9. Baby shower gift

A woman in my Mothers Group is about to have her second baby and we have decided to throw her a Baby Shower.  I decided to make her daughter and her new bub matching t-shirts as a gift.

She doesn't know what gender the baby is, so I have made them gender neutral.  I bought t-shirts from K-Mart and used Heat'nBond to do the applique.  Now on to deciding what fun games to play at the shower...

8. KCWC Day 7

A bit late on this post for Day 7 of KCWC.  Here is how far I got on Julians hat.

The colour is a bit off in this photo but you get the idea.  Unfortunately that is the last of the Superheros fabric :(

And the inside.  Only handstitching remains and that will have to wait for some motivation, or the weekend - whichever comes first!

7. KCWC Day 6

I had originally planned to make Julian a sleeveless hoodie as part of this challenge.  That was until I realised that he has grown, again and his tracksuit pants are now ankle length.  Unfortunately as we are coming into Summer, Target, K-Mart and Big W no longer stock them.  So I decided to use the sweatshirting I had bought for the hoodie to make a pair of tracksuit pants.  Once again Ottobre (03/2012) to the rescue:

Obviously I am not going to make them in pink, but the pink tracksuit pants do go up to size 92cm and I know that they fit Julian perfectly.

I was a bit nervous about binding the pocket openings and I did contemplate omitting them.  I have NEVER done this before and it was my first time using a twin needle (so why the blog name you wonder!).  The end result was pretty good and it is not like Julian will care anyway ;)

 And this is as far as I got.  I managed to break the overlocker when I was stitching in the inside leg seams.  The rib cuffs got caught and they bent one of the moving parts.  Now it rubs with every turn of the cam and will not work at all.  Tomorrow I will try a little gentle persuasion with a rubber mallet but it that fails, it is off to the repair shop :(

To cheer myself up, I cut out a hat from a free McCalls pattern - Baby hats.  This is left over Superhero fabric from a quilt I made for another little Superhero.  I noticed that Julians "Rocket" sunhat was now too small for him and now the once way-too-big McCalls hat fits him perfectly - he is wearing it below:

I made this one with a Car print and he loves it!

6. KCWC Day 5

I was so excited after the Day 4 shorts, I thought I would whip up a pair of trousers today.  These are from Ottobre 04/2012.  I only have photos after a days wear and tear as I didn't think about photos until they were already on Julian.

 Front - there are pockets!

Back with Yoke and pockets - gee that camo is working, can't see them!

Action shots - trying to ride the trike around the backyard :)

5. KCWC Days 3 and 4

I just couldn't manage doing anything on Day 3, so I worked for longer on Day 4 to finish these shorts for Julian.  They have a placket in the front like Sailor pants - this will be more obvious when I add the buttons. 

From the photos it does look like a kilt from the front but hopefully it doesn't look that way when they are on Julian!

This is the Ottobre (03/2012) photo of the shorts:

I have been sewing for more than 25 years (!!)  and I have never sewn a waist band or placket like this.  I am LOVING Ottobre magazine.  I have already used the way they suggest to insert the elastic into waist bands on a pair of trousers and a top (Join the elastic and fit it inside the foldover that will be the waistband and then use a zipper foot to sew the casing - I hope that makes sense!).

4. Kids Clothes Week Challenge Day 2

Thankfully I cut out a pair of shorts and a T-shirt during Julians naptime otherwise nothing would have been done.  My husband was away for work and I came down with gastro in the afternoon!  Thankfully I am all sorted now!

I bought both lots of fabric at Spotlight probably a year ago.  The check is a needlecord and the print is a cotton knit.  I have some light blue rib which I will use for the arm and neck bands of the T-shirt.

The aim is to start sewing the shorts tonight.  I am normally confident with written instructions, thanks to many years sewing from Burda magazines but this one from Ottobre doesn't make much sense in the read-through.  Hopefully it will be better when sewing it!

3. Kids Clothes Week Challenge Day 1

The challenge is to sew childrens clothes for at least 1 hour a day for a whole week.  "Sew" includes tracing and cutting out as well as actual sewing.

My plan is to spend an hour tonight tracing out patterns from my 2 Ottobre pattern magazines.  Ottobre is like the Burda magazine but for Children.

The first issue I have is summer 03/2012 and I am planning to makethe shorts, T-shirt and vest shown in the middle photo.

 I like the vest shown here but I will have to modify the pattern in the smaller size (shown above) to suit my boy.

Then from my 2nd Ottobre magazine, Autumn 04/2012, I am going to make another pair of the black trousers shown below.  I made size 92 and they fit perfectly now, so I wont have to trace those.  I planning on making them in a camo fabric.  Maybe I will get excited and trace out the raglan long sleeve T-shirt but not promising anything :)

2. Plans

So here we are.  I have plan.

First up is Butterick 5644.  The fabric is blue/purple Japanese Tana Lawn from Spotlight.  Due to the directional print, I will be making view D (the red one).

Second up is the raved about Vogue 8815.  After seeing the great Burda peplum top on Fehr Trade and this excellent version of the Vogue from Sew Brunswick I thought that I should give it a go.  And yes, it is the same fabric as above.  Taking the lead from Leith, I am going to modify the short sleeved version - what was Vogue thinking with that horrible length sleeve!

And lastly, Lisette 2246 in the version shown in the pink check.  I bought this navy cottone gingham at Spotlight probably 3 years ago and the original plan was to make a shirt dress.  I made a muslin of McCall 4469 and it wasn't what I was after.  Then this Lisette pattern popped up and it looked like it had potential.  I have made a muslin and I am very happy so far...

I have tomorrow to work on these items before it is Kids Clothing Week which I am planning to be involved in.  More on that later.