fall kcwc, days #3 & #4: baby in the hood

For as much as I’ve complained about boy sewing, I will say that I’ve always wanted to make the Baby in the Hood jacket from Anna Maria Horner’s Handmade Beginnings book.

And I specifically wanted to make it for a boy baby. It was this jacket from Catherine of White Apples that originally caught my eye – just perfect in my opinion. I even saved some of my gray elephants to copy her jacket, and I’d still love to make that version. But I had never made anything from the book before, which made me a little nervous – even after all this sewing, I still don’t trust myself to follow new patterns that don’t happen to be Oliver + S! So I used some green baby cord (and I just noticed that my last four projects have been corduroy…I guess it’s fall) and lined it with a fabric I got on the sale table at Fabric Depot for $4 a yard.

The instructions turned out to be pretty great – easy to follow, and detailed enough for a beginner, though it definitely helped that I’ve made a few lined jackets and set in some sleeves before.

And I did have an issue with one pattern piece, which I checked three times against the pattern, and as far as I can see I traced the correct piece in the right size. Anyway, I made the 6-9 month size, and the hood stripe was too short for the hood by about 5/8ths of an inch on each end. Those were the first two pieces to sew together, and it was enough to make me set the jacket aside for the last month. Apparently I’m easily discouraged. So I’m curious to hear if anyone’s made the 6-9 month size and had that same problem, or if I really did just mess it up. The latter is still a distinct possibility. Eventually I got over it (I probably have KCWC to thank for that) and just cut out new hood stripes. And I’m glad I did, because the pattern yielded a pretty sweet little jacket!

Okay, happy sewing, everyone! :)

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fall kcwc, day #1 :: a swingset skirt

I’ve made a lot of skirts in my day, but this was my first go at the Oliver + S Swingset skirt. I’m a fan.

In fact, you may or may not see another one of these later in the week. I warned you I was keeping it simple for this installment of KCWC.

This pattern was indeed very simple – just two pattern pieces, two rows of 1/4 inch elastic, and two buttonholes for the drawstring (you can make it yourself, or use ribbon, which I chose). It really wasn’t that much more work than a Lazy Days skirt, and while I love making those, it was fun to do something a little different.

It’s fully lined, which is a nice touch.

It gives the skirt a bit more fullness, I think.

And I was really thinking fall with the gray cord, maybe with tights and a sweater, but it’s been so warm here that we had to go with no sleeves and flip flops today. No complaints of course. It’ll start raining soon enough.

The details:

Pattern: Oliver + S Swingset Skirt, size 3 lengthened to 4 (the length on this pattern is at the waistband rather than the hem, so I had to tweak the buttonholes a bit to get them in the right place…and I didn’t quite get them in the right place)

Fabric: charcoal gray 21-wale corduroy from Joann’s, with a light-weight white cotton lining (batiste maybe?)

Ribbon: Anna Maria Horner’s Lime/Cream Spinning Wheels

And I leave you with these two, who just can’t keep their hands off each other…

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kcwc prep and kid pants!

It’s that time of year again…Kids Clothes Week Challenge is upon us!

I’m guest posting today at Elsie Marley (I know, I can’t believe it either!) and I’m super excited to be part of the pre-KCWC excitement this time around! I hope you’ll go check out all the fun variations of Dana’s basic Kid Pants in the lineup this week. I went the corduroy and hedgehog route myself. Here’s a peek, but you can get all the details here!

If you’re not familiar with KCWC you can read all about it right here (and more here), but the jist of the challenge is to sew kids clothes for an hour a day, for seven days. The event happens once in the spring and again in the fall, and the great part about participating (aside from ending up with some lovely little garments for the season) is that hundreds and hundreds of people are sewing along with you and posting photos in the flickr group, which is full of the greatest handmade kids clothes you ever did see. It all starts on Monday, so if you haven’t done so already, go sign up by leaving a comment on this post!

And preparing is part of the fun, too – I don’t have any definite plans yet for next week, but I’ve got a big list going and these are some of the things I’m hoping to put to use:

I like to have all my patterns traced and cut out the week before so that I can just sew when the time comes, and while I never get around to completing everything, it’s amazing how productive you can be with all that prep work done! I’m trying to keep things simple and realistic this time, being eight months pregnant and all. Cutting out patterns on the floor and standing at the ironing board all evening (along with staying up past 8pm, frankly) are challenges in and of themselves at the moment. But I’m going to try!

Happy planning and sewing, everyone, and hope to see all your amazing creations next week!

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spring kcwc, days 6 & 7: colored leaves skirt

Time to wrap things up for KCWC! It’s been fun. This is my final project for the week, and I’m pretty excited to take a break from sewing for awhile. And I apologize in advance for way too many photos – I somehow ended up taking 192 of them this morning, and editing down isn’t my strong suit.

Anyway, this skirt popped into my head in the middle of the night last night, and annoyingly, I couldn’t get rid of it for two hours (I could’ve had it made in that time!) – I saw a print awhile back at Land of Nod and I thought maybe I could recreate the textured leaves in shot cotton…one track mind with the shot cotton, I know.

Fall Foliage Leaf Wall Art (image source: Land of Nod)

So I’d been thinking about making something based on this print, then forgot about it, then remembered again at the inopportune hour of 1:00am.

The skirt has a simple elastic waist (a la the Oliver + S Lazy Days Skirt or the MADE Simple Skirt – both can be found for free online) and a one-inch hem.

And after a three day hiatus from chambray, I went back to it – the texture is similar to shot cotton, with two colors woven together, and it seemed like a good neutral background for the leaves.

And she likes it!

She thought hiking it up was pretty funny, too.

Anyway, making this was the easiest thing ever. After you have a few simple elastic skirts under your belt, they only take maybe 30 or 40 minutes to sew.

And the leaf shapes are cut from double stick fusible web (Steam-a-Seam 2), positioned along the stitching on the hemline of the skirt, ironed into place (the fusible web makes them stick – no pins!), and sewn around the edges. Just your basic appliqué with fusible web. The leaf edges will fray a bit in the wash, but I don’t mind that look.

My color palatte is kind of haphazard – I bought several 1/4 yards of various shot cotton colors when I was working on Lila’s birthday Ice Cream dress, not really knowing what colors I wanted to use yet. So I cut the leaves from every color I had on hand – scraps from that dress, and from the orange dress I made this week, then all the random colors that hadn’t been used for anything yet.

And of course I couldn’t resist a little leaf tag in the back:

Okay, that’s it. Just two more photos, I promise.

Pattern: Simple Skirt from MADE or Oliver + S Lazy Days Skirt (minus the ribbon hem)

Fabric: Robert Kaufman Carolina Chambray in Light Indigo Washed and various Kaffe Fasset shot cottons.

Now that I’m finished sewing I get to catch up in the Elsie Marley Flickr Pool and see what everyone else made! I love that part the best :)

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spring kcwc, day #5: more oliver + s

Okay, I finished the last of my pre-cut out projects, an Oliver + S Class Picnic Blouse.

I haven’t felt like thinking very hard these past couple nights, and since I’ve made this one before, I really didn’t have to – it’s a great pattern, and an easy one.

I lengthened it a bit this time – I had originally traced the pattern in a 2T with 3T length, but it still wasn’t quite long enough for me, so I added another 3/4 of an inch or so. I think I’m satisfied now.

I also added piping under the yoke, because piping makes everything better.

Again with the Sailboat pants:

And with the Class Picnic shorts:

Pattern: Oliver + S Class Picnic Blouse, size 2T with added length

Fabric: Lizzy House’s Hello Pilgrim Butterfly

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spring kcwc, day #4: something orange

Blues and greens are definitely my favorites, but I do love this orangey color combination, too:

our fiestaware * a little knit dress she wore twice* our wedding dahlias

So last night I made Lila a simple little dress from orange shot cottons. My local fabric store carries the entire color range of Kaffe Fasset’s shot cotton, which is both amazing and completely overwhelming…but mostly just amazing. I can’t get enough of the stuff – I have stacks and stacks of prints but all I want to sew with these days is shot cotton!

The pattern is Leila & Ben’s Sweet Little Dress, which I’ve made countless times before, though never in solids. There are lots of simple peasant dress patterns out there, but I find this one to be pretty much perfect.

I added the gathered pockets from the Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress (view B).

Pattern: Leila & Ben’s Sweet Little Dress, size 3T

Fabric: tangerine and watermelon shot cotton (and an unknown, accidental third color for the pocket binding)

That’s it for today. Back to blue tomorrow!

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spring kcwc, day #3: plain jane class picnic shorts

Making shorts in April is jumping the gun by about three months around these parts, but here you have them: Oliver + S Class Picnic shorts.

I bought the pattern for the blouse (made here), but then saw a few versions of the shorts in the Oliver + S Flickr pool that were made up in all one fabric, and I really liked that look. And sorry to bore everyone with this fabric again, but I’m trying to make a few bottoms that she can wear with everything, hence all the chambray. I told you I overused it!

In fact, I got a little tired of looking at the chambray while sewing these, so I decided to go bold with olive green top-stitching. I used the triple straight stitch to make the green stand out a bit, and added a little pop of green inside the waistband.

Speaking of sewing these, mistakes were made. The pattern was flawless and wonderful, as Oliver + S patterns always are, but I managed to sew my two panels as mirror images rather than opposites, which made sewing them right sides together pretty much impossible. So 13 steps into the pattern I had to cut out four new pattern pieces and start over, because there was no way I was taking a seam ripper to all that triple top-stitching. Word of warning: when working with fabric that doesn’t have an obvious right and wrong side, pay very close attention to how you’re sewing things together!

Anyway, I pressed on and I’m glad I did – normally I would’ve quit for the night after a ridiculous mistake like that, but it’s KCWC!

Yep, it was all worth it in the end. Look at that faux fly!!

Pattern: Oliver + S Class Picnic Shorts, size 2T (made with an adjustable waistband)

Fabric: Robert Kaufman Carolina Chambray in Light Indigo Washed, and Lizzy House’s Hello Pilgrim Pearl Bracelet in Green

Up next: probably more blue stuff.

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