Actually useful sewing

Recently I have been trying to address that list in my head entitled "things to sew that we actually need".

The thing that's been at the top of the list is a new ironing board cover. The old one was so threadbare and tattered that it was actually falling apart. I won't bore you with pictures of it, but needless to say that a piece of sturdy linen from the stash, some elastic and just a bit of my time have transformed this useful household object (largely used for my sewing projects ;-) and was extremely satisfying to do.

The other thing I made was another pair of trousers for my little boy. What with toilet training (ie: accidents) and running out of hand-me-downs his cupboard is always pretty empty at the moment.

I made another pair of 'Basic pocket pants' from the lovely book Growing up Sew Liberated, this time using some stretch cord from my stash. I made the legs a little slimmer this time around and added a little pocket to the back using scraps of one of my favourite boy fabrics, Echino's cars. The only pic I could get of him in his new duds is this one of his cute little behind ;-)

Now if I could just make 2 more pair of trousers, some t-shirts, pyjamas and a couple of hoodies we'd be OK for winter. Hmm... as usual, too many sewing plans, not enough time. I think a trip to the shops is in order unfortunately, if this mama is to get any sleep!!

More creative goodness happening over here.

KCWC day 4

Yesterday for day 4 I made another Urban Unisex Hoodie for my boy. I cut out the fabric during his nap, then did the sewing after the kids had gone to bed... I think I've KCWC'd myself out, so tonight I'm giving myself the night off :-)

This one's another mish-mash of thrifted and new fabrics, with a yellow and grey colour scheme that I seem to be addicted to at the moment... and everywhere we went this morning we seemed to come across more yellow and grey, which made for a few photo opportunities.



I did longer sleeves and hem this time, but the sleeves annoyed him (hence the rolling up in the shot above) and the hem looks a bit long and weird, so this one is in for a few minor adjustments.

On the whole though I like it and it sure is an easy wear style for an active kid. The first one seems to have washed up well and I think if I can get a third one made (half cut out) then he'll almost be set for cooler weather tops. I'm definitely feeling a bit over it though, which I guess is the down side of making yourself sew each night. And I just can't get out of my head the Tova I want to make for myself... can't wait for more selfish sewing ;-)

 Have a lovely weekend, and if you've been doing KCWC, have a nice rest!

KCWC day 2

Yesterday in day 2 of KCWC I finished off my boy's Urban Unisex Hoodie and he wore it today, obligingly stopping his play now and then just long enough for me to take a couple of photos. He's at that age where he says and does some pretty funny things and has opinions on things you'd imagine he wouldn't even think about, in this case he was impressed with the buttons on his new hoodie. Ah, design potential maybe? ;-)

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out in that I like the way it looks, though I think I'll adjust the fit on the next one: deeper cuffs would be a bit more cozy for him and also a bit more length would help keep at bay that potential tummy gap between hoodie and jeans. In truth I probably should go up a size in the pattern but we'll see if I can be bothered to print and trace the pieces again... normally I trace patterns off the master onto interfacing, but in this case I thought I was safe - sods law.

The other thing I did in the name of KCWC yesterday was to drag the 2 littlies to my favourite local thrift shop, the one where you pay by weight ($8 per kilo). You see even though I'm still trying to stash bust, when I went looking in my 'knits' box mostly what I found was either unsuitable (thick fleece) or saved for 'something else' (a nice petrol blue jersey for me). And this pattern uses quite a lot of fabric for a child's pattern as it's fully lined. So I didn't have much to work with from the stash, hence the 2 different greens. I think those cute buttons ended up tying it all together, but there's no way I'd have enough fabric to make another hoodie, which I'd like to. Because even though it was a bit more work than I'd normally like to invest in a child's everyday shirt, which lets face it could be stained/ripped/lost or outgrown in the blink of an eye, I really like it.

So... at the thrift shop I quickly grabbed myself 6 garments to cut up and re-use (while the kids ran laps of the clothing bins and I tried not to catch the eye of the staff, bad parent ;-). I was after grey and yellow tones for my boy but then found myself also with gelato colours and a cute cloud/rainbow print dress that I thought would be perfect for girl pyjamas.  Most of the fabrics are jersey or interlock, and also a couple of merino wool tops with thoughts of making leggings for my dress and skirt loving little girl. And I also got in that lot a little grey velour winter dress for my little girl - what a score for $8!! Now to actually do something with them... I've promised myself I will NOT let them languish in my stash!

See you tomorrow for the run-down on day 3, hopefully.

KCWC day 1

I decided that the best use of time during KCWC this time is to make my  boy some much needed everyday clothes: some trousers, a hoodie (or 2?) and maybe a little cap if I can fit it in.

Last night I got sewing on a pattern I bought ages ago but hadn't made yet, Heidi & Finn's 'Urban Unisex Hoodie'. I bought the pattern with my little girl in mind but she's such a girly girl (skirts, dresses, pretty shoes etc) that I don't think she'd wear one of these. But it looks perfect for my active boy.

I had hoped to finish it last night, but after a day of looking after 5 kids (my friend's lovely 2 girls along with my 3) I had to admit defeat. I'm hoping to finish it tonight, so maybe I'll have some photos tomorrow.

Are you participating in KCWC? How's it going if you are? There are so many things I'd like to make but restricted time - ah well, something is better than nothing, right? :-)

* And thanks to the lovely Fran I'm dying to make another Heidi & Finn pattern - the Cowl Neck Jumper Dress. My little girl would adore it but perhaps it will need to wait til after her brother gets his winter wardrobe sorted.

Basic pocket pants

As seems to be my habit when we're due to go away, I've been squeezing in lots of sewing projects. You know the ones: "the kids don't have enough warm clothes... I know, I'll make some!"  - crazy stuff like that, that keeps me up til all hours of the night.

Here's one of them - 'basic pocket pants' for my little boy, made from a pattern in the wonderful "Growing up sew liberated" book by Meg McElwee.

 I love this book for the inspiration it gives me, but mainly for the lovely parenting ideas that follow the Montessori ideals. Ideas like if the household is calm til 10am each day then there's a good chance you'll have a good day. Hmm, not doing so well on that one ;-)

These pants are just good everyday play pants, something to pull on and go. I'm hoping they'll be useful on our little trip away. And I'm also hoping to get lots of use from my Minoru jacket which I've only been able to wear once because the weather had been too warm.

In my last minute frenzy I decided that I couldn't get a zip up hoodie made for my boy :-(. so I bought a cheapie and put this little car motif on the front. Hopefully he'll wear it!

I'll be back next week with some of my other crazy late night pre-holiday sewing. Til then, have a lovely week!

KCWC wrap-up +

I'm rather late with this one as KCWC finished last weekend, but I just thought I'd show you a little messenger bag that I started last week and just finished for my little boy. As he's always taking his sisters' bags and wearing them around the house I thought he'd better have one of his own.



I used my usual self-drafted pattern but made this one a bit smaller than I usually do as he's little. Apparently noone has told him he's only 2, I'm sure he thinks he's 10 - he's so independent and just has to try to do everything his sisters do (3rd child syndrome maybe?).

And what better fabric to use for a dog-loving 2 year old than this Michael Miller "Mutt" print. I teamed it with some repurposed denim for a bit of strength and durability.



I was considering reserving the bag for Christmas for him (which is approaching scarily fast - arghh, someone slow the year down please!!). But as we are going away on a little break for a few days soon I'll give it to him for that - for taking some cars and trucks away with us, or maybe collecting shells on the beach?



I'm looking forward to making a few of these bags to sell at the upcoming school fete, then hopefully I will finally get my act together and reopen my Etsy shop with some more bags... that is if I can finish making the pair of these that I am happily fussing over :-)

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In other KCWC news I was thrilled to be featured in Meg's wrap-up pics - yay! It's over here in case you want to have a look, staring my little girl as no. 6 ;-)

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In unrelated goings on, I have joined the handprinted fabric swap going on over at onegirl. I'm really looking forward to thinking of a design to print and also seeing everyone else's.

Coincidently my friend Lamina from do a bit recently very generously lent me one of her screens to try out some screen printing of my own (and reminded me of the print swap - thanks Lamina!). After doing a course recently I've been keen to try it out. I'll have to have a few practice goes before I do my swap pieces so I don't send my poor partners anything dodgy!


If this sounds like your kind of thing the sign-up is open until tomorrow so pop on over to Onegirl.

Lots of interesting creative spaces over here today, go visit and enjoy :-)

More cloud prints

Straight after I printed my new cloud print onto the Mr's pj's, I turned around and saw the plain t-shirt I'd just sewn for the little boy and thought 'why not?'. Sometimes the things I plan least turn out the best, and I think this is one of those cases.



I printed a few random clouds on the front and then one on the sleeve (plus a little star and heart on the bottom hem ;-)



The t-shirt itself is a design that I made by taking a pattern from an old t-shirt and adapting it. All blue jersey knit fabric is from my stash (trying to keep the stash bustin' momentum going) and I used a contrast fine stripe for the hood lining and the cuffs.


"Now where did that ball go?"

I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on cutting patterns from existing clothing. If you would be interested let me know and next time I cut a pattern I'll document it and make a post from it.

Hope you're having a nice week so far.

Little boy vest

I had one of those moments recently where it seems like you turn around one day and suddenly one child has ankles and wrists exposed and tummies of jackets and vests stretched to the max! With 3 kids there's always someone needing something bigger and this time it was my boy's turn.

This vest that I made him doesn't address the chilly wrists (I've got a t-shirt in the works), but it does add a nice warm layer to his chest without adding the bulk of sleeves, making movement for play a lot easier.


Of course it's almost impossible to get a stationary pic of an almost 2 year old! There are teddies to play with and cuddle, afterall!

I traced a pattern for the basic shape using an existing sleeveless zip-up hooded jacket and kept it simple in shape. He has quite a few hooded t-shirts, so to avoid the double (or tripling!) of hood bulkiness I omitted it from this design. And as I didn't have a zip the right size thought I'd go for a simple button closure.



All the fabric is from my stash, and the grey woolly looking fabric is a little scratchy on the back so I lined it (using the same pattern pieces) in a soft jersey knit. Then I encased the edges with some bias binding made from a contrasting knit and added the elastic and button closure.

I'm really happy with how this little experiment worked out and now that I have the basic shape I'm thinking I could do lots of variations - add pockets, hood, maybe sleeves, a zip or popper front, reversible etc. Ahh, such a satisfying project. It's lovely when something works out well... unlike the t-shirt I made recently that made him cry it was so hard to get off his head (bad mummy!) and the sleeves were half way up to his elbows (doh!) - ah well, back to the drawing board on that one ;-)

Little boy belt

I had a problem with my little boy. As cute as his little chubby bottom is, I was sick of seeing half of it hanging out of his pants each day. 'Builder's crack' is not as bad on an almost 2 year old as it is on a man, but never-the-less, it had to go. The weather is cold out, people laugh, he was losing his dignity ;-) And I was sick of people constantly telling me "his pants are falling down!". It's hard keep your playground cool with half your bottom exposed!



After looking unsuccessfully for a suitable belt at my favourite kids boutique I suddenly realised I had to make one. Of course looking at a big chain store would be too sensible! Anyway, I thought I'd seen a tutorial on the fabulous Elsie Marley blog and lo, there it was, exactly what I wanted.



I used a scrap of khaki upcycled canvas, a metal ring thing that I'd cut off something previously (I keep all those bits when I'm discarding something) and some snap fasteners. So I got to make something and try out a new gadget, the snap fastener. After a bit of trial and error (more hammer bashing needed) I got the hang of it and loved doing them.

Then I finished off the belt with a tiny bit of decoration in the form of some hand stitching with a thick yellow linen thread. I had bought this recently after a salesperson had told me it was for use in a sewing machine, but then got it home, opened the packet and found printed on the packaging DO NOT USE IN SEWING MACHINE. Damn. I was tempted to try it anyway as I thought it would look make great top stitching but didn't want to risk breaking my old sewing machine. So a little hand stitching it was.



In my head I had pictured a cute photo of the boy toddling along with his cheeky grin, belt on display, but that didn't happen... so here at least is proof of the now covered up bottom.

Have a lovely weekend!

More new shoes for the boy

You know how kids lose shoes... all the time! Well we lost one of the little leather soled shoes I made recently and so I made another pair on the weekend.



I used the repurposed leather from an old op-shop skirt again for the sole, lined them in beige linen, put some felt lining for cushioning between the outer and inner soles, and got to use some of this fantastic Echino japanese linen/cotton for the uppers.



They are a bit hard to get on his feet at first, as all the fabrics are woven so there's no real stretch, but otherwise they're going well. I can't wait to use the Echino fabric again maybe as trim for a pair of shorts for summer.



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I'm so pleased to see that Dana from Made is going to again be running "Celebrate the boy". I'll definitely want to join in to give me the incentive to make some clothes for my boy. I'm relieved it doesn't start til February though - after the silly season and hopefully a little rest in January.

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On that note about trying to get too much done, I have shelved plans to make the fabulous Heidi & Finn hoodie that I'd had in my "next on my sewing machine" column over on the right. Though the weather has been cool lately I hear some warmer weather is coming and I don't want to make something the boy will grow out of before next autumn... so it's on to a dress for the big girl (hopefully ;-)

Monkey pants!

Finally a bit of tangible progress in the holiday sewing! But the thing I'm a little bit proud of with these pants is that I've started to overcome my reluctance to sew with knitted fabrics. As I really wanted to see if I could make a pair of these I sat down with my overlocker (serger) last night and tinkered and adjusted it for about half an hour of precious children-in-bed time until it was sewing pretty well. My overlocker and I have not been getting along that well in recent times but I must take all the blame - all that neglect and need for instant gratification has taken its toll! Crafty Deb suggested that I change needles (hmm, good point), I rethreaded it and adjusted the tension, and actually read the manual! And what a revelation - it actually works!! OK, so lesson no. 1 - taking time to do something right works (duh!).



I was going to use a pattern for the pants and found this one, which looked great, and was certainly affordable, but I looked at a pair we already had and decided surely I could take a pattern from them - and it worked! So now I'm addicted to these cute little toddler pants and want to make lots more. Maybe I'll have one 'monkey pants evening' before moving on with the holiday sewing.



I used a bit of green knitted fabric I had in the stash and the Prints Charming print from the weekend as the accent on the bum and leg trim (so I didn't waste it if I stuffed it up). Next I think I'll do the reverse, and then maybe make some from this cute birdy print I got from Spotlight a while ago. It looks a bit like pyjama fabric, but when you're one who cares if your mama makes you wear your pyjamas in the daytime, right? :-)

Weekend inspiration no. 3

Another inspiring part of our few days away was a visit to my friend Deb's house for a playdate. Everyone's a winner in this arrangement - the kids get to play and the mums get to talk craft, drink great coffee and eat the latest cooking adventures (in this case yummy caramel slice).



We'd been talking about patterns for boys clothes and Deb pulled out these trousers that she'd made for her littlie from an Ottobre 'frog pants' pattern. As her boy's outgrown them she wondered if I'd like them for bub. Yes please. I am in awe at the crafts(wo)manship in them. They are absolutely perfect, with all sorts of openings, fastenings and bits and pieces. And cute fabric too. Just to back up my view of them, my little girl grabbed them and tried them on as soon as we got home, declaring them too big for the baby, so she'd have to look after them in the meantime!





Crafty Deb also generously gave me some freezer paper for stenciling and inspired me by showing me a project she was working on as a new baby present. So now my project list on the right there grows again :-) To add to my long list of craft project awe, she also suggested several kids holiday craft ideas (my own attempts being feeble so far). 'Does she have a blog?' I hear you say 'and where does she record all of this crafting activity and kids fun?'. 'Not yet' and 'in her head' would be the answers. One nice thing I've personally found about having a blog is the cataloging that now happens outside of my head - very satisfying in a virgo-esque way.

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In other news, I excitedly received the beautiful book below in the post today. I've got to credit Crafty Deb again for her part in this - ages ago she put me on to Booko. Have you used it? It's a site that compares prices of books and DVDs for sale online.



This book happened to be cheapest at The Book Depository in the UK, who I've purchased from before and found to have excellent service. Postage was free and the price was less than half of that I spotted in a big chain bookshop recently. Just over a week after I ordered it the postie rang my doorbell and here it is! Can't ask for much more than that. Incidentally, The Book Depository are having a 'spread the love' promo where you can get 10% off if I recommend them. So if this interests you send me a quick email and I'll contact them.



Inspiration, inspiration...



I may just knock a thing or two off my project list with this book inspiring me on!

Dinosaurs are cool

I mentioned recently that having a boy has opened up a whole new world of crafting and fabric for me. While I love pink and princessy things, it's nice to have an alternative.

The other day I made bub another of these little caps to wear for our very chilly recent weather.

I repurposed some denim (from an old pair of his father's jeans) for the outside, then used a snuggly, cute dinosaur print flanelette that I'd found at Spotlight on a gathering trip recently. Hey, I can justify fabric shopping as modern day "gathering", can't I (men being hunters, women being gatherers :-)? This was one of those "I'll get some now coz I like it and use it for something later" moments. In the past it would not have even caught my eye, but now that I have a boy to think of, it jumped out at me. So it seemed perfect as the lining for the cap.



... and I cut out one of the dinosaurs and did some 'free stitching' with the machine onto the front. I really like the slight frayed edges and sketchy style of the stitching.



The boy seems happy with his cap, and actually keeps this style on, which is more than I can say for any other hat I've tried on him. I wonder if he will end up liking dinosaurs like his mama does :-)