KCW: day seven the robot control shirt

I did finish this on Sunday. But he wore it to bed and then it needed to be washed. 

Inspired by Pintrest and Mini Boden. Monkey and I were drawing and we came up with the idea of doing a control panel rather than a robot image. I had some die cut felt circles bought for a garland and they are perfect. He picked he greens and yellows and helped arrange them in a "pat-er-in". It was easier to hand sew them on the. Manage to do it neatly by machine. The main panel is machine stitched on. The shirt is part of a multi pack from H&M.

I should have preshrunk the red felt, but live and learn. The lowest yellow button turns on the dancing. The upper blue one the snuggles. What more could we want. 

KCW Six: Triumph of the Tutu

Day five was scrapped in favor of a nap. I regret nothing.

I did get the girls dressed in their whale skirts.

Some pensive shots.

And a blurry action shot.  They fit perfectly, with a little room to grow.

Today I fixed the tutu. I tried the fold over elastic version on Monkey and it was too big for even him. Here I sewed a new waistband on, then cut the old one off and finished the new. Nothing fancy. But it is a tutu for a two year old.

This one is fancy. I got the idea from Pintrest (here). I cut the tulle the long way so the salvage is in the waist band. It was folded once, I sewed the side seam and folded it again, so there are four layers making a pocket. gathered it, and stuffed 100 .5 inch pink pompoms and 50 .25 inch pink, purple and lavender ones in. Then stitched it to the waistband and finished. It is going to be part of Bee's birthday present.

 

KCW Day Four: failure

The tutu with a fold over elastic waist was a total dud that may fit Monkey. So here is Bee in the twirly skirt I made yesterday. 

KCW Day Three: Twirl some more

Another twirly skirt. The fabric is from the amazing garage sale stash. When we lived in Boston I was at a garage sale where a lady had reaized she was just not going to sew and was getting rid of 10 years of fabric. She had the yardage and project marked on most of it. She let me have as much as I could carry for $20. An olympic weight lifter could not have carried more home over two hills then I did. 

The same size, but with a larger gathered part of the waistband. I cut it with the salvage at the hem and inside the waist band so I had two fewer turns ups. I sewed the elastic in, then finished the waistband, which was fiddly and I will not do it that way again. It was all done in under an hour of work time. Or 1.5 Jake Pirates, a nurse, and a tanturm.

KCW Day Two: Twirly Skirts

Bee is in love with twirly skirts and dresses and basically wears nothing else. She actually pities me in my poor jeans. The fabric is seersucker from a Super Walmart after the Great Cloth Diaper Change two years ago. I have lots left and want to make a skirt for me too. These are self drafted, which is just measuring their waists and length from belly button to knee. I have it noted on the chalkboard in my studio. 

Kitten got a classic elastic waist skirt. Ironing for the hem and the casing took most of the time. It is the full width of the fabric so the salvages make the inside seam finished. Four seams: the back, the hem, the casing, and being fancy at the top of the casing. The last is from Oliver + S blog I think, and makes the elastic stay in place much better. It is 9.5 inches long with an unstretched waist of 16 inches.

I got fancy with Bees skirt and tried something I have been looking at for a while, a flat band at the front with elastic at the back. The waist is 18.25 inches unstretched and it is 12.25 inches long.

The band is 1.25 inches high from a cut piece 4" x 26". I made it flat just over half of the way around and lined the front with a bit of quilting cotton. . At the back is 3/4 inch elastic sewn into the band and then tightened last thing (I safety pinned some twill tape to it while I sewed). I stitched the top the band for body. then the skirt to the outside of the band, then folded the inner side over and top stitched . I would love to make the elastic back just a little bigger and try two parallel rows of narrow elastic.

 

I used double the width of the fabric, so it is super twirly. 

Matching headband. With fold over elastic. But it is not stretchy enough to get onto Bees' head and it does not look right on Kitten, so it will get unmade and turned into something else. Plus my bobbin went rogue on the last seam. So my machine also got a good cleaning out and I finally figured how to pop the casing off the top. A sewing machine brush is a wonderful tool.

Kitten was awake for all but 5 minutes of the sewing so she sat in the bebe pod, or lay on the floor, playing with the baby gate and trying to eat scraps. I have an hour and a half (ish) in the morning and got the small skirt done and most of the big one. I finished setting the skirt into the waistband, did the elastic and the head band in about half an hour after an unsuccessful naptime.

KCW Day One: A Bandana Ice Cream Top

 

Kids Cloths Week is a challenge to get out of Pintrest and sew. For one hour a day for a week.  

Which is great because I have an awful lot of pins on Pinterest (I am here) and a sewing machine that has not had thread in it since January when I finished the sewing for Disney blitz. 

So day one. I have had this fabric for almost a decade. It is a pair of Bandanas bough from MEC in Winnipeg to sew with. I had made it into a pillowcase style dress for Bee, but it was just not getting any love. I saw this bandana top on Pintrest and decided to make it as an Oliver +S ice cream top and make the most of the border. I love O+S patterns and this is a true favorite. Plus I am not spending any mone right now and I had everything in the craft room.

It took me around two hours, from ripping the old dress apart through taking the photos with a nursing break for Kitten and breaking up a cannibalistic fight between the big kids. So two Diegos, a Mr Rogers and half a Blues Clues. The bandana was on the smaller size and I just got the 6-12 month size out of it. I added French seams to the sides as always and the pattern already finished the yoke seam beautifully. I kept the bandana hem. The fabric does not have enough body and the notched neckline ended up collapsing, but that just makes it look wider. All it needs is a size label. The button is from my considerable vintage stash. 

The back just magically lined up with the yoke and body.

Long break

So I took a long break.

Now I have an organized and already messy again craft room. The sewing machine has it's own desk and is not piled under things. The result ... sewing!

The stroller is a garage sale find both kids LOVE! but one of the top straps was broken, the seat kept falling off the frame and it was torn in a few places. And it was ugly.
The fabric is from Ikea, the idea from Pintrest and it took me about an hour, including figuring out the pattern. I added snaps to the top straps, snap straps under the seat, french seams and reinforcement patches at the bottom of the seat.

 Bee's tunic/pinafore was a pants/jumper/overalls thing I got for a song at a thrift sale.  The fabric is pretty and good quality, but the style was not me. So I chopped off the legs. I was going to leave it at that, but the gathered bottom of the pants reminded me of gathered pockets. So I chopped them off, sewed them to the sides and hemmed everything. Too short for a dress, it catches most of her mess and looks cute.

Monkey's back to school T-shirt. He is really into robots (Halloween costume to come). I found a few images on pintrest then doodled a few robots while watching Doctor Who (for inspiration). Traced in onto freezer paper, ironed, painted, dried, ironed. Finished the good Doctor and then Monkey came home and suggested buttons.