Kids Clothes Week: Winter 2014, part 1

I am super excited for this Kids Clothes Week: Winter 2014. I have vowed to spend 1 hour per day sewing for my daughter. That means realistic sewing for me - and includes pattern prep, cutting out fabric, sewing, ironing, and everything else involved.  I don't have time to spend hours everyday sewing and pump out dozens of garments.

Part of this experiment for me is to realistically see just how much time these activities take.  I can't actually tell you how long it takes me to make a shirt or a pair of pants.  Even if I can estimate the sewing, I don't count the prep work of the pattern and fabric cutting.  This week, I will.

Day 1 - 1:00:42

I was 42 seconds over my 1 hour time limit, but I did manage to trace and cut out two patterns.  I will be making the Oliver + S Sandbox pants in size 12-18 months and the Hopscotch knit shirt in size 12-18 months.

Partway through tracing the tissue paper pattern on tracing paper, I was definitely cursing my cheapness thriftiness for buying the paper pattern on sale instead of buying the digital pattern at full price.  Those tissue paper folds are surprisingly difficult to get flat enough to trace over.

Day 2 - a little over two hours

I cut out the fabric for the pants, then started on the pockets.  Those pockets took probably 45 minutes - I would leave them off in the future, but they really are adorable and make the pants.  That took me to about 1.5 hours, but my daughter was napping, so I kept going.  At the end of the time, I had the pants mostly done, leaving the waistband to go.

How cute is it that the pockets even have a coordinating lining?  I love Oliver + S.

Day 3 - a little over an hour

The sewing is serious when the serger and regular sewing machine are sitting next to each other.  

My timing is getting worse instead of better.  I wasted some time first trying to figure out how to use the buttonholer for my vintage Singer.  Then, I discovered I did not have the cam for the 3/8 inch hole I needed to make.  Then I make the drawstring, which should be a quick thing, but with the stretch striped linen I'm using - took FOREVER.

By this point, I was frustrated and decided to just do the waist as an elastic waistband instead of the way the pattern called for.  Once again, I was slightly thwarted by my supplies because I only have 1/2 inch elastic, not the 3/8 inch required.  It fit in the waistband, but it just took a lot more time because it fit so tightly.  At least there was a bright spot today - I finished the pants!

The fabric is a linen blend from Mood NYC.  I picked it up when I was there after Christmas.  It's nicer fabric than any pants I own, but it is adorable, and I am considering remaking these pants in every size because they look that good.  The weight is perfect for spring, and I am very pleased with the fit - it was just too dark to get a photo of them being worn.

Oliver + S patterns are so wonderful.  They cost a little bit more, but from what I have seen, they are worth it.  The finishes are always professional, there are no errors in the pattern instructions, and the forums are active if you have any questions or issues.

Although, I just realized I still have not made one of their patterns as written.  This pair of pants is on my projects page.  Let's see what gets done the rest of the week!

Go Army! Beat Navy! Baby shirt :)

The greatest rivalry in college football - Army vs. Navy was the second weekend in December.  That was awhile ago, and I had this post half written forever so I finally decided to finish it and hit publish anyway.  Since we didn't have any plans to do anything to celebrate, originally I was not going to make anything for the little girl.  Then my husband asked if we had anything for her to wear.  I then sorted through some drawers to get rid of too small clothes and I found a shirt that would make the most adorable Army baby shirt.  Fast forward a couple hours, and I cut up two (scratch that - three) adult women's t-shirts to make 1 baby shirt.  Not sure how that happens…

I'm doing another version of the Bimaa from LouBee Clothing, this time with the shawl collar.  My last version is here.

The front of the shirt didn't go up high enough for the pattern, so I used the arm of the shirt to cut out the extra fabric I needed.

The sleeves and cuffs came from the back of another black t-shirt I had set aside to make a t-shirt quilt out of.  The shawl collar was supposed to be the only new fabric in this shirt (Thank you, Girl Charlee Black Friday Sale).  Look ahead to see what really happened.

This is what is left of my former t-shirt!  Just imagine another black shirt without a back - the black doesn't photograph well.  Turns out this is how it takes two three women's shirts to make one baby shirt.

Once I cut out all the pieces, I rethreaded the serger with black thread.  Does anyone else have trouble deciding what thread color to go with on a multi-color project?  I considered using black and white as needed, but that seemed like a lot of thread changing.  In the end, when I had to piece together the front pattern piece there was black fabric in almost every single seam so I went with black.

When it came time to put the shawl collar on, I didn't like the striped fabric.  It would have worked, but it wasn't quite as athletic as I was going for with the color blocking and logo on this shirt.

That led to the 3rd t-shirt being cut up.  I need a black collar.  Luckily, I am never going to wear my old unit's t-shirt again so it doesn't matter that I cut the bottom six or so inched off to make this collar.  I love it with the black collar!

Here is a closeup of the shawl collar.  I tried to lighten up the photo to see it better, but it is still kind of hard to see.  Black is hard to photograph!

The back - slightly wrinkled from the fit test.

Game Day outfit is below!  She was almost adorable enough to make up for the terrible football game.

Then, because it seemed logical, I didn't want the fabric I used for the collar to go to waste, and I had an extra black color block piece for the front… I cut out another bimaa.  The next one is below.

Linking up to Whoop Whoop Fridays at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Anything Goes Monday at Stitch by Stitch, and You Flew Sewing Linkup at Feather's Flights.

Spinnaker Quilt for my dad

Now that Christmas is over, I can share the Spinnaker Quilt that I made for my dad.

This summer I went to visit my parents and Grandmother in Wisconsin.  While I was there, my dad described a skirt he had seen and asked if I could recreate a quilt like it.  He wanted a quilt made up of rectangles about 2 inches by 8 inches in yellow, red, and green with some white in there to calm it down a bit.  His major descriptor was that he wanted it to be bright and cheerful.  Later, the request was modified somewhat as he said it reminded him of the colorful spinnaker sails at a sailboat regatta.

I had already pulled some nautical fabrics before the spinnaker theme was requested, so I knew I was going in the right direction.  My dad grew up around boats, and had a boat most of his life.  Some of my fondest memories growing up are from sailing down the Columbia River at dusk.

Each of the 238 rectangles in this quilt measure 2.5 inches by 8 inches prior to sewing.

My trimmings turned out quite pretty, at least more so than usual.

The layout is 34 rectangles vertically and 7 rectangles wide.  The top photo is prior to being sewn together - it was a risk to use the design floor with baby and dog around.

The back is pieced - I didn't have enough of the one main fabric, so I pieced in the linen and anchor fabric as a design choice.  Plus, I think pieced backs are kind of fun.

I chose to quilt it with a new panto - rounded rectangles.  I wanted something masculine, yet the rounded edges helped to soften the design.  I think a sharp quilting design would have been too much for this quilt.

I debated about the binding, but after getting some confirmation from instagram friends, I went with the gray binding.  It fit the nautical theme much better.

And now for the stream of finished pictures… The quilt had been finished for several days before I finally had a sunny day to take them!

I had trouble taking pictures of the back thanks to my helpers - my two girls.  First, the dog wanted to see what was going on outside.

After I closed the window, the daughter walked over trying to figure out why she couldn't see outside.

It's a very large throw, which made it a little difficult to get a photo of the entire thing inside my dry house.  I don't risk quilts outside when it is wet.

Lastly, the roll shows the binding color the best.

My dad loved it!  Below is my dad's view of the quilt being shown off Christmas morning.  So much so that he said it was too nice to use and that he wanted to just hang it up.  Luckily, my mom (who crochets, and therefore understands that things are made to be used) told him it was too nice not to use and that he has to use it.  A successful Christmas quilt!

Linking up to: Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, You Flew Tuesdays at Feather's Flights, Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, Friday Favs Party at Nap Time Crafters, Anything Goes Mondays at Stitch by Stitch, and while not quite a work in progress (because I couldn't share it during the progress) Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.