kcwc wrap up

I've really enjoyed participating in Elsie Marley's Kids Clothing Week Challenge, it's just the bit of incentive I needed to get my act together! And it's helped my sewing skills and confidence so much.



This 2nd 'Go To Dress' I am happy with.



I think mixing up the colours helps give it a bit of personality. I originally made the first dress with these long sleeves, but didn't like them so cut them off. Then when I saw the discarded sleeves sitting on the green fabric I could see it working as another dress.



I added the flower-ish type decoration to dress it up a bit and to link all the fabrics back together so it didn't look too disjointed. This was so much fun to make. I've come to realise that I really enjoy free-form design where I'm creating something without rules - I guess there's not the pressure for it to be perfect. Following a pattern is satisfying but making something up gives me the creative hit I need, even if it doesn't end up working! I cut long strips of each of the fabrics, sewed a single line of long stitches down the centre then gathered it. After this I just wound each one around on the front of the dress until I liked the look of it then machine sewed them on. I'm sure there must be a name for these - I've seen a couple around, and I'm sure I'll see lots more now that I'm consciously aware of them. I could have made this as a brooch so that it didn't get washed on the dress each time, but I knew that it would surely get misplaced or lost under the sofa, never to be seen again!



Also I had my first go at making leggings. I traced around some leggings we already had to make a pattern, then looked up online the thing about inserting one leg into the other to sew them up. It was so satisfying to demystify something I'd never considered sewing before! In the past I've wished I had more pairs of leggings for the girls because they are so useful, especially in these in-between seasons. So now I will definitely make some more.

The things I didn't get around to doing for the challenge were making the boy some shorts and also the '90 minute shirt' that I've been wanting to try for ages - one day! :-)