Ottobre Draped Jersey Top

This is another pattern from Ottobre design Summer 3/2017.

When I showed my daughter the photo from the magazine, she was not keen because she says that these draped tops never sit how they look in the photos.  I went ahead and made it up anyway, and it actually looks the same on her as is does on the model in the magazine.

The pineapple print fabric is a viscose lycra knit from EmmaOneSock.  It has a lovely drape, and combined with the drapey pattern design, has the perfect fluidity for a comfy tee.

Ottobre Shorts - Rumble and Roll

I bought the Ottobre Summer 3/2017 edition, because it has a shorts pattern that I think my teen daughter will like (the Itty bitty linen shorts).  I have not got to those yet, but I have made up the Rumble and Roll 2/3 length jeans for my younger son.

I notice that all of his RTW shorts get sucked up his bum, so I started with the size smaller than his hip measurement and did a full butt adjustment.  I just guessed at how much extra room to add, but I may have overdone it because these have a saggy butt.  It makes them comfy for lounging on the couch, even though they are a skinny fit jean, so overall I think that is okay.  I had to use a much smaller elastic length than the pattern suggested to pull in the waist.

The fabric is an Echino linen / cotton blend.

He is happy with them, and it makes a nice change from the seven pairs of flouro Best & Less nylon shorts that usually make up his washing pile.  Mostly he wears them with a t-shirt, but he dressed them up with a collared shirt for these photos.  Didn't get out of the Ugg boots though :)

Some teen sewing

I have made up a couple of quick sews for my teenage daughter over the past few months.  Mostly from leftovers, without using a pattern.  I have rather enjoyed the quick gratification of these projects...and really, I don't want to spend a lot of time sewing for a fussy teenager who may never wear the garments.

First up, a skirt made from a couple of rectangles and given a curved hem.  I have used wide elastic in the waistband.  The front is narrower than the back.  I saw something similar online.  Sadly, my daughter is going through a no-skirt phase, so this has not actually been worn yet, but I still have hopes that it will.

Next up is a top made from leftovers from my wrap dress.  The proportions were dictated by the sizes of my scraps.  I used a little bit of entre-deux to join two pieces together at the top and sewed some yellow pom-pom trim over an over-locked edge to make quick work of the hem.  She loves this and has been wearing it several times a week since it was made.  Pretty good for a freebie.

I traced off a pattern for some beach shorts of her cousin's to make these rayon shorts.  There is elastic in the back waistband only.  I copied the RTW shorts in finishing the hems with a rolled hem on the over-locker.  The fabric is leftover from a kimono that my daughter made herself, so these were another freebie.

 And finally, I raided my stash for cotton voile to make her a new nightie.  I didn't have enough of any one fabric, so had to use two different fabrics.  This was to replace a nightie that I made when she was about 3 years old and has been getting progressively shorter over the last 10 years!!!  Finally, the fabric was so threadbare that the holes were indecent, and I threw it out. The pattern is from the Japanese "Girly Style Wardrobe".

Here is the original.  See all the holes ripped in the bodice.  She was upset that I threw it out, but has started wearing the replacement.  Which is good news, as she never wore the previous replacement made from a cute quilting cotton, because it was not soft enough for her.

Bookweek 2015

We've had a few years without a bookweek parade.  Back into the swing of it this year and probably only one more year to go.  Without further ado, I present to you

1.  Moonface

2.  Geronimo Stilton

Moonface's vest was made from a Burda pattern I traced off years ago.  Don't know the magazine or pattern number, sorry.  His bow tie was made by his sister.

Geronimo Stilton's jacket was a quick make from Burda Boy's Classic Button-Up Blazer 02/2015 #142.    So quick that I didn't get the pockets on or buttons in the sleeve vents.  Wonder if I should bother doing that after the event??  I didn't line the jacket.  I am not that familiar with sewing jackets and when I went to look up some instructions in my sewing books for how to do the collar and lapels, I realised that there was no way I could absorb that information and do it properly in my very short time frame, so it really is a bodge job. It fits pretty well.  The fabric is a cotton chamois that was an internet purchasing mistake back in 2007.  I am pleased to be finally rid of it from my stash.

Geronimo made his own tie.


Geronimo's mask was a lot of fun.  I downloaded the pattern for a fox mask from Wintercroft and we  didn't stick the ears down to make it a bit more Geronimo-like.

(ears falling forward to fox mode for this photo)

In this age, when we are always looking for free stuff on the web, these masks are fully worth the asking price.  They are seriously cool.  I'm trying to think of an occasion where I could wear a mask, just so I can make one for myself.  Perhaps I am thinking of it all wrong and shouldn't be looking for an occasion.  Perhaps I could get about in a unicorn mask in my everyday?

KCWC Participant 2014

I'm in - to my new house, that is.  I will start blogging again, as soon as I can find the charger for the camera.  In the meantime, here are some photos I took during KCWC a week or so ago, before the camera ran out of charge.

Details can be found here.

Coverstitch Machine

My new coverstitch machine turned up on Monday.  I have been sewing up a frenzy since then, learning how to use it, so I have lots of garments to share with you.  Just starting with a quick post.

A whole lot of little "man jocks".  This is how it all started.  I got out my old coverstitch machine, that I bought second hand off ebay a few years ago.  It has always been a bit hit and miss.  I thought that I had better sit down and work out how to get it to perform or get rid of it.  I rounded up my knit scraps for some underpants sewing...perfect for practising technique.  I made 8 samples.  Yes EIGHT samples.  They all worked fine.  Then I went to sew the real thing and it messed up.  So off I went to buy a new one.  I did a bit of google research, as I couldn't find a machine to test drive at any of the local dealers (though I later found out that Spotlight had the machine I bought on the floor, even though they told me that they didn't when I rang them up).  And now I own a Brother 2340cv.

The hems worked perfectly the first time.  And the second.  And the third.  And the fourth, fifth and sixth times.  What a huge relief.  Then I flatlocked all the elastic.  I did line up the elastic so that there was excess fabric to trim after...can't get too cocky too quickly!  Though possibly I would always need to do this.  I reckon that I would need some sort of special foot to be able to line up elastic on the edge of the fabric and sew.

This elastic was fabulous.  I bought it from elingeria a while back.  The grooves in the elastic lined up perfectly with the needles on my machine and the machine foot is clear, which made it easy to sew into the grooves of the elastic.  I even sewed the ends of the elastic together with the coverstitch machine, as I was too lazy to set up my regular machine (sewing on the dining table currently).

Fabric:  remnants from stash, elastic from elingeria
Pattern:  available here

The elastic is gathered more than usual for this style of undies because my 7yo has a tiny, little waist, smaller than the Sz 3 pattern that I used for him.

So that was the start, with more exciting projects to follow!

BTW I have had a few computer problems lately and had to reload my operating system and all my programs.  I don't seem to have the same photo editing capability now in Windows.  Not sure what that is all about.  Hopefully I will sort it out and be able to edit my photos again soon.

Ugly Bug Ball

I was not-so-secretly delighted when my son decided to go the Ugly Bug Ball as a green ant.  I had seen some ant costumes in a show that I wanted to replicate...you know, the fantasies we hold...

Do you know about green ants?  I didn't know about them until I moved to North Queensland.  They are a really pretty green colour.  They have large green bottoms.  Apparently you can suck the juice out of their bottoms, but this is not something that I have tried.  They stick leaves together to build nests in trees.  You have to watch out for them when cleaning up fallen leaves in case a nest has fallen out of a tree, because they will bite you.

The nice thing about this costume was that it took only 30 minutes to make (not including queuing for fabric) and $3 worth of fabric.  No pattern used.  That's about the perfect level of effort and expenditure for a school costume.

Denim Skirt

My daughter is reaching that dreadful, dreadful age.  You know, the one where you can't eek a piece of clothing for her out of the side scraps from your own projects.  It is also the age at the upper end of sizes for many children's patterns in Burda magazine. Sad, I know.

I did manage to scrape together this denim skirt though.  It is leftovers from some denim shorts that I made myself and haven't shown you yet.  The pattern is from Burda 11/2010, style 149.

The fabric wrinkles in the wash more than I expected.  I guess that will reduce over time.  It is an unusual colour, with a slight purplish tinge to it.

I did modify the pattern a little.  She has narrow hips.  I modified the waistband so that I could elasticate the waist.  I split the waistband into an inner and outer piece, rather than cut it as a single piece with a fold at the top edge.  I then pieced the inner band, so that it had seams  about 5 cm from the button closure.  I thread elastic through the waistband at these seams and then stitched it in place.  I used regular elastic rather than adjustable button hole elastic as I find that the adjustable elastic is not firm enough.

The same issue of Burda had some stovepipe jeans for boys.  I want to try these out, as my boys have such narrow hips that they really have to gather in the elastic on RTW adjustable waist jeans. 

BTW, can you all zoom in on photos anymore?  I seem to have lost this ability in blogger, but I don't know if it is just my settings or the if it is the way they manage photos now.

Child's t-shirt refashion

 

This t-shirt was brought back from a business trip for my daughter.  To the inexperienced shopper, it probably looked about the right size.  The fabric is very stretchy, and the neckline large, so I think it is actually a body-fitting top for a teenager.  She loved it though, so rather than pass it on, I took to it with the scissors.

I used burda style 5/2011 140 as a guide.  I left the hem and side seams as they were, which was the right width and maybe 5 cm longer than the pattern. I cut off the sleeves.  I cut a new neckline, shoulders and armholes.  For the front neckline, I could leave the ribbing attached.  For the back, I removed the ribbing and attached it to the new neckline.  I left the hem and side seams of the sleeve, but cut a shallower sleeve cap, before re-attaching the sleeve.  I used the scraps to make casings and ties.  They are not the neatest or straightest casings and ties, but they will do.

She made the shorts and necklace herself.

Dress-ups

Dress-ups tend to follow gender stereo-typical lines around here...tutus and mermaid costumes for the girls and camo gear for the boys.

The tutu was made using Jalie 2915.

I used the same pattern to make the top of the mermaid costume.  The mermaid costume was made out of scraps left over from all those ballet concert leggings I made last year.  This Jalie pattern is great for scraps because the princess panels mean you only need little bits.  The skirt is basically a tube.  The tail is scraps of the lycra sewn onto an organza background.

The camo pants were quickly whipped up to go with an existing shirt. It was only worn for a little while though...turns out he prefers his elf costume from last year.

Zero waste or madness?

Scraps are taking up too much valuable realty in my stash wardrobe.  I generally buy good quality fabrics, and it seems a waste to throw out even scraps of them.  After seeing this post by "sew i do", I decided to use up a few scraps on boys jocks.  I made a pattern off a RTW pair and then I ordered Jalie 2327 so that I would have a range of sizes.  I lowered the rise on the Jalie pattern, more like the RTW pair.  For one child, I cut a larger size and gathered it more onto the elastic as he likes a looser fit in the legs.

I also got the chance to use up some button-hole elastic that seemed a good idea when the kids were little, but in fact was never strong enough to hold up trousers.

Sewing jocks does seem to be bordering on sewing madness though.  The boys are happy with them, even the child who does not want to wear homemade clothes anymore.  I guess everyone likes comfy undies.  I have been making them whilst the kids are home on holidays.  I would feel guilty sewing for myself whilst they were home but I don't seem to feel the same guilt for such utilitarian sewing. 

I even got out the coverstitch machine out to practice both hemming and flat-stitching.  I threaded the bottom thread with fluffy and it has been behaving so well that I have not wanted to change threads.  It seems cover stitches pull out so easily when they are sewn well but are difficult to remove if they are not, so I need to improve my skills to sew straight and require no unpicking.  Undies are a good place to practice.

Whilst I was ordering pattern from Jalie, I bought a racer back tank,  Jalie 2565, for my daughter.  Here she gets a new knicker and cami set from scraps of a shirt that I have not shown you yet.

And finally, I got a set, using scraps from a dress that I recently made a friend.

Burda Tunic for girls

I adore everything about this Burda tunic (8/2010 #145).

The care-free style.

 

The drawstring shoulder ties.

The drop-waist casing and drawstring, and hip pockets.

It is what I would want to wear if I was 8 years old.  Actually, my Mum made me a very similar dress when I was eight and I loved it.  Only it had large patch pockets with zips.

After paying so much for the buttons on my previous shirt, I went and bought a jar of buttons from Vinnies for $3.  None of the buttons for this tunic are identical.  They are all the same size, colour and shape, each with a different logo embossed on top.  I don't think anyone will notice.

We have all been doing a bit of sewing today.  The last photo is of my youngest son, using the pencil case that he just made himself.

Re-fashions

 It is a shame that I did not take a before photo or even do a tutorial for this first re-fashion, because it is such a useful re-fashion for fast-growing children.  This was a long-sleeved top that had become too short.  The younger cousins are out-growing my children and it was possibly a tad too grubby to give to the op shop, so I turned it into a tank top.  Tank tops have a lower neckline than t-shirts, so the length was just about perfect.  I used the existing hem, side seam and neckline.  I laid the "Brooklyn Tank Top" pattern from "Sewing clothes Kids Love" over the top to cut the shape of the armholes.  I then made the straps from fold-over elastic, but you could easily use the fabric from the cut-off sleeves to make straps.  Quick, yet satisfying.

 

I do have a before photo for this next re-fashion.  It was a women's t-shirt with voluminous sleeves that I picked up from the op shop for $2.  The fabric was a lightweight cotton knit with a lovely sheen.  It looked hardly worn.  I guess somebody regretted those sleeves when they got home.

I turned it into a singlet and knicker set for my daughter.  Not sure why.  I was pretty busy that week.  I guess I just needed $2 worth of fun.  The singlet was based on an Ottobre pattern, though I added the frills.  The knickers were made using a Jalie pattern.