Friday, October 31, 2014

Trick or Treat

Now been very diligent at the sewing machine the last couple of weeks.  Have a lot to get accomplished before Christmas.   But, Halloween was first.

My Daughter in Law had requested a trick-or-treat bag for Thomas when she was home for a visit early October.  Thomas saw the red shirt that I had made for cousin Julian and wanted one.

These were shipped to Florida last week.


 
 
I also needed to get Grandson Nathan set up with a Halloween bag.  This one was shipped to Texas this week.
 

 
Now on to Christmas preparation.


Friday, October 3, 2014

Back to Children's Clothes

After I spent many days cleaning up the sewing room and putting all my fabrics on bolts,  I got that urge to make garments.  It is so nice to be open the closet and look on the room shelves and see what to work with next.  Here are the pictures of the fabric stash.



The first thing I made were some shorts for two of the grandsons.  They both live in locations where shorts are usually worn until December.  I had found this "Hot Wheels" fabric recently and the boys keep their pockets full of hot wheels.


Next was a baseball print fabric.  This has been in my stash for some time. I thought that I had used this for Julian, but his mom said no.  Decided it was time to sew this up before all of the children outgrow the fabric.  The shirt for Thomas was constructed.


I have had the striped knit fabric in the stash for several years.  I have never been comfortable sewing on knits.  It was time to dive in.  I had purchase a See & Sew(B6005) pattern mainly for the legging pattern for the girls.  The top was very much the style that Lola would love.  I had purchased the turquoise spandex to match another fabric that I have for Lola.  When it was finished, Lola came over and tried it on.  She loved it!!! Oops, the top was too short.  Not much way to correct, but all is not lost, Alliene is younger and shorter so she will be able to wear this.  I have promised Lola a trip to pick out more fabric and she can have another one of her choice.


Julian is getting so large, it is hard to choose items to sew for him.  He still seems disappointed when Lola gets new things that Nana makes and he does not have anything.  I got the guy a shirt with motorcycles. Fabric Robert Kaufman screen print #4822.  He has not been over to try it on, but he has seen the fabric and was excited.

Lola was in a fashion show locally early September.  One of the items when she was trying on clothes to model was a denim vest that was supposed to be bolero length.  Lola is so small that it would not fit for her.  Lola is 8 1/2 years old and I can still sew her clothes by a size 4-5 pattern.  Along with tiny she is also short.  Buying clothes for her in the styles she is leaning to is getting very hard.  But I have the denim vest covered.  Using 2 Burda patterns 9610 and 9581, Lola has the outfit she wanted.



The last sewing project completed is a peasant top for me.  I have had the Robert Kaufman flora print for probably 5 years.  It is very light and flows well.  I have wanted a peasant top for quite some time and never could come up with the pattern.  I purchased Kwik Sew 3065 and made it work for me.
I did not want elastic around the neck; I did want an opening at the front neck.   The pattern called for the elastic.
To modify, I created me a small facing to make the opening in the neck.  Then to stabilize the gathering and get the neck opening to the size I needed; I sewed 3 rows around the neck using the elastic thread.  This allowed the neck to come to the size needed and be stable enough for me to put the bias binding. 

Wa-la.....The blouse I wanted.

 
 
A finish of a busy week.  Glad to back in the swing of sewing, makes me feel so good.


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