Farbenmix Roxy #2 and TDK undies

Monkey begged and begged for a new dress this winter even though she has a wardrobe full of nice warm clothes already. I had to agree that something brand new is much more exciting than your sister's two year old hand-me-downs so I agreed to make her one - no, just one! - dress and she agreed to stop pestering me.

I used the Farbenmix Roxy pattern again but lengthened it two inches this time after seeing how short Princess' version was. Monkey chose the fabric, the embroidery and the trims and I duly went to work. What do you think of my five year old's design choices?



She was very specific, right down to which colour embroidery threads I had to use.



A slightly grubby and wrinkled modelled shot which was the best I could manage, the girl does not sit still lately!



There has been one other spot of sewing recently, the girls all need new undies and rather than buying them and having to put up with the elastic coming off and little butt cheeks hanging out I've decided to make them this time round. Monkey's are finished, I used the TDK undies pattern and leftover fabrics from the Christmas jammies. More details on the pattern in another post when I finish off the last two batches...

Laurel burch quilt and another new look

The Blogger dynamic view wasn't working for me so I've decided to change it yet again :)

I made another small quilt for our karate club to raffle this year, this is a Laurel Burch quilt kit I bought on Ebay ages ago. This isn't a great photo I'm afraid, I was in a hurry taking a pic the night I had to hand it in. The colours are lovely IRL with metallic highlights here and there and lots of quirky cat families. The backing fabric was randomly grabbed from stash and I went for straight line quilting because I was in a hurry. It's a baby size quilt, good for playing on the floor or in a crib when they get old enough.

December sewing, a Very Merry Christmas :)

I had a bit of a manic time before Christmas trying to get all the last minute sewing done. I'm pleased with what I got finished this year, this post will get very red, white and green!

First up, I made three scoodies as gifts for my mam and sisters. These are very simple to make, I took a hood I liked the shape of and added a four inch wide scarf to either side of the neckline. They have polka dot fleece on one side and bamboo velour on the other and are reversible so my recipients don't have to walk around feeling like Little Red Riding Hood :D





I also managed to make gift bags for the children this year, just rectangular drawstring bags made from red velour and lined with star print cotton (you'll see loads of that in a moment!) and they were embroidered with the text "Merry Christmas" followed by each child's name. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of those that I can share just now, you'll have to take my word for it that they looked very sweet filled up with gifts on Christmas morning :)

I made my now obligatory Christmas Eve jammies, six pairs of the things!!!! One each for my kids, niece E and nephew O. I noticed while appliqueing their initials that we are one short on spelling out REJOICE which would be very fitting for Christmas jammies, wouldn't it? I requested a new niece or nephew for next Christmas, to be named something beginning with E and was told by all parties not to hold my breath lol!

Here they are, the fabrics are interlocks from Tissu Fabrics which are a nice weight, the colour didn't run which was great but they shrunk around 15%. I'll be buying more from them as it's a good fabric at a great price but if anyone else gets some, be aware of the shrinkage when deciding how much you need! The patterns are a mix of Ottobre 06/09 and 06/10 and the sizes go from 86cm up to 140cm, the kids loved having their initials on them :)







A rarity for me, a non-blanked out faces pic :) I have a thing about not uploading recognisable pics of the kids on public sites but this one is so sweet, I'll leave it up for a few days then take it down again.



And another rare photo, my head is not chopped off lol! I love this dress, it's a bottle green stretch velvet from Tissu and the pattern is Simplicity 2647, view F. The fit was a lot better than I expected given my last few encounters with Simplicity patterns, I chose the size based on my bust measurement (totally ignored the fact that my waist and hips both put me two sizes bigger!!) and it's come out a really nice fit, comfortable round the bust and plenty of ease still through the wast and hip. The shoulder straps are my favourite part, they are gathered to the front and back bodice and you can pull them over your arm as I have in the pic so they look like little cap sleeves. Love it, love it, love it and will be making it again in different fabrics and views.

Ottobre 04/06 #22, yet another fail!

That's it, I've had it. Princess is going to Asda tomorrow for their cheap, poorly made jeans that FIT HER instead of me making yet another pair that don't :( This is the third attempt and while the fit is much better than the low rise Sarita jeans it still needs a little tweak in the waist and length but that doesn't matter because the little stinker is refusing to wear them!! She chose the pattern, the fabric (PRR cord) and the red dye and after seeing them altogether has decided she can't stand them.





It's a nice pattern, the bottom hem section is flared and there are two patch pockets with tucks and flaps on the front and back - I even added a piece of her favourite ribbon into the side seam. Sob!

Ottobre 1/09 #36, jeans attempt two!

After the Kim disaster I decided to go back to Ottobre for my second attempt at jeans for Princess. The spring 2009 issue had a pattern she liked the shape of, the Sarita jeans #36. Some bright pink heavy cotton and fancy variegated thread later I had these for her to try:





The topstitching looks really bright and cheery, just the way she likes it :) It's Jean Stitch thread again in the Jewel colourway.



I had no issues sewing the pattern, it went together beautifully as so many Ottobre patterns do. I even took the time to topstitch the crotch and inseams though you'll be pleased to see I used a slightly more subtle thread there!



The zip fly sounded a lot worse than it actually was, Ottobre's directions were very easy to follow. I had a bright pink zipper in stash and Princess picked out a shiny silver button from the button jars.



The inside looks nice and neat for a change, the cherries fabric on the waistband was a leftover scrap from one of her favourite outfits. I pressed up the seam allowance on the waistband facing before sewing it on and that helped a lot when it came time to sew it down.



It's all going well so far, right? No seam ripping, no sewing frustrations and she can actually get them up past her hips. That's when my problems start though, when she puts them on. Princess loves them but I look at them and think "No, no, no!" In my opinion (and I'm the mother, it's my opinion that counts!) the style is much more suited to a tween/teenager than it is to my seven year old. The rise is just a bit too low and they're very fitted through the hip and bum, too fitted for my liking! What do you think?







There is one small fitting issue at the back waistband, it gapes away about an inch from her spine. Is that a sway back? My finger is the photo is just sitting in the gap, I'm not pulling at the fabric at all and can easily put it between her skin and the fabric.



Any links to a good tute on how to alter for that would be appreciated, please save me from my appalling google skills :) I am also still looking for a trouser pattern that we both are happy with, wish me luck folks!

Farbenmix Kim and trying something new

Do not adjust your screen, I really have gone all pink! I've been exploring the new settings Blogger have on offer, what do you think? You can change the layout yourself (I hope!) by choosing one of the options on the pink bar below the blog title. Try them out and let me know if you like it or not :)

To the sew'n'show. Princess has had a growth spurt recently and is in need of trousers. As it's winter I wanted to make her something a little heavier and warmer than I usually would which meant trying out some non-knit and non-elastic waist patterns. After the immediate panic at the thought of tackling a fly zipper I calmed down and traced the Farbenmix Kim pattern, cut up some long stashed embroidered denim and started sewing. On paper I really, really like the Kim because of the hem panels. The front has a lovely shaped piece with elastic gathering and the back gives you the option to put in two to three rows of ruffles, there are some gorgeous examples in the Farbenmix flickr pool. In practice however it was a complete disaster. I had them completed except for the zipper and waistband and I decided to try them on Princess to check the length, my poor girl couldn't even pull them up past her hips. This is apparently one very, very slim fitting pattern for really skinny kids with no hips and no bum. They were salvageable though, I made them into an elastic waist and took two inches off of the legs and now Monkey has a new pair of trousers instead.

Here they are, the snazzy gold top stitching is Jean Stitch thread in, I think, the Jean Gold colour.

Farbenmix Roxy - Hello Kitty

A winter dress for Princess this time though it has finished up as more of a tunic! I've had the Farbenmix Roxy pattern sitting unopened for ages and never realised that it had a long sleeve option until it was recommended to me in a thread on SewingMamas. I had been looking for a new pattern to use for Princess as she asked for something different from my usual go-to patterns so this was perfect. Princess chose everything about this from the fabric to the very bright yellow dye to the applique and ribbon placement. She was very precise about which ribbon went where and how Hello Kitty had to be dressed, I had to unpick and move a row of ribbon before she was satisfied :) I think the end result is very cute and a very good fit but as she's right at the upper end of the size I made it's a little short to be called a dress. I will have to make her some leggings to wear with it, what goes with bright yellow??

The applique is from a colouring page and the Hello Kitty ribbons are from Ebay.