Hair and a Kids Clothing Week wrap up

So would it be weird for me to bring this vintage pattern into a hairstylist and say, "This is what I want"? Is that taking it too far? Yes, please make me look like a 6-year old from 1978. Thanks.

And check this out. Elsie Marley made up a couple of photo collages of her favorites from Kids Clothes Week and she liked my little capelet. That really made my day. I definitely did the whole week. Even though I caught a nasty cold, I spent at least an hour each night working on my cross-stitch. I sew a lot but not every night. This was a good way to buckle down and focus.

I'll have Part I of the upcycled capelet tutorial up tomorrow. It is so much cuter on the kid than the hanger.

Alphabet pants

This post is in the spirit of Kids Clothes Week because I actually finished them a couple of week ago. They were leftover from the inspiration of my first Kids Clothing Week where I made these yellow elephant pants.

Everyone was so encouraging and positive that I decided to make another pair from what was left of the Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday fabric I used to make a pinafore for a friend (well, her kid). I got really creative in my cutting to use up every stitch that was left.

These are a bit big at the waist so they'll be lovely capris come Spring. Again, I used the Sailor Pants pattern from danslalune on Etsy. I didn't have many issues putting them together the first time so they went together really quickly.

I pulled the tab from the front forward so that you could see the contrasting fabric. I don't usually use fabrics from the same collection together because it's so matchy-matchy but I think these are so different but so the same that it worked really well.

After I can sew no more...

In the evenings when I'm shot, I like to watch TV. I hate to just sit there though so I bought this awesome cross-stitch pattern from Heidi Kinney's Etsy shop. It's a fabulous rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I'm using some linen that I got locally (after spending hours searching the web). I'm not sure if it's the 32-count in the sample or not but it is working just fine.

I switched up the colors a bit to match Zadie's room: orange, apple green and aqua instead of red, kelly green and royal blue. It's lovely to count. I guess I like doing math and stuff. When I'm working on a small project, I keep all the gear in one of those bags that curtains come in. It keeps everything contained and neat. See the safety pins? Yeah, I don't like to use an embroidery hoop (plus mine is broken). Maybe that will change after a visit to Michael's.

I would love to make an apron for a dress out of this. That was the plan. But I've spent 3 - 4 hours on this already and I have 3 hats, a shirt, a belt, and one belt buckle stitched. So this was originally a kids clothing week item but we'll see. I estimated this would take me 22 days to stitch.

I blurred the pattern in the photo because even though the resolution of the image is small, I didn't want someone to be able to use it from the blog.

Project: kids clothes week day 5

I finished up my little cross-stitch gator today. I messed it up in a few places. What was I thinking trying to do teeny tiny sewing while Zadie was hosting a tea party? I pulled out a few rows of stitches and made do with the rest. It looks like a gator and she loves it so that's all that counts in my book (apologies to the designer). I'm going to run the same purple piping around the edges of the pocket but I think I'll have to line it first. You can see gators through the holes in the fabric. I had never stitched on that kind of cloth before but I really liked it.

Zadie and I also spent some time this morning picking out fabric for another pair of pants. I love this stuff. It is Riley Blake.

In other news, Project: Project is going to be the favorite blog all week over at We All Sew! It's a huge honor to me. Just check out the great company I'm in.

So that's it for kids clothes week. I had high hopes but I did finish one heck of a cute dress, one pair of amazing pants, and am loaded with inspiration from checking out the flickr pool.

Project: Yellow Elephant Pants (kids clothes week day 4)

This morning I had the finished elephant pants out on the chair for Zadie to wear. As soon as she saw them she started demanding, "I want my effin pants! I want my effin pants!" It was pretty hilarious (to me). I used the Sailor Pants pattern from Dans La Lune on Etsy. I didn't have any problems printing out the pattern or putting it together. It was very straightforward. In fact, all of the directions were easy to understand and follow. The pictures showed what they needed to show. Well done.

It took me forever to get started on them because I was overwhelmed by all the buttonholes. But after having learned how to make them on my machine I'm all about them now. It's really not that bad. The only thing that I had problems with is the opening at the back for the buttonhole elastic. There was a marking on the pattern so I used that (it is probably a grain line). I didn't look at the photograph. So it's in the wrong place and there is a weird gap and I'm really not sure how I'm going to fix it. I could cut another hole or move the buttons.

Either way, the pants are adorable and a great fit. I didn't have enough fabric to make them as long as the pattern but they are perfect. When she gets taller, they'll be even cuter as capris. Lovely.

Today I spent my hour doing cross stitch. In my inspiration hunting late last night, I found some cute pocket ideas in Bend the Rules Sewing for aprons. I got started on the crocodile and will make a pocket out of that. It was nice to just do something mindless for a while.

Project: kids clothes week day 3

Today I was actually able to finish the pants. They are super cute on and a great fit but I think they will work better with a disposable diaper. The hem was a breeze.

I played around with my alligator cross-stitch and still am not sure what to do with it. I will put it away for a few days and go back to it fresh.

I had also wanted to start a little peasant blouse but I couldn't figure out how to make the pattern so I spent some time looking through some other sewing books for inspiration and suddenly it was 9:30.

Such is my life. I think I spend more time thinking about what the heck to do than actually doing it. And I don't want to even think about how much time I spend ripping out mistakes and fixing the stuff I screw up.

Project: kids clothes week day 2

I did more than an hour of sewing today because it was Election Day and I didn't have to work. We had a little family outing of going to the tasty bread store, the library, the quilt shop for buttons (just me), and the polling place. I made a reasonably informed vote and feel good about my decisions.

Last night I finished up the bias trim around the gator dress but did not think of a solution for that seam at the neck. Any ideas? I have a crocodile cross-stitch pattern that I was going to add to a pocket. Maybe I can work it in up there? I don't know.

Today I started on the yellow elephant pants. They are almost done. I have to sew the buttons on and hem them up. I made a weird mistake as you can see in the picture. I put the buttonholes too far over so the little flap that I was supposed to sew the buttons to would not have been big enough. I had to add 3/4" to the width of the flap pattern so I went with a different fabric and I like it much better with the buttons I chose. The pants seemed to fit well even over the chunky cloth diaper so I think they'll be great for now and later when we are diaper free. I was too lazy to fold over the edge of my elastic and stitch it up so I just used nail polish to seal the ends. Wow. Who does that? Now it's drying so they'll be ready to go tomorrow when I get home from work.

But I totally felt like a rock star blasting out my buttonholes like I had been doing them my whole life.

Project: kids clothes week day 1

I was thinking that this week would be Robot Week and that I would feature all the goodness that was Zadie's 2nd birthday party. But I am really stressed out. What I need right now is to just sew and not have to do anything that requires a great amount of effort. I hope that's okay.

A while back I signed up for kids clothes week over on Elsie Marley. It seemed like a big challenge at the time but now it seems like what I need: I just want to sew. And the deal with kids clothes week is that you just sew -- for one hour every day.

I'm starting today by finishing this cool crocogator dress. It's top secret for now but you'll hear about it soon enough. That seam on the bias tape right at the neckline is really bothering me. I'm going to do something about that.

So here's my plan:

this crocogator dress (fabric by boosterseat)

those yellow elephant pants (pattern by danslalune)

bubble romper (maybe)

a little zippered tote so zadie will have something for her doll accessories

maybe some doll clothes for her new baby

I might not even get to all this but I'm not going to worry about it. Oh, and I know that doll clothes and tote bags aren't kids clothes but that's okay. You should check out the Elsie Marley site. She has some amazing inspiration. I love the bunny rabbit pocket detail she features. Cuteness overload.