I’m going to post a round up each day this week of inspiring handmade clothes and tutorials for fall and winter things too. The schedule should go something like this:

• monday: fall and winter clothes
• tuesday: coats, hoodies, sweaters
• wednesday: warm things for baby
• thursday: hats, mittens, scarves
• friday: halloween costumes

If you have a tutorial that you particularly love and it fits (pretty much) into one of the categories above you can email me (elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com) and I can try to fit it in the post or you can save it and put it in the comments on the day of the post-subject it fits under. Get it? I’m trying to keep it so we can all use these inspiration and tutorial posts as reference next week when it’s so late we have to choose between thinking and sewing. So tell us all the awesome clothes tutorials you know in the comments and email me the rest. And if you haven’t signed up yet, what are you waiting for?

beautiful handmade fall and winter clothes

1. Untitled, 2. birthday party dress, 3. flannel pants, 4. SOLD Funky Fall Green Repurposed Wool Sweater 12 months, 5. pants pants pants pants, 6. check tunic dress, 7. Puppy pockets, 8. Green Fleece top for my daughter, 9. Snow and Holly bloomers

fantastic tutorials for fall and winter clothes

ringer shirt pjs (made with her own tutorial), pleated skirt, winter jumper, fleece lined pants, pieced shirt, patch jeans, henley shirt, short sleeve to long sleeve, go to dress

No baby yet (two days overdue and counting) but this is pretty damn exciting. I’m in a calendar! and I’m not naked in it! This is a pretty fantastic calendar, one I might even pick up if I wasn’t in it–and I’m pretty cheap, I mean I draw my own calendars monthly. There are so many fantastic projects in here:  two each week. It’s just the right amount because you could actually do two little sewing projects each week.  And there are so many fantastic bloggers in here like Ellen from the long thread, Alicia from the Mayfly, Dawn from UK lass in the US, and the listed of talent just goes on and on.  I’ve got 2 projects in the calendar: the tin can cover (hey look it’s on the cover!) and the post office bag, oh wait I found another in there, the half eaten gingerbread man (all my tutorials are here, if you are interested). I can’t believe I’m thinking about Christmas yet, but I am, and this would make a great gift for a lot of people on my list. I have no idea if it’s in stores yet, or what stores it will be in, but if I see it in one I will surely freak out and tell everyone I know.

I kept my word and worked (almost) every evening this past week on my kid’s wardrobe.  Actually I had such a good time I’m going keep at it this week.  Mostly I used tutorials, but I’m working on some patterns too. The two skirts are from the twirly skirt tutorial by Erin from house on hill road.  It is a seriously twirly skirt–my daughter calls it her swirly skirt.  The tulip fabric I picked up at the thrift store and there was just enough.  A good friend gave me the fish fabric and even though there was only a quarter of a yard (about half of what is called for) it still twirls a little. I looked forever to find a tutorial for the shirts. I knew what I wanted, but didn’t want to spend 10 bucks on a pattern for something so simple.  I finally found it on Just Tutes, which is a fantastic resource for kid’s clothes (click here to go right to the shirt tutorial).  I made the yellow one first and it’s ridiculously small (I’m worried it won’t even fit the 4 month old babe it’s going to) and the second one I made is too big, so I’m guessing next time I’ll get it right.  That’s the problem with sewing at night–no one is around to try anything on.  The striped pants are for my son and I blatantly ripped off the design (and fabric choice too) from Leah of go monkey designs, but she did a much better job (serves me right). I traced a pair of my son’s pants for the little shorts and made up the cuffs and tabs as I went a long.  I used a contrasting bright green thread for all the details and damn if it isn’t stylish.  They turned out better than I had hoped and have been worn and washed many times already.

whew! if you’d like to see bigger and better photos head over to my flickr site.

Do you have any good garment making tutorials to share? I’m kind of addicted, so if you know of any good ones–for kids or adults–please leave a comment so we can all see. thanks.