Kids Clothes Week - Autumn 2014: The Results!

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will already know how much I love Kids Clothes Week - I find it's a great opportunity to force myself to sit down and make stuff for fun, just for the love of it (and love of your kids.) And you can really have some fun too. You can see some of the things I have made over the years in these posts: Autumn 2011, Spring 2013,  Summer 2013,  Summer 2014 

Excuses, excuses but my new little daughter really isn't playing ball when it comes to letting Mama have time to sew but a couple of times this week she did actually go to sleep at bedtime and stay down for the night. Woohoo! It felt so good to be back behind the sewing machine again so I'm hoping that I'll be getting a bit more time now. We'll see I guess!

All my sewing this time was for Ferne (sorry Wiss!). Firstly, I decided to alter this beautiful dress I got from a local nearly-new sale. It's actually a Kenzo dress and it's wonderfully made from needlecord, but I don't really see the point of dresses on small babies: they just ride up all the time as you hold them and you spend all your time yanking them down again. So I altered this dress to become a little romper suit instead. I didn't have enough of the fabric to make a gusset though so it was a very basic alteration. I made the skirt into two legs to which I added elastic, then used bias binding to make a strong facing inside the crutch to take the poppers.

It worked really well, even if I do say so myself but unfortunately, Ferne has grown so much that it is already a bit snug on her (and when she's wearing her washable nappies there is no chance it will fit. Such a shame.)

Next I made her a sleepsack using this fab organic jersey from Birch (collection is called Elk Grove) Mine came from great fabric shop Ray Stitch. The arms and binding are upcycled from old t-shirts. I added a good few centimetres to my pattern as Ferne is very long. I really love this fabric and pattern so I'll definitely be using it to make some more clothes for her soon.

And finally I had time to make her this cute little outfit. I used a pattern for Skinny Harem Pants from Brindille & Twig, and the top is just a short version of the sleep sack. I am planning on using fabric paints to stencil 'Boo!' onto the top as it will be Ferne's Halloween outfit, but I thought it was simple enough to also be worn after the event. Both fabrics are from old t-shirts (I like to pick up shirts from charity shops or primark to use in this way.)

So this week wasn't my most productive ever, but it definitely wasn't a wash-out either. I guess I spent a total of 7 hours over 3 nights sewing. It goes to show just how much you can get done in a short space of time. So, did anyone else join in this season? Or has anyone been inspired to start sewing for their child? The next challenge will be for Winter 2014 so keep an eye on the Kids Clothes Week website for more details.

Happy Sewing!