Mr. Muscles up there is pretty psyched about his new outfit, and honestly so am I. One super soft hoodie and one pair of crazy town pants and kcw outfit #2 is done and dusted.

First let’s talk about the pants:

PATTERN: Jacob pants pattern by Zonen 09. Obviously I love me some crazy town super flares. This pattern is just fun to make. I made a faux fly again (like yesterday) with piped patch pockets. I omitted the back pockets, because I was starting to go blind staring at this fabric.

FABRIC: the fabric is home dec-y stuff from JoAnn’s. I think it’s made by HGTV.  It had some sort of coating on it, because it was meant for outdoor use, but that seemed to have come out in the wash. Unfortunately, it faded a ton in the washer too. But I think I can safely say this print still pops.

SEWING: The sewing went super smoothly. Patterns are just twice as fast the second time around.

now for the hoodie:

PATTERN: flashback skinny tee by Rae. I made one size up (a 7 for my 6 year old) and it’s perfect. I added a hood, using Rae’s tutorial. I finished the edging around the hood and neckline in a different way and it’s eh. Okay, but just eh. Do it the way Rae wants you too. It’s a little fiddly, but looks better. I left the end of the sleeves raw, then rolled them up and tacked them with a few stitches. It’s a little half assed, but I like how it looks. I’ve noticed a few of the shirts I’ve bought lately do this. Hey they’re lazy like me!

FABRIC: oh this fabric is a dream. It’s a thin, but still cozy, sweatshirt material. It’s a beautiful dark teal color and a little loopy on the wrong side, heathered on the right. Ack! I love it. I think I got it from lowpricefabric.com, but I can’t find anything similar there now. I wish I could because I’d like to make myself something out of it.

SEWING: the sewing went well. Attaching the hood was easier than I thought, but finishing it was a lot harder. I’m not happy with how the placket turned out. Next time I think I’ll make a bias tape tube (circle?) the length of the opening and sew continuously around the placket + the hood. Would that work? I’m not great with plackets. But! But! I did sew those buttons that are on the placket with my sewing machine. WooHoo!

Outfit #2 is done, I might just be able to eek out #3.

Here it is day 4 of KCW and finally I have something for you. This outfit was actually finished on day 2, but I had to wait for the sun to come out to get some decent shots. And sheesh the sun sets early these days.

Enough small talk, let’s get to it!

THE PATTERN: Jacob Pants by Zonen 09. I’ve gushed about this pattern maker before, but I hadn’t sewn up one of Sharon’s patterns until now. I have to say these pants live up to [my] hype. The pattern has lots and lots of pictures, which is wonderful if you are a visual learner like me. There are also some lovely little details: the pin tucks, of course, and tiny butt darts :)

THE FABRIC: Stamped by Ellen Luckett Baker. I scored the last bit of this triangle print when sew mama sew was clearing out their fabric store. When I saw these bad boys, I knew I had to make some triangle pants of my own.

THE SEWING: The sewing went very smoothly. The directions, as I said, are very clear and very customizable. I went with a faux fly and because I couldn’t find buttonhole elastic, just regular sewn in elastic. I added piping starting at the pocket edge and continuing down the side. I totally stole this idea from someone, but can’t remember who.[edited to add: I stole it from sew bidoo] I didn’t have any cording, so I folded a bit of yellow fabric (from this old kcw project) in half and inserted it between the layers. It’s not the same width all the way down, but it’ll do. I’m actually kind of bummed the yellow matches so well–it sort of disappears into the print.

THE PATTERN: tried and true Flashback Tee by Rae.

THE FABRIC: My youngest only goes half days to school, so he gets stuck running all the errands with me. We end up at the fabric store quite a bit. He spotted this green jersey there one day and proceeded to carry the bolt around the whole store.

THE SEWING: The sewing went well. I made a few changes. First I drafted some shoulder patches (has the fashion world come up with a clever name for these yet?).  They were a bit more fidley than I imagined, but worked out well in the end. I love, love how they look. I also finished the neckline a bit differently: sewing the binding to the wrong side of the neckline and then folding it over and stitching it down.

It’s hard to see, but I also sewed a little star as the tag in the back. I’ll try to take some better pictures, because I’m quite in love with this bit too. Super successful project–he won’t even take it off!

Day one of KCW and I’ve got absolutely nothing to show you. Not even a stack of fabric! I’m going in cold, very cold. Last week, my husband and I went on a very lovely trip to Montreal (sans kids!) for our 10th anniversary. We ate amazing food and drank coffee and walked around the beautiful city, but there was no pattern taping or cutting or anything much sewing related at all. Though I did sneak in some fabric shopping with Celina Bailey.

So I’ve got nothing, but you! you are on the ball. I am so in love with that skirt and legwarmer combo by Mareika. If anything can get the creative juices flowing (or the sewing machine chugging) it’s a peek at all the projects you’ve sewn.  I might just be inspired enough for an outfit or two by the weeks end, who knows.

Go check out the KCW blog for more beautiful garments to inspire you. And then turn off your computer and sew!

That’s Mr. Muscles up there kissing his giant biceps and wearing his new shirt and shorts. I almost got two shirts and two pairs of shorts done for each kid, but the last pair of my daughter shorts refused to happen. Still, 5 tee shirts and 5 pairs of short is not too shabby.

And this whole outfit is self drafted!  The binding on the tank is not perfect, but it was the first time I had ever done it. I used a strip of jersey like it was bias tape to bind the neckline and sleeves. It’s very narrow and I liked the look of it so much, I used it for most of the tops I made this week. I might even feel compelled to write a tutorial, because it looks so nice when you use it with Rae’s Flashback Tee pattern.

The shorts I drafted myself because I liked the style of running shorts, but I wanted a waistband. The blog-o-world has not embraced the separate waistband and I really can’t figure out why. It’s not that much more work and it ends up looking so much nicer. Plus it makes adding pockets super easy.

Obviously, my boys like blue.

This one requested and ice cream shirt and he’s the youngest, so an ice cream shirt he got. I used the Flashback Skinny Tee pattern and bound the neckline like the tank.

I really love Bobo Choses (a kidswear clothing line) and their printed shirts are extra good. I was going for that look with these two shirts (and a few more waiting to be finished). I did them with freezer paper stencils and fabric paint. Remind me next time though to get the good paint, because the cheap tulip brand stuff is crapola–the black is really charcoal gray and it turned a muddy brown in spots when I ironed it. Lame! At least he doesn’t mind.

The shorts are, boring boring, the pattern I always make from Happy Homemade vol 2. But super exciting news: Happy Homemade vol 2 is coming out in English this November! Woo Hoo! I smell a sew-a-long.

Did you sew along this summer’s kcw? Follow along? Either way stop by the kcw blog to see today’s featured clothes. Happy KCW (and later this week for the big wrap up)!

I don’t have any finished clothes to show you today, but I do have a bunch of stencils. I’m not a big fan of Things On Shirts, but my kids are. Freezer paper stencils to the rescue!! I’m worried the ice cream will look weird, but I’m excited for the beetle. Any freezer paper stencils in your plans?