Kids' Clothes Week, the rest - part III

The other thing I did in Kids' Clothes Week (which was how many aeons ago now?) was make a Jack O'Lantern with L. A nice friendly one so as not to freak her out.

I also made the dress she's wearing in that photo. It's the only picture of it I've got so no-one ask for details please. And when I say 'made', what I mean is, took in the sides and sleeves of a merino wool top that I no longer fitted into so that it miraculously became an item of child's clothing. It was Boden too. Guess I'm not a Boden wearer after all.

We also went to the flea market and bought this for T's bedroom wall (tis nearly ready!). He likes trucks.

All in all, the Kids' Clothes Week Challenge was, I think, a good thing for me. I got over my fear of trousers and knits and have since made trousers and a t-shirt for L as well. Plus I got into Sewing for Boys and started making some stuff for T too. It really is a good book with great patterns and clear instructions. So, hurrah!

But I have also realised that blogging is about the lowest of my priorities right now. Then again, I don't do it for anyone else. Posts will henceforth be random, as and when I feel like recording something (should I rename? Jo Crafts for Posterity, anyone??).

Kids' Clothes Week - the rest, Part II

Teaser picture of a finished t-shirt:

I think you can see already the level of quality that I and my sewing machine spewed out this time, no? So perhaps this doesn't come as a surprise:

Yes, that's what I did to my first ever twin needle. The machine gave me an error code which upon consultation of the manual turned out to mean something along the lines of Tangled Thread Meltdown.

No shit, Sherlock.

By some weird miracle I had a spare, which worked like a dream but was a different size. Thus we have this nice hem effect in the front middle of the shirt:

Then I had to seam rip the neckline twice, thus stretching it beyond repair and ending up with a funky wibbly effect.

But he seems to like it. He must do - he lovingly stained it with tomato immediately.

Kids' Clothes Week - the rest, Part I

Oh hello. It's been a while. What with doing my job in half the time these days and having a lot of fun actually sewing when not playing with the littles, I can't quite be bothered to blog. But then when I'm old I'll regret not having recorded all my lovingly handcrafted random crap, so here I am.

And here are T's finished trousers in action.

KCWC Day 1

Kids' Clothes Week Challenge is here! This being the first time I've signed up for any kind of sewing event, I find myself rather excited.

Yesterday was Day One, and I made this:



A pair of trousers, as yet without a waistband. Guess what's on tonight's To Do list??

I had done my prep:

And decided to do some refashioning/upcycling/recykleren on this:

 

Which is more shocking, that I own Boden clothing or that I'm about to chop it up? It's an excellent quality piece of corduroy and was sitting there unworn, as the waistband is inexplicably small compared to the rest of it. 

So - waste not, want not - here goes!  Lay out pattern pieces, just about avoiding the seams:

Trace pattern onto skirt using chalk (the "Halloween" method. Look, ghost trousers!):

Cut! Fun! 

What can I destroy next?? Did someone mention more unworn corduroy? 

 

Nothing better for livening up black cords for a boy toddler than knee pads.

Unfortunately, I didn't think through the implications of cord-on-cord appliqué. It frays and it stretches = not that easy to neatly zig zag round the edge of a circle. Or at all, neatly or not. The eagle-eyed will have noticed that the final knee pads in the picture above are grey. In the end I made them out of an old jersey vest, after A LOT of seam ripping. I got too fed up to bother photodocumenting at that point (I bet you're disappointed).

But hey, I love seam ripping. It's an excercise in zen. Almost as good as the sewing itself*. And thankfully the brown cords have plenty of scope left for other stuff.

~

* not really. But hey, you have to embrace it or this would be the Most.Frustrating.Hobby.Ever.

Various exciting developments

It's a random roundup post! No specific projects to show off, but I have not been inactive...

1) I went to Ikea and bought boxes and sorted out all my fabric and all my clothes for recycling and all my sewing supplies. It was a MESS. Now it's not. No pictures because I am still in denial about exactly HOW MUCH fabric there turned out to be hiding in the pile.

2) This was partly in anticipation of getting a sewing corner once we have 3 new bedrooms (attic renovation in progress!). But also in preparation for this:

Which starts today and which I am utterly signed up for. It's the excuse I've been needing to dive into ...

3) This book. I ordered it a few weeks ago and have been humming and hawing over what to do first ever since. I am particularly pleased about the fact that it contains a lot of intermediate and advanced things, so I can push my limits a bit without getting too fussy about it.

4) However, I'm also going back to the most basic of basics with a (very) beginners sewing course. I'm doing it for the fun - I've been wishing I could find a sewing club in Brussels (there seem to be many, funky ones in Flanders), and then found out about this from a friendly parent at the school gates. So I get to sew with other people and chat and make new friends at the same time! And at the end of it I will have a nice apron.

5) And finally, you might correctly think that I'm not lacking in ideas or inspiration. However, I was getting very frustrated by the bottomless chasm of folders and sub-folders in which my "favourites" were organised. Utterly impossible to remember what I'd bookmarked half of it for, and totally not user friendly. So now I have this instead:

I had heard about Pinterest on various blogs over this spring/summer but decided it was a blogland fad and ignored it. Turns out everyone was right and actually it's great. Instead of bookmarking text, you bookmark pictures, and the internet being a visual kind of thing, it's a MUCH easier way to organise one's creative thoughts.

Upcoming project ideas are here, my list of useful resources for tutorials etc is here, random other ideas are here - all accessible at a glance. I've put the link to my boards in the right hand column in case anyone fancies clicking through to my link treasure trove.

~

And that's it for now. My sewing energy was a bit depleted after September's burst of productivity, but after a good bit of organising I'm ready to go again. I intend to be back soon with lot's of kids' clothes made this week!