KCWC Stragglers

I’m sure it will shock you all to discover that I sewed something other than pants last week!

Not much other than pants, but it was something. I was getting pretty darn sick of kids pants so these were a nice break.

First, I must be the absolute last person in the online sewing world to finally try out my copy of the Made By Rae Flashback Skinny Tee:

This is a great pattern. Quick, easy, and the fit is awesome. I made this T-shirt for J as an afterthought and it seriously probably went together in less than 2 hours. If I could refashion an old t-shirt and reuse the hems, it would be even faster. Definitely have to keep this pattern close by for just that!

Side note: This is the first project that J has ever willingly modeled for me. Before this (even just this past spring and summer), he acted as if my camera was going to suck the soul out of his clothes and threw huge fits if I asked him to model for me. “NO!! My pants, Mommy! MINE!” This may mark the start of better kids clothing photos from me — yay!!

This fabric is an amazingly soft Nani Iro by Naomi Ito double gauze knit that I’ve been hoarding for the last year (seriously–it was my birthday present to myself last year). I only had a yard of it because it was $30+ per yard and only 30″ wide and I just couldn’t bring myself to pop for more. That measly 1 yard was just enough to squeak out a size 3T Flashback Tee. With a few scraps leftover that I will probably hoard for another year. I’m not usually a scrap girl but these lusciously soft knit scraps are mine, I tell you, MINE!

And then my favorite project of the week. A catalogue knock off skirt for N that the little stinker stubbornly refuses to wear. You wouldn’t think a 17-month-old would have such strong opinions about clothes, but you would be wrong. Every morning she must approve her outfit choices and every morning this skirt is met with a definitive “no” and a shake of her head.

I saw a picture of this Velvet and Tweed skirt on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and knew that I wanted to recreate it:

Except I wanted to make mine fully reversible. It took a bit of puzzling but I figured it out and I think the result is awesome!

Here’s mine:

And the reverse side:

I took pictures as I was making it, so this will become a tutorial once I take the time to put it together!

Maybe by then I’ll have wrassled N into the skirt for some pictures. I will not be defeated by a 17-month-old…will I?

KCWC Day 6 — The pants that almost weren’t

Once again I’m behind on KCWC posting, mostly because I haven’t been able to take pictures!

Between my burnout and N’s bout with the croup, these pants almost didn’t happen. Fate certainly was conspiring against them anyway!

But I finally finished them on Friday night, and they are pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Maybe my favorite of the three pairs I made this week!

The fabric is a black and white houndstooth twill that I bought from Chez Ami last winter. For the patches and pockets, I just cut the fabric on the bias, and I really like the effect! A little more subtle but it adds some interest.

I bought about 4 yards of this fabric so I think some of it is destined to become another Kelly Skirt for me! (I still have to blog my wearable muslin).

Originally I had planned to post a tutorial today on how I’ve been salvaging N’s outgrown onesies and t-shirts, but that will have to wait for another day!

KCWC Day 3-4 — How to line a pair of kids’ pants (and GREEN pants!)

I finished J’s second pair of pants on Tuesday night and stayed up so late to finish them that I was zonked and went to bed early last night. So pair #3 is sitting in my sewing room almost half done. Oh well, I’ll finish them tonight!

I took Albert’s suggestion and added some more “boy” details to this pair even though that meant they took longer than the purple pair. And they did turn out really cute:

Preemptively patching the knees was probably a good idea. I don’t think J owns a single pair of pants that hasn’t ended up with knee patches. It’s WAY easier to do that on the front end!

I mentioned before that all of the pants I’m making for J this week are lined. The weather is getting chilly here and while we in Kansas rarely get the arctic-like winter that I grew up with in Iowa, it is proving to be unseasonably cold this fall. I guess this will be a year of extremes! I figured that lining these pants couldn’t hurt.

It is so easy to line a basic pair of kids’ pants (since there usually aren’t zip flies etc to worry about). I love the lined look because in addition to warmth, it hides all of the interior seam allowances!

I lined these green twill pants with a gray flannel that was sitting around in my stash. I picked it up in the remnants bin at Joann’s ages ago and it was just the right amount of fabric for a lining! Since the purple pants were corduroy, which is already a slightly heavier fabric, I used jersey to line those. Even quilting cotton would work if you wanted a pop of pattern inside the pants, but I like the softness of knits or flannel.

So here is a mini-tutorial on how I lined these pants for J. I’m sure there are several ways to line a pair of pants, and I don’t claim that mine is the only, or even the best, way. It’s just the way that made sense to me when I sat down to puzzle this out. Also, this is the first time I’ve ever put together a tutorial of any kind, so I’m very open to any constructive criticism you may have! (Please keep it constructive though, this is my happy place).

How to line a basic pair of kids pants:

Step 1: Sew the crotch seams, side seams and inseams on the pants in both your outer fabric and lining fabric. I won’t go through the steps on how to do this. I used the MADE basic kids pants pattern for J’s pants, and Dana has detailed instructions on how to assemble the pants here. (Dana also did a tutorial on lining pants. I didn’t use that tutorial, so I’m doing my own, but hers can be found here).

Step 1: Construct your pants. I did the patches and pocket on my outer pants at this stage so all the interior stitching would be hidden.

The basic kids pants pattern doesn’t have any pockets or a separate waistband piece. You could easily line pants that have pockets, though, and all of the interior pocket pieces would be sandwiched between the outer fabric and the lining, maintaining that nice, smooth, soft interior! To do that, you would assemble the outside pieces, including the pockets, to the point where you were going to add waistband and hems. Assemble the inside pieces without any pockets, and continue from there.

Step 2: Turn the outer pants piece inside out and iron under your hems and waistband on the outer piece only. For my waistbands, I ironed them under 1/2 inch, and then again about 1 1/4 inches all around. I wanted to maintain length in the legs, so I ironed under 1/2 inch then another 1/2 inch.

Step 2: Iron the waistband and hems on the outer piece

Step 3: Stuff the outer pants piece inside the lining piece, wrong sides together. Keep the waistband and hems folded under when you stuff the outer piece into the lining piece.

Step 3: Stuff the outer pants inside the lining piece.

Step 4: Trim the lining pieces at the waistband and legs so that they are about 1/4 inch shorter than the outer piece with the waistband and hems folded.

Step 4: Trim the lining.

Step 4: Trimming the lining — see how the lining is just a tad shorter than the folded waistband?

Step 5: Tuck the top and bottom of the lining piece underneath the folded waistband and hems and pin in place. Be sure to smooth everything out and line up your seams here. This is the time to insert a back tag, if you have one, or a piece of ribbon or twill tape. I used a scrap of twill tape so we’d know which side is the back.

Step 5: Tuck the lining inside the waistband and hems.

Step 6: Sew the waistband casing and hems, leaving a 2-inch gap on one side of the waistband casing.

Step 6: Sew the waistband casing and hems.

Step 7: Insert your elasic at the gap you left and pull it through the casing. Attach the ends. For J’s pants, I cut a 20″ piece of elastic and counted on a 1/2-inch of overlap when I sewed it together for a final waist circumference of 19″.

Step 7: Insert elastic into the waistband.

Step 8: Sew the waistband casing shut.

And you’re done! Comfy, cozy lined pants with no exposed interior seam allowances! Now go try them on your little guy or gal (or leave them on the sofa until morning because it’s 11:30 pm and the little guy or gal has been in bed for 4 hours and you should be sleeping too. I’ve never done that, though. Ahem. Really.).

Here’s my finished interior:

And my patches and pockets:

J was a fan! He loved the cars all over his pants, and informed me that they were nice and soft!

KCWC Day 2 — Purple Pants!

I finished J’s purple pants last night for the first day of the Kids Clothing Week Challenge.

When I asked J yesterday if he wanted me to make him purple pants or green pants that night, he told me, “blue pants!” Well, these will have to do.

The MADE kids pants pattern is great for these. It goes together so fast! Since I’m making each pair lined, I basically have to make two pairs of pants for each so I’m glad it’s quick. Having to assemble a bunch of pockets would definitely mean I couldn’t finish in the limited time available to me. These took about 2 hours to make, lining and all!

I also like the basic flat front. J just potty trained so I like to put him in pants he can easily pull on and off without having to fumble with buttons and zippers. At least at this stage.

The main fabric is a fine-wale purple corduroy that I ordered from Fabric.com. It’s really soft and was actually quite easy to work with. The lining is a lightweight skin jersey in a camo print that I picked up from Joann’s remnant bin. Both fabrics are really soft and move well — these pants look so comfy!

I showed them to Albert and his reaction was that they needed more pockets and patches so they looked less”girly.” But come on, they’re purple corduroy pants! It’s all in the styling–put them on a boy with a dinosaur t-shirt and a zip up hoodie and they’ll look less “girly.”

And when J outgrows them, he can hand then down to N. Gotta love a good unisex pattern!

J at least seem to like them. He was quite excited to wear his purple pants to school this morning!