It is day one of Kid’s Clothes Week! Because I was at Alt Design Summit for most of last week, I am going in cold. Very cold. Today I spent my hour staring at fabric. I used to think standing there staring at fabric was a waste of time, but I’ve discovered it’s an important part of the process. If I skip this step I’m never quite satisfied with the end product.

If I let myself stare and don’t stop myself, wonderful things happen.  A lot of the times I  get my own way and screw things up either because of self doubt or comparing myself to others. Today I trusted my judgement and chose whatever fabric jumped out at me. And look what jumped: Pink!? I’ve never been a pink girl, but my daughter has been choosing it more often these days. Looking at this pile, a salmon-y pink paired with orange is actually kind of awesome. Throw in some gold polka dots and it’s time to get this KCW party started.

I was tracing and cutting, and tracing and cutting, and I think I traced and cut too much. I thought I’d take it easy with this summertime KCW–a shirt or two, maybe a quick pair of shorts. Well, that turned into a shirt and pair of shorts for all 3 kids, make that two of each for everyone. And then, ooo that dress is cute, maybe I’ll make that too. Oh and I have those other projects I should probably finish. Which is why his large pile is staring at me.

In reality, this week I’d like to finish these four tee shirts for sure and….

and these four pairs of shorts. We’ll see…

Go check out my post on the kcw blog to see who got featured on day one. And keep up with all the kcw sewers on the new kcw community website!  Happy KCW!

Kid’s Clothes Week has started! We will be featuring beautiful handmade clothes everyday on the kcw blog. There are already some lovely things to see on day one!  In the past, I’ve tried to have a new garment to show you each day, but this time I’m going to do something a bit different.

We like to talk about the process, but tend to only show the finished product. The finished part is pretty, the seam ripping and the swearing not so much. I wanted to take this week to break down a project into all its parts. Kid’s Clothes Week says to take an hour each day to focus on making kid’s clothes, so each post this week will be how I spent that hour. And by sheer luck I chose a project that took me a little over 7 hours.

Hour #1 :

1. printing out the pattern: I’m using the Fairy Tale Dress pattern by Oliver + S. This is my first pattern by them (I know, I know) and I chose it because I wanted something complex but totally clear. Also, my daughter’s first communion is at the end of kcw and she need a dress for the occasion. It’s true  Oliver + S patterns are expensive, but when I saw this beautiful dress on flickr made with the same pattern I knew the pattern would be used for years to come.

I purchased the pdf version of the pattern because none of the shops in my area had it in stock (and I didn’t plan ahead). Instead of printing and taping all the millions of pages together, I sent the pdf to my local print shop. They printed it out on one giant ream of paper. It was slightly more expensive than I hoped ($12) but it also saved me a ton of time. I was in and out of the shop in 5 minutes.

2. tracing the pattern: I could have just cut it out, but that seemed too wasteful. I’m starting to warm up to tracing patterns. Armed with a hot cup of coffee, I might even say I enjoy it.

3. ironing fabric: ironing on the other hand, not so enjoyable. For a size 7, the fairy tale dress pattern requires almost 6 yards of fabric. Crazy, right?! I was lucky to hit Joann’s on a 50% off sale day. The main fabric is a pretty swiss dot ($4/yard), the contrasting fabric (for the collar and bow) is a sheet I got at the thrift store long ago, and the lining is simple white shirting ($3/yard). I wanted to do it in eyelet, but I had no idea eyelet was $20/yard! I love the fabrics I ended up using, but they wrinkle easily. The ironing took me at least an hour if not more!

Stay tuned tomorrow for hour #2. It will be riveting, I’m sure!