KCW Day 2

Phew! Finally finished the bodice. I'm excited to add the layered skirt portion tonight.

It's not too late to join in the fun. Visit the official Kids Clothes Week blog for inspiration and how to share your projects. What are you working on?

KCW Day 1 - Rule #1 Never Sew after 10pm

In my first hour of work, everything went perfectly. I was so pleased with how nicely the seams unpicked and that I had enough extra fabric to create bubble sleeves, that I decided to set aside grading the shirt pattern for myself and keep working on the Kids Clothes Week project.

Bad idea! I hand basted the wrong sides together and had to rip that out, but not before I had already serged one of them. Argh! Then I serged the left sleeve onto the right shoulder and had to rip that out. Grrr. After ripping that out I called it a night.

Looking at it this morning, by the beautiful spring sunshine, filtered through the blossoms of the pear tree, I'm feeling optimistic once again. It's going to take real restraint not pick it up and finish it before the kids get home from school.

Are you following Kids Clothes Week? I love checking out all the pictures in the Flickr pool. I've been on the lookout for a project for my son and Shantel Jones at Sew Boy had some awesome boys shorts upcycled from a men's shirt. I think I just may have found my next KCW project.

Shirt to Shorts by Sew Boy

I'm excited to stumble across her blog. She has a wealth of resources on sewing for boys. It was a no brainer adding her to my reading list. 

Kids Clothes Week Spring 2013

Kids Clothes Week falls right when I have convinced myself it is time to start sewing for myself. In the last year I have made countless items for the kids, home and gifts; but nothing for myself. So while in past seasons my aim has been a garment a day, I'm only committing the single hour each day to making an item for the kids.

First up, my daughter's choice:

She found a print on our last trip through the fabric store and insisted it was perfect and I picked up a small amount thinking I might make a simple elastic skirt. I had been inspired to try the Boardwalk Skirt by Andrea Pannell of The Train to Crazy.

When I sat down to look at the pattern (Go To Patterns) I started thinking about my daughter's tendency to sag her waistband in an oh-so-unattractive-fashion. Browsing the through Andrea's other patterns, I really liked the keyhole detail on her Carousal Top too. I decided to attempt some of the cute design features of both pieces in a simple, easy dress that could not be sagged.

I have gathered my materials, and am excited for my evening of sewing. I hope there will be something worth photographing for you in the morning.

Sarah Jane on Parade or the Little Reusable Lunch Napkins

Have you ever fell in love with a fabric line and just had to make something from it? 

When I came across some Sarah Jane at my local fabric store I decided to ignore all the projects on my table and whip out a few little reusable napkins for my daughter's lunch bag.

I find inspiration here and there, but it's not often that I find an artist's entire body of work so delightful. Sarah is an illustrator and textile designer, and her blog lets you glimpse into her world at Sarah Jane Studios.

My Juki is a Tease

Yesterday morning I woke up to finish a "quick little project." I was making my daughter another Ottobre Polka Dot blouse before starting work on spring top for Made by Rae's Spring Top Sewalong. You might remember my first rendition here. All my pieces were cut, pressed, and pinned to go and my sewing machine was talking to me:

Zip, zip, zip, zip four shoulder seams were done just like that . . . duh, duh, dum -  my machine turned to the dark side:

The first seam I tried to overcast (that's what us lowly crafters without sergers do to finish our raw edges) I broke the pin on my overcasting foot.

Time to pull out my fancy degrees (which clearly have nothing to do with engineering or fabrication) for a professional fix.

Can you believe it worked? I only had to replace the tape every 20" of sewing, what a bargain! Tomorrow this lovely should appear in my mailbox to 'Take my cares away' better than Calgon.

Hedgehog’s Wear Perfume or the Hedgehog Pin Cushion Experiment

Lilly, David. sonic31.jpg. 22-Aug-99. Pics4Learning. 16 Apr 2012

Okay, not exactly. Scientists don’t know why, but when a hedgehog finds a new and interesting scent, they lick and bite into the object then lick their “scented” saliva into their fur.

My four-year-old son is obsessed with animals and mysteries, so somewhere in between checking out every known animal book at the library and the kid’s series Mysteries of Alfred the Hedgehog I decided that a hedgehog would make a lovely pin cushion.

A quick internet search told me that my idea was far from original, so instead of starting from scratch. I found two nice inspiration pieces to work from.

Braddlebury Crafts' Felt Hedgehog Pin Cushion

The first little cushion I fell in love with was an image from a project by Sarah at Braddlebury Crafts, a crafter in Milton Keynes, UK who sells on Misi. I loved how the pinked edges gave the little guy a spiky faux hawk.

Fiona Marie's Free Hedgehog Pin Cushion

The next discovery was this little guy from Fiona Marie’s Thread: a piece of my mind. Perfect! It came with a free pattern.

I decided to use Fiona Marie’s pattern, but attempted to execute it more like Braddlebury Craft’s pincushion.  The pattern looked smaller than I wanted, so I enlarged it on my printer as large as it would while still fitting on a single sheet of paper. I used recycled synthetic felt for the exterior and stuffed it with wool scraps. I did a little needle felting to give it the shape I wanted.

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama:

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Inquiring Little Minds