You were expecting another lovely guest post, I know. Somehow I forgot to schedule someone for Tuesday and then double booked Wednesday. Oops! Actually this gives me the opportunity to ask you something. Last fall’s kcwc we had 360 participants and last spring there were 450 people sewing! This spring we are almost up to 300, but I know we can do better than that.

So I am calling on you to call out all the sewers out there!

• If you are on facebook share the spring kcwc link: http://www.elsiemarley.com/kids-clothes-week-spring-2012.html 
• If you are on twitter, slap a hashtag on it #kcwc
• If you have a blog, blog about your plans or your piles of fabric or just tell people to sign up!
• If you are on flickr, join the elsiemarley group and get all your flickr friends on board!
• If you have friends with kids who sew, email them and tell them to join!
• Call your mom and tell her to tell all of her friends!

Let’s make this kcwc bigger than ever. The more people there are sewing next week, the more people there are motivating you, the more you’ll get done!  Ok, go!

KCWC gets started next Monday already! Do you have a plan? a list? a giant pile of fabrics on your ironing board? Before we are all up to our eyeballs in half finished garments next week, I thought I’d show off some beautifully finished pieces this week. Five very talented sewers (and bloggers) have agreed to do have a little pre-kcwc sewing party. I gave them all the same pattern–the Flashback Skinny Tee by Rae (thanks Rae!)–and I’m excited to see what everyone comes up with.

Today the lovely Anna from Noodlehead has popped in with two springy, matchy-matchy cuties.  This shirt, it seems, was made for dancing!

Hey! Kids Clothes Week Challenge is back,  I’m happy to be guest posting today!  I got to try out Made by Rae‘s Flashback Tee pattern!  I can tell you that if you have children in your life at all, you really should have this pattern in your arsenal.  Rae has every detail covered, so if you’re new to knits, you can jump right in and feel at home.  Seriously.

I did struggle with picking out my fabrics, I’ve got a huge tub of knits that I have stashed, for no real reason.  The only thing is that I didn’t really have anything that my girls liked.  Except this one print.  I love it!  I ordered it from Girl Charlee a long time ago and have been saving it for the perfect thing, this was it.  I made both a 5T and a 3T long sleeved out of 1 yard.  And if I ever complain that my kids wear matching clothes more than I’d like, you can kindly refer me to this post and tell me it’s my own fault.

Oh and I also busted my twin needle right before I went to thread it. Bummer.  Lucky for me there’s more than one way to hem a shirt, love that about sewing (and Rae‘s lovely tips).

I can’t wait to see all the awesome kids’ clothes coming up, thanks for having me us Meg!

1. quicky a-line skirts
2. euro swim trunks (pdf pattern)
3. boy’s tie
4. pieced scallop applique

I have piles of fabric and patterns and half started garments all over my kitchen table. There is too much for me to finish in one week, but I keep finding more things I want to make for my kids.  There are so many lovely things that people have made and even made tutorials for it’s hard to not want to sew. Here are a few tutorials that caught my eye this week (and one awesome pattern). I found these and so many more (too many?) on Pinterest. I’ve organized my boards a bit from last year:

• tutorials for sewing kid clothes
• kid clothes [handmade]
• kid clothes [mass produced]

1. brombeertje (care bear hoodie)
2. iro tee
3. marimekko tee
4. figgy’s ayashe top

These lovelies are all handmade. I’ll be posting more tutorials and handmade goodness on my pinterest boards all week, so follow me there if you don’t already. And leave your pinterest handle–if you have one–in the comments section. Or if you have a favorite tutorials leave that too! We are all hungry for new patterns!

Did you miss me? We went on a short notice, laid back, lovely vacation to my family’s cabin last week. There was not much to do (no internet!) except take walks in the woods and…

look at funny shaped buildings,

sit around the kitchen table, and maybe do a little sewing.

It was so quiet and so nice to be away for a bit. Sorry to all of you waiting for an email–it’s coming! And yay! for all of you who signed up for kcwc: 232 so far! I’ve got a list of what I want to make, but I need to edit it down to the things I can actually make. What about you? Do you have a list yet?

p.s. all these photos are from my instagram feed, but you can view (and comment and follow and favorite) them online at web.stagram.com.  Even more elsie marley, just what you wanted :)

Here is a little project to spring up your home.  I made this pillow in springy greens, but any colors would of course work. Ticking would look very nice, with the stripes going opposite ways. The pillow is based on a simple quilt square (does it have a name?) and comes together super fast.  Happy Spring!

color block pillow

materials:

• two squares of fabric slightly larger than your pillow
• square pillow form
• zipper slightly smaller than your pillow

directions:

1.  Cut your fabric 2 inches larger than your pillow. For example: my pillow was 13in square, so I cut my fabric into 15in squares.

2. Put the squares together, right sides facing. Using a straight edge, draw a line diagonally across the fabric. No one will see the line, so you can use a regular pencil or pen.

3. Sew 1/4in from the line. First sew on one side of the line, and then on the other. You will have two seams, one on each side of the line. This is shown more clearly in the photo below.

4. Cut directly on the line you drew.

5. Ta Da! You now have two squares. Open them up and press the seam to one side–the side with the darker colored fabric.

6. Now you have a choice. You can line the squares up, right sides facing, with the seams also alined like I did in the photo above. Or you can arrange it so the triangles are oriented differently on each side–the seams will not line up, but will make an X. Play around with it and see what you like. But unless you have a clear fiberglass couch no one is going to see both sides at once.

7. I am not going to explain how to do the zipper, because there is a good tutorial that does it already–Sewing 101: Zippered Throw Pillows. This is the method I use for putting zippers in pillows and it is dead easy. There are other ways that look a bit nicer, but this one is super fast and hard to screw up. I encourage you to try it if you haven’t used zippers before–you will succeed, I know it!

8. Try the pillow on your pillow form. It might need some taking in. I had to take mine off and sew it a bit smaller to make it fit. Hey look, you’re done! And you made a super chic, color block, geometric, trendy as all get out pillow. Your couch will thank you.