Hold on to Your Hats - I'm Sewing Again!

Hello all!  I'm back.

Yes, indeed.  I'm back to sewing.  I joined the Style the Stash Sew A Long.

Right now, I'm working on pencil skirts.  I've decided that retail clothes that fit "close enough" are no longer working for me.  So, it's back to the sewing room I go.  Well, that coupled with the fact that my shopping budget is $0.00.  Good thing that I'm a good little squirrel and stashed enough fabric for you, me and the next guy.  Books too (all your fault Borders).

Well, enough of that.  Here's my first project.  I had feared that I had forgotten how to sew.  Turns out, that's not true.  Go figure.    I'm currently working with the fabric on the left because the busy fabric will hide any inconsistencies.  Then I go to work on some solids (at least that's the plan right now).  Pencil skirts and a top and/or sweater are my work "uniform", so the sky's the limit on these.  I want to make sure that I'm happy with the pencil skirt selection in my closet before I put my Talbots skirts on Ebay.

Well, I'd better get back to work.  I'm only posting right now because I had to rip out a seam. Time for bed.

Happy Sewing!

Simplicity 3575 - Hooded Bath Robe

Let me start off my saying that I am not crazy about this pattern.  I'm not even sure about the results, however, until I find a better hooded robe for kids, this will do.

The fabric that I used for this robe is a sweatshirt fabric in a Japanese children's print that I got from Ebay years and years ago.  I'm not entire sure that this robe is going to fit.  I did cut an xl, but by the time I was done, it ended up between a medium and a large, which is my goddaughter's current size.  Lengthwise, it should be quite long, which is want I wanted.  This thing I didn't like about this pattern was it's construction.  Rather than havea separate band running the length of the robe, you turn under the seam (what??).  Yep, you put on the hood and then just turn the seam under all the way around.  It's not the look I was going for, but like I said, it is the only robe pattern have I have a girl.  Somehow, I managed to get turned around when it came time to hem the robe, so I had to turn it all under a second time (I think the instructions for that part were out of order) instead of unpicking it because I just wasn't feeling it at the time and the robe was extra big.  Hopefully it fits, but if not, it's not a big deal. 

At least the fabric is cute.

Butterick 5153 - Girl's Lounge Pants

I'll just say from the start, that sometimes it's hard for me to stop once I start making kids' clothes.  There.  I said it.

Actually, this was the first idea in my mind when I realized that I would need to make all of my Christmas gifts if there were going to be any gifts for my family and close friends.  Thankfully, when my mom sent me this pattern, she made sure to purchase both the adults and kids' patterns.  Now, I don't know about you, but I love me some lounge pants and I'm hoping my goddaughter likes them too.

This first pair almost did not come into existence.  I really hemmed and hawed about them.  You see the print is Hannah Montana.  Now I know that it was just a character on Disney, but seriously, when I think of Hannah, I think of Miley Cyrus and well.. let's just say her public image isn't the best right now.  However, I really did like the color and it was the only tweenish fleece in my stash. 

As you can imagine, these were super easy to complete.  At first, I was concerned about the rise.  It just looked very long and I thought I would have to re-cut them with a lower rise however, it turns out that the elastic called for in the pattern is 1 inch wide.  (sigh of relief).  Paired with my 3/4" "turn under" (rather than 1/4"), it brought the rise down to a more acceptable length.  I also thought I was going to have to drag a drawstring through the casing, but it turns out that it's just a bow tacked on the outside.  Easy peasy.

I also made her a pair in cotton.  I originally had this fabric for her dad, but I decided that this "holding fabric for xyz is not a good thing for me right now, so I just used it.

I really think she's going to like them.  I know I do!

All in all, I really liked this pattern.  While I don't actually know her measurements, I cut the elastic to a size 10 since her mom said that the waist on size 12 RTW pants is too large.  I'm not in the least bit worried though.  I used the elastic I got from Pam at Fashion Sewing Supply and it's fabulous.  It will stretch for days and days and days. I definitely recommend her elastic.  It's the best (as is her interfacing!).

Farbenmix Quiara Tunic

Now that the Christmas holiday hubbub is over, I am working on my goddaughter's Christmas gift.  Luckily, the family is used to our gifts showing up some time in January.  When Julien was a toddler, she actually thought Christmas lasted 2 weeks!

At first I was at a quandary as to what to sew for her.  I really don't have many girls patterns (size 10/12) in my pattern stash from the big 4.  As a matter of fact, I think the count is 4.  So, I went on the net looking for tween patterns.  What came up in my search were Farbenmix and Pink Fig patterns.  Score.  I already had them in my stash.  Woo-hoo! The largest size on these patterns is 11, but I do believe that it will be easy enough to size up when the need arises.

Since this was the first time breaking out these patterns, I decided to start with something simple, the Quiara knit shirt.

I decided to make the tunic hoodie because what kid doesn't like a hoodie?  Being an army brat, my GD loves camo.  I had this pink camo in my stash, so I used it as the main fabric and dug out this smiley face fabric as the contrast.  (Someone may or may not have relieved Wally World of entire bolts of knit fabric when they were closing their fabric departments years ago and the price fell to 80% off per yard).

Let me tell you, this pattern is a dream.  I "heart" Farbenmix. 

I even got to use fun stitches for the hem!

If you have never sewn with a Farbenmix pattern, here's the deal.  Although this is a German company, you can purchase the patterns in English.  You do have to trace the pattern, but that is standard with European patterns anyway.  You also have to add your own seam allowances.  The instructions are written, however, you can search the net (or the Farbenmix.de website) for the tutorial, which is essentially a sew-a-long.  These may or may not be in English (the tutorials for the older patterns are in German).  The tutorial for Quiara is in English, and that's what I used.  I was not in the mood to read the steps when I could just glance at the pictures and then read if necessary. 

This tunic, for the most part, was constructed using my serger so it was fast, fast, fast!  This is such a versatile pattern.  The possibilities are endless.  Can you tell I like it??

Happy New Year

Wishing you a year full of sewing and crafting bliss and blueberry pancakes (but only if you like them, of course)!

Harley Davidson Upcycle with Farbenmix Quiara

A few weeks ago, a stack of t-shirts showed up on the bed.  It seems that DH had cleaned his t-shirt drawer and deemed several of them unwearable.  Originally, I was planning to donate them to Goodwill, but when I looked through, I came across this Harley Davidson t-shirt:

One from Daytona Bike Week 2007 and several solid colors, including this red one.

Rather than donate them, I decided to put my Farbemix Quiara pattern to good use.  If you've ever shopped at a Harley Davidson store, you know how expensive their merchandise is, especially in the kid's section.

I wanted to keep the Harley Davidson shirt in the Harley colors, so I grabbed this Old Navy t-shirt of mine which had stretched out over time and was waiting to either be taken in, refashioned into something else, or donated.

Having learned from my first Quiara shirt, I shortened the neck band and sewed it to the shirt in the round.  It was quite an improvement.  Since my orange shirt was a little too short for the sleeves, I added white from another castaway to make sure the sleeves were long enough.   I love the result!

For the Daytona Bike week shirt, I used the red t-shirt for the sleeves and then dipped into my stash for a knit Zebra print to make it girly.  Here's the back.  I was going to put the Bike Week emblem on the front, but didn't care for the placement, so it's just like the original t-shirt: large bike week emblem on back...

and the small emblem on the front. 

Love!!

Farbenmix Zoe Raglan Shirt

Since I had such good luck with Farbenmix pattern Quiara (you'll see this in a later post), I decided to pull out another Farbenmix shirt - Zoe.  Zoe is a raglan sleeve knit shirt with as many possibilities as Quiara.

For Zoe, I knew I wanted to use this knit owl fabric that I got from the Fabric Fairy eons ago.  I decided to pair it up with a striped knit from the infamous Wally World clear out.  I decided that it needed a little extra something, so I grabbed a floral from the same Wally World sale and used it for the collar.  I followed the instructions to the letter (I grabbed the tutorial from the web site and followed the instructions to the letter.  As you can see, the neck band is a little loose, so I'm going to subtract the seam allowance the next time I made this shirt (and believe me, there will be a next time).  The pattern states that it has a generous fit, so I made a US 11 for a child that wears a 10/12, so she should be able to wear it for a while. 

I have to say that when I finished the shirt, I felt that it lacked something.  For one, it just looked a little to "blah" to me.  So, rather than scrap it, I looked around the sewing room and found this poodle applique.  Bingo!  I just sewed it to the front and "instant whimsy". 

I have to say that I love Farbenmix patterns.  Like I said, the possibilities are endless and the patterns are well drafted.  I don't even mind the tracing.  Looks like I'll be sticking with Independent and European patterns for the kid's tween years since the Big 4 offer next to nothing.  I think she's really going to like this.  And, if not, at least she's polite enough to pretend and that's good enough for me.  I'll definitely be revisiting this pattern in the future.