I have been lazy

I have been lazy and not kept the blog updated. I have been a little bit stressed at work but I have been sewing as normal. Hopefully I should get a couple of posts up soon, since I have a few things to photograph.

I took these photos at night, as we were wearing the new clothes to church (so the photos are blurry - I am making them do)

First up is a off-white jumper for me. The pattern is Kwik Sew 742, size 10 (it is a vintage pattern, thus the different sizing). I added flared sleeves just to make it a little different from the last time I made it.
Pants from Ottobre 2/2005 (my favourite Otto). These are design #23 but lengthened as they are only short length. For my skinny minny child I use size 80 for the width and size 86 for the length (I used a different pattern for reference). Size 80 ended up being too wide still, so I removed some of the seam allowance, reducing each leg by about 2cm. They are still baggy but look more in proportion.

It was a lot harder to get the perfect length pants. Normally for shorts, it does not matter where they end, but I had to go through several trials to get the perfect length, and actually measure his inseam and outseam. I tried using his height measurement alone, and that just ended with super long, extremely baggy pants.

Jalisa's outfit: The tiered skirt doesn't have a pattern as such, just a formula. You start with the waist measurement and multiple anywhere from 1.5 - 2.5, depending on the fabric used. I went with 1.6, as I thought that is what I had used previously. When I later checked my notes, I found that 1.4 was adequate for baby cord fabric. You need to add hem, waist casing and seam allowances to the panels too. I made each teir the same length visually, so tier 1 and 3 end up being bigger since they have the hem and waist casing added.
The jumper is from Ottobre 5/2006 #22. Ottobre have it made in a drapey knit, but I thought it would make a good jumper. The fabric is the same off-white as my jumper. It is 100% acrylic but it is lovely to sew and very soft on the skin. I love the little sections that are shirred - at the front, top of sleeve and are the wrist.

I had originally bought this denim fabric for me, but I already had some other denim for my jeans and I thought my kids could do with some of their own jeans. The pattern is the same as Scott's pants above. I liked the patterns because it had a couple of cute features that wouldn't take me too much time to get through. I am really impatient when sewing kids clothes. Simple works for me and the kids. The pants have a faux fly, front pockets and back flaps. I used a green thread to topstitch.

It is supposed to have belt loops, but they annoy me when sewing and that part isn't shown under his shirts, so I did not bother.

At the moment I am working on a few things: a jacket for Sherry's RTW Tailored Jacket Sewalong, a dress for me and jeans for Jalisa. The jacket and dress will be entered in to the local show sometime this week. I have only to bag the hem and sew on the buttons on the jacket, and dress needs hemming and the lining sewn down.. I should be able to reveal the jacket very soon.

Rainbow nightie

Okay, my theory for the dye patterns was this: blue dye reacts slower than any other colour dye. There are some little dots of dirt on my tray, since it was kept all winter up against the shed in the garden, and somehow the slow moving blue was attracted to the dirt and then reacted or stained the fabric from there.

Usually procion dyes will only react and bond to the fabric within a short time frame, not the 2 and a bit days my fabric was sitting there. It can stain I imagine.

Look at how pretty the fabric looks made up. This is a nightie for Jalisa. I used the freebie Ottobre singlet pattern (obviously shortening it by folding the pattern) and used the width of the fabric for the skirt. I tried gathering by zig zagging over some string - worked like a treat.
Thought I should take a picture of Scott too, since he has new jammies too. I reverse coverstitched the hems but got lazy with the neckline and just turned and topstitched. Tee is from Kwik Sew for Toddlers, shorts are some Ottobre pants (the pattern is for woven, but I used a size 62, so it works in a knit fabric without being too baggy).