KCW Summer 2013: A recap

Yeeeeaahh, so KCW Summer 2013 was a total bust for me.  Well, maybe not a TOTAL bust — I did  finish 2 WIPs that were sitting around my sewing room collecting dust.  But those occupied only 2 evenings of KCW, far from the 7 that I had hoped to commit.

I had a hard time getting motivated for KCW this summer.  My kids don’t really need any new clothes.  N doesn’t wear the ones that I make her anymore, preferring instead to rotate the same 3-4 t-shirts.

J loves getting new clothes, but the kid’s drawers are overflowing with summer clothes since he can still wear shorts that he wore when he was 1 year old.  In fact, some of those 2T shorts still threaten to fall off his skinny bottom, even though I have to buy him at least 4T in pants for the length!  He was quite pleased with his car shorts when he first saw them, but still has declined to wear them for a full day.  At least with the length of our summer and the way he grows, there are still many months left to try to convince him!

To be honest, I’m just not that interested in sewing for the kids right now.  I am in the process of making J a new pair of Big Island Board Shorts, which I hope to bust out tonight.  The cheapo fabric that I got from Joann’s when I was a tester for this pattern (because I didn’t have time to wait for the nicer stuff to come in the mail) has finally failed me, and he has torn unfixable holes in his first pair, which he loved.  Hopefully he’ll love the new pair just as much.  And I will finally get around to posting a review of this pattern!

Instead, I’ve been focusing on me and Albert.

It’s a matter of quantity for me — I have very few clothes that I will be able to wear effectively after this baby is born in a few weeks.  I got 2 1/2 glorious hours to cut fabric yesterday afternoon while N napped and Albert took J on an outing.  In addition to the Miette Skirt and simple elastic skirt that I had already cut, I cut the fabric for another Miette, a modified Lady Skater, and another Pina dress (this time maxi length).

I was also inspired by a couple of nursing tops that I saw on Zulily the other day, and I hope to recreate them, likely using the new Maria Denmark It’s *Just* a Tank Top pattern.  Hopefully I’ll be able to put together a tutorial for that in the next couple of weeks!

For Albert, it’s all about quality, particularly fit and finish.  He is very particular about his clothes, which is largely why I haven’t sewn anything for him until now. He’s really picky about fit and finish and details, and it was just kind of intimidating to think about spending a lot of time making something for him that he didn’t like but felt obligated to wear, etc., etc.

But, I’m a tester for the upcoming Jedediah Pants from Thread Theory (spoiler: from what I’ve experienced so far with the pattern, it’s a really good one), which means Albert’s getting some new pants whether he likes it or not!  I’ve made sure to consult with him about every step of the process, and he’s been really good about giving me detailed feedback that will hopefully result in pants that fit him well and that he loves!

I ordered two different fabrics for his pants, and hopefully I can sew them in tandem this week.  The first is an awesome recycled hemp and organic cotton blend from Hart’s Fabric:

The first pants fabric. If I hadn’t gotten specifically for Albert, I might just steal it for myself!

It arrived in record time on Friday, and I prewashed and dried it 3 times, just because I’ve never worked with hemp fabric before and wanted to make sure the completed pants don’t shrink. It’s a fabulous weight for pants, and has a great color with subtle flecks of blues, oranges and yellows among the gray.

The second fabric I ordered for him is the yarn-dyed Essex Linen in denim from lowpricefabric.com, the Michael Levine online store.  I’ve never worked with Essex Linen before, but have heard nothing but good things.  It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow!

Second fabric — Yarn-dyed Essex Linen in denim

Last night I cut and sewed together a muslin for the pants. Part of me was tempted to take a picture because I made it from an old bedsheet, and they looked like clown pants!  But I took pity on my husband, who is already being a great sport about all this and giving me all the cooperation and feedback that I need.

I’ll be making a few modifications to the Jedediah pattern to account for Albert’s specific taste in pants.  Even though I’m testing, I still want these pants to be something that he wears!

I will probably take tonight to finish J’s shorts and maybe get a start on my second PIna dress, but then it’s all about pants for the rest of the week!  I’m actually really excited to dive into the Jedediah pattern.  There are some techniques that I’ve never used before and the pattern includes really nice finishes on everything.  The insides of these pants should be just as pretty (if not prettier) than the outside when it’s all said and done!

KCW Summer 2013 Day 3: Finished car shorts!

Well, I plowed through last night and finally finished J’s car shorts, which had been cut since sometime in April:

Clean Slate Car Shorts

These actually went together relatively quickly, but I didn’t head down to my sewing room until 9:30 pm, so it was yet another late night — I think I finished up about 11:15.  Still, not too bad, particularly when you take into account the fact that I reinforced most of the seams and flat-felled the back crotch, inseam and outseams!

KCW Summer 2013 Day 1: Why I don’t sew for my daughter anymore

First, please forgive the crappy iPhone photos in this post.  It’s what I had to do if I was going to get this top photographed before August because…N won’t wear it!  Shocker, that one. And it goes directly to my post title!

N’s purple gingham top … that she won’t wear.

This little Made by Petchy top/tunic is one that I cut back in March and never got around to sewing together.  It was the first item on my KCW to-finish list this time, and it does feel good to get it out of my WIP pile, even if it is just gathering dust in her closet now.

This top is a super quick and easy sew, which is why I love, love, love it for a baby/toddler girl.  The whole thing goes together in less than an hour and is cute to boot.

I made the same mods that I made to N’s first-day-of-school top last fall (she won’t wear that one anymore either).  Instead of binding the armholes separate from the straps and then running the straps through the front and back casing, I ran 5 inches of 1/4″ elastic through the front and back casings to gather them.  Then I extended the armhole binding into tie straps on each arm.  I just really prefer the look of this to the pattern instructions.

Elastic and bias straps

The inside is really pretty too.  I flat-felled all the seams so there is not a single exposed seam allowance in the entire garment.  Confession: I love flat-felled seams — I’m becoming a flat-felling fiend!

You wouldn’t even know this is the inside if I hadn’t told you, would you?

The longer I sew, the more I appreciate a pretty interior to a garment.  And this is such an easy pattern to finish nicely, either with flat-felled or French seams.

Flat-felled seams. Yes, this is the inside — hard to tell, I know!

Well, not much more to say.  I think it’s darling.  N won’t wear it.  Instead, she opted for a plain purple tank top and white shorts today.  Someday I’m sure she’ll like having more unique clothing, but until then, I always like what I make!

Kid’s Clothes Week Summer 2013: My Plan

So yeah.  Today is the first day of the very first summer Kids Clothes Week, and how many kids clothes items did I prepare to sew?  Exactly zero!

My kids both have overflowing closets (three sets of grandparents who love to spoil them will do that), and my own maternity and postpartum wardrobe is fairly pitiful, so my focus has very much been on self-sewing lately.

Luckily (I guess), I have a slew of cut but unsewn kids items in my WIP pile right now, so this KCW seems like a perfect time to try to plow my way through some of them.

I will be selective, though.  There are several items for N that I cut that I probably won’t bother sewing together, perhaps ever.  I cut a couple of darling little dresses for her, BUT, she has recently decided that she doesn’t like dresses anymore!

N’s Twos have made her even more opinionated, and she currently has about 4 t-shirts and 2-3 pairs of shorts that she rotates.  All dresses are out of the rotation, as are most of her tops, particularly any dressier ones.  Her favorite is a hot pink t-shirt with multi-colored butterflies all over it.  If it’s clean, she wears it.

I do have a couple little tops cut for her, though, and they should be easy to sew together.  Hopefully that won’t be an hour wasted!

J seems to grow only up and never out, which means that he can still wear the shorts he wore when he was a year old!  In fact, his waist measurement is actually smaller now than it was 3 years ago (effect of losing the diaper I guess).  I can’t keep the kid in pants that fit — they turn into highwaters seemingly within 5 seconds of acquiring them — but his shorts drawer is overflowing.

I have one pair of shorts cut for him from a super-cool Echino cars print that have been sitting in my WIP pile for at least two months.  I plan to finally finish those this week!

The rest of my kid sewing this week will be baby-oriented, and likely not clothing.  I really need to start working on the bedding for the baby’s nursery.  The fabric has been purchased and laundered for over 2 months now, and it is high time to get those crib sheets put together!  I know, I know, it’s kid’s clothes week, so I’m totally cheating.  Ah well.

Anyway, here’s my goal list for the week:

1. Made by Petchy baby dress in size 9-12 months (great top size for a 2-year-old) in purple gingham for N.
2. Vintage Simplicity pinafore top refashioned from an old mint polka dot bedsheet for N.
3. Clean Slate Shorts in awesome Echino cars fabric for J.
4. Maybe a second Hopscotch Dress for N.  This is very much a maybe since she’s not big on dresses right now and rarely will consent to wear the first one I made her.
5. Crib sheets.  I plan to use the tutorial from MADE.
6. Crib skirt.  I plan to use this tutorial.

If there’s any time this week once this is done, it’s all about me again!

Anyone else sewing along?  What’s on your list?