1. faux fur vest 2. kcwc dress  3. stripe leggings 4. gingham shirt

Welcome to day two of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge! I hope you found an hour (or more) yesterday. The sewing momentum is starting to build, I can feel it. Have you seen the flickr pool yet? Some amazing handmade clothes are popping up there (and even some tutorials)!

To keep the momentum going into next week–and beyond–Liesl, of Oliver + S fame, has offered you, my lovely readers and kcwc sewers, 20% off all their paper patterns! The offer ends right after kcwc ends (midnight ET on October 15), so if there is some pattern you’ve been eyeing, now’s the time to snatch it up! The coupon code is KCWC20–just type it in when you check out!

Okay, what did I sew? An upcycled shirt and some basic lined pants for my five year old boy. I really didn’t intend for these two things to be worn together when I sewed them, but my son had other plans. Let’s start with the shirt…

pattern: Flashback Skinny Tee by Made by Rae

fabric: I sized down an old shirt of mine that never fit quite right.

sewing: The t-shirt material is the super thin jersey. I love wearing it (and so does my son) but I get nervous sewing with it. There were a few incidents where my sewing machine  decided to eat the fabric rather than sew it, but it worked out in the end. I loved choosing all the different colored ribbing to finish the shirt. Boy’s clothes you see in stores can be so serious (gray, blue, gray, blue), so it’s nice to make something silly and happy–like little boys!

pattern: My go-to pants pattern from Happy Homemade vol. 2. I’ve made it so often I just drafted a combination of the boy’s shorts pattern (i) with the girl’s pants pattern (o) for each size.

fabric: Big gingham on the outside and olive jersey on the inside!

sewing: I can sew this pattern in my sleep, which is what must of what happened because I ending up with two left legs when I sewed the lining. I didn’t mark the right side of the jersey fabric and it is hard to tell right from wrong on solid jersey. Whatever, no one is going to see it, right? Trying to get the lining to sit right in the pants was super fiddily, but now that they are sewn up you can’t tell the pants have two left legs (I hope).

He can’t at least!

1. heart leggings  2. new shirt for D  3. Lala’s fall coat 4. corduroy music class skirt

I think it is only right to start with your creations, not mine. You are the ones sewing into the wee hours of the night or in the morning–all 535 of you!  Different time zones have given some of you a head start. Others (like me) started early for one reason or another. So don’t be discouraged by the finished garments in the flickr pool already. As kcwc begins, I do want to say one thing:

Have patience with yourself!

This challenge is about putting in a little time everyday doing what we love (but may have forgotten that we love it). If you sew two right legs together, or have to unpick a giant seam, or can’t understand the directions at all, don’t freak out and go for the ice cream. Put that project aside and pick up one you are more comfortable with or one you are super excited about. Then maybe revisit the other project the next day, or ask a question on flickr (the kcwc discussion is here). We are all here to help each other and motivate each other! Okay, let’s go!

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In the spring I filled out a simple form for each of my projects and it went so well I’m going to do it again. Feel free to do the same as it makes quick work of blogging–leaving more time for sewing!

the pattern: The pattern is the apron top from Carefree Clothes for Girls. It is simple, but with many details that make it just right for my little bit sweet, little bit tough, (still) little girl. Looking back in the blog, I’ve sewn up many pattern from the book for her: a princess dress, a play dress, and a winter coat.

the fabric: The main fabric I used was drop cloth from the hardware store. The suggested fabric was sail cloth and I though drop cloth was a good stand in. The bird fabric on the pocket was leftover from another simple top I made.

the sewing: The sewing was actually more involved than it might seem. The apron has so many bits to hem–not my favorite thing in the world–so that took forever, but there were other bits that were fun. The pattern called for rivets in the pocket corners and a little scrap of leather sewn onto the front. My fabric store had rather crummy looking rivets, so I used one half of a snap instead. While I was there I found some good looking jean buttons and I used one for the back closure. Have you ever used jean buttons before? They are hammered into the fabric–super cool.

Oops, I almost forgot I made the leggings too! The pattern is the Sunki leggings by Figgy’s. The fabric was some orange interlock from my stash. And the sewing was so easy and fast that I may never buy leggings again!

I discovered Trine and her blog, Groovybaby and Mama, only recently. The leather-shouldered sweatshirt (above right) popped up on my pinterest page and I was immediately hooked (and I’ve been scheming to make one ever since). All her clothes are equally cool: vintage-y cool, super modern cool, and just straight up little kid cool. Trine took a similar path to Sophie with the Kid Pants pattern, but her construction is completely different and she added some perfectly piped pockets! Trine sews and blogs in Denmark, be sure to stop by to say hi!

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When Meg asked me if I would be interested in doing my interpretation of Dana’s Kid Pants Pattern for the pre-KCWC week I immediately accepted. I had a whole lot of ideas – and still do, but ended up with this cool and comfy sweatpant version for my 5 year old daughter, Wilma.

First I started with the legs. I wanted to make a more skinny type of pants, so I took the legs in at both seams. Then I drafted pockets to the pattern. To get the pants long enough for my daughter I lengthened the legs by a couple of inches. I also added length to the waist as I wanted the ‘drop-crotch’ style. Finally I added a waistband.

Happy sewing everyone,

Trine from Denmark

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Thanks Trine!

Nele’s work caught my eye in last spring’s kcwc and I’ve been following her blog, Spiegel Stiksel, ever since. She lives in Belgium where she makes beautifully tailored clothes for her kids. Her fabric choices always blow me away! She has a real eye for color and pattern. And today is no exception. Nele took the Kid Pant pattern and changed it up with just a bit of elastic–and some super amazing circus print fabric!

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Hello everybody! How exciting to be guest posting here!

When Meg asked me to make something from the MADE kid pants pattern, I knew immediately
what I was going to do. I’ve used this pattern before for my youngest girl.

My girl started circus school last week and needed new pants for her classes. So I got to work and
made here real circus pants. The fabric I used is from Kokka and I bought it at Vermiljoenshop last year.

Since my girl has grown since the last time I used the pattern I had to adapt it a little. So I cut the
pattern into pieces and added some extra width and length.

I also lined the pants with a black and grey striped jersey fabric for extra softness and coziness. I put
an elastic between the two layers at the ankles.

The pants are actually completely reversible. I ended up cutting and sewing a separate waist band.

Thanks for having me, Meg. I’m looking forward to sewing along next week and getting inspired.
Happy KCWC everyone!

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I am so excited to have Gail from Probably Actually on the blog today! Gail is an incredible sewer. She has made a closet full of clothes for her daughter and those clothes are impeccably made.  Now that she has a little boy on the way (congratulations, Gail!) we are in store for some classy boy duds! Instead of changing up the Kid Pants pattern, Gail embellished her pants with adorable-ness.  Check it out!

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Hello! I’m Gail from Probably Actually and I’m crazy excited to be part the pre-KCWC line up! There isn’t much I love more than making kids clothes, and it only gets better during KCWC. As you may have experienced yourself, lugging a sewing machine and serger around town to sew with friends is pretty impractical, so sewing can sometimes feel a bit solitary and anti-social. But for one week in the fall and another in the spring, Meg transforms it into just the opposite with KCWC. Suddenly we’re all on the same page, scheming about kids clothes, sewing together, and sharing our projects in the ever-inspirational Elsie Marley flickr pool. Get ready, it’s so much fun!

Anyway, today I’m here to help kick off this fall’s KCWC and show you how I jazzed up a pair of Dana’s basic Kid Pants!

While there are certainly endless possibilities for changing things up with this pattern, it also yields a great pair of pants without any adjustments at all. The pants are so simple to sew, and I love the flat front option and the wide trouser legs. I didn’t end up making any changes to the pattern itself – I used the size 2/3 downloadable pattern pieces, which worked well for my 3.5 year old (the pattern is made for kids approximately 2 to 3.5 years). There’s plenty of length built into the pattern to make nice wide hems, even when you’re at the farthest end of the pattern range like we were.

I did add a few things: Gathered pockets to the back, which I borrowed from the Oliver + S Jump Rope dress pattern (view B). Dana has a great tutorial for gathered pockets as well, if you’re looking.

And a couple of hedgehogs to the front – one at the hem,

and a mini version wrapping around the side:

Maybe you recognize the hedgehog if you’re a Mini Boden fan – it was inspired by a sweater I saw on their website awhile back. I loved it immediately, and if I were the type who bought $54 sweaters for my three-year-old, I probably would’ve skipped these pants and ordered the original. But yeah, I made my own instead.

Which wasn’t hard to do at all. I sketched the little critter out, then made eight pattern pieces.

Next, I traced each piece backwards onto Steam-a-Seam double stick fusible web, then laid those onto the wrong side of fabric scraps, cut them out, and pieced everything back together. I finished it off with a french knot for the eye. And voilà – a hedgehog was born!

Sewing around all those little pieces was a bit tedious, and might have been easier to do before the pants were fully constructed rather than after, but I didn’t have that kind of foresight at the time and it still worked out just fine. I just used a very small stitch and picked up the presser foot a lot to shift the fabric as I sewed.

That’s it! Just your basic corduroy pants adorned with woodland creatures. Thanks so, so much for having me, Meg! I can’t wait for KCWC to get rolling next week!!

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