Scraps...

I have a big tub of scraps under my sewing table.  Yesterday, my 19 year old son told me about a friend of his - another 19 year old - who, although he's kind of a hipster, he's cool.  (Quote from the son).  This 19 year old boy has apparently got himself a sewing machine, and is teaching himself to sew.  He's making backpacks.  So, my son left the house with a box of fabric to take to this kid and to get himself a custom made backpack. 

See, we sewing moms are cool!

While going through my scraps, I came across a pretty large piece of Happy Robots from Kokka by Nancy Wolff.  Her art is so cool - I loved this fabric right away.  The scrap in the scrap bucket deserved more than relegation to the bucket, so I made up this:

I used the Divided Basket pattern by Noodlehead.  I've got several versions of this basket in my "favorites" section in Flickr, but have never made the basket up.  Really, the trip to the fabric store to get the appropriate interfacing and fusible fleece took longer than making up the pattern.  I highly recommend it - it goes together beautifully.  There are a couple of spots where there was quite a bit of bulk (hence the tiny pleat in the front that I'm way too lazy to pick out) and I'm sure if I owned a walking foot that it would have been helpful. 

I see many, many more of these in my future.  What a great way to present a teacher's gift, a baby gift?  I'm keeping this for myself.  Julia is not happy about it, but tough!

KCW - Days 6 and 7 - Simply Sweet!

So, I purchased the Simply Sweet Tunic pattern on September 7, 2012.  I finally sewed one up as part of Kids Clothes Week.  Seriously, I need to do a better job of using patterns that I actually own!

I used some Kokka double gauze from my shop.  I've said it previously, but if you've never sewn with double gauze before, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.  It's such a pleasure to sew with.  It's soft like a knit, but with the stability of a woven. 

This particular print is kind of wacky, as some Japanese prints tend to be.  It's one of those prints that you can look at for a while and see new things - like the fact that there's a bear shooting a slingshot....

The tunic came together as nicely as I knew it would - the pattern designer tests her patterns thoroughly, and they're really well thought out.  This is a size 5 - I really can't believe my kid is a size 5 - I could definitely make a 4 and add length, but the fabric is super flow-y, and I'd imagine very comfortable to wear. 

In retrospect, this Kid's Clothes Week was definitely a success.  I made a dress, two tops and a pair of shorts.  Oh yeah, I also did some pattern testing for Heidi and Finn's new pattern release - I'll be showing off those photos soon!  So, if I include both versions of that, my kid ended up with 6 new pieces of clothing in just one week!

KCW - Days 2 and 3 - Hello Petal Meets The Geranium

I got to sew all day today.  That is, the hours while the kid was in school.

I had already cut out a dress from the Geranium Dress pattern from Made By Rae.  I've made a bunch of these previously, and they're all in heavy rotation.  A simple sew, but a very effective pattern.

Julia's still wearing a couple of the size 3's that I made previously, and they still fit, but are getting too short.  So, I lengthened the bodice about 2 inches, and the skirt about 4 inches.  Perfect fit!

I've actually got a 3 inch hem on this, so she can have another growth spurt if she likes!

The fabric is from Moda - Aneela Hoey's Hello Petal line.  I love her florals - and I really love the colors.  This is a better view of the fabric - ignore the cheesy camera face....

I did an embroidered panel on the front and back.  I actually did the embroidery last week - it took me a whole morning. 

Sparkly buttons on the back for my sparkle loving kid....

This is a great pattern.....I highly recommend it!

Believe it or not, I have no clue what I'm going to be making for the rest of KCW - I have a bunch of ideas, though....stay tuned!

KCW 2014 - Something Old, Something New

I did most of my sewing for day one of this Kid's Clothes Week on Sunday.  That's reality - there's not enough hours in the weekdays for me to even sew for one hour.  My KCW will be done mainly on the weekend, and all day Wednesday.  I bet I get a lot more than 7 hours in!

For my first outfit, I went with an oldie, but goodie - the Class Picnic blouse from Oliver and S.  I've made it a bunch of times, including modifying it to be a dress.  My daughter is in the size 4 in this, but lengthened about 3 inches.

It's a pattern that just doesn't disappoint.  I don't even need to look at the directions at this point.  The fabric is a cotton from Yuwa from my shop - Owls by Marie Jacobi.  It's a really cute subdued print  - some of the owls are even sparkly....

Next up, I FINALLY purchased the Kids Shorts Pattern by Made on danamadeit.com - seriously, why did I wait?  I've had this bookmarked for a while, and just never made the purchase.  I probably have other patterns that I could easily just convert to shorts, but why do that when these are already drafted and sized for you?  These have SO many options - I'll definitely be getting my money out of these!  Based on the measurements, I made a 5 in these.  Seriously, a 5???!!!  Where is my baby going???? Granted, these will be worn for quite a while - they've certainly got room to grow into!

Who needs some serious lotion????

These are made in some orange 21 wale corduroy by Moda, with some leftover turquoise linen.  Super cute, and she loves the pockets!

This is how I roll - this is all I had left of the turquoise thread that I used for the shorts when I was done!!

 End of the KCW Day 1 sewing.....my next project should be finished up on Wednesday - I can't wait to share this one!

A Classic Chickadee

Here's my post from the "Flip This Pattern" over at Frances Suzanne - the voting is open now!!!

 We live in Southern California, and the weather turned COLD a few weeks ago - I think it dipped down to 50....ok, so that's not cold by most people's standard, but for the thin-blooded Californians, it was freezing....it made me realize that my daughter actually didn't have a jacket!  So there was my inspiration for my flip.

I've always loved the classic look of the little girls woolen coat with a velvet collar.  So, since the beautiful Chickadee pattern has an amazing collar feature, I figured I would make it into a jacket.

I made this with red wool from Moda from my shop.  I have never attempted sewing with wool, and after this experience, I have no idea why!  It sewed up beautifully.  I fully lined the jacket with satin - my first experience with sewing satin as well.  Suffice to say, I will NOT be starting a business making bridesmaids gowns after this - although the result was really nice, it was not that easy to sew.

I added wrist bands to make it more jacket-like, added pleats on both sides of the lower front to make it even more swing-y.  I hand-sewed a snap to close the neckline, and made a trip to the garment district in Los Angeles to get a frog closure.  I knew that would be the look I wanted to complete the "classic" look I was going for.

For the skirt, I had a perfect plaid in my stash.  I knew that my kid likes skirts that "twirl", so I decided that I would make a wrap/pleated skirt.  I lopped off the pattern pieces, and added a pleated lower skirt. 

To complete the look, I made a white t-shirt with the Made By Rae Flashback Skinny Tee pattern, and as a nod to the Clever Charlotte pattern designers, came up with the perfect creation:

I appliqued the Clever Charlotte logo onto the shirt - I was very pleased the way it came out!

Thanks SO much to the Clever Charlotte pattern designers for making such a great pattern - if you haven't sewn with them before, you should definitely try them out - the patterns are so cool, and the instructions are GREAT!  And, thank you, thank you, thank you, to Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne for asking me to participate!

A Sparkly Sunday Brunch

I cut out a bunch of stuff - mostly in sizes 3 with 4 length - at the beginning of "fall" in southern California.  Unfortunately, we really haven't had much of a fall, and my sewing got sidetracked with other commitments - like life, and holidays.  So, I realized that I'd better tackle these already cut-out projects before they get too small.

I may have been too late.

My kid has shot up lately.  I think she's about 44" tall now, which puts her at the end height-range of the size 5.  Oops. 

I tackled a Sunday Brunch jacket - one of my favorite styles from the Oliver + S patterns.  If there was an adult version, I'd definitely give it a try.

I used some fabric that I picked up in the Los Angeles garment district in a place that sells by the pound - $2.50/pound to be exact.  This fabric is definitely unknown content - it has metallic thread through it, but washed up beautifully and is very soft.  I have absolutely no clue what it could even be made of.  When Julia saw me cutting it up, she immediately loved it.

I did, however, have a heck of a time photographing it....

The buttons have some "bling" to them, and Julia loves them.  So, she loves the fabric and the buttons....perfect!

 Unfortunately, it's definitely on the small size.  This is a size 4, and I'll definitely have to make a 5 the next time.  It's like a perfect fit, but no room to grow whatsoever.  Luckily, I was smart enough to snag a paper copy of this pattern in the larger size a while ago.  At the time that I bought it, the idea of my little one being in the "big" size range seemed so far off....I'm sure I'll blink an eye and she'll be outgrowing this one altogether....WAH!!!

Stuff I've Been Working On...

Even though we're only 11 days into the New Year, I've already got 3 projects to share.

The first project was for Go To Sew.  They have a series of folks testing out the patterns that they sell - and they sell a huge variety - and showing what they've done.  Since my daughter generally hates to wear jackets, I chose the Aztec Hooded Vest by See Kate Sew.  Part of my New Year's resolutions are to challenge myself more in the sewing arena, and one of those challenges is to master the zipper.

For the project, I chose a deep purple corduroy from my stash, and lined it with some Yuwa fabric that I absolutely love - Can-Can by Anyan.  Here's a close up of the lining, as I didn't really get good pictures:

Here's a few of shots of the completed vest:

It's a nice pattern, but I definitely had some difficulty.  The pattern pieces didn't go together at all, but because I was on a deadline, I jimmied it together.  I did contact the designer - she's super nice btw - and she's going to check it out and see if the issue was the pattern or operator-error.  Either way, I'll use the pattern again, and hopefully do a better job on the zipper next time.  The pattern called for a longer zipper than the front of the jacket, and then you cut the zipper to size, and fold it over at the neck edge.  Next time, I'll order a zipper that's the actual length of the front, and won't do any cutting or folding over; I think that will make me happy.  On a very positive note, I found a great source for zippers - Zipperstop on Etsy.  I highly recommend them, and will definitely be going back.  Amazing prices and selection.

Next on my sewing list is my "flip" of the Clever Charlotte Chickadee pattern over at Frances Suzanne.  You can read about it over there, but here's some pictures in case you didn't see them already:

Voting will start after the next couple of flips are revealed - I'm not going to hold my breath, but I'd especially like to win some more patterns from Clever Charlotte - I was SO impressed with this one -  my first attempt of their patterns.  I will 100% for sure be buying some more from them!

The last thing on my agenda was a birthday gift for a one-year old.  Even though I've known for a month that the party was today, I've been crazy-busy and didn't have time to work on a gift.  But, I knew exactly what I wanted to make - I just NEEDED to make an Oliver + S Jump Rope dress.  I felt the need to make a pattern that is tried and true; that I can sew pretty much in my sleep, that gives the most amazing, professional result.

I used some fabric I've used previously - Kokka Paris Walk.  Since the mom of the baby loves polka dots, I used some red and white polka dots for the contrast.  I cut this out Thursday night, did the placket Friday night, and finished the rest Saturday morning.  The party was at 12:00, and we ended up being about 45 minutes late - I sewed on the buttons and clipped threads in the car!

I don't know what my next project is going to be, but I did buy 1/4" foot for my machine with the idea that I might actually make a quilt - another New Year's resolution!  We'll see!!