Tuesday 15 April 2014

Kids Clothes Week Overview

Well, I managed about half a week...

The first four days or so I managed to squeeze in an hour of sewing a day, and finished off a shirt (just needed buttonholes and buttons):

Pattern is Burda 9792, size 2. I added about 5cm extra length to the body, although it was probably unnecessary - the sleeves will be too short before he really needs the extra length! This is the first long sleeve shirt I've ever made, I'm pretty happy with the result. I think I'll mostly be doing short sleeve shirts in the future though, more growing room.

And a pair of pyjamas, sans elastic. I put the elastic somewhere safe, and I need to either find it or get more. The new stuff I got a while ago is too wide for the channel I made, which was measured off the elastic I had planned to use - so clearly it is somewhere! (These were mostly done, just needed buttonholes, and hand finishing).


Pattern is Burda 9747, size 3.
I originally meant to cut the top with extra length, but forgot as I was cutting, hence the blue fabric that I added to the bottom. To make it look a bit more deliberate I also did a blue pocket, and blue inside the sleeve and pants cuffs that will show when they're turned up.
The other thing I disappointed myself with was failing to look closely enough at the monkey print. I looked at it and saw that the monkeys hung both up and down, so didn't worry about the cutting direction. It was only when I was sewing it together that I saw that all the faces are up the same way. I managed to cut everything upside down except the back of the pants! Oh well, they're monkeys, and monkeys like being upside down, right?

I also managed to get two short sleeve shirts half finished - one green and one with penguins (also Burda 9792). It's really not that easy to get uninterrupted sewing time with two small boys - one who doesn't want mama to abandon him, and one who has to help whenever I'm sewing. Despite not meeting the hour-a-day goal for the entire week I'm still happy to have made some sewing progress!

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Kid's Clothes Week Challenge

I have seen this happening every now and then over the past few years, and finally actually managed to remember about it at the right time to jump on the bandwagon. I have a set of clothes that I am trying to get made for the monkey, and this seems like a good way to try and get a bunch of it done.

On my to-do list is:
Finish a long sleeve shirt (size 2) - just needs buttons and buttonholes
Finish pyjamas (size 3) - needs hemming, buttons, buttonholes
Two short sleeve shirts (size 2) - cut, partly sewn
Four short sleeve shirts (size 3) - fabric bought
More underpants, in size 2 and 3 - not sure how many I want to make, I suspect there will never be enough!

My actual goal for this week is to meet the challenge of spending at least one hour a day working on sewn clothing. Yesterday I did the hand finishing and thread trimming on the pyjama top, and trimmed the threads on the bottoms. I still need to hem the legs, put elastic in, and do the buttonholes and buttons.

Sewing time is somewhat rare around here - either the boys are awake and wanting to help, or I am trying to get other stuff done that I can't do when they're up. (Or I'm too tired to do anything).

I think the short sleeve shirts need pressing before I can do any more sewing, so I think that might be my goal for tonight (and maybe some buttonholes, the ones on the pyjamas are marked. I probably should mark the long sleeve shirt ones too, it would be nice to get that finished soon!)