar/yoke sewing debacle

Total cost: includes the small amount of that brown fabric and fusible interfacing used.  I would estimate about $2.  The white shirt was donated by my father.

Time taken: about 2 days which, all things considered, I'm happy with.  It definitely would've taken longer if I didn't have KCWC to motivate me.

KCWC Day 4

Last night I finished another raw edged raglan (can you tell I love this pattern?) from an extra large REI shirt.  The shirt is 100% polyester, some kind of high tech material.  It cannot be ironed, it is slippery as all get out, and apparently my sewing machine thinks it's super tasty cuz it kept eating it!

It doesn't really look too bad here, but it's a lie!  I had to leave off the topstitching because I just couldn't get the tension and feed right or the double needle to cooperate.  Except, I'll be honest, there is one line of topstitching on one of the back shoulder seams that looks terrible and I ought to pick out.  Alas... there it is.

I think this pic gives a good view of the gathering up front... the accidental gathering.  There's a little bit of it all about the neckband.  Honestly, the one thing that chagrins me each time I make this pattern is the neckband.  I like having the option of making it out of the same fabric so it matches perfectly, but even after lengthening it quite a bit it's still almost impossible to a) get over his head and b) match up to the shirt without some tucks forming.  I did lower the back neck a little bit on the pattern about 3 shirts ago (there was some kind of hunchback thing happening) so maybe I haven't added enough extra fabric.  The slipperiness of this material, though, really exacerbated the problem.

Anyway, after finishing the shirt I cut out some more kickin' back sweats, but this time out of old sheets.  This is kind of a muslin for some shorts I want to make Dj this summer.  I took in the pattern piece by about a half inch (or an inch I can't quite remember right now) and cut a shorter elastic (duh).

That's my little non-tag that I sewed into the back so I can tell which is which when I'm trying to wrangle him into his clothes.  On the other pair I can never tell which is which and in the moments it takes me to figure it out he's usually run his nekkid little butt half-way across the room.

You can see they're still quite big (and that, as always, I need to pick up in here... again!) but they're not falling down.  The lightweight material definitely helps there, the sweatshirt fabric is a lot heavier so it sags.  All in all I think I'll probably go with this pattern for his summer shorts and sew a longer hem.  I might take it in just a smidge more, though.  I've got plenty of fabric so I may just make another test run and let him wear them around the house a bit before I decide.

They kind of look like boxer shorts, which to be honesty cracks me up.  Especially in this pic with his shirt tucked in just a little bit

All evidence to the contrary, I'm really more of a knitter than a seamstress...  Come to think of it, there's not much here to establish me as much of a seamstress either, but the fact is I've just been sewing a lot in the past couple of weeks and normally I spend most of this time knitting.  So, think of it as I'm cheating on my knitting with my sewing.

As usual I've got plenty of projects already on the needles, but in honor of KCWC I decided to cast on a long overdue baby blanket.  The baby isn't long overdue, I just should've started this blanket awhile ago.  It's the Latvian Baby Blanket.  It'll have pink hearts, then chart B in brown and chart C in a golden yellow.  All yarn from stash (stashbusting for the win!).

I know it's not clothing, but with summer coming I don't feel like knitting kids sweaters is the most logical move.  I've got to be knitting something, though, so at least it's for a kid.  I'm pretty excited about this one, I love colorwork for one and this'll be my first time doing a backed blanket (more sewing, squee!).  I know it doesn't really belong here but, well, here it is anyway.

Kids Clothing Week Challenge: Day 3

Day 3 has been somewhat more productive than days 1 and 2: behold the Little Heartbreaker Pants!

The shirt is blogged about here and is also sewn by me.  The awesome Kermit the Frog hoodie, though, is sadly not.  Back on topic, I love this pants pattern.  It's got lots of interesting details like Hong Kong finishes and sewn on cuffs.  It was actually my first time doing the Hong Kong seam finish and also the turn and stitch finish (which I didn't like too well, but mostly I think it was difficult with this thick corduroy material).

Too bad the pants are waaaay big on him.  It's better, really, since summer is coming and he won't be needing them (much) til the fall.  I was hoping to make him some shorts for summer, but I'm thinking I'll go back to the Kickin' Back Sweats pattern and try and tweak it a bit to be the right size.

Obviously he's about ready for this week to be over so he doesn't have to model his new clothes anymore (as if that's gonna happen haha).

The material is from a very large corduroy dress (I can't imagine wearing a corduroy dress, especially in that size, that thing was heavy!) which my mom gave me and I think she probably got at the thrift store.  That makes these pants pretty much FREE which I always like.  Other than, of course, the buttonhole elastic which I most certainly did not have any of lying about.  There's a bit of it left, though not enough to do much with.

I'm actually more proud of the inside of these pants than the outside.  Check that out: I made that bias tape.  MADE IT!  I've never even used bias tape before.  By the way, I don't think that's how you do Hong Kong seams but it worked for me.  The book's explanation is very vague.

I also have yet another raglan tee almost done; it just needs the neckband sewn on.  And I went to Goodwill today and got a bunch of new fabrics and a few old sheets...  I'm already thinking about what's next.

KCWC Day 2

Day 2 yields no pics, but great progress.  I am 90 percent finished with my first run of the Little Heartbreaker Pants from Sewing for Boys.  All they lack are cuffs and elastic.  I'm actually pretty surprised that they went so quickly considering how, erm, professional? they look (because that's what Dj really needs: more professional attire).  I love the Hong Kong finish, too, though it makes the inside of the pants look a little busy.  Barring any major disasters or distractions tomorrow morning, Dj should be wearing them tomorrow.  With a little bit of luck there may be a new shirt too...  Pics tomorrow guaranteed!

Kids Clothing Week: Day 1

 Day 1 of KCWC is quickly coming to a close.  I don't have much to show for it, but I'm not too disappointed.  I actually didn't know it was coming until two days ago so I haven't had much prep time.  Today I finished this eye shirt (I don't know if you can tell, but yes: it's a big drawing of an eye).  I actually didn't have much to do to finish it, but I spent the rest of the morning cutting out the rest of the pieces for my first pair of Little Heartbreaker Pants.  Actually, I also spent the better part of the morning in the fabric store trying to order refills for my rotary cutter which was no fun and really cut into my sewing time =P

 Since it was such a beautiful day (for Seattle in April) we went to the zoo so Dj could model his new eyeball shirt.  Of course, he wasn't terribly interested in striking a pose whilst there were fences and balls to be climbed.

And the nitty gritty: the pattern is once again the Raw Edge Raglan Tee and the material is (as usual) a 99 cent thrifted tee.  You can't really tell from these pictures but I had an eyeopening moment today where I realized I've been using the twin needle wrong.  I thought there was a special stitch setting for it but there is not.  Now my topstitching is all pretty and correct!  Hopefully tomorrow will have most of a new pair of trousers.