1. shoulder patch shirt 2. mustard and grey 3. charlie shirt 4. half kindje

I woke up to a gray and rainy weekend–the perfect weekend to cozy up in front of the sewing machine! I hope it’s crummy weather where you are too :)

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the pattern: Sunki dress by Figgy’s patterns.

the fabric: pinwale corduroy in aqua and leftover purple fabric from these pants.

the sewing: The sewing was challenging. I mean look at the dress! The pockets are definitely the coolest part of the design and they are also the hardest to figure out. Luckily, others have made them and written about it already. Laura from Charm Stitch has a particularly helpful blog post about putting the pockets together (thank you Laura! you saved me!).  Once I made the pockets correctly I felt like a sewing genius, so everything else came together without much swearing. The arms are pleated and fussy–and mine aren’t perfect. The zipper was surprisingly simple. You put it in the same way you put in a zipper on a pillow, which seems somehow wrong, but it’s done and functional so you don’t hear me complaining.  The dress is a little short, but it still works for scrambles in the woods.

1. cardi 2. kcwc pants 3. wings for my little girl 4. glitter dot dress

I know I express my sheer amazement at your sewing ability every year, but seriously! do you see those clothes up there? It’s like art. You guys are amazing! Amazing!

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I am not so amazing today, as my youngest–mr. big belly pictured here–woke up at 2am throwing up. Why do children only get sick in the middle of the night? Argh. Blerg. I am mostly incomprehensible because of it, so we’ll keep this short and sweet.

the sweater

the pattern: Rae’s Flashback Skinny Tee! I made it a little wider in the body (i.e. not so skinny) because the fabric didn’t have a ton of stretch.

the fabric: a shrunken cashmere sweater that was once my Nana’s.

the sewing: There is nothing easier than sewing with felted sweaters. I was going to add a blue pocket and maybe blue cuffs, but it was looking too trendy and really there’s nothing wrong with a basic cashmere sweater. I wish I had one.

the pattern: the pattern I always use from Happy Homemade Vol. 2 and to be honest, I think getting a little sick of it. I did change it up a bit this time with a long pintuck down the front of each leg–you can see it in the first picture. It makes for nice “little man” pants.

the fabric: I think it’s called no-wale corduroy–the weight of corduroy without the bumps. Purple, obviously.

the sewing: Easy peasy, except the back pockets are totally uneven. Little boys move so fast, that no one will notice, I’m sure (I hope).

I am so excited to have Gail from Probably Actually on the blog today! Gail is an incredible sewer. She has made a closet full of clothes for her daughter and those clothes are impeccably made.  Now that she has a little boy on the way (congratulations, Gail!) we are in store for some classy boy duds! Instead of changing up the Kid Pants pattern, Gail embellished her pants with adorable-ness.  Check it out!

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Hello! I’m Gail from Probably Actually and I’m crazy excited to be part the pre-KCWC line up! There isn’t much I love more than making kids clothes, and it only gets better during KCWC. As you may have experienced yourself, lugging a sewing machine and serger around town to sew with friends is pretty impractical, so sewing can sometimes feel a bit solitary and anti-social. But for one week in the fall and another in the spring, Meg transforms it into just the opposite with KCWC. Suddenly we’re all on the same page, scheming about kids clothes, sewing together, and sharing our projects in the ever-inspirational Elsie Marley flickr pool. Get ready, it’s so much fun!

Anyway, today I’m here to help kick off this fall’s KCWC and show you how I jazzed up a pair of Dana’s basic Kid Pants!

While there are certainly endless possibilities for changing things up with this pattern, it also yields a great pair of pants without any adjustments at all. The pants are so simple to sew, and I love the flat front option and the wide trouser legs. I didn’t end up making any changes to the pattern itself – I used the size 2/3 downloadable pattern pieces, which worked well for my 3.5 year old (the pattern is made for kids approximately 2 to 3.5 years). There’s plenty of length built into the pattern to make nice wide hems, even when you’re at the farthest end of the pattern range like we were.

I did add a few things: Gathered pockets to the back, which I borrowed from the Oliver + S Jump Rope dress pattern (view B). Dana has a great tutorial for gathered pockets as well, if you’re looking.

And a couple of hedgehogs to the front – one at the hem,

and a mini version wrapping around the side:

Maybe you recognize the hedgehog if you’re a Mini Boden fan – it was inspired by a sweater I saw on their website awhile back. I loved it immediately, and if I were the type who bought $54 sweaters for my three-year-old, I probably would’ve skipped these pants and ordered the original. But yeah, I made my own instead.

Which wasn’t hard to do at all. I sketched the little critter out, then made eight pattern pieces.

Next, I traced each piece backwards onto Steam-a-Seam double stick fusible web, then laid those onto the wrong side of fabric scraps, cut them out, and pieced everything back together. I finished it off with a french knot for the eye. And voilà – a hedgehog was born!

Sewing around all those little pieces was a bit tedious, and might have been easier to do before the pants were fully constructed rather than after, but I didn’t have that kind of foresight at the time and it still worked out just fine. I just used a very small stitch and picked up the presser foot a lot to shift the fabric as I sewed.

That’s it! Just your basic corduroy pants adorned with woodland creatures. Thanks so, so much for having me, Meg! I can’t wait for KCWC to get rolling next week!!

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These are the pants with the silly bunting tag I showed you last week. And look! they aren’t on backwards! The pattern is from Happy Homemade vol. 2 and it is by far my favorite pants pattern.  I’ve used it to make these pj pants, these crazy pants, these linen pants, and the exact same corduroy pants in gray (plus a few more I never blogged about). And now these blue beauties. The corduroy is a navy wide wale from joanns and it is so soft.

I found this beautiful brown wool at the thrift store and knew I could use the same pattern for some good, old man pants.Do you think I am addicted to this pattern? I am. I lined the pants with flannel using Dana’s tutorial, except my waistband was separate, so I had to fake my way through that. The pockets are pretty much like Dana’s too only more rounded and I pressed the top bit so the lining would show–sort of like faux piping.

The fake fly (faux fly?)  is one of my favorite things about the pattern and I gussied it up with two lines of topstitching. I also did flat felled seams along the crotch and down the sides, which you can kind of see in the picture below.  I put the pockets up way too high, so now my little boy has old man pants with a big, old man butt.

And just so you don’t think all my garment are perfect (trust me, they are far from it) here is a shot of the inside waistband. That’ll be yur Hot Mess. Part of KCWC is screwing up and soldiering on!

These people sewed on and look what amazing things they made! From the flickr pool today:

1. checked shirt
2. recycled hopscotch shirt
3. rust corduroy pants
4. denim jumper with ribbon embellishment 

happy day three of kcwc!

Sorry, little behind schedule today because I went out with my wonderful husband to celebrate our anniversary last night, but I’m up an caffeinated now, and the winners of the big butt baby pants and the toddler back pack patterns have been announced!

Sometimes you don’t need anything fancy you just need a plain old pair of pants. These are made with some nice, heavy wide wale corduroy and I used the same pattern as these shorts I made, only longer. Of course they are too long and too big all over really, but the boy grows like a weed, so they might fit at the end of the winter. Still, he loves them (hence all the wrinkles) and now says gray is his favorite color–wonder who he got that from?

For today’s giveaway Liesl from Oliver + S has kindly offered their new Music Box Jumper pattern! I think everyone who sews children’s clothes is crazy for Oliver + S patterns. And how could you not be? They are beautifully designed, well written, and come with their own paper doll!  The purl bee recently showed off a version of the Music Box Jumper in corduroy (liberty corduroy!) and it couldn’t be more perfect.

To enter the giveaway today, I’d love it if you tell us something about an Oliver + S project you’ve worked on or a story you have about working with patterns or even what has caught your eye in the flickr group so far. Good Luck!

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The winner IS

#42: UK lass in US

Congratulations!

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