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!

…just a few updates for this Friday morning. The Sally Dress pattern giveaway ends tonight! Make sure to put your name in the hat!

If you don’t win the giveaway, you can always buy the pattern. But why buy 1 pattern, when you can buy 26 (for 29.95)?! The Sally Dress pattern is included in the amazing Sew Fab sewing bundle sale–along with many, many other fantastic children’s wear patterns! You can find all the details about the Sew Fab sale on the Kid’s Clothes Week blog.

There are other fantastic things happening on the KCW blog too, if you haven’t been following. The Sewing Rabbit team stopped by last week with inspiration for fall sewing, a beautiful tutorial, and a sneak peek into Jessica’s KCW sewing plans.

This week Celina Bailey from Petit a Petit and Family is our guest blogger. She has hit it out of the park with the fall kids wear trends, some amazing accessories she’s planning to sew for KCW, and today there is a super cool tutorial just for you! Next week Vanessa from LBG Studio will be our guest blogger–and she’s got some good stuff in store! Be sure to check back next week!

Until then, have a great weekend!

 ******GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED******

Shannon from luv in the mommyhood asked if I’d like to sew up a version of her new pattern, the Sally Dress. How could I say no? It’s a simple dress with no closures, super big pockets, and three variations of sleeve length (zero, short, and elbow). The perfect staple dress, really.

But what fabric to use? I knew I wanted something for winter. I wandered around the fabric shop trying to find the right material: twill was too stiff, flannel was too clingy, suiting was nice, but too expensive. I kept coming back to the corduroy, but my mom jammed me into so many awful corduroy jumpers when I was a kid (sorry, mom) that I just couldn’t do it.

So I  left the shop empty handed. I was all set to make a polka dot version out of some homespun fabric I had on hand. When I spotted this huge, raspberry purple, wool skirt in my stash. I picked it up for pennies at the thrift store ages ago. The plan was to make it into a smaller skirt for me, but there was just enough to eek out a Sally Dress from it!

The only thing left from that skirt is the waistband. I used every little bit of fabric that I could!

When I was just about done, there was a brief moment of panic when the lighting made the dress look like a bad waitress uniform (specifically, a Perkins uniform–if you live in the states). When I brought it out of the depths of my basement studio, thankfully, it was a lovely little raspberry jumper again.

If you make the sleeveless version, there is only 1 page of the pattern to print out. One Page! You get to skip all the pdf pattern puzzling, but there is some mental origami that goes into making that bodice. Don’t worry, Shannon holds your hand the whole way. And in the end you have a beautifully lined bodice!

It seemed a shame to waste the (already hemmed, perfectly matched) skirt lining, so I lined the skirt part of the dress as well. Now it swishes and twirls with the best of them!

But sadly, there wasn’t enough fabric to make the awesome pockets on the Sally Dress. I used the last little scraps to make some in seam pockets, but it’s not the same.  Still, it’s a great little jumper.

How would you like to win a copy of the Sally Dress pattern? I knew you would.

 ******GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED******

The winner is #19, Erin! Congratulations!

******GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED******

To enter the giveaway:

* Leave a comment about what fabric you would use for the Sally Dress.

For additional entries:

* follow elsiemarley on Bloglovin, Feedly, or by email. Then leave a comment telling me you did (or already do).

* like elsiemarley on Facebook. Then leave a comment telling me you did (or already do).

* like luvinthemommyhood on Facebook. Then, that’s right,  leave a comment telling me you did (or already do).

Giveaway ends Friday October 4 at 9pm (central time). Good Luck!

Don’t forget to follow along with the rest of the Sally Dress pattern tour to see all the different versions of this lovely dress!

* Shannon kindly gave me a copy of the sally dress pattern in exchange for this post. My opinions are, as always, my own.