Jalie 2449 wrap top

Another cold weather top for me and yet another pattern I've had for ages without sewing up. The fit is OK, I had to add a 3" contrast band at the hemline to get it to the length I like (i.e. actually covering my tummy!) but I quite like the way that looks and will do that again if I make another one instead of lengthening the pattern. One thing I really don't like is that after cutting out two full length front pieces the instructions tell you to cut off the left front just below the waist. It reduces bulk at the front I suppose and makes the top a little cooler to war but good grief it is annoying! It makes it awkward to put the top on in the first place and I have to fiddle with it every ten minutes to stop it riding up and looking awful. This one is for the charity shop and the next one will have two full length front pieces both sewn into the hem band.

Father's Day 2011

We had a home made Father's Day this year. The kids made their own cards, baked and decorated cookies, wrote out coupons for Daddy to redeem (e.g. play quietly for ten minutes, read a story to my sister, fetch your slippers...you get the idea :) and helped me make him a new t-shirt. They traced and painted their hand prints, I cut and sewed together.



The pattern is, as always, Jalie 2918. The fabric paint isn't quite as red in reality as it appears in the photo and the brown jersey was from stash. Snazzy red top stitching and hems to match the paint.



He was very pleased to come home from work and find his gifts :)

Summer S.W.A.P for me

Sewing With A Plan, not swapping things with someone else this time :) I'm joining in with a mini-SWAP sew along on Sewing Mamas where we're filling in our summer wardrobe blanks to ideally end up with a versatile, mix and match collection of clothes. I have an absolute dearth of summer clothing that I actually like wearing so my wish list is a little long.

• three vests (tank tops)
• two t-shirts
• three skirts
• one dress
• one shorts
• one workout shorts
• one or two capri's

I have made a start though, I might even get halfway through before autumn is here :D The workout shorts were an urgent need, I've been doing aerobics in my Ottobre yoga pants and the velour is a really, really bad fabric for working out in summer. There was plenty of orange interlock leftover from the kids pj's though so I stuck with the Ottobre pattern and lopped off most of the length to get a perfect pair of summer workout shorts.


I went to work on the vests too, these use the Ottobre Woman Creative Workshop 303 package and the knits are from stash.


One t-shirt is completed using the Jalie Sweetheart pattern and an embroidery from Emblibrary. The fabric is one of my favourites, a gorgeous bamboo lycra from The Fabric Fairy.



I'm working on the first pair of capri's now, they have a fly front zip which I haven't made before and I'm psyching myself up for the zipper insertion. Maybe tomorrow!

Summer sleepwear

All of the kids needed summer sleepwear this year, nothing from last year fit or was in a state to be handed down so after a quick stash dive I found around five yards of melon/orange interlock which I swear I didn't buy, maybe my stash is breeding?? It's not a colour any of us usually wear but for a quick batch of pj's it was just perfect.

Boy first and a chance to try out two new patterns that have been on my list for a while. The tank tops are from Ottobre summer 2005, #35 and the boxers are Jalie 2327. I made a slight change to the Jalie pattern and cut the front crotch piece on the fold instead of putting a seam down the middle of the crotch which sounded very uncomfortable. That gave me a little excess fabric on the centre front which I gathered to fit the back crotch piece, I could have sewn a dart in but again it sounded uncomfortable. The gathering has worked well and Boy reports they are a good fit and he would like some more please. The tank tops are a good fit too, it's not a style he usually wears but he is liking them for pj's and with how hot he gets at night I think I will make this my GoTo pj top pattern for him. The velvet iron-ons are from stash too, he picked them out.




Princess and monkey both have a modified version of my old favourite, Ottobre Summer 2007 #15. I changed the pattern to be A-line instead of having a separate gathered skirt and the edges are bound with green FOE. The girls picked out their iron-ons and the modelled versions have their initials embroidered on the chest.




Toddler has three new sets too, her shorts are Ottobre Summer 2007 #10 and the t-shirt is Summer 2010 #14. The shorts are an old favourite of mine, very quick and easy to make. This is my first time trying the t-shirt pattern and I like the fit which is a little slimmer than most of the others I've tried. It's also one of the few t-shirt patterns that uses a band on the neck and sleeve edges rather than binding which I think makes construction faster and easier. Two orange pairs and another one squeezed out from the grey flower print.




All done for another year :)

Jalie 2918

Jalie are another pattern company that offer great value patterns with a huge range of sizes in each. This is my first time using 2918 for Hubby, it's a basic T-shirt pattern with neck and sleeve options. He went for a short sleeve crew neck which is what he wears 99% of the time and the blue interlock is from stash. Orange embroidery and topstitching brightened it up a little, the embroidery is from Urban Threads. I made one alteration before cutting out the fabric which was a usual alteration for Hubby to allow for his high round neck (we are the computer generation! I need the same adjustment). Other than that the T-shirt is made as it comes and it's a great fit on him, he really likes it. Or at least he does a good job of pretending :D





Without the high round back adjustment the back neckline gapes away from Hubby's neck, the front neckline is pulled up and he is always tugging it forwards throughout the day and the shoulder seams sit too far back. With the adjustment it looks like this, it's well worth taking the extra five minuets when tracing.

Bright and funky

I ordered a load of Flaphappy fabrics from The Fabric Fairy ages ago and they have been sitting in my stash for a while as they weren't quite what I was expecting. The quality is great, really lovely weight cotton lycra, but the prints were a lot larger and brighter than I thought they would be so I have been mulling over just what to do with them. This particular combo has turned out so much better than I thought it would, I made it as a muslin of the Jalie sweetheart top pattern and it's now one of my favourite tops.



The rest of the stripe went to make up some bike shorts for all of my girls, Ottobre 03/2010 #10. The bottom two are for the baby, I need to check her waist measurement so I can finish them off.