Sewing for ME

Well. Yes.
I'm desperate for clothes -- none of my pre-baby wardrobe fits (and when the baby in question is nearly 3, then I can't blame the situation on pregnancy!)
So, I decided to make a shift dress, to wear over leggings.
I found some (cheap) fabric that I liked -- from Nicks Fabrics -- a loosely woven black with threads of cerise, purple and metallic silver running through.

I adapted a New Look pattern which I've had for 5 years or so (I made it for a 60s party in a black/white/grey psychadelic swirl pattern)
But adapted for the new use.
I cut it a size larger than the max on the pattern - largest was 16; but I added the same increments used in the smaller sizing, by eye as I cut the fabric. I also added a bit more to the width of the hemline -- hoping that it would 'swing' a bit more.
I eliminated the centre front seam (which has no useful shaping purpose.
And I added pockets.
Later, I eliminated the zip and re-cut the neckline.

The fabric was a demon to sew. The metallic threads kept trapping the needle and altering the tension, causing the thread to snap. And it frayed like anything.
If I were sewing it again, I'd overlock the raw seam edges before I started, rather than at the end. But I wanted to wait until I'd checked the fit, before finishing the seams (in case I had to adjust them)

After I'd put the zipper in, I wasn't happy with the finish, and was about to rip it out and re-do; when I thought about pulling it on with the zipper closed. Yep, it fit. So rip out the zip and stitch up the seam.

I skipped making facings, and just overlocked the raw edges, folded them under and stitched.

I adjusted the hemline a bit higher than the pattern, as I plan to wear leggings underneath.

I sized the pockets based on my hand size and length, then made them wider at the top - trapezium shape - to get that baggy gaping look. I am happy with the pockets, and would do them again.

Once it was finished, and I tried it on, I decided I didn't like the neckline; so re-cut it to be more of a scoop look.

Overall. I can't say I'm wildly excited with the finished look. But that may say more about the shape of the person underneath than the garment itself. It will be useful, and I guess I'll have to be grateful for small mercies.
I had thought about adding some neckline detail. A few fabulous pink or black buttons, or some fabric roses. But I'm not so excited about the finished look, that I want to put in any more effort.
Maybe a black trim around the neck and arm edges would have been more slimming?

Not a great photo - it's hard to take a photo of yourself, even with the camera on delay. The neckline is actually straight (the joggle is just wear). And the silver and cerise have come out much more boldly than the real fabric.

More Merino Magic

Winter is certainly here, with a vengeance.

Not that it's actually freezing, (we haven't been close to zero) it just feels that way to those of us who think we live in a subtropical paradise!

But the temperature has been dropping to 4 and 5 degrees overnight, and rising to the early teens during the afternoon.

I've more merino bodysuits cut out for Mitchell (bright yellow and burnt orange this time), but my most recent sewing has been a petticoat for my Mum. Just a half slip, for her to wear under her winter skirts.

Totally simple in construction. Just a rectangle, seamed up the side with an elastic casing at the top and a hem at the bottom.

I used the same olive green merino that I've used for Mitchell in the past. Lightweight and warm, it'll be comfortable to wear.

I used the over-locker to hem the seams, then zig-zag stitched them together (or down in the case of the casing and hem).

Totally easy and quick -- took about an hour all up (including measuring the hem length -- which took the most time!)

Doesn't seem worthwhile to post a photo -- but if anyone's interested, I will.

Merino Magic

Well, the winter is certainly on our doorstep. Despite the Indian summer we've been enjoying, the temperature has started to drop at night.

Time to think about snuggly winter pyjamas for Mitchell.
Over the last 2 winters, I've made him bodysuits out of fine merino jersey knit, using this Ottobre pattern.
He just lived in them over winter. He wore them at night inside his sleeping bag, and during the day as a base layer.
I always knew he was cosy warm with the fine soft merino next to his skin. And I had great fun mixing and matching exciting colours.

But, the pattern only goes up to size 86 cm. & he's at 92 now. What to do?

I tried looking for a similar pattern in a larger size, but no luck. They were all too lose fitting; I really wanted a bodysuit style - something that fit like thermal underwear!
Finally, I tried one of last year's bodysuits on him, and the fit wasn't too bad in the chest area -- even though his rib cage is larger, he's not as chubby. Of course, it was much too short, but that's easily fixed.
So I hacked the pattern. I added an extra seam allowance to increase the size (NB that worked for this pattern, as the increase in size is consistent across the whole pattern)
I don't really want to have the snaps at the crotch anymore, so I just cut the pattern off at the top of the hip opening, and hemmed it instead of doing a binding.

I've made the first one in a very fine rib merino (on sale at the fabulous Global Fabrics) for $10 a metre. It's a lovely olive green colour (though it's come out as grey in the photos for some reason); and the binding is black merino jersey knit.

Not the most exciting looking sewing in the world, but super practical and useful. I'll be making a whole lot more of these in a more exciting range of colours. I wanted to try the rib first, to see how different it was to jersey when made up (not much, it appears)

Next, I'll be making leggings to match!

Last of the Summer...Tomatoes

Hmm
Not much sewing going on here -- have to talk about the rest of my life instead.

I planted tomatoes this year

More to give Mitchell a taste of where food comes from, than as a serious gardening exercise.
I planted 4 different varieties, three heirloom ones, (including the black ones in the picture) and one modern heavy cropping one. Needless to say, we got most tomatoes from the modern version.

Mitchell loved them!

After an early experience, where he pulled off the first 20 green tomatoes and laid them out in a row for me to admire, I quickly bought some netting to keep him (and the birds) at a distance.
I had endless conversations with him, where we talked about waiting for the tomatoes to turn red & that green ones didn't taste good. [We'd had the same conversation about the strawberries, but to no effect]

Finally, we had our first red tomatoes! Great excitement!

Watched intently, I carefully reached behind the netting and picked the first tomato for Mitchell to eat.

As the season continued, Mitchell worked out how to get through the netting, and happily gobbled up uncounted numbers of red ripe tomatoes (and took bites out of a few green ones).
I took a bowl out in the evenings, to pick some of the crop for our dinner. And Mitchell quickly decided his job was to put the tomatoes in the bowl after I'd picked them.
Soon, he'd come and say "Matos" "Bowl" as he wanted me to come and pick with him.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a final glorious harvest of the last of the tomatoes & then Mitchell watched as I made tomato pasta sauce with them.

So, now we have jars of lovely sauce, eaten with everything from pizza to meatballs, as a reminder of our tomato summer.

What to grow next?

Mending is sewing too

I don't feel that I can justify making Mitchell new outfits, when I have clothes for him waiting in the mending pile. He grows so quickly, that if I don't fix them now, I might as well throw them out. I'm pretty picky over what I mend, it has to be 'worth my time' so I sort out: good quality fabrics/designs; things he looks extra cute in; things he's been given by special people in our lives; oh, and also anything that only needs a tiny stitch to make it good as new.
So that's why an extra cute and comfortable pair of denim trousers given to him by his aunt, had new knee patches added (where he wore out the knees crawling); while other pairs of trousers have gone straight in the rag bag.

I looked at the mending pile today, and regretfully put the sewing aside (even though there's only the waistband to do....) and spent the 45 minutes [and that's a whole nother story] of his nap time today, mending.

I started with a lovely green outfit that my sister gave him with appliqued monkey motifs. So far as Mitchell is concerned, "iron on" means "pull off", and those monkeys had just about given up any attachment to their parent garment. But it is cute, and he's certainly getting the wear out of it in this hot weather. If I'm going to spend my time mending something, it's darned well going to stay mended. So out came the invisible thread, and I whip-stitched the monkeys firmly in place, right round the edge of the applique.

Then the buttons. It seems that whatever automatic button-stitcher-on-er they have in garment factories, hasn't been put to the toddler-test. Just about every button Mitchell owns gets removed or comes loose within the first couple of wears. I've learned to re-sew all the buttons on a garment, when the first one comes loose. I suppose that I really should stitch them in place before he wears them for the first time -- but, I feel daunted at the thought....

And finally darning. Now this one really is crunch time for a garment -- it has to be really worth it for me to darn. Though there are plenty of candidates.... Only one set of trousers made the cut this time.... lovely microfibre board shorts in shades of blue. He'd got at my dressmaking scissors and made little snips through the fabric (before I spotted him and wrested them away). Three tiny darns, and they're wearable again

There's something sort of satisfying about folding up mended clothes to put away in his drawers, and seeing his mending basket empty (mine on the other hand, threatens to topple over it's so full).

But it's not nearly so much fun as sewing....

Fabric Addict

I guess I am one -- a fabric addict that is.
I have piles of material in the stash, but I just can't seem to resist adding to the pile when I see something lovely -- particularly when it's a good deal, as well!

So, I decided that I needed some plain cotton jersey, for Mitchell. (I truly didn't have anything suitable in the stash, as this wasn't a fabric that I even looked at pre-baby....). I couldn't find anything that I liked the look of at the local shops (Spotlight, etc.); so off we went to Designer Textiles in Otara. It's a bit of a hike out there -- about 25 minutes drive if the traffic is behaving itself. But, I've been before, and loved their fabrics, particularly the merino jersey.
It's an outlet shop, so you have to be prepared to be flexible.

And I found a lovely soft cotton jersey, in blue and green stripes. It was about the only one, everything else was either polyester/lycra blend or hideous colours. So, of course, I bought it.

But did I stop there, dear Reader? Of course not!

First I found some lovely linen, in soft grey/white/yellow stripes, then another one in shades of blue and another one in broad stripes of blue/red/brown. All of these are ideal for shorts/trousers for Mitchell. Yes, they will have to be ironed, but so lovely against his skin. And for the munificent sum of $4 a metre. How could I turn that down?

And finally, I fell for some of the lovely merino jersey striped in 2 shades of blue. I have heaps of this, but it was so lovely I just couldn't resist. And it is unusual to get patterned jersey, usually it's single colour.

I whisked back home and cut shorts for Mitchell out of the yellow stripe linen, but then had to go to Spotlight for some elastic, as all mine was the wrong size.

And what should I find, but a lovely bright coloured striped cotton knit. I can't imagine how I missed it last time, but it was the only one remotely possible for him (others were either girly or polyester blend). And, because it was the last metre (well actually 1.3 metres) they not only gave it to me for the metre price, but had a special of 30% discount if you bought the whole roll!

I just hope it's not a case of "lucky in fabric, unlucky in sewing"

So, just look at my lovely colourful additions to the Mitchell fabric stash -- could you have resisted?

The Cursed Pyjama Project

Sometimes it seems that a particular sewing project is cursed. No matter what you try it all goes wrong somehow.
I feel that way about Mitchell's pymajas -- and I've only done the top half!

I'd been given a lovely soft cotton jersey in a very fine navy & white stripe. Nice to sleep in, and Mitchell had grown out of all his pyjamas.

I really liked the envelope necks that he'd had with his onesies, and wanted to use that design feature, rather than having fasteners -- much more comfortable.

I found an Ottobre pattern that I thought would do nicely (No.5 from 1/2009). It was a jersey tunic (which suited the fabric) and had an envelope neck.
I didn't have any ribbing to hand, so decided to use the cotton jersey as self binding. First big mistake. This had worked well on previous projects made out of merino jersey, but the cotton fabric didn't have a great spring back when it was stretched. Using the same fabric for the binding, resulted in stretched out seams.

The first one I made for Mitchell ended up huge: the envelope neck didn't have enough elasticity to stay in place, and constantly slipped off his shoulders; the sleeves were about 4 inches too long, and were very baggy. Every time it was washed, it seemed to get bigger. After stitching on some extra elastic around the neckline, which looked dreadful; I reluctantly consigned it to the rag bag.

I'd begun the second top, before I realised the major problems with the first one; and the self-binding on the envelope neck was already in place. I re-cut the sleeves to a much narrower and shorter pattern. But what to do about the neckline?

I decided to stitch in the ditch along the envelope overlap. Retaining the effect, while actually making it a much narrower opening. We'll have to see if it works.

In the interim, it seems that everything that could go wrong with the process, did. I stitched the binding onto the wrong side of the sleeves, (rather than unpicking, I turned it onto the right side & re-stitched -- it looks OK, but is a bit thicker).
I ran out of thread in stitching the seams, and broke the overlocker thread, 3 separate times!

Finally, I decided that I couldn't be bothered binding the bottom, so just overlocked and stitched it up (breaking a needle on a pin in the process.). It looks a bit puckered where the stitching has stretched the fabric, but I guess Mitchell and I can live with that.

I think it's back to the drawing board with this fabric. I'll need a pattern that's a much slimmer fit, and stretchy rib knit for the bindings.

In the meantime, Mitchell is sleeping in t-shirts.....

Ladybirds

I'm a sucker for bright colours. And find most of the outfits for little boys to be, in a word, boring.
When you go into the shops, 3/4 of the space is for girls -- hot pink, lime, purple -- colours that zing! And then the boys corner: blue, grey or khaki.
Dull, dull, dull (even with diggers or Thomas the Tank Engine on the front)


So, when I found this fabric, I had to have it for Mitchell. I loved it so much, that I bought it in all three colourways (yellow and green, as well as the red).

That was last year, & I've finally made it up into overalls.




I used the same Ottobre Farmer overalls pattern as for the blue geometric overalls, without dealing with the size issues -- so they're still a bit roomy for him.
[The photos aren't great -- it's hard to get him to stand still to be photographed right now -- he's always on the go!]
The panels of ladybirds on the fabric were separated by the sets of stripes, which I've used for the shoulder straps and to define the waist. I like the straps, but the waist stripes seem make him look a lot wider than he actually is, so I don't think I'll repeat it. Maybe, I could use that detail on one of the pant's legs -- asymmetric details are cool in kids gear right now.



I've added 2 buttons on the straps to allow for growth (and they look quite cute as a button detail as well). The button-holes got sewn a bit too close to the edge (blame doing the finishing at 11 pm). The extra volume comes in handy in the bend & stretch of a toddler's life!

And I have no problem spotting my kid on the other side of the playground!

Fabric Sale

I love fabric -- as the size of the stash in the wardrobe testifies.
Right now, though, I'm buying for Mitchell rather than myself (I don't need more clothes, and he does). And most of what I have isn't suitable for a small boy.

So when I got the card in the mail that Global Fabrics was having a sale, I trotted right on over.

They specialize in designer dress fabrics, and don't have a lot of 'kids stuff', but do have lovely quality 'basics' (this is where I get my merino jersey in about 100 colours) and some interesting prints. And because they do end of lines, small runs & sample lengths, they're (relatively) cheap. Their selection is better for girls than boys, but that pretty much sums up the entire world.

Even better, they have a play corner for the kidlets -- blocked in with a wall Mitchell can't climb over, so I can browse in peace -- for at least 10 minutes at a time.

I came away with 5 fabrics, all medium-weight cottons, including some of the lovely Japanese cottons that I fell in love with last time.


The closeups show the fabric patterns better -- it all tends to blur in the wide angle shot.
The last one (bottom, right) is actually a double weave. I've reversed it to show the inside, which I like better; I'll make this up into overalls with details in the 'right' side.

These will all make up well, but there wasn't anything as exciting at the gorgeous ladybird fabric I bought last time!

The black and grey cotton jersey (back row, left) are from Fabrica which is closing down. They mostly do bridal and event fabrics (luscious coloured silks & velvets), but did have a few plainer ones. These are cotton and lycra, super soft and stretchy, they'll make lovely tops (or even pjs) for Mitchell. And at 180 cm wide, I get lots of fabric per metre.

Now, I just have to start sewing.
This blogging is taking some time to work out. I spent 45 minutes last night working out how to post pictures side-by-side, rather than vertically. And another 45 minutes today figuring out how to use Photoshop layers to insert the detail images beside the main one.
I'm sure I'll get quicker as time goes by.

Overalls

I love overalls for toddlers.
They're practical, tough, and look cute as well.
They also solve 2 of the big clothing problems I have with Mitchell.
1. The gap between shirt and trousers. He's such an active wee man, that he seems to come untucked all the time. Not that that's a problem in itself; but when he's climbing he seems to manage to get a knee into the front of his shirt & pull himself over.
2. The nappy removal problem. Having figured out how nappies go on, he seems bound and determined to down trousers and take his off whenever possible - regardless of the impact on floors, bedding and anything else in the way of the natural consequences.

So, overalls: no gap at the waistline to come untucked; and (so far, at least), he hasn't worked out how to undo buttons or snaps at shoulder level.

Sadly, however, there is a dearth of overalls in the 2+ size bracket, and what is available is, shall we say, on the drab side. Fine, if you want denim, and....more denim.

Enter Ottobre magazine.

I first found this, when I was looking for good patterns for onesies, when Mitchell was a baby; and I've loved it ever since. It's just full of fabulous sewing patterns for children, in a slightly edgy Scandinavian style.

Tracking through the issues, I came up with this overalls pattern (Farmer overalls, #9 from Issue 3, 2008).; which seemed close to what I was looking for.
Naturally, I wanted to make a few changes!
I planned to make them out of patterned fabric, so decided to eliminate a lot of the detailing: pockets, (yes, thank you, I can imagine what Mitchell would put in them), belt-loops and the double stitching. I also decided to use buttons, rather than snaps at the shoulders and sides. I like the look of buttons, and they're also harder for small fingers to undo. Finally, I eliminated the snap fasteners at the crotch. I find that they pop undone too easily, in ordinary toddler active movement, as well as being an easy access route for nappy removal.
As, these are for summer, I made them about 3/4 length -- almost shortalls, rather than overalls.

I hunted through the fabric stash & found a cute cotton/lycra geometric print in shades of blue.
And here they are.

I think Mitchell looks very cute in them.
I'm not totally happy with the fit. They seem to be a bit large around the waist and chest, while fitting nicely in the nappy area (cloth nappies make him a bit more bulky). I think they could stand to lose around 3 cm at each side.
But the plus side of a lose fit, is that he has complete freedom of movement.
And, I made the straps plenty long enough, so that we might just get another summer out of them.

Just Do It!

So, enough procrastinating already!
Stop fiddling with the blog settings, and just get on with writing the posts.

Hi everyone,
Thanks for dropping by.

Blogging is going to be an exercise in sheer self-indulgence. It seems that my whole life revolves around Mr 2. Not that Mitchell isn't totally adorable and absorbing, but just occasionally, I wish for a bit of 'me' time.

Although, it's going to include an awful lot about what I do for him (and a bit of what he does for me); Time to Sew will also be a creative journal, documenting the successes (and OK, more than a few failures), of one semi-domesticated Mama.

Nothing can beat the joy in your heart when a little boy runs up to you and says "Hug, Mama". But there's also a solid sense of accomplishment when you achieve something creative, something that didn't exist until you gave your time, inspiration and care.