sewing for children ??? yes please :-)

Every now and then I come across boggers who speak vehemently against sewing for children. It is usually from people without children, who occasionally or once have been asked or suggested or decided to sew for children of family and friends.

One of the frequent complaints seems to be 'ungratefulness' of the recipient (either child or parent thereof ), but I have to say both my children are over the moon when I sew something for them. They usually want to wear it RIGHT AWAY and tell everyone they meet that  'my mummy made it' with this wide smile. The joy I get from seeing the happiness in their little (or not so little in the case of my son) face is unmeasurable. True happiness :-)

Usually their items are simple and don't require much thought at all .... and their gratefulness is lasting. They are very reluctant to stop wearing something that I made for them. In fact, my son still wears his pyjamas I made 2 years ago, despite having seriously outgrown them. He even wanted to bring them to camp this year. In that spirit I used some of the jersey mountain to make him 2 pairs of jersey sleep shorts and one long pair.

The shorts only take about 50cms of fabric, so those 2 pieces of fabric were remnants from Spotlight at a dollar each.

The pattern itself is my self drafted shorts pattern for my son, very loose and roomy. Hopefully they'll last another 2 years :-)

The air plane jersey he picked out 2 years ago and I thought if I don't sew with it soon he'll be a teenager and just arch his eyebrow at the thought of air plane shorts/pants. Though I am only assuming this, having had no teenagers myself yet, it might well be that my kids will surprise me again.

Don't get me wrong if you spend hours upon hours creating an appliqued, multi-layered princess dress or similar, a piece of art you have poured your heart into ... I actually found an Alabama Chanin Style dress for a toddler in the Oliver &S flickr stream once ... anyway, chances are you are going to be disappointed with the thanks that you get. It is very hard for kids (and adults who don't sew) to put in the appropriate gratitude for something like this since they don't know the effort involved, but these shorts/pants are nowhere near this level :-)

UFO#2 the Space Shorts

When I started these shorts in February I was so proud. I did both inseam pocket and back pocket and it was fiddly and hot and I persevered ... and then my son tried them on ... and ... and ... and ... they were TOO SMALL.

I was somewhat crushed, okay I nearly cried and my son, my beautiful baby boy, offered to go on a diet to lose some weight so I didn't have to change them. Since at that point he was positively underweight, I made some cake instead and put the shorts away to alter another time.

Well, the time has come ...

One of my issues was that I didn't actually know how to make them bigger in the best way. That was solved when Sewaholic released her Tofino Pants that have a panel on each side. It is hardly noticeable and I was able to keep the inseam pockets.

Each panel is about 4 inches across so in fact I added 8 inches to the original waist size. It wasn't that much too small in February, but he gained considerable weight on his last asthma drug and I wanted there to be room from growth.

Sadly that cheering is not for me, but rather the Ashes and a golden duck. I am not even quite sure what that is, with cricket not being my thing. My husband has tried to explain the various details on the game many times, but it just hasn't captured me at all. I have this theory that if you are not into sports then cricket may as well be an instruction manual written in Swahili for some doohickie that carpenters use. :-)

Quick update

been sewing for the kiddilies, but somehow never got around to actually posting anything. I took some quick pictures, obviously only after they've been worn to there are already stains on them, but if I didn't do it now, who knows when the next opportunity would have come along :-)

First of a pair of shorts as my son gained significant amounts of weight on his new asthma drug (6 kg in 4 months or 20% of his overall body weight), but now that he stopped, he is slowly losing it too. I had hoped it would translate into a growth spurt, but I am still waiting for it.

I have at least another 3 pairs to make, so be prepared to see some more soon.

Now for the little girl I had cut up these small pieces last year to make a little skirt, but never got around to actually sewing it. At first I was intimidated by the gathering, then I worried about proportions and finally I realised if I don't sew it now, she'll grow out of it before I get to it. The solid pink is her hip circumference times 1.5, then divided by 2 and then added seam allowances. The flowery tier is her hip circumference times 2, then divided by 2 and then added seam allowances. However, I don't think there is any need for precision tbh. An inch too much isn't going to ruin it, I think.

So 2 more pieces stash busted, but I really need to start on some of the bigger pieces in order to free some room :-)

First projects of the year

apparently children grow ... a mere 2 months after declaring both kids had enough clothes, my son discovered that he has outgrown not one, not two, but three pairs of shorts. Similarly my daughter now has far fewer skirts that fit then before Christmas. Lucky for me that ties in nicely with the Stashbusting Sewalong and the January topic of Itty Bits.

First I made a little gathered skirt for my baby girl. It was the first time when I sewed something where I thought 'Yes, this is really easy'. I feel I have turned a bit of a corner now I guess.

Secondly I got started on the shorts. I used the pattern I made myself and sized it up.

As my son remarked that they were a bit wide, I made the next pair smaller, except it was late and I made them too small. I could have cried. It was fabric my son picked out over a year ago and that was very special to him, and i don't have enough to start anew. I have put it to the side for now and look at it again on the weekend when I am less likely to burst into tears.

That is 2 pieces off the stash, so onwards and upwards. Both pieces have been there for a while, but they were meant to become skirts and shorts respectively.

On another note, I am trying to make one potholder a week in order to get rid of all the yarns ends that I have laying around. It is actually a square, but the picture is a bit weird.

 

 

A potholder a week makes the yarn stash all neat :-)

UFO #2 - the City Scape Shorts

I had it all cut out and ready to sew and then never really got going. The fabric is a quilting cotton he chose, so it was really easy to sew. However, in the end it was a struggle that I can't really explain other then I really didn't want to. It seems that I have so little time and so many things I want to do ... sigh ...

Despite all this, I am really proud of how neat they turned out on the inside.

This time I french-seamed the pockets like Megan did in her Apple Dress and it worked beautifully.

 

I have done this pattern before (and moaned and griped about the instructions to anyone I could find) and I wonder whether that previously negative experience had tempered my enthusiasm with this project. I tried to address some of the issues I had with the last version. I set the pockets higher, because last time he couldn't actually get into the pockets, because they started where his fingers ended - his own fault if you ask me for wearing his shorts so low that they barely cover his bottom, but apparently I am old and don't know anything about fashion ... kids these days :-)

However, looking at it now, there is too much fabric in the front and maybe lowering the waistline would improve that issue. Alternatively, I still have my self-drafted pattern which fitted him really well, but is now getting a little small. I could attempt to size that one up instead. Well, he now has enough pants, so I'll look at the issue when he outgrows all the ones he has.

Two down, six more to go, next UFO here we come :-)

summer sewin' - happens so fast

why yes, I do have the soundtrack of Grease running through my head, what gave it away :-)

The first month of spring is drawing to an end, so the summer sewing has began. First my (not so little anymore) baby boy requested an elephant for himself.

I had originally bought some really soft green and blue seersucker from Spotlight for some shorts for him, but Mr Giggles (the great guru of all things style related she says whilst rolling her eyes dramatically) thought it looked 'a bit girly' oh really ... hmmm let me count the ways ... anyway the topic was moot since my son requested his elephant to be made from this.

I managed to squeeeeeenze out a pair of sleep shorts using the pattern I made myself when I first started sewing, but lengthened it a bit and make an elephant from it. It's 'so cute' as my daughter puts it, whilst my son starts a drawn out explanation why it can't possibly be 'cute'.

I even added a back pocket to them. Obviously I didn't think about it until I had already sewn the inside seam, but nevertheless it worked out. Next time I'll attach it before :-)

The ears are from the left over brown flannel from his Jedi bath robe and it is really cuddly. It has graced his bed ever since it had one eye attached - I only managed to sew on one eye before getting distracted, so there where a couple of days when the heffalump was half-blind, but still very much loved.

PS.: Mr Giggles has acknowledged that he might have been a bit hasty declaring the fabric 'girly' :-)

Spring is in the air

In preparation for the (inevitable) return of the heat - I'd rather not call it spring, because having a month of semi hot weather before it turn hot 'n humid really doesn't qualify as it's own season - I have asked the son whether he needed anything and he apparently needed some red shorts (for Rugby training - Go Reds).

When I pick up the Ice Cream Social dress pattern I felt guilty about buying such an expensive pattern for the daughter, so in the interest of sibling equality I also bought Beach Bum Hoodie and Board Shorts by Patterns by Figgy's.

I wish I could recommend them as enthusiastically as I did with Oliver + S. The pattern itself was okay, but the instruction left a bit to be desired to be honest. They reminded me of a photo tutorial without the photos, and I found it irritating that there wasn't a separate layout for the shorts instead it was for the shirt and the shorts together. Why is that irritating I hear you ask, well, because I looked straight for the shorts bit in the instructions and was then confused why the layout wasn't there and why there was no mention of the seam allowances. I did find them eventually in the hoodie section.

Another niggly bit was there was a long description about how to finish the seams for a sensitive child and after reading it I thought they sounded like flat-felled seams, but at no point did it say that and I would have preferred they had said that and then went on to describe it in detail. And don't get me started on the pockets. In short I ended up not using the instructions at all. Instead I used some Simplicity shorts instructions and my own. I think they turned out well.

He likes them and wants another pair, maybe a little shorter though. He also likes his shorts (and pants) to sit on his hips, but I think these are meant to be worn higher and thus have a lot of room in the crotch area, so next time I should probably take 5 cm or so off from the top if that works with the pockets that is. This is how it looks with the shorts properly pulled up (complete with dirt stains from the rugby training).

I do like him in red, it suits him and he is easily picked out in a group :-)

still alive - now with bathrobe :-)

A little over a month ago I had this idea that in order to prepare for my Christmas dress I should probably try to figure out how to read patterns and make something from a commercial big 4 pattern. So,, after some searching through my ever increasing stash (despite all my fabric diets and destashing attempts - gosh, I have no will power) I came up with this - fast AND easy B5724 Butterick - a robe for my son.

And no, not just any robe, I was going to use thick brown flannel and make it a bit like a Jedi robe, you know, the sort that Obi-Wan Kenobi might wear around the house when it's a bit chilly - obviously not on Tatooine, but maybe whilst staying at the temple. So I ordered 3 yards of the flannel from fabric.com and washed it. After ironing it, it became apparent that it had either not been as wide as it claimed to be or that it shrank quite a lot or a mixture of both, as a result the suggested layout did not work. All of a sudden it looked like just getting a robe out of the 3 yards would be a struggle, never mind the additional hood. I solved the problem by halving the sleeve length and instead of a cuff, we just have a normal hem. He doesn't care, why should I :-)

I did find the instructions at times a struggle, mostly because it was every word counts. Baste, Gather, iron in place, it just took some time to get used to. Also I did the facing differently to the instructions and after a while I only consulted the instructions and instead looked at my husbands store-bought robe to see how they did things (it's lasted 10 years and still going strong, so I took that as a sign of it being well constructed). Here is a close-up of one of the two pockets.

It took a long time for me and I realised that when they say that flannel dulls the needle quickly, they really mean quickly (I went through 5 needles in total). It turned out to be a bit more time consuming and a bit less fast then I thought, but hey, you live and learn. Spring is almost upon us here in Queensland, so soon I shall go back to skirts and tops for me :-)

Pyjama Party

I realised a few weeks ago that my son has outgrown all of his pyjama pants (well, the tops as well, but I am not quite there yet sewing wise, so I'll just see whether I can pick up some matching cotton tops), SO ... after some shopping for green fabric at fabric.com and a weekend's worth of work - I know that other people can whip them up in couple of hours, but in my house it is all done in 15 min. intervals - anyway, we now have

not one,                                                                                            not two,

but three beautiful pyjama pants - why yes, he did insisted on wearing them for dinner :-)

There is room for improvement, mainly because they are 'roomy' (sorry, couldn't help myself there) on top - I used the shorts pattern I made, but cut the outside seam on the fold and didn't take out the seam allowance - and a bit long, but he wanted them longer so his feet won't go cold. Having said all that he does grow, so it's all good.

At first I thought I would follow Dana's pants tutorial again, but I had noticed that other people sewed the pants crotch seam with one pant leg inside the other one, so I thought I give that a go (in the name of  trying to learn new things etc) and it worked beautifully.

I was particularly proud of my inside seams being all neat and tidy with the overlocker foot and a zigzag stitch.

Onwards to the next project ... I am thinking of perhaps a carrier bag for my sewing machine for when I go and sew with friends ... OKAY, we mostly drink tea and chat, but some sewing is being done :-)

Sewing is contagious

Whilst I muddle my way through the sewing process, my family eagerly observes. Apparently I am not doing so bad, because for my son's school costume challenge (he is 7) he decided he wanted to make himself a Jedi Robe. I thought he meant he would drape some brown fabric around himself and be done with it, but no, he meant he was going to sew it himself with my sewing machine.

So we went to Spotlight and picked up 3m of brown broadcloth (they were out of brown fleece). He them washed it and iron it. We drew his outline and he cut it very carefully.

He pinned the sides, whilst fearfully looking at the pins to see whether they were going to march up to him and prick him.

We had to get a step for the foot pedal, because his legs were too short to reach it, but otherwise he was a star. We didn't do any seam finishes, because I didn't want to make it too fiddly for him.

He did find it a lot of work, but he did like the actual sewing part, so perhaps he'll do it again in the future. Now, what to do with the left over 1.5 m brown broadcloth, because only after we purchased the fabric, he announced that he wanted a short robe rather then a long one :-)

Boy Shorts or Stripes Aplenty

It's a bit late but last week I worked on some shorts for my (not-so little anymore) son. It is a self-drafted pattern made with the help of a pair of exiting shorts and Dana's wonderful tutorial over at Dana Made It. The white and beige stripey ones were a trial version and I had just had enough fabric (so matching stripes or anything like that possible). Still, my son was very excited and whilst I wanted to give them to charity, he was visibly shocked by that idea :-)

For the final version I straightened out the pattern a little and made the legs slightly narrower, but overall it was perfect as it was. Now my little daughter wants some too :-)