This is to let you know it’s not all wine and roses and finished garments in these parts. The photo is from a couple days ago, but I am well on my way to recreating it today. And tomorrow and the next day. Kids clothes week is a full week, not a work week, don’t ya know.   If you can take more than an hour on the weekend, fantastic, if you can only just squeeze out an hour each day that’s fine too. But you’ve got lots of hemming to do, I bet, so plan accordingly! Nothing like finding a beautiful pair of homemade pants jammed back behind stacks of fabric because you never got to hemming them–not like I would ever do that :)

1. playdate dress 2. dancing pants 3. new lined pants 4. reedreeder

You guys are a lot less lazy than me when it comes to actually finishing the garment, I mean look at these lovely pieces! Those pants in the bottom corner make me want to go to the thrift store and pick up some grandpa pants to size down for my son. What about you? Do you sew something start to finish or in fits and starts? Have you completed one garment this week or there a bunch lying around waiting to be finished?

One last bit of goodness from the kcwc flickr pool. Jean made these beautiful wings for her daughter, based on these gorgeous pictures and this tutorial. I love how her daughter is practically in flight! Jean said she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give her children wings. You can read all about it in her post about making them on her blog, The Artful Parent.

Just some simple board shorts today. Though now that I look at them, they look more like old timey golfing slacks. Am I subconsciously trying to get my son on the course before he’s even held a golf club? He can rock the style without playing the game, right?

The pattern is from Happy Homemade vol. 2 again. Lots more of them cut out and ready to sew up, too. I told you you were going to get sick of this pattern. It’s got simple, easy to put together slash pockets and a totally useless, but awesome fake fly. Seriously, I love the fake fly. Makes the pants look a little more pulled together, a little less becky homecky.

1.garden party frock 2. sun hat 3. skirt that swings 4. smocked sundress

oops! I realized as I was putting this collection up that it’s all girl clothes today, but there are some fantastic boy clothes in the flickr mix too. Like this slammin red parachute jacket and these stylish jeans and this adorable baby sweater. I find that boys are a bit harder to sew for the in the summer. Maybe it’s because all those easy, summery dresses are calling to me to sew them up. What about you? Are you sewing frilly dresses or twenty pairs of boy shorts?

I forget it’s not always making the clothes that’s hard, because sometimes the sewing goes swimmingly, but it’s the taking a picture that is the trying part. Oh if you could see my daughter’s crabby face in this picture, well actually better you can’t.  How are my children going to turn out, growing up thinking it’s normal to take pictures of pants (and feet, and cupcakes, and anything else random and bloggy)?

Anyway, the skirt. I wanted to do it in a dark shirting fabric (sort of like my dress), but the fabric store was cleaned out when I went. So I used this cotton seersuckery stripe. The pattern is from another Japanese pattern book I love, Everyday Bottoms.

I added the secret shorts. Figuring out which sides should face each other when I was sewing the two together made my brain break out into a sweat, but it worked out in the end. After I was done I remembered Ellen has a quick little tutorial on a skirt with built in shorts (a skort?). So no brain sweat for you. Turns out the skirt is actually a little long to require shorts underneath, but hey, now I know how to do it. And it’s not hard!

1.leah tunic 2. strong-man 3. elephant pants 4. top and trousers

Look at the amazing stuff that you are making! Check out the flickr group for even more good stuff. I have to admit the laundry is starting to take over the house, but I have plans for more pants and short and I traced a button up shirt pattern, which I think might be going a little too far. How about you? Are you still going strong ?

The lovely ladies from my craft night came over last night for some beers and a little sewing (the two go together right?). If it hadn’t been for them I would have given up after the first hour of trying to rethread my serger. Seriously. Who designed that damn thing? But they saved the day! And I was able to turn a stained tablecloth into some rockin pants.

I used the same pattern that I did for these pants and these shorts. Except I skipped the back pockets and added cuffs. You are going to see a lot of this pattern this week, because my son likes it and my daughter too. It’s from Happy Homemade Vol. 2, which I can’t recommend enough (if you are down with making patterns written in Japanese). I’ve made a ton of clothes out of it and they’ve all turned out well and been worn a lot.

1. lace dress refashion 2. 008 3. 006 4. …went sailing by ‘wrap’ top

And look at what you guys have made! Adorbs. Obviously I’m partial to my knot shorts pattern, but you have to admit they are pretty darn cute in gingham. There is so much good stuff in the flickr group already and day two isn’t even over yet! You guys rock.

Yee! Haw! Today is the first day of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge! Last year, I had my own little kcwc a week early so I could have a finished garment to show you each day, but I’m playing it fast and loose with the rest of you this time around. The only thing I’ve done is pick out the fabric I want to use for each kid. Sorry for the crummy photos, I snapped them quickly before I headed out to the fabric store to stock up on elastic. Then what do you know? There was a bunch of awesome fabric there, which is in the dryer as we speak. So my hour today might be all ironing. How about you, did you get all the pattern tracing and fabric cutting out of the way before today or are you going in cold like me? Anyway you do it is fine as long as you find that hour to do it!

We are 400+ strong this spring! So the flickr group is already blowing up. And I’ve got tutorials and inspiration over on my pinterest page if you get stuck. Ready? Set. Go!