1. kcwc day3  2. a butterick dress experiment 3. flashback skinny tee 4. kcwc4

The flickr pool is bursting with beautiful hand sewn clothes!  How is your sewing going? Humming along? Or did you hit a snag? Are you ready to throw those pants (top, skirt, sewing machine) across the room?

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This tunic has been on my to do list for years…years! How is it that my sewing list is that long? Probably because things like ridiculously flowery leggings jump in line to get sewn first.

the leggings

the pattern: drafted a pattern off some good fitting leggings

the fabric: a maxi skirt I bought on sale at Target

the sewing: wham bam!

the tunic

the pattern: I bought this pattern at a thrift store when my daughter was still a toddler. Granted I barely knew how to read a pattern, much less resize one, but the topstitching and the little square pocket were too perfect (and it was 10 cents). Over the years the pattern has come out and written down as next on the list, but it always found its way back into the drawer. Now that my daughter is a size 6, I figured I better sew this sucker up once and for all.

the fabric: some really lovely wool blend that I was saving for a skirt for myself…for two years. There is still enough left for a skirt (I think), but now the fabric isn’t giving me the evil eye.

the sewing: The sewing went pretty well. It is a very basic pattern, but basic in 1975 is pretty advanced these days. I simlified the way they wanted me to put in the zipper–it doesn’t look perfect, but I didn’t rip it out ten times either. The direction for the pocket were in some alien language, so I totally winged it and it worked out just fine.  I’ll be honest, I’m pretty crazy for how this whole outfit turned out!

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!

Sometimes the idea is much more exciting than the actual outcome. But still matching, stripy pants and shorts are pretty cute

the pattern: same as these pants, letter o from Happy Homemade vol 2 in two sizes. This was totally the wrong pattern to use for the shorts, but the perfect one for the pants.  The idea I had for the shorts was something more like this, but then I got all wrapped up in saving the pockets from the original pants (see below). The front pockets were nice, slash pockets, but the back ones, I discovered later, were fake. It was a waste of time and energy and screwed up my plan.

the fabric: those pants up there. They were mine, but I felt like a fool every time I walked out of the house in them.

the sewing: I didn’t intend to get two garments out of one pair of pants. I was only going to make shorts and really to make the shorts I wanted to make–bloomers with a contrasting band–I shouldn’t have made the pants. Oh well. The little pants turned out super cute and the shorts are fine, I guess.

The flickr pool is bursting with amazing garments, many of them upcycled ones. Of all the discussions on flickr this week, my favorite has to be the one about all our mistakes and straight up sewing failures. Late at night, when I’m screwing up every possible way, it’s good to know I’m not alone!

1. pinafore made reversible 

2. top naii

3. raglan tee

4. stripe and color block top

I got these two pairs of PINK! and YELLOW! cords at the gap this summer for 3 bucks each and knew right away I wanted to turn them into pants for my kids. Last year I made pants for them out of my husband’s old jeans (sort of like this) but the rise was too low and they never wore them–my son called them, without any malice, his “falling down pants.”

I wanted to get the fit right this time, but the stinkers were sleeping when I made these so I got all fancy with the pockets while I waited. There are two patch pockets on the back of each pair and a little pocket in front–a star for my son and a heart for my daughter.  When they tried them on they both complained that the pocket was too small. Wouldn’t you be excited to have a star pocket on your pants? Whatever. They fit.

I used a pretty bit of printed corduroy for the elastic casing on the pink ones and this crazy awesome vintage scrap I had for the yellow pair. This is a super easy way to make use of those jeans you never wear, but can’t get rid of for some weird reason. Cute recycling. My friend Mary Jo over at Five Green Acres put a little upcycling twist to kids clothes week; check it out if you are making big clothes into small clothes this week.

Made by Rae Giveaway!

Today’s giveaway is from the fabulous Rae from Made by Rae. She is hilarious and down to earth and a damn fine seamstress. She kindly offered up two patterns for kids clothes week: the big butt baby pants and the toddler backpack. Both patterns are PDFs, so you could even add them to your list for this week (ha!). Just tell me which one you would rather have in the comments and I’ll choose two winners! The toddler backpack is full of nice details: pockets and piping and padded straps and little loops for hanging. And the big butt baby pants, while also being extremely fun to say, are versatile and useful and super cute. Decisions, decisions.

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The winners are

big butt baby pants: #10 Shannon

toddler backpack: #55 Stephanie from neuroses galore

Congratulations!

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oh you didn’t think it was over did you?

The baby doesn’t really need clothes, but how can I not sew something cute for him. Plus it’s easier to make new pants than to go get the box of bigger clothes and go through it again.  The knee pad pants are from the illustrious Dana of dana made it. And the purple pants I made from sleeve of a sweatshirt. He had some purple leggings that I was squeezing his chubby legs in because they were too cute to give up. Finally I traced them and made these and there are some yellow ones in the works from the same pattern.

I bet you could squeeze in a couple hours of sewing this weekend to finish up some projects, then maybe take some pictures and put them up on flickr. Next week I’m going to show off some of the beautiful things that people have been making because wow! you guy are amazing!