Welcome to the first day of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge! I am so happy you are sewing along with me and 550 others. If you are new here I want you to know that even though the challenge is to sew for one hour a day, each day, for a week, not everyone sticks exactly to the plan. There are some that work a little bit on one garment all week and others who try to finish a garment every day! It doesn’t matter how many successful garments come out of this week; all that matters is that you sewed, or cut fabric, or traced patterns a little bit every day.

I try to use the challenge to have something finished to show you each day. That means of course I’ve been sewing for a few weeks  (and I’m not nearly done).  Don’t think I’m some magically motivated blogger who just sews happily into the night. No, I was very much dragging my feet at the beginning, but slowly I started getting more excited about what I was sewing and then started to think up new things I could make. And in the end I cut out way more patterns than I could ever finish. That’s the beauty of kcwc: just a little bit each day and suddenly this creative energy comes out of nowhere.

Okay enough already, what about the skirt up there?

the pattern: ayasha skirt pattern by Figgys

the fabric: I used an old linen curtain from ikea that I dyed gray. I dyed it about a year ago meaning to use it to make a summer skirt for me, but I couldn’t resist making matching spring clothes for my kids (the boys got pants).  As I was finishing up the skirt, we put on our Sound of Music record just to make the curtain-clothes-making-ridiculousness complete.

the sewing: The pattern was the just right amount of challenge for me. There were pleats, pockets, a waistband, a button placket, and buttonholes–pretty involved for a little skirt! The instructions were clear and very concise, sometimes a little too concise. There were steps I had to read 8 or 10 times to understand exactly what I need to do, but now I know how to put on a button placket! Funny, the button placket is probably the most poorly sewn bit on the skirt, but it’s the bit I’m most proud of. Everything else turned out great. Miraculously, the buttonholes even came out perfect! I didn’t really change much, except I put a bit of purple in the pockets and used buttonhole elastic in the back. The skirt fits her just right and looks like it will until the fall (if she doesn’t grow too too much).

There are a few eager beavers the have some beautifully finished garments in the flickr pool already:

1. new dress for Mila

2. kcwc day one

3. linen shorts for Amelie

4. birdwing top

What are you doing on the computer anyway? Go sew!

That last potholder grew out of a need for mindfulness in my life. This one, on the other hand, was sewn out of jealously. If you follow the lovely Kayanna on instagram (@junecraft) you already know about the amazing quilt she’s making. Every other day or so another quilt square sewn in bold colors and milky pastels would pop up on my feed and I would freak out. I mean look at this!

Quilting is not my strong suit, but the block was too pretty to pass up. Freshly Pieced has a fantastic tutorial on how to put this block together. She also has a template to print out that you sew directly onto so everything comes out perfectly. I did not print it out (as you probably can tell). The finished quilt square was much too big for a potholder, so I cut the pieces much smaller. Why I didn’t just shrink the template too is beyond me. The lazy man works twice as hard–and stays up sewing late into the night.

This kind of quilt square is incredibly fiddly, but also immensely satisfying when it comes together. In the future I might even have the urge–and possibly the patience–to make a whole quilt. My scrap pile would like that time to come sooner rather than later. Or maybe I could go into the potholder business, because–just so you know–it’s pretty much potholders from here on out.

We are going to the lake next week to swim and sit on the beach and do lots and lots of nothing.  I saw some beautiful linen towels online and thought I could pick up a couple yards of linen and make my own to take with us. I wanted to get 100% linen, but this striped rayon/linen blend was too awesome to pass up. I got 2 1/4 yards, left the salvages as is and hemmed the raw edges, then using this helpful tutorial (by the fabulous cal patch) I crocheted right into the fabric.

The edging pattern comes from the book Crocheting on the Edge* by Nicky Epstein, which has tons of edging patterns (duh) all given in both charted and written directions, which for me is super helpful.

*I have joined the amazon associates program, so if you follow this link and then buy the book you will also be putting a few pennies in the elsie marley cup. I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but been quite hesitant to because I don’t want to get all advertise-y on your ass.  But I’m not going to link to any random thing–wow, that be annoying.  I have books that I genuinely love and want to tell you about and, all told, the profits I’ll make will probably be enough to buy a cup of coffee.  So if you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee :) you can go over to my amazon book store and check it out!

Back to the project: I obviously haven’t finished the pattern yet–I have to put the fringes on, do the other side of the blanket and block it. It is a little more shabby chic then I would have liked, but next time I’ll just make the edging a little simpler.  The “yarn” I used cotton twine and I freakin love it: it’s smooth, just the right thickness (I’d say worsted weight size, but I could be talking out by ass here) and cheap as all get out.  I have already started another–bigger–project with it. And with any luck it will be full of sand and finished by the time we get back.

Sorry. I didn’t mean to be gone for an entire month!  Honestly, it’s a little hard to get back on the horse. But better just to jump right back into it (or onto it, if we are still in the horse metaphor), so here goes.

These linen pants were inspired by a fantastic pair little boy pants that popped up on flickr during kids clothes week (see below). I was working on a couple patterns from Carefree Clothes for Girls during kids clothes week and I thought those pants translated that aesthetic–rough around the edges, but still chic; old timey, but modern at the same time–perfectly.  They are made by little bird designs, who also makes some super cute things and sells them on etsy.

I made my pants, well my son’s pants, out of this nice striped linen from Joann’s that I had been saving for another project that just never happened. There was only about a yard, so I had to cut the cuffs against the grain, which actually turned out to be a nice detail.  I did an elastic waist, but I do think that big drawstring on the other pants is more Huck Finn.

Of course right after I washed them my iron broke, which is why they are a mess in the picture–who am I kidding? they probably would be have been a mess regardless.  So are there any good iron recomendations out there? because I can barely sew without one! And I need to get a new one quick, because I’ve been eyeing that same linen fabric in brown for this pattern I picked up:

Granted I have no idea if I can sew this, but we’ll see (it’s V1175, if you feel like sewing along with me). I actually have a few things I sewed for myself I want to show you, but I haven’t figured out how to take a decent photo of myself in them.

And just like that I’m back on the horse.

I’ve been thinking about making this pillowcase for a long while now (a lot of my posts start like that I know, but it takes me a loooong time from coming up with an idea to actually executing it).  It’s wrong in many ways: the size is off, the pocket is a little too small, there are too many pattern pieces, and for some reason my camera refused to focus on it.  But at least the idea is out of my head finally. I wanted to make a small pillowcase with a patchwork pocket–my scraps box is literally overflowing–and a little friend to go in it. I made it in linen because linen pillowcases are awesome and because little heads seem to sweat a lot more then big ones, but if I sell these, which is the plan, they would be too expensive in linen. So maybe I’ll do some simple embroidered linen ones and do the pocket pillowcases in cotton.  The pillow is about 15″ by 7″ (or something like that). I like to use these little ones for my kids. They fit nicely in a crib and my daughter, who is in a bed, likes to have a big one and a little one. Does anyone else use these? Should I not make little ones and just make the standard size? I need your insight here. Go all out and tell me what you think of this. Good or bad, it’s incredibly helpful.

I am still stuck on a name for the bag in the last post. I’m leaning towards “the finder’s keeper,” which 2 people suggested or the much simpler “the little bag.” I’m going to visit my family for 10 days, so while I’m internetless in the woods I’ll think it over. Thank you for all your suggestions: I think I might start calling my purse my “cache stash” because it’s so awesome.