Blue, white and red

Or is it red, white and blue? Hazel's school had a mini-Olympics on Friday - her class chose Great Britain as the country they would represent, and they were meant to wear blue, white or red clothes. I realised on Tuesday that she didn't have anything in those colours at all. I've had an old red cardigan of mine waiting to be repurposed for her for ages, so I offered to make that and a skirt and amazingly she accepted! I went through all my Ottobre books, and some of Cat's that I had borrowed, to find a cardigan pattern I could use when cutting down my old one. I ended up using the Daytime Dreamer pattern from the Spring 2011 issue...

and then did the skirt and the leggings as well! For the skirt I used some old fabric I had started making a dress out of years ago for my cousin's wedding, only to discover part way through that it was shrinking when ironed and was much too small! It's pretty awful fabric really, very stiff with no drape at all, but it works ok in a layered skirt like this. Alright, it sort of works, it's really too stiff and the skirt sticks out oddly sometimes but she doesn't care! If I were to do it again I'd use a knit fabric.

It looks cute on and she was really pleased with the whole outfit. When it came time to finish the bottom edge of the cardigan she asked if I had to hem it up because it might be too short, so I suggested putting ribbon around it instead. She chose this one from Stitchbird and personally kissed every single animal on it. The sleeves were a bit too short in the end, even though I'd cut them longer than the pattern, so I re-attached the cuffs to them and it actually looks really good instead of a make-do situation! The cardigan fits beautifully, much better than I'd anticipated given the sometimes rather odd Ottobre sizing. Hazel usually comes out at least two sizes smaller for chest/waist/hips than her height which is what the pattern sizes are based on. Anticipating that, I cut a 116cm pattern but 122cm in length. The 116cm should have been on the large size given the measurements, but it's just right and in terms of length 122cm is a bit short. I think I should have cut 122cm wide (her height) and 128cm long. So who knows where she's at with Ottobre sizing at the moment!

I'm feeling a little bleary this morning, having stayed up until 1am the last two nights watching the Olympics. I don't know what it is with them and me - every time the summer ones roll around I'm all "ho-hum" (I do get excited about the winter it has to be said) because I'm really not interested in watching sports on tv. But every time I get sucked in and find myself watching sports like weight-lifting or dressage (pretty ponies!) and really enjoying it. At 1am. The time difference between London and here couldn't be much worse it has to be said!

I've lost my sewing mojo

I sort of let the KCWC posts slide on by, because other than the repurposed skirt, it was kind of a disappointment and it has dented my confidence! Well not in any serious way but it sort of sucked the joy out of clothes for the moment. It went like this - the Sunki tunic was too small so I went on to the next item which was a gauzy tunic from the Japanese book I got in Sydney. Very simple, with a drawstring waist and little ruffly cap sleeves. I did NOT make the mistake of just forging ahead based on measurements alone and the tissue fitting looked good.

I got this far

and then decided I should do a quick try-on just to make sure it was going to fit. I couldn't actually tell you if it fits or not because it wouldn't go over her head. Now I will admit that she is something like 100th percentile for head circumference (both her parents are serious fat-heads too) but I've never, ever had that problem before! There was no way I was going to undo this neck binding though

because it was an utter bitch to get on - gauze on the bias has a mind of its own - so what to do? At the momentI think the best solution is to make a opening at the back of the neck with a facing so I don't lose too much width. But I can't quite face it right now and feel a bit sulky.

Ok, so what next? Winter pyjamas! I got out the trusty Oliver + S Bedtime Story pyjama pattern and made up the pants using that pattern and cut up a couple of tshirts Mat hadn't liked to make the top. I even found some pink poodle iron-ons at Spotlight. Success?



No. "The sleeves are too looooonggg... and the pants feel funny...and they're too longggg...and the poodles are coming off and how come you didn't put the roses on instead like you said?" They aren't too long, it's just that she insists on pushing the front right down under her tummy and there are limits to how much I can compensate for that! You can see I already tried. I guess I'll just have to wait until it gets cold enough that she will swallow all these ridiculous protestations and wear them!

Anyways, I've given up on the ungrateful little so-and-so for the time being and I'm going to try and regain some mojo sewing up a Lisette Portfolio tunic for me. However, given my track record I have misgivings and doubts and fears that run something along these lines

• Tunics on full-busted women can look like muumuus. I am full-busted
• It may make me look pregnant. I am not, but my tummy isn't exactly flat at the moment
• It will be too big - all the reviews say it has too much ease
• It will be too small - I tissue-fitted it last night and it seemed like it will be only just big enough.
• I can't make a muslin because I don't have almost 3m of anything other than the fabric I wanted for it in my stash.
• I should line it so it sits over leggings nicely but I can't be bothered.
• It will look awful but I'll wear it in public anyways because I can't bear to waste the effort and fabric.
• I will look crap in any photos I take of myself in it to put up here.

I'll let you know how it all goes!

KCWC Day 3

Big sigh. All that work and the great fabric and the Sunki tunic only fits if she stands completely straight and still.  I re-checked the measurements and she should just be within the 6/7 size range, but obviously this fits slim and more towards the lower end of the range of measurements. The sleeves are also a bit short. So. Dress goes next door to Abbie, who fits it, and I try again. This time I will also raise the bottom of the arm scythe as it's too low and causes the dress to lift when the arms are lifted. Boo-hoo. I'm pretty gutted about this, but serves me right for not tissue-fitting eh?

Luckily I also made up a skirt from an old shirt of mine, so the day wasn't completely wasted!

It was so simple to do I almost hesitate to consider it 'sewing'! The shirt was a tunic-style one with a seam that ran around just under the bust, so I cut off the bottom half, folded over the top and put in some elastic. I didn't even have to hem it!

I'm pleased she really likes it because the fabric is lovely, and buttery soft from age. I was kind of sad to give up on the shirt but to be honest it made me look pregnant and I had stopped wearing it almost a year ago. My stomach is a long way from its pre-baby flatness, but I don't need to make it look any larger than it is!

KCWC Day 2

Phew! This one was a bit of a mind-bender at times but got there in the end! It turned out there was heaps of the blue flowered fabric to do the Figgy's Sunki tunic, so even though I suspect it's a bit crisp for the pattern I couldn't resist the combination!

Hazel hasn't tried it on yet, but I thought I could say a couple things about making the tunic because it's not the most straight-forward thing I've ever made. The tricky bits are the pockets that are set into the princess seams down the front. Unfortunately, the pattern illustration shows one piece a totally different shape than it is in reality which is extremely confusing, and the instructions are fairly brief. There is a further tutorial on the Figgy's site but that didn't really clarify things for me at all and I was in despair! Luckily I found Hemoglobinhummingbird's great tutorial on Flickr, had an "ah-HA!" moment and I was away. The rest of the tunic was pretty straightforward and even the pocket thing isn't that complicated once you have it straight in your head. One thing I did notice though is seam finishing happens in some places and not others - so you need to use your own initiative and finish the facings and some of the pocket areas for example. Same with curve-clipping. Not a biggie, but if you weren't paying attention and didn't do it in those spots, you might not be as happy with the finished result. The next time I do this I will also make the pockets deeper because they're quite shallow and Hazel was a bit put-out she couldn't get her whole hand into them.

I like the pleats in the sleeves - very 80s! I like to think Hazel will be wearing the Year 2 version of the power suit ;) You can see the effect the pleats have better on Angry Chicken's example. The overlap detail is neat too, although I couldn't find any reference in the pattern to sewing them down on each other, perhaps I'm just not reading it right - so I just sewed over the top stitching again.

I'd like to try it again in a heavy knit I think, at the moment I'm thinking the fit might be a bit uncompromising in a fabric with no stretch like this one. Wouldn't it be great if it came in adult sizes though?!

ETA: Aaaah! It's too small! Noooo! All that work and the great fabric and it only fits if she stands completely straight and still.  I rechecked the measurements and she should just be within the 6/7 size range, but it's obviously a very slim fit and more towards the lower end of the range of measurements. The sleeves are also a bit short. So. Dress goes next door if they want it and it fits Abbie and I try again. I will also raise the bottom of the arm scythe as it's too low and causes the dress to lift when the arms are raised. Boo-hoo. I'm pretty gutted about this, but serves me right for not tissue-fitting eh?

My get out of jail card

The next time I get in trouble for something, be it as minor as not hanging out the wash, or slightly larger like not doing my taxes on time, I will simply say "well I'm sure I'm very sorry but did you know I sewed a bathing suit?" and the person will apologise profusely and leave me alone.

I used the pattern in Ottobre 3/2009 and amazingly, Hazel was size 116 for all the measurements, instead of just height and a smaller size for everything else. The pattern's not perfect, if I do it again I'll curve the front legs a bit higher and make the bum less high-cut and more covering.  I had to put in a bit more of a waist, I guess she's not as straight up and down as she used to be! I added the ruffle because her old suit had one and she thought that was the best part of it. The fabric came from Global Fabrics and I'd love to have a bathing suit made from it too, but that would be a bit naff. I ended up making the stripes run horizontally, despite the fact the bows are now sideways (am hoping it's not that obvious) because the stripes were too wide for such a small item, it's obviously scaled for adults.

It was surprisingly easy to make - I'd been imagining the fabric snagging or running or stretching, but it was lovely to work with and very tolerant of seams being unripped or changed. It's fully lined which makes it a fairly robust garment! The only problem I'm having is with the seams on the straps, when Hazel tried it on the double needle stitching broke and unraveled. I've had the problem a lot on very stretchy things like the bottom of leggings, or tshirts, and I don't know how to stop it. I use wooly nylon in the bobbin, I alter the tension, everything I can think of short of getting a cover stitch machine! Suggestions gratefully received. I'll zigzag and hope that works, though it's been just as prone to breking in the past too. I was particularly nervous of doing the leg elastic but it turned out fine. This video was very useful, although I couldn't get the fabric to roll over the edge like he does, I think the two layers were too thick. The legs look a bit wavy but when it's on they're fine - possibly a skosh too tight but she's not complaining so I'm not going to point it out!

Innocent and Lovely

No, definitely not Hazel at the moment :-/  It's a funny time for her at the moment I think, adjusting to being back home, different weather, different house, different food, different people, starting back at school in a week...I just look through the pattern books and imagine her wearing the innocent clothes and being lovely and not a grumpy little girl who calls me a meanie because I won't let her eat chocolate for breakfast. On the other hand she put a couple of to-dos on my list "Kes Mam" and "Hag Mam", did them, and then checked them off. So maybe she's lovely after all.

Here are some of the clothes in Innocent and lovely girls' wear by Mano Akiko, ISBN 457911194X. They're quite different to the other book, much more like the clothes in Tina Givens' book "Sew Tina!", looser, less structured. Naturally this means Hazel will be less inclined to wear them! Sigh.

I'll get the bad bit out of the way first:

I saw this image on a blog or somewhere and fell in love with the outfit and it's what decided me on this particular book. Well actually, the patterns associated with this image are the bag and the stupid hat. No cute shorts. No cute top. Well actually the top is probably one of the other patterns but the shorts aren't in the book. I'm so annoyed about that. Not that I've been mislead or anything, but I LOVE THOSE SHORTS! Sorry to shout but...you know. Hazel loves them too. I can try and adapt a short pattern that's in the book but that isn't as poofy, or alter the Brookies pattern in Tina's book which is too poofy, but it would be nice to start out with something just right. Let me know if you know of one and I'll be eternally grateful!

This is such a cute top - what do you think my chances are of getting Hazel to wear it? Not high.

Undies! They look rather amusing but I'd like to try the pattern anyways. And another leggings pattern is always welcome.

I'm going to make this, I don't care if Hazel never wears it.

This skirt was also one of the deciding patterns for buying the book and it's actually in it. Love it but Hazel already has stated she hates it. How does she know which ones to hate to annoy me the most and crush my delicate soul? I might try it anyways.

This coat is gorgeous, the curve of the yoke at the front is perfect.

The pants are sweet, I think I could sneak them past Hazel in a different fabric :)

This is all dreaming at the moment as both my sewing machine and overlocker are in for servicing, but I've got great plans I tell you. Of course, we're planning on having our house painted in the next month and I'll have to do some stripping of window frames beforehand, and I'll be doing a bit of teaching again at the end of next month, but there will be sewing, oh yes there will! It's the best chance I've had for ages, with Hazel back at school on the 7th and teaching doesn't start for another 3 weeks.

Ok, I'm going to try transferring the data from this old laptop to my new desktop with the ethernet cable instead of the 9-pin FireWire cable that I don't have (can I tell you how annoyed I was to find my FireWire cable isn't 9-pin and I couldn't get stuck into my new computer straight away?) If I never blog again you'll know it didn't work. :P

The Bunny-hug Jacket and beret

I made this jacket for Hazel to wear when we get to Canada but it's so hot and humid right now that there is no way I'd get a photo of her wearing it, she'd expire of heat stroke by the time I took it (see the jacket in action here).  It's adapted from the faux-fur jacket in Ottobre 4/2005 which is designed for a fake fur that has a nice fabric on the back of it, which means you have only the one layer and just bind the edges with bias. Naturally getting something like that here is a non-starter, so I used a sort of stiff velveteen with a fluffy knit lining and a layer of polar fleece in the middle. It wasn't too hard to sew up, although it's a fairly bulky coat! I also made the beret that goes with it

The jacket has snap fasteners and is also meant to have two ribbon ties along the edge, although I'm undecided about those at the moment as Hazel doesn't know how to tie bows and they'll probably end up dangling around being annoying and looking silly unless I tie them myself. Naturally she's keen for them!

The hat has a lovely little rose decoration, the first time I've ever done a fabric flower and it was surprisingly easy. It's made from minky and velour.

The jacket is so soft that we've been joking it's like being hugged by a bunny. And of course the hat is a bunny on your head. Awhile ago I remember reading a blog that asked the question whether readers named the projects they were working on and generally I don't, but this one was definitely 'The Bunny-hug Jacket'.

All matchy matchy

Nightie for Hazel and her doll, originally uploaded by Hazelnutgirl.

About 6 months ago I bought some vintage flannelette (or flannel, what's the difference exactly?) from a shop called Selvedge. Sadly they closed down not long after that, although in some ways it may have been good for my pocketbook! Anyways, I had all this scrummy soft fabric and it really just screamed out pyjamas, specifically the Oliver + S ones I love so much. Sadly, Hazel was hearing "nightie!" instead so that's what she got. As luck would have it, I had the book "All Dolled Up" out from the library and it had a 'Classic nightgown' pattern for girls AND their dolls. It really is an old-fashioned nightgown that's for sure, ruffles and all. I made the ruffles from plain pink flannelette - the selection of those kinds of fabrics are somewhat limited in the middle of summer here!

It's funny seeing Hazel and the doll together as they really do rather resemble each other, except for the doll's skin (referred to as "fair" on the American Doll website) - a tan that dark is something Hazel's never going to have!

The pattern went together well, all pretty straightforward except I must have hit a pin or something with my overlocker and it suddenly started chewing on the fabric instead of cutting it. For some reason I persisted for longer than I should have, nearly ruining the sleeves but managed to rescue them with lots of unpicking and using the regular machine. It would be up to 10 days to wait for the blade to be sharpened so that's a whole lot of clothes for me off my 'to-do' list because they really do need the overlocker. At first I was rather upset because I wanted a few nice merino tops to wear, but now as the deadline for leaving looms closer I'm kind of glad!

The Sew Tina! book - Part the Second

[The Sew Tina book tour giveaway is the next post down]

I thought I'd devote this post to talking about the three projects I've done from the book, and have a little giveaway as well. I think I'll have to do yet another post on the projects I'd particularly like to do next!

The first thing I made was the Zigzag dress. It only has 6 pieces - two bodice pieces, two skirt and two neck bindings and as you might expect it was super easy to put together. I love the kimono-style neckline and the whole aesthetic of it.  Not to mention the gorgeous Nani Iro fabric I used. Hazel on the other hand...well it's just so different than what she's used to I think it will take a bit of getting used to. But look what I managed today!

Very exciting - and after the photo shoot she actually left it on for most of the day, only insisting that she needed to change right before we left to go to an ex-pat Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. Darn! But small victories, small victories.  The picture above is very sweet and pensive, but really 90% of that set looked more like these (which actually give a better idea of what the top looks like on)

One of Hazel's friend's mum says that Hazel looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but I tend to think of her more in this kind of light :) "Please" I say, "Please just stand there and smile nicely? No, not like that, put your hands down, stop jumping, what are you pretending to be? Oh, a puppy? Well puppy could you put your tongue back in for a moment? Puppy!" Who'd work with children I ask you?

The only problem I had with it was judging the distance to set the neck edges apart on the bodice. The instructions said no more than 8" which I tried for, but it was hugely too wide and I had to pick it all apart and bring it in. Markings on the pattern to suggest the overlap would have been really useful.

The next item was the Reversible Skirt.



I asked Hazel to pick the fabric and then tried to work with that. Using this kind of bright fabric and putting other prints with it really takes me out of my comfort zone big time. I feel totally lost trying to judge whether the prints go well with each other, whether I'm over-doing it, or under-doing it, ack!  It's a very simple pattern though, just two tubes of fabric sewn together at the top with a channel for the elastic, and binding at the the bottom.

(sigh)

When I'd finished with it last night I was slightly appalled with what I'd wrought, but Hazel leapt upon it this morning with cries of delight and put it on immediately. When I saw her in it outside it actually looked much better than I'd imagined it would, somehow it blended in with the rest of the clothes or something. Well as much as it could anyways...

Personally I prefer the reverse side :)  Hazel says it's the "autumn side" and the other is the "spring side"

Lastly we have the Bouncy Beret

Hazel picked out the outer fabric and I selected the lining and binding. I really enjoyed making this hat, it has a cunning way of using up the inner circles from cutting out the bottom edges - they form the embellishment!

It's being modelled by a teddy because although the pattern says it fits up to age 7 or so, Hazel has been blessed with so many brains that she has a simply enormous head (just like me actually, bane of my hat-wearing life!) and it's too small :(  It fits ok around her head circumference but isn't deep enough top-to-bottom.  I'll make her a larger one by scaling up the pattern a bit, although looking at the photos in the book they seem to have more depth to them and I'm now wondering if I stuffed up the pattern somehow...maybe when I printed it from the pdf it scaled it down a bit or something?

Anyways! Her loss is your gain - I'm going to give away the beret so that some other little girl can look extra pretty walking down the street.  In case you're wondering if it will fit your little muffin, the unstretched circumference of the band is 55.5cm/22" and I can easily make that a bit smaller for you before sending it off if you needed.

I'm limiting this giveaway to NZ and Australian residents only, my apologies to non-ANZAC readers.  To go in to the draw simply leave a comment telling me about the best hat you ever wore (or the worst!) and make sure I have a way to contact you. I will use a random number generator to choose the winner on the afternoon of Friday 15th NZ time.  Good luck!

KCWC Days 6 and 7 - Success and failure

Days 6 and 7 of KCWC were meant to be spent making up the Vappu voile tunic from Ottobre 1/2010

I had a lovely blue polka-dot voile from my stash all picked out until Hazel said that no, actually she didn't like that one and how about this old voile shirt of mine I was going to pick apart at some point? So I agreed to pick it apart right away and make her top from it. It was one that I loved and would still be wearing if I hadn't somehow managed to spray bleach up the front and ended up with a fine scattering of white dots. But I figured that I could disguise that with a bit of fabric pen and organise it so it was on the back of something for Hazel. It worked out pretty well (though I still wish it were mine)

This was the first time I'd ever done shirring and I don't know what I was so scared of! Well I do know - the variety of ways of doing it and number of problems I'd read about on other people's blogs. It seemed too complicated and waaaaay too daunting. When I read the instructions in the magazine I was all "yeah right it's that simple" but dammit it was! At least on my machine. The only quibble is that perhaps it wasn't doing it tight enough, but I knew you could pull on the elastic to tighten it up and I needed to do a lot of that around the neck. I especially love the ruffly sleeves and bottom - it's a rolled hem on the overlocker and then shirred. Yummy.

Sadly, Hazel and I aren't in a very good place vis-a-vis the handmade clothes so she's refusing to wear this or the zigzag dress I made for the first project - so no pictures of her modelling either of them at this point. She's wearing that Fancy Flower Fields tunic though, so I guess it wasn't a total bust. Sigh. I'm trying to remain upbeat about this because I know it comes and goes and I can't make her wear things she honestly doesn't like, but I know she likes this top. She loved it while it was in progress, but now she says it's disappointing. Seriously, she knows the buttons to push! I'm going to take a break on the kid's clothes front I think, let us both recover.

KCWC Days 4 and 5

I went ahead and made up the Fancy Flower Fields tunic from Ottobre 1/2010 (image from magazine in the previous post here) and although it was a size 128 it seemed like it would be ok. But of course it was miles too big so I had to take it in down the sides on Day 5.

It's turned out ok, I think my vague dissatisfaction with it is more to do with the quality of the fabric than anything else. It looks nice but it tends to stay stretched rather than rebounding to the original shape, so I think it will spend a fair amount of time looking baggy despite being taken in down the sides.  I love the shape of the hem though and it does look very nice in RL.  In this photo the wind has blown it out to the front a bit

I can't quite get my head around the Ottobre sizing - in terms of height she's just over 110cm but all her other measurements are more like a 98 which is two sizes smaller. Are Finnish kids incredibly stocky or something?

The funny thing is that I realised after she got dressed this morning that everything she's wearing bar undies, socks and shoes was made by me!  The mess from chocolate icecream on her face, the pastel crayon smudges on the top, and the soy sauce on her leg was made by her. 

Kids Clothes Week Challenge - Day 2

The pillowcase skirt.  I've been buying old sheets with the aim of making a quilt at some point and Hazel took a shine to a pillowcase in this blue pattern and asked me to make a skirt for her. And I thought "why not?" and did.  Of course when I opened it out I realised it was faded in patches but went ahead anyways. I notice it for sure but I'm not sure if others would or not!  She's pretty keen on it - it got a much better reception than the Zigzag dress, although I'm still holding out hopes on that one and preparing my psychological assault on her to get her to love it as much as I do!  Anyways, this skirt amuses me and I'm pleased I made it.

The pillowcase opened out to one piece of long fabric so I just sewed it up in a seam at the back, hemmed the bottom and folded over the top to make a casing for elastic. It's trimmed with giant ric-rac and a couple of ric-rac flowers. Unfortunately I pressed them with the iron and can't get them to look as lovely and full as they did initially! And I also slightly melted the giant ric-rac because I thought it was cotton and it's obviously a blend. Oops! But you can't actually tell except that one little spot is slightly smaller and feels a bit hard.

If anyone has tips on sewing this giant ric-rac I'd love to hear them - as you can see above I did the usual straight line through the middle as waggling up and down was too hard. But it's not sitting particularly nicely and the tips are curling in. Do I need to get the free motion foot out?

Ice Cream Social Dress

When Badskirt's Ice Cream Social for the Oliver+S dress pattern of the same name came up last month I thought I'd make one up for a birthday present for Hazel. Partly because it's a cute dress and a good excuse to make it, but also because I thought that feeling like I was part of a group experience would spur me on to get it done even though it's been a really busy and stressful month (add to that a slipped disk and excruciating sciatica and now a cold, WTF universe?! Luckily I'm slowly on the mend from the sciatica if not the cold).

The yellow/orange seersucker was a bit of vintage fabric I picked up at Lucy-Mae Sparkle Boutique at the end of June. I've never sewed with it before and was expecting problems but it was fine. I love the soft puffiness of it and it feels super soft and...puffy! Doesn't take well to ironing though! I have to carefully iron the sateen while not flattening the seersucker but it wasn't too hard.

The dress was fun to sew, nothing too challenging although you do need to make sure your seams are exactly spot-on or things won't match up. I had some issues with the bottom panel in that regard. I think next time I'll fold it up on the inside so that it's not such a big deal, though I can see the appeal of the fold being on the outside design-wise. The notches on the pockets went perfectly, but of course by the time I got to the neck one I was getting cocky and so it's not as nice and I made it worse when I ironed a crease into it. That sateen is pretty unforgiving in that way, no ironing out a crease after the fact!

To be really honest, I'm not sure I like the colour combination of the yellow and pink as much as I thought I would. Well I love the combination, I'm just not sure about them on the dress together if that makes sense! But if there's one thing I've learned this year is that I really have No. Idea. when it comes to predicting what Hazel will like. So the jury will rest until Hazel unwraps it on her birthday and either wants to wear it or says she'll wear it "tomorrow" which is the kiss of death for any item of clothing. Tomorrow equalling "never".

Jump Rope Dress

Can I admit that this dress has taken nigh-on a month to finish up? It was part of the 'Kid's Clothes Week Challenge' but didn't quite get done in that week. All it needed were buttons but to do that I had to remember to get thread for the buttonholes and get some matching buttons. It's the little things that slow me up!

This is the Jump Rope Dress from Oliver + S. I've had the fabric languishing in my stash for over a year, meaning to make something for Hazel and I thought it would really suit the dress. In the end though, I'm not so sure. It looks nice but the fabric is a very high-quality cotton and it's actually quite stiff. Hazel complained about it the first time she tried it on and I'm not sure that I blame her to be honest. The fact that she complained means this may be as close to it as she ever gets

Oh well, I've learned my lesson when it comes to clothes she's iffy about and I'm not asking her to wear it, or making a big deal out of it. It's a bit too big which means that she's got plenty of time to come around to it! I made Dress A with the long sleeves from Dress B, so if she gets interested by the time summer rolls around I can always turn the sleeves into the short version of A. The dress went together well, although the belt loops were crazy long and the markings on the pattern for where to put them were just plain bizarre - I must check the errata and see if there was some issue. Or I may have just completely lost the plot in regards to the pattern/instructions. I got them right the second time around with alterations. The collar ended up being too stiff with the addition of interfacing, if I made it from this fabric again (which I wouldn't) I wouldn't put in the interfacing, the collar needs to be fairly soft to fold correctly.

KCWC Day 7

To round off the week officially (though I still have a dress to do in the next couple days!) I did this long-sleeved merino top from Burda 9614.  After reading such an awful review of it on Pattern Review I did a test shirt last week and while it came out a size too big it was otherwise just fine so not sure what problem the reviewer was having but it wasn't the pattern.  I made this one up in size 104cm and actually it's STILL too big!  Oh well, she can grow in to it :)  Very boxy pattern though, I had to bring it in quite a bit through the underarm and down the sides, to the tune of about 2cm both sides?  I deliberately made the sleeves and body a bit long to account for any shrinkage which I'm sure, it being wool and all, will happen.  Of course, add that to it being too big anyways and it's very generous in length!  Such gorgeous merino too, it was on sale at Global Fabrics last month for $10/m.  And from the metre I think I used about a 1/4 of that for this top?  I've got some in pink but am considering trying another pattern for it instead.  Or maybe I'll thrash this one into submission, not sure yet!

Crap photos due to the really overcast day we had yesterday, plus taking it quite late in the day

I was quite nervous about sewing with this fabric as it was much lighter and stretchier than anything I've done previously, but it went together super well and of course since it's wool it ironed beautifully!  The top-stitching was a bit of a dud though, one of the threads I used with the twin needles is too dark and really shows up in contrast to the other one that blends in well.  I may have to redo it so I feel happy about it. Or I may not, sometimes the irritation can't surmount the loathing I have of redoing something! Actually, looking at the photo it looks worse than it does in real life...

Here's Hazel modelling it:

She asked me to pick her some flowers for the photo and by sheer chance there were these little pink ones that matched her dancing skirt perfectly! I actually made that a month or so ago but never got around to photographing it. It's from Butterick 6660. Not the greatest pattern to work with (how could it be with a pattern number like that!) but the skirt is so cute and she loves it.

KCWC Days 5 and 6

Ah things are slowing down around here!  What with the late night on Thursday and my birthday on Friday and a party that evening at a friend's, plus a night at the movies last night (Boy, can't recommend it enough! Check out the hilarious Poi E video and the trailers on the movie's site) I haven't gotten in quite as much sewing as I'd have liked. I can't think the last time I did so much socialising!

Days 5 and 6 were the leggings from Clothes for Girls

The weather and lighting weren't so great today so apologies for the yukky photos.  These are very slim-fitting leggings, I had to go up a size and even then they're fairly tight. Nice fit though, and I love the little lace detail on the cuffs.  It's pale pink ribbon over cream lace, the colours have blown out a bit unfortunately.

They're made from a heavy knit with good two-way stretch so I'm hoping they'll last out the winter!  Turns out I didn't have any elastic for the waist so that still needs to be done.

KCWC Day 2 and 3 redux

And Day 4 too, I did the last of the flower finishing this morning and that's all the time I've had today - lecture writing tonight unfortunately! But the cardigan is now finished and here it is:

Originally it looked like this:

I see that the original photo was taken way back in October last year so it's taken me awhile to get around to it!  I was inspired by a clever cardigan refashion by Tiny Happy who told me it wasn't that hard and actually it wasn't! This is what I did:

1. Cut off the sleeves and tried it on Hazel and pinned where I thought the shoulder seam/side seams would be.
   
2. Unpicked the neck facing or whatever it was called. I managed to get the overlocker seam to unravel by pulling random threads (is there a trick to knowing which one to pull? I only ever find it by accident or when it's unravelling clothing I want to wear in which case it's very easy).  This meant that, except in a couple places where I nicked it, the edges didn't unravel.  I undid the facing along the back and on the front just past about where I thought Hazel's shoulder seam would be.
   
3. Found a shirt pattern for a V-necked button-front shirt and matched the pattern pieces for the arm area and arm to the pinned positions as best I could. I do wish, however, that I'd had a good cardigan pattern to work from that was designed for knits as this one ended up being too big and the cardigan needs taking in.
   
4. Cut the pieces out and resewed with an overlocker.  After I tried it on Hazel I discovered it was fine along the neckline despite being too big around, so I went ahead and attached the neck facing and added the ruffle and buttons.  I sewed the ruffle on with a twin needle to give it a bit of stretch along with the knit neckline.

Mat thinks the buttons are a bit OTT but the originals were so... late '90s know what I mean?  The only problem I ran into was that the original facings overlapped more than I'd assumed they would so I had to shift the buttons over to the edge quite a bit so the right ruffle there wasn't covered over!

The flower was made from a tutorial at Pink Paper Peppermints that I found via a lovely little dress on My Sewing Circle.  It's on a bit of felt attached to a pin.  This is the one I prefer; but I had made a smaller one from the stripy fabric that Hazel likes best so she can have that one on it (too matchy for me!) and I'll have the photograph and the memories...