44. Kids Clothes Week April 2015 - Day 1, 2, and 3

Lets get this Kids Clothes Week started! Would you believe that this time I actually started 2 days early!

A friend is pregnant with a girl and I just had to make her clothes for her baby shower which was on Sunday. So I made a dress and a couple of pairs of footed leggings.

The dress is from Ottobre 03/2014 #8 Jersey dress which I modifed by leaving off the cap sleeves.  Now it is a bit more verstile and can be worn over onsies etc

I have been pushing myself using more knit fabric and this time I think I nailed the neck and armhole binding.

And the footed leggings which once again are Ottobre 01/2014 #11 Footed pants:

I didn't realise that all these photos were blurry :( and I can't take more photos as they have already been gifted!  I have made these in Polar fleece for Rohan here and here (here).  I made my earlier adjustment of lowering the waist by approx 3cm and this time I slimmed them down a little in the leg.

I am really happy with them.  I wish I could have found some nice pink knit by Spotlight was all blues, greens and oranges. 

43. Kids Clothes Week April 2015 - I have signed up!

Yay, I have committed again to sewing kids clothes for 1 hour a day for 7 days.  It is a commitment but I am up for it!

40. Boys leggings

Whilst I remember, I have been making leggings for the boys (who are now 1 and 4).  A friend had made some newborn leggings out of a fat quarter of organic cotton knit from Spoonflower, so I decided to give that a go when they had a "Buy 2 for half price" sale.  These are the fabrics I bought:

 Whale / Fox / Tiger / Circus / Panda

So far I have made the Whale, Circus and Tiger prints into leggings for Rohan using my TNT Ottobre leggings pattern (Ottobre 04/2014 Autumn #8. Playful Kitty).  It only just fitted onto the fat quarter widthwise, lengthwise they were about 2cm shorter than the pattern.

Ottobre 04/2014 Autumn #8. Playful Kitty

And before you ask, it does appear to be a girls pattern :).

Super Rohan with Whale leggings - look at those tummy muscles!

Circus pants - cracks me up that it says "Quiet please"

Tiger leggings for Rohan's first taste of cake.  He didn't look too keen on it!

Julian has also been keen on wearing some leggings, so I have made a couple of matching pairs.  Julians are Ottobre 01/2013 Chillax leggings which I have made so many times in nearly all the sizes!

Ottobre 01/2013 - Chillax leggings

I made both of these leggings in the photo below.  Rohan also has a pair that matches Julians.

The only problem with leggings is that Julian is going through the knees!  So I had to add in knee pads, which were too high in the first pair I put them on!  Julian chose the fabric from Spotlight as he currently LOVES fish.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to wear well.

The second pair with knee pads hasn't been worn, so I don't know if I have the pad placement ok yet.  The fabric is a Charley Harper knit from Fabricworm and it cost a small fortune now that the Australian dollar isn't so amazing against the US dollar.  The knee pads are made from the closest blue knit that I could find at Spotlight.

No matter how hard I tried, I just could squeeze out Julian's and Rohan's legging from 1 yard :( So these are Rohans modified version which I think look very cute!

Had enough of leggings yet?  I haven't.  I can make both pairs including the cutting in 1.5hours which makes them a very satisfied sew.  I have more Charley Harper knit, so I will definitely be making more leggings :)

37. Geometric tracksuit pants

  And now for photos of Rohan in the tracksuit pants.  The waist is still quite high but should allow him to fit them for a while.

The legs bunch up a bit around the crotch which shortens the leg but thankfully the long cuffs mean his little shins aren't exposed.  I am hoping this isn't a problem as he grows. 

Overall I like them and they are very cosy.  Next pair I plan to coverup the back seam and to add knee patches just like the Oishi-m Juxtapose legging:

Image from Oishi-m

Image from Oishi-m

Absolutely LOVE these but they are already sold out :(

36. KCW - Day 7 and beyond

Finally photos of Rohan wearing the elephant pants:

They fit really well and even though they are a bit long in the leg, they are not unwearable now.

I did manage to get the top for Julian cut out of some nice thick green polar fleece from Spotlight.  This is the Ottobre 06/2012 Winter 14. Manni Zipper front top and I cut out size 116cm:

Ottobre 06/2012 Winter 14. Manni Zipper front top

Ottobre 06/2012 Winter 14. Manni Zipper front top.  Green polar fleece.

I also cut out the long sleeve T-shirt for Rohan using Ottobre 4/2013 Autumn 6.David.  Once again I cut out size 68cm:

Ottobre 4/2013 Autumn 6.David long sleeve T-shirt

I chose this pattern as I had the merino wool scraps from my SIL and the lovely Maze and Vale sample packs for the elbow patches.  The sample packs are great as the scraps are a usuable size - good for clothing embelishment or quilting. I see that the next lot is available on August 15 if you are interested:

After a bit of trial and error with the sleeve patches, I eventually chose the teal blue:

I have a little scrap of the print left over and I am thinking of adding a little pocket on the front for interest.

And that is it for Kids Clothes Week July 2014.  I wish I could have done more but there are limitations when there is a baby in the house. In all, I am happy with what I managed to get done.  The best part is that Julian loves his tracksuit pants and he was excited that I was going to make him another top.  Fingers crossed I can keep my sewing mojo :)

35. KCW Day 4, 5 & 6

Sometimes the best laid plans don't work out and unfortunately this was such a time :(  I was too tired to contemplate fixing the overlocker or risk making a mistake cutting out something new, so nothing happened.  Thankfully today was better and I managed to re-thread the overlocker and whip up a pair of tracksuit pants for Julian.

I used the basic sweatpant from the Autumn 04/2013 Ottobre (Love the hoodie too!):

Ottobre 04/2013 27. Ultimate Casual basic Sweatpant

I made the executive decision that a 4 year old does not need pockets, so I omitted them.  Might also have been due to laziness...I used some blue sweatshirt knit from Spotlight that I have also previously used for trackpants.  It wears well and best of all if/when it gets a hole in the knee, only a small ladder is created not a gaping hole.

Ottobre 04/2013 27. Ultimate Casual basic Sweatpant - Front

They are not very exciting but are perfect for childcare and mucking around home.  It is difficult to differentiate between the front and back, so I added a piece of ribbon to help when dressing.

Ottobre 04/2013 27. Ultimate Casual basic Sweatpant-Ribbon detail

As you can see this blue is closer to black, so I should have used black overlocking thread.  Might not have looked so messy if I had done.  Oh well, it is the inside of a pair of tracksuit pants so I am not too stressed about it and Julian wont care either!

Tonight I am going to cut out a polar fleece top for Julian.  This will be my second attempt at this pattern as on my first try I cut to line up the pattern and NOT the stretch on the polar fleece. 

Looks great doesn't it?  However I needed to dislocate Julian's shoulder to get him into it!  Lesson learnt.  I salvaged the zip and turned the jacket into legging for Rohan which he has already grown out of.

  My SIL gave me remnants from a woolen knit top she made herself and I am thinking of using it with a couple of Maze and Vale fabrics to make a top for Rohan.

34. KCW Day 2 & 3

Unfortunately Day 2 was a write off as I was a bit run down.  After the boys were in bed, all I wanted to do was lie on the couch.  So I did. Not the best start but lets not dwell on it...

So today I made up for it.  I made Rohan a pair of footed pants.  These are out of Ottobre Spring 01/2014:

Ottobre 01/2014 - 11. Little Feet footed pants

I made them up in an elephant microfleece that I picked up at spotlight when it was on sale for $6/m.

Baby footed pants - front (no idea why the waistband looks crooked as it isn't)

Baby footed pants - back

I cut a size 68cm and didn't alter a thing.  I have previously made him a 62cm pair which he is nearly out of, so I knew that the crotch depth was high but not silly-high so I left it as drafted. Everything except the feet and waistband were done on the overlocker, so they were super-speedy.  Ottobre instructions are scant at best but with something as simple as these you really don't need anything too detailed.  It is Burdastyle magazine for children :)

I tried them on Rohan and they were a tad too long and the crotch length was a little high on him.  Thankfully babies grow so quickly they will fit him perfectly in a couple of weeks!

As I was on a roll and had a sleeping baby, I also unpicked the waistband of the tracksuit pants that I made on Monday and reduced the crotch depth by 1".  They are now SO much better!

Baby tracksuit pants - front

Baby tracksuit pants - back

I am now happy with them.  My pattern matching is OK but I wish I had lined up the centre front.  I was lucky it turned out as good as this - pure chance!  The coral fleece is very warm which will be perfect for our up coming trip to New Zealand.

Hopefully I will get photos of Rohan wearing them tomorrow, weather permitting.

Frustratingly, Rohan had a really long midday sleep today and I spent over half of it threading and re-threading my overlocker and it still isn't working.  I decided to change threads to start on Julian's tracksuit pants and I pull through the threads as normal but one broke and that was it.  I am up to re-threading attempt number 5...grrr...

33. KCW - Day 1

I have got off to a good start with Kids Clothes Week.  I have cut out Julian's tracksuit pants, Rohan's footed pants and a pair of tracksuit pants.

As I had white thread in the overlocker, I decided to start sewing Rohan's tracksuit pants.  The fabric is a coral - fleece lined sweatshirting which was left over from a top I made for Julian in my second KCW.  There is a niffy crotch insert and the front/back are cut in one piece with a centre back seam.  The pattern is from Ottobre 04/2013: 

Ottobre 01/2013 6. Tiikeri Sweatpants

I cut out size 68cm as that is how long Rohan is.

 The fit was surprisingly good considering that Rohan is quite slim (for a baby).  My biggest problem is that they are VERY high waisted.  I am tempted to leave it as is, however I know that it will annoy me.

The above photo is after I rolled down the waistband and it looks much better.  So I will need to take off approx 1"/2.5cm to make it look OK.  With Ottobre I have found that the baby pants are too high waisted and yet the child pants always need extra depth to accommodate the nappy.

32. Kids Clothes Week - July 2014. I have signed up!

So I had a baby boy in January.  We named him Rohan and he is lovely :) By pure coincidence,  one of the people I was in the handmade fabric swap Craftykitty has a free hoodie pattern called Rohan, which I will obviously have to make:


ANYWAY,  as I now have 2 boys and a stack of Ottobre magazines with possible patterns marked,

I thought that I had better sign up for the Kids Clothes Week July 2014!

I have done this before and I found it quite motivating. This year it has a theme - Kid Art - which is a great idea but I don't think I am up for it.  I may change my mind...

I have a plan of sorts - Julian needs tracksuit pants and Rohan could do with a few more pairs of leggings.  I am also considering making jeans/cords for Julian.  He isn't 4 yet but he is in size 5 pants (he is 111cm tall).  I am now finding that he is too skinny for size 5 skinny jeans even with the button elastic waist. I would like to make Julian a polar fleece jumper as I have traced the pattern and I need to get it made better he is too big and I have to trace the next size up!

Hopefully you will see more of me around these parts from now on.  I have been sewing but mainly quilting and home dec projects.  See you tomorrow!