Stitch by Stitch

I’ve been busy with making summer outfits for mainly Arianna and poor KR has been left out. I hate to be unfair so I whipped this up today.

Own top + mod leggings #2, 04/04 : I drafted out the top, something I had in mind, this morning and sewed it during the day and then traced out the Otto leggings, made them shorter in the arvo and sewed it within minutes and voila! A simple and easy summer outfit for KR. Made from cotton for the top and knit for the leggings.

I think purple suits this little miss.

TFL…next time, I’ll be trying my hand at shirring instead. Hope it goes well!!

And now…do you notice that something is wrong with this top? If you don’t, thank goodness. But if you did….hhmmm, then it’s too obvious. What is it you ask? Well….
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I didn’t position the top too well and didn’t realise that the design was upside down hence only KR can appreciate it the best. Lesson of the day : Pay attention to design on fabric before cutting! :/ Yvy…yvy…yvy…..*sigh*

I think I may have been a little too ambitious. :/ I recently purchased some poly-cotton fabric to sew the girls their Christmas outfit. When I decided on the Otto pattern that I wanted, I forgot that it is now summer and that dress pattern would not be suitable. *rolls eyes*

So now I’m at the drawing board tryin to ‘design’ my own pattern. And Lord knows how many million more brain cells have since passed on. I did a so-called protype and instead of looking like a dress, my first attempt ended up looking like a pajama top but this is in my opinion. The ladies in the CM forum think otherwise.

This is something that I came up with by taking pieces from 2 Otto patterns n matching them up. This is meant for knit fabric but I think the rule of thumb is that is u use woven [this is cotton], just go a size up which I have done. It actually matches the the ruffle pants I recently did.

Pls ignore those fugly shorts!

Then I tried again, but this time with a pattern that my mum made up herself and since I’m absolutely useless when it comes to sleeves, I’ve turned my 2nd attempt into a sleevesless ‘dress’ which, again…ended up looking more like a tunic instead of a dress!!! *slaps forehead* No pix just yet. So although she can wear it, I’m going to do up another ruffle pants to match this green tunic.

I don’t know…at the rate of things going. I think I might end up buying for them this year. :/

Although we didn’t win the premiership this year, I’m glad that we made it into the Grand Finals. It was a tough fight to the top but it was fought hard and well! So well done, boys….we’ll get them back in 2010 and bring it home!

Meanwhile, in my effort to support our Eels…I made these for the girls. We were all decked in our gear and went to catch the game at a friends place.

Left : Turtle romper [#1, 3/08]
Right : Tshirt with Eels logo [#36, 4/04]

Both were sewn using knit bought from Spotlight and made to compliment each other.

I’ve been focusing a lot of my sewing for Arianna’s wardrobe so I decided to start building up KR’s collection instead. But everyone knows that babies grow really fast so although I will sew for KR, I won’t be sewing too many coz she would most likely outgrow them faster than I can sew!

Anyway, these 2 pieces are the second time I’ve done any sewing for her. It’s Nasta pinafore 4/2008 + Baby’s Tshirt 1/2005.

The patterns asks for sweater knit which I didn’t have so I made do with this rather thick knit instead. Not sure what fabric it really is.

This is a really simple pattern and very pratical as well. I foresee me sewing more of this for her although I dont really like sewing the ribbing for this kind of odd shape neckline.

I believe I used stretch knit for this tshirt. A little fiddly but I’m getting the hang of it.

The complete suit. Normally I would team this pinny with leggings but not this time because we were going to the doctors to get KR’s shots. So this was more pratical.

Pattern review : Overall, both are relatively easy patterns to follow although I personally found it a little fiddly to align the front planket [?] due to the bulk from the ribbing and followed by the fabric. I’m sure that it may well be just me though. *lol* Other than that, for the pinny, the neckline and armholes call for ribbing but since I did not have any that matched, I did facings instead with a rather contrasting light-weight cotton fabric. And to jazz it up a little, I appliqued a little heart from the same lining/facing material with Heat ‘n’ Bond.

I am overall quite pleased with this pair.

I thought that I should keep to my word and start writing about the pieces I’ve done when I’m done with it and do a little pattern review along the way.

I did this piece with New Zealand cotton knit [I think]. I love this fabric for it’s motives as well as color. When I bought it, I had no idea what to do with it and now, well…this is what it has come to.

I used size 92 for Arianna who is 2 and it fits all around except that I find the bottom front panel a little short. I’m just wondering if it was my mistake from tracing it out wrong…I’m not sure but a tad longer would be nicer. It doesn’t look good around the neckline coz I used pattern A [without the ribbing] just tidied the neckline edges and turned it down to sew. One thing’s for sure, I should have used red thread for the serger but since I don’t have any other color than off white, this is how it turned out. *lol* Beggers can’t be choosers, I say.

The pattern in general is simple and easy to follow. But I didn’t follow all the way through especially the neckline which asks for clear elastic. I read a pattern review abt the same piece and she too had some issues with it so I just did it my way. I cut the elastic longer than 44cm which it asks for, marked it into quarters as well as the neckline as the instructions asks for but didn’t sew the eleastic to form a circle. It was too slippery so I just sewed it as a piece and pulled it to match the markings.

Turned out not too bad but hope that my next one will be better. Planning on using cotton so it will be one size up.

Despite the fact that poplin has some really gorgeous designs and patterns, I absolutely hate it! The main reason is because it creases easily and I hate ironing hence I try to get material that would not require me to do any ironing.

But since I had bought some poplin in my first ever buy, I knew that like it or not, I’d have to find a way to make use of it. So this is the blouse I sewed up from Ottobre 1/2009.

Once I was done with it, I didn’t like the sleeves coz I thought they looked weird. But when Arianna wore it, I think it’s ok. I put yellow heart shape buttons on the back.

As you can see, it looks ok and the jumper inside matches well too. Was suppose to make some pants for her but I kind of ruined the bottom from sewing the ribbing wrongly so am in the midst of unpicking it.

I hate unpicking….

It seems to be a known fact that knit fabric is tough to come by. So when I was at Spotlight the last time, and chanced upon the only knit fabric I could afford [am not going to spend too much on material that I am currently useing as practice], I grabbed it. Although I am a little wary about knit fabric as I’ve heard that they are tough to sew, I wasn’t going to give up so easily.

First attempt at actually sewing with a proper pattern from Ottobre 2/2009. A big big BIG thank you to Aida for showing me the ropes. *HUGS*

Arianna posing in her new gear!

Overall, I did struggle a bit with this particular knit fabric, I think it’s all part and parcel of learning the ropes and getting used to it as well. I still have a load of it left so I might try to sew something else with it. Although it is relatively thin, it does its job at keeping Arianna warm. It was not meant to be a PJ top but due to the rainy weather and the clothes weren’t dry, she wore this to bed and I bet it kept her toasty!

Since I started sewing, I dare say that it has become an addiction. I think many will not believe that Wordscraper and TV have taken a backseat! *lol* Some say that sewing in theraputic but I don’t feel that way – I personally get this drive to complete the project so that I can move on to another piece. And that is what is keeping me focus and interested. Before this I had dabbled in many other craft interest like crochet and knitting but these are things that take a VERY long time and omg, you have to be super precise with how many stitches need to go where and the number of stitches they have. I think my brain cells will die trying to remember them all!

But sewing…aaah, I think I have finally found a place where I can totally zone out the world around me. Anyway, these are the last 2 pieces that I’ve completed :

This is the other half of the set which I had posted the other day. I used to think that sewing button holes were easy-peasy and seeing how neat my mum’s are, I thought I could pull it off as well. Thank goodness for those buttons – my button holes were horrendous!! Really have to figure out how to use that sewing button hole function on my machine. Might pop by the sewing centre on Monday when we go do our weekly shopping.

Animal print sleeping bag – This one has a story behind it. It was initially suppose to be a baby gown. Where the bottom is supposed to be open but somehow I had miscalculated and well, didn’t really have any ribbings for the cuffs and collar so I had to improvise and ended up with this. [Yes, you're right about those eyelet thingys, Aida. They are utterly useless!!!] I used snap fasteners which you have to manually sew on since I suck at sewing button holes! *lol* This is flannel so will come in handy when autumn and winter comes. I just hope Pacman can fit in it, otherwise I take it as a practise piece.

I’m not sure what to sew next but I think I should try my hand again with this gown thingy. Wish me luck, but I think I’ll end up with another sleeping bag…..seem to prefer it somehow.