Washing, Ironing and Pattern Tracing

So I'm still in full Kids Clothes Week prep work stages

I prefer to spend that hour (or more) a day ACTUALLY sewing.

 

 

 

 

 

So I got washed like 20 yard of fabric and got it all ironed.

 

((Blech! Who else hates ironing as much as I do??))

 

Then I got all my patterns traced off the paper hard copies and put them with the fabrics.
 

  

Which looks a little like this laid out all across the china cabinet:

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously some things are coming in multiples.

The Lazy Days pajamas are going to be 4 sets,

2 of the Nowhere man pants

and 2 skinny jeans.

The rest are just one of each.

I now just have to cut out the individual pattern pieces.
If I get everything prepped I should be able to get a lot of actual sewing done that week.

A reminder to anyone doing the KCW-
Don't forget your notions!
If you prep early you know in advance if you need more elastic, buttons or snaps
 and can have those supplies on hand.

Wouldn't want that precious hour being wasted by a trip to the store.

 

 

 

 



Post Christmas Mayhem and Preparing for KCW!

So in the end of the Christmas craziness I made 9...no 10 pairs of the hanging dishtowels I posted about in the last post for a lot of different people. They were a great easy gift that I think was very useful for the recipients.







We took the little man to the Trolley Museum for a trolley ride with Santa.

 

Safe to say he loved it. They had a large train table and a large lego town display. He had cookies and hot chocolate after seeing Santa.

The trolley itself was just amazing, all restored and had wicker/woven seats and polished brass and wood everywhere. Very cool.

How about the guy in the last picture photo-bombing??

 

 

Now who is getting ready for KCW (KidsClothesWeek) at the end of the month?

I know I'll never get everything done I hope (wishes and dreams, amiright?) but I have high hopes.

Im getting ready now by prewashing all my fabrics. I'm pretty sure my serger was smoking by the end of serging over 20 yards of fabric. I need to get that thing actually serviced I think. I've never done it before so I don't even know where to take it!

 

I've picked out I think 6-7 patterns too. I know on my list is the recess raglan, another pair of skinny jeans, hipster Henley, nowhere man pants, multiple lazy day pajamas sets, the reversible zippy hoodie pattern and maybe if I get to it some more flannel pajama pants for my little mans Cabbage Patch doll. I made my own pattern for those and with scraps from his lazy days they are pretty

easy to whip up. What is on your list? What are you planning on doing? 

Happy Halloween...and Thanksgiving...

Well let's start at the begining I suppose.

The little guy was a viking for Halloween. For him I sewed up some faux fur boot covers and fur vest. It was raining and yucky out so we did not stay out long although he was pretty warm. He even had on a fake red beard and hair under his horned helmet.

Sorry this is the only decent picture I got that night; you can't really see the boot covers or the vest over his coat.  

 

Then I got started on sewing for Christmas...

5 Imke's for the neices/nephew and son.

This is after cutting but before sewing them up, of course, I have already wrapped all of these up. It is the same Imke pattern that I have used in the past but this time with long sleeves and made of fleece.

 

Then I had to pack up the entire sewing dining room for Thanksgiving. We had just over 25 people at our house and everything was fabulous. I tried out a few new recipes and they were really good.

I did my own homemade cranberry sauce which is SO much better than canned. It is also so easy so I don't know why I never tried it before. I also made corn casserole--also YUMM-O!

 

 

 

Okay so then black friday happened which was a little like this:

 

 

No not really...BUT I did go to two different Kohl's and JoAnn Fabrics as well as a few other stores. Yeah, I am that crazy.

 

 

Then back to the sewing.

I made a stinkin' adorable kimono pj set for my nephew, Baby Eric as my son calls him.

 

 

It is from the Amy Butler book.

Little Stitches for Little Ones.

It is actually the outfit on the cover. I made it with some of my JoAnn's $1.99 flannel from Black Friday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I made my neice a coloring book dress for her birthday. It is a reversible dress with a very light purple on the inside because it is her favorite color.

 

 

 

 

Last and not least I made some hanging dish towels.

 I used kleiosbelly pattern. That link takes you right to the PDF.

 I used another Black Friday score to whip these up. The towels themselves are The Big One hand towels from Kohls that I cut it half.

Total cost for each set $1.99 because of stashed fabric usage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that I only need to sew up some new PJ's for the little man

 and this mama is done Christmas sewing.

 

What are y'all making up for Christmas??

KCW Days 4-7

Sewing for an hour a day really is not TOO much of a stretch. As long as you don't mind letting the laundry and dishes pile up. Not to mention the threads and scraps on the floor and everywhere else, including the shower?

 

The hard part is trying to blog about it at the same time! So I'm just going to share everything that I got done in the second half of the week in one post.

 

 

Project #4

 

 

Sleepy time robe

From Melly Sews (Free pattern by the way!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marvel character flannel from JoAnn's. It has Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Wolverine.

 

 Yummy donuts:)

 

Project #5

 

Sleeping Bag

Pattern from Crazy Little Projects (Free Tutorial)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both the inner and outer fabrics are also JoAnn's. I was lucky enough to find two coordinating fabrics in the red tag section when they were an additional 50% off! This pattern takes 3 yards of each fabric plus batting.

 



 

 

 

 

Project # 6

 

Fox Mask

Also a free printable pattern from IlliStyle.com

 

 

 

 

I'm sure your all familiar with the "What Did The Fox Say" video by now:

 



 

 

 

Well he is obsessed with it and I knew I had to hunt down a mask template for him!

 

 

 



Project # 7

 

Well he is modeling this with his fox mask but it is a basic vest made with faux fur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the vest using the same sleepy time robe pattern sans sleeves and removing some of the length. The vest is actually part of his Halloween costume; he is going to be a viking with a great horned helmet.

 

 

 

 

Making PJ's from a Tee Shirt

So sometime last year we took the little man to a Pittsburgh Pirates game and it was a free t shirt game. Knowing that an Adult size Small would still be ginormous on the little guy I tossed it it my sewing room for refashioning at a later date...



Fast forward---> It is opening day of the 2013 Pirates Season this week, Hanrahan was traded long ago and Hunter could use some summer pj's soon.

Guess it is time to get to work huh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only cutting the front portion of the tee shirt cut out a tank style. You can free style like me or trace a tshirt that already fits your little one.

 

I originally drew a larger pattern but ended up cutting it smaller as shown in the black lines.

 

 

Then do a neat-o repeat-o and do the back portion cutting the neck a little higher than the front neckline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut out a "U" shape in the crotch area, no need to make one smaller than the other like I did. I cut that portion out later too haha. Serge or stitch up the side seams and the shoulder with the right sides facing eachother.

 

 

 

 

 

Re-using the original t shirt sleeve cut off about 1/2" or so away from it. With the right sides together pin the tshirt hem to the pj sleeve opening. Sew along the closest to the raw edge original stitch line on the sleeve. Turn and topstitch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pick out the original neck line from the tshirt. and repeat for the neckline the same as you did for the sleeve. Cut an 1 1/2" strip of the tshirt and do a quickie hem on it. Apply to the crotch area, folding in half and topstitching. I did this in a similar method to applying bias tape if that helps. Seems I get too excited to finish at the end to take pictures. Then I applied regular snaps using my Dritz snap pliers.

I keep meaning to buy some of the Babyville ones to try them out but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm sure they would work just as well though.

 

 

 

Last step: Throw them on the little one and watch the hilarity ensue.

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently he felt like dancing!