October 10 - 17 was Kids Clothes Weeks Challenge over on Elsie Marley. The idea is very simple - you spend an hour a day making some clothes for your little one(s). Great! This was my first attempt at a group blog event and I was really excited. I spent the week before thinking about what I would make and collecting together the fabrics. Here is what I wanted to make for Wiss: one pair of pyjamas made from a John Deere tractor print flannel fabric I'd had for ages, a pair of mittens and a scarf from navy fleece, an upcycled jumper, a few t-shirts...I even thought about making a coat!!!
As you can see my ambition always far exceeds the amount of time I have but, hey! you've got to think big I say. The pyjamas were my number one priority so I started with those...on Tuesday! Even though the challenge specified one hour every day that wasn't really going to work for me. I had a cinema date with a friend on Monday night* so KCWC started on Tuesday for me, but I promised myself I'd make up the extra time on the days I could do!
I used the Basic Kid Pants for the bottoms, but added a cuff at the bottom from an old t-shirt of mine. I really need to learn a bit more about sewing with jersey and how to make the stitches give a little with the stretch of the material, but these work ok for now. I was really pleased with how 'finished' these turned out - the inside is as neat as the outside and the seams won't fray. Practice does pay off!
I finished these pj bottoms in two and a half hours so that made up for missing the official start on Monday! Unfortunately I was out on Wednesday too so I had to put in the hours on Thursday to make the pyjama top. I used Dana's 90 minute shirt tutorial (but it took me more like 150 minutes!)
So suddenly it was Friday night and although I wanted to carry on making clothes I also felt I should spend some time with husband this week so I did some sewing on the sofa. Using yet another MADE tutorial, I hand sewed an 'L' for a Sprinkle T-Shirt. It took much longer than I thought, so I had to finish it off in front of X Factor on Saturday night too!
I customised another t-shirt using a bleach pen - an idea I grabbed from Cheri. I had not used one of these so was very excited to try it out. I drew a tractor and grass design along the bottom of an H&M t-shirt, waited for half hour and then washed the t-shirt. Unfortunately, all I was left with was a plain green t-shirt! Back to the drawing board for me and the bleach pen but here is what it could have looked like...
As you can see my ambition always far exceeds the amount of time I have but, hey! you've got to think big I say. The pyjamas were my number one priority so I started with those...on Tuesday! Even though the challenge specified one hour every day that wasn't really going to work for me. I had a cinema date with a friend on Monday night* so KCWC started on Tuesday for me, but I promised myself I'd make up the extra time on the days I could do!
I used the Basic Kid Pants for the bottoms, but added a cuff at the bottom from an old t-shirt of mine. I really need to learn a bit more about sewing with jersey and how to make the stitches give a little with the stretch of the material, but these work ok for now. I was really pleased with how 'finished' these turned out - the inside is as neat as the outside and the seams won't fray. Practice does pay off!
So suddenly it was Friday night and although I wanted to carry on making clothes I also felt I should spend some time with husband this week so I did some sewing on the sofa. Using yet another MADE tutorial, I hand sewed an 'L' for a Sprinkle T-Shirt. It took much longer than I thought, so I had to finish it off in front of X Factor on Saturday night too!
I customised another t-shirt using a bleach pen - an idea I grabbed from Cheri. I had not used one of these so was very excited to try it out. I drew a tractor and grass design along the bottom of an H&M t-shirt, waited for half hour and then washed the t-shirt. Unfortunately, all I was left with was a plain green t-shirt! Back to the drawing board for me and the bleach pen but here is what it could have looked like...
KCWC 2011 was a great success - just check out the Flikr group and see all the cool things made last week. I may not have made a big dent on my list but I am still really pleased with the few new items Wiss has in his wardrobe : )
* I went to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but unfortunately I can't tell you what I thought of it as I fell asleep!
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