Thursday, April 25, 2013

27. Kids Clothes Week - Autumn

I really didn't think I would be doing the Kids Clothes Week this season as the house is in boxes and we move TOMORROW!  I really enjoyed the last KCWC which was in October as it made me use the Ottobre magazines that I had already bought.

Somehow I did manage to make a sweatshirt AND a pair of tracksuit pants for Julian - a complete miracle!

Once again I used patterns out of Ottobre magazine.  This is the sweatshirt (on the left):
Ottobre 06/2012
And these are the tracksuit pants (with stars and made out of a lightweight knit here):
Ottobre 01/2013

Unfortunately I stuffed up the neckline of the sweatshirt and had to cut out the ribbing and use self-ribbing (is that what it is called?) instead.  I also stuffed up the tracksuit pants and the pockets are too big and definitely not big enough to hold a Matchbox car.  Thankfully Julian hasn't noticed yet...

Man it is difficult to take a photo of a 2.5year old!  These photos were taken just as we were about to race out the door to Childcare - in the last photo I asked Julian to turn around so I could see his bum, hence the hand :)

I love the sizing of Ottobre as it is reasonably slim fitting and if it says it fits 98cm tall, it does.  If you do have a solid child, they also have a few patterns in a relaxed fit.  I cut a straight 98cm for both the Sweatshirt and trackpants and they are both quite snug.  I will make another of both but I will increase the length of the pants to give me more wear out of them (Julian continues to grow at 1.5cm per month!). 

I used a printed Sweatshirt fabric with a coral fleece backing which I picked up at Spotlight during their 40%off sale over Easter.  I bought the navy sweatshirting at the same time.  All up this outfit cost less than $10 which makes me very happy!




Friday, April 5, 2013

26.Craftsy course

Have you heard of Craftsy?  Amongst other things they sell downloadable patterns - I bought my Wiksten skirt from here (why can't I seem to find it on there now?)- and they do online sewing courses.

They have sales all the time and I have decided to sign up for Susan Khalje called The Couture Dress.  For a short time it is $US24.99 which is 50%off and the course includes Vogue pattern V8648 which is mailed to you!
V8648
Source



Apparently this is what I will learn:
  • Muslin construction 
  • Fit adjustment techniques
  • Underlining
  • How to hand-stitch perfect hems
  • Pattern customization strategies
I haven't even done a "live"sewing course and I have learnt to sew initially from my Mum and then self-taught, so this should be very informative.  The best part of an online course is that I can do it at my pace, in my time without deadlines.  Sounds great doesn't it?  My plan is to wait until the pattern arrives and we are happily ensconced in our new house - only 3 weeks away - eek!

25. And the winner is...

Not me :(

Ok that wasn't too surprising as the competition was tough!

The winner definitely deserved to win.  Check this out:
Source

It even has a name : 'Lekaloru' Coat.  Congratulations to Sandra.

Source
My favourite was Tamie K's top, which was one of 5 special entries to win $100 Tessuti gift voucher.

Now back to the winning Coat - the really awesome thing is that it is made up of 3 different patterns: Sewaholic's Minoru Jacket, Lekala 4170 and Green Pepper 120.  I have never heard of Lekala or Green Pepper but their patterns look really good and excellent value too!


Green Pepper is mainly outdoor clothing -raincoats, jackets, overpants - and they only ship paper patterns (3 patterns max for $US18.95 - gulp) but their kids range may be worth the effort.  Patterns hover around $US6.


Lekala also has their own website (they are also on Craftsy)which is full of print at home patterns and they all seem to be $US2.49.  They also have free patterns which included this shirt pattern.  It also sounds too good to be true but you send them your measurements and they send the pattern sized for you!  I am going to try this out with the shirt pattern - it is free after all.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

24. Tessuti Gridlock Fabric Competition

I did it!

I decided to join the competition last Tuesday and I finished it minutes before these photos were taken last night - not bad considering that Julian had gastro on Thursday/Friday and I had it Sunday/Monday.

The Jacket is from an old Burda World of Fashion (BWOF) magazine 05/2009 and the Knickerbockers are from another BWOF 09/2006.








I have to say now that I was absolutely CRAZY to attempt both of these pieces in such a short time period.  The piping was an absolute chore to make and it really got drowned out due to the busyness of the print.  And the print.  Well, what can I say, perhaps only that I like the blue?  The background is beige and it looks genuinely revolting against my face.

I will most likely only ever wear the jacket out of the house and the knickerbockers will be for around the home - I don't have the chutzpah to carry them off in public ;)

Make sure you have a look at the other entries on Pinterest - there are some stunners there!

Details:
Jacket
Pattern: BWOF05/2009
Size: 40
Fabric: 1.7m Gridlock from Tessuti (online) ($12/m)
Alterations: 1cm of sideseams, shortened by 2cm

Knickerbockers
Pattern: BWOF 09/2006
Size: 42 (and it fit with NO alterations - that NEVER happens!)
Fabric 1.55m Gridlock from Tessuti ($12/m)
Alterations: Nil