Normally I can’t stand sewing clothes for myself.  There are many reasons…

#1. I am not a rectangle. Unlike my children, I am not shaped like piece of spaghetti. All the curvy bits make for complicated patterns that involve darts and tucks and cutting just right and actually (for once) transferring markings from the pattern to the fabric.

#2. I am not a child. Which means I cannot make a top out of 1/2 yard of whatever random fabric I have lying around. I need to buy something I like (I’m horribly picky) and I need to buy rather a lot of it (I’m horribly cheap). So more often than not I leave the fabric store with a 1/2 yard of something cute for my kids.

#3. I do not have the world’s most perfect body. I know this, I don’t dwell on it. I just try to accept myself and move on. But when you make a pattern, every way your body differs from the norm becomes hugely amplified. It’s like the damn pattern is mocking you at every turn.

#4. I do not like looking at pictures of myself. And seriously, there were like a 100 to look through just to get a few decent ones. This one has some subcategories: #4a. I make ridiculous faces when my husband takes pictures of me and #4b. Hello?! did you not realize your jeans are dirty? 

But! But! in spite of all that I hate about sewing clothes for myself, I love this shirt! I found a lovely, super neutral, sweater knit fabric in the sale bin that worked out perfectly. The pattern–a free pattern by Kristin from skirt as top–was very simple and easy to follow.  I’m happy to report the pattern did not mock me as I made it. And! And! I’ve worn it multiple times since I’ve sewed it.

This is what victory looks like, wonky seams and all.

That’s Mr. Muscles up there kissing his giant biceps and wearing his new shirt and shorts. I almost got two shirts and two pairs of shorts done for each kid, but the last pair of my daughter shorts refused to happen. Still, 5 tee shirts and 5 pairs of short is not too shabby.

And this whole outfit is self drafted!  The binding on the tank is not perfect, but it was the first time I had ever done it. I used a strip of jersey like it was bias tape to bind the neckline and sleeves. It’s very narrow and I liked the look of it so much, I used it for most of the tops I made this week. I might even feel compelled to write a tutorial, because it looks so nice when you use it with Rae’s Flashback Tee pattern.

The shorts I drafted myself because I liked the style of running shorts, but I wanted a waistband. The blog-o-world has not embraced the separate waistband and I really can’t figure out why. It’s not that much more work and it ends up looking so much nicer. Plus it makes adding pockets super easy.

Obviously, my boys like blue.

This one requested and ice cream shirt and he’s the youngest, so an ice cream shirt he got. I used the Flashback Skinny Tee pattern and bound the neckline like the tank.

I really love Bobo Choses (a kidswear clothing line) and their printed shirts are extra good. I was going for that look with these two shirts (and a few more waiting to be finished). I did them with freezer paper stencils and fabric paint. Remind me next time though to get the good paint, because the cheap tulip brand stuff is crapola–the black is really charcoal gray and it turned a muddy brown in spots when I ironed it. Lame! At least he doesn’t mind.

The shorts are, boring boring, the pattern I always make from Happy Homemade vol 2. But super exciting news: Happy Homemade vol 2 is coming out in English this November! Woo Hoo! I smell a sew-a-long.

Did you sew along this summer’s kcw? Follow along? Either way stop by the kcw blog to see today’s featured clothes. Happy KCW (and later this week for the big wrap up)!

I’m over at a happy stitch today for her new series fail friday. I was so happy that Melissa asked me to contribute, because crafty/sewing blogs really need to talk about mistakes more. The pretty pictures are nice, but everybody screws up sometimes! Failures are hard to own up to, but honestly they are a lot more interesting and a hell of a lot funnier than perfectly perfect projects all the time. So go check out my post about my kcwc double fail!

1. faux fur vest 2. kcwc dress  3. stripe leggings 4. gingham shirt

Welcome to day two of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge! I hope you found an hour (or more) yesterday. The sewing momentum is starting to build, I can feel it. Have you seen the flickr pool yet? Some amazing handmade clothes are popping up there (and even some tutorials)!

To keep the momentum going into next week–and beyond–Liesl, of Oliver + S fame, has offered you, my lovely readers and kcwc sewers, 20% off all their paper patterns! The offer ends right after kcwc ends (midnight ET on October 15), so if there is some pattern you’ve been eyeing, now’s the time to snatch it up! The coupon code is KCWC20–just type it in when you check out!

Okay, what did I sew? An upcycled shirt and some basic lined pants for my five year old boy. I really didn’t intend for these two things to be worn together when I sewed them, but my son had other plans. Let’s start with the shirt…

pattern: Flashback Skinny Tee by Made by Rae

fabric: I sized down an old shirt of mine that never fit quite right.

sewing: The t-shirt material is the super thin jersey. I love wearing it (and so does my son) but I get nervous sewing with it. There were a few incidents where my sewing machine  decided to eat the fabric rather than sew it, but it worked out in the end. I loved choosing all the different colored ribbing to finish the shirt. Boy’s clothes you see in stores can be so serious (gray, blue, gray, blue), so it’s nice to make something silly and happy–like little boys!

pattern: My go-to pants pattern from Happy Homemade vol. 2. I’ve made it so often I just drafted a combination of the boy’s shorts pattern (i) with the girl’s pants pattern (o) for each size.

fabric: Big gingham on the outside and olive jersey on the inside!

sewing: I can sew this pattern in my sleep, which is what must of what happened because I ending up with two left legs when I sewed the lining. I didn’t mark the right side of the jersey fabric and it is hard to tell right from wrong on solid jersey. Whatever, no one is going to see it, right? Trying to get the lining to sit right in the pants was super fiddily, but now that they are sewn up you can’t tell the pants have two left legs (I hope).

He can’t at least!

Yesterday’s outfit was very subdued, but today we’re going color block crazy! I am very happy with how this whole outfit turned out. I didn’t imagine the skirt and the top going together when I made them, but they do! Michael Kors would say it’s very on trend (then Nina Garcia would tear it apart) and I suppose it is, but it’s still little kid too.

the pattern: ayashe blouse pattern by figgy’s

the fabric: vintage sheet

the sewing: For as complicated as this shirt looks, it wasn’t all that difficult. I did have to wrestle with the collar a bit, but it turned out well enough. My fabric cutting can get kind of sloppy and the collar’s measurements need to be exactly right to work. Next time I’ll pay a bit more attention when I’m cutting it out. There will be a next time, because really this was supposed to be a muslin. I made the 6/7 size for my 6 1/2 girl and it just fits, but I’m guessing it won’t by the end of the summer. The only thing I changed was to finish the sleeves in bias tape. Oh and I skipped the elastic at the bottom too.

the pattern: I didn’t really use a pattern, but kind of used this skirt as a guide.

the fabric: The top part is from an old shirt, the orange is some weird, slinky, cottony stuff I picked up at the thrift store, and the pockets are quilting cotton. Every bit came from my scrap bin.

the sewing: I saw this photo of a color block dress a while back on pinterest and immediately wanted to make a similar skirt or dress for my daughter. I picked through my scrap bin and came across the orange and light blue, which I loved together, but had very little of either. I pieced them together like a quilt and slapped some pretty aqua pockets on top. I fussed with the ratio of light blue to orange for far too long. Finally I said screw it, sewed elastic in, and called it done.

If you follow me on twitter or facebook you know already, but this is the biggest kcwc yet!  With 640 participants, not only is it the biggest kcwc, but it is almost twice as big as any we’ve ever had! When I ask you get to get the word out, wow! you really get the word out there!  You guys are awesome. The flickr pool is starting to fill up and any minute now it’s going to explode with amazing kid clothes. Here are today’s beauties:

1. me so crazy vintage twirl skirt

2. figgy’s sunki tunic

3. cars board shorts

4. houndstooth cardigan

edited to add: oops, just check the flickr pool and it already exploded.