Tag Archives: kids’ clothes

July 10, 2010 · 9:29 am

Diabetic shock…

Pink Overload!

I am in the throes of sewing a ruffly pink sundress for my niece. It is really, really sweet. I just might barf.

Can I just say, I am suddenly very proud that I never sewed anything pink for either of my daughters? Thank you, thank you very much. (Honestly, I don’t mind pink in moderation. but this… that’s a lot of pink. And it’s not cool, edgy pink with skulls on or something)

It’s based on the Oliver & S Popover Sundress, a free pattern. You can see the difference in my stylish sketch there.

My snazzy sketch.

I’m actually only using about the top 5″ of the pattern, since I needed the dress to be twirly (my niece is 3 1/2, and any skirt that doesn’t twirl out is “broken”). The rest is gathered tiers.

Which brings me to the second problem… the ruffler foot.

I learned to use a ruffler foot on my mother’s gorgeous, ancient 1960s Pfaff. You could ruffle, pleat, gather pretty near anything on that machine. And I did. Ok, I didn’t, but I made a number of tiered skirts for bellydance, which is pretty much anyone’s ruffling quotient for a lifetime (the one in that picture has 9 tiers, 7 of them ruffled, and the bottom hem consists of over 30 fabric-width (45″) strips.

When I moved away, my mom bought me a new sewing machine as a going-away present. Aww. It’s a lovely little Janome, and as you know it has sewn me through jackets and jeans with relatively little hassle. Things could be much worse. One of the little things I asked for when we got the machine, though, was a ruffler foot. I was still in dance-sewing mode, after all.

And I did, actually, manage to make one more full scale tiered skirt on my Janome. So I guess I can’t say the ruffler doesn’t work… it just doesn’t work as well. I don’t know if it’s the machine (not quite as sturdy) or the ruffler (also not quite as sturdy). It certainly can’t pleat to save your life. It does a roughly 2:1 gather on its lowest setting, and heaven help me if I want to change that. It’s little things, like the poky bit the needle sometimes hits on…

Of course, it didn’t help that last night when I was trying to start on it, I kept forgetting to put the presser foot down (it’s very hard to see the difference with the ruffler foot on… and it still ruffles, just even less well). And then somehow I managed to switch it to a zig-zag stitch…

Yeah, that doesn’t work. Remind me to pick up more needles when I’m out this afternoon…

But things are going much better this morning. I got the whole bottom tier ruffled. When I finish this post I’ll go do the second tier up. I always start at the bottom on these things, otherwise my brain breaks with the enormity of the task.

I always forget how the tiers multiply. That bottom tier was 6.6m long (6 fabric width strips) before I ruffled it. At least it’s done now!

The best thing about ruffled tiers? They use up almost ALL of the fabric. All I have left over of that ghastly pink solid is a 10″ square.

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July 9, 2010 · 3:37 pm

OK, you get the idea.

Nearly done!

Sorry. Once again, impatience gets the better of me. It’s still missing the decorative snaps, but I’m showing it off anyway. In all its flawed glory. I did not include closeups of the places (cry) where I accidentally snipped the fabric with the scissors while trimming threads.

Kids' jean jacket---back

So… pattern? Nice. The front yoke seemed too wide and the front facing width was a little wonky in its width as well. Perhaps related? Perhaps due to flaws in my tracing or my failure to read the instructions carefully. I didn’t, by the way. Read the instructions, I mean. I’m not really such an advanced sewist that I should skip that, I

Front snaps!

know. It’s a bad habit. Otherwise it all went together very nicely.

As mentioned before, my bias bindiing on the inside is not the greatest. However, it is a nice flash of colour! You can see where I added in the pockets.

Today’s big experiment was the snaps. I went out and picked up two kinds, the plain silver heavy duty ones, and some cute little pearl ones. Unfortunately, I assumed that the hammer/punch tools that came with the heavy duty ones would be adequate to attach the pearl ones. (and if not, I’ve got a bunch of other punch/hammer/dies from grommets—surely something would work). Foolish, foolish me. I did manage to get one

Cute snap! Too bad it's broken!

installed on one of the waistband tabs (after cracking the pearl in two others). It looks good. But it doesn’t snap—it won’t stay shut. And I didn’t

Inside!

have enough of the big silver ones to do the decorative snaps (tabs, pocket flaps). So I’ll have to go back to the store. For more heavy duty snaps, or for the right hammering tools? We’ll see.

The sleeve shoulder topstitching was a pain in the butt.

Ooooh… look at how nicely I managed to get the undersleeve seam to match up to the back yoke seam!:

Back yoke seam matches sleeve underarm seam!

Too bad I didn’t manage to do it on the other side!

I am thinking of entering it (or the second one, which may be a little less imperfect) to the PatternReview children’s sewing contest this month. Exciting, no?

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July 6, 2010 · 9:05 am

Progress

Burda 9610 jacket

On Burda 9610.

Have the body and sleeves mostly constructed; just need to add cuffs, attach sleeves, add the waistband, and of course get a bunch of snaps, since I’ve decided to go with snaps. The trickiest part so far was figuring out how to insert the pockets, as the pattern itself

Inside---showing pocket inserts and Hong Kong bindings on seams

doesn’t have any. However, they are in, mostly correctly. I’m using Gigi’s tutorial on Hong Kong seam bindings to finish the inside seams. I’m not as good at it as she is. I think part of my problem is that I don’t cut my bias strips wide enough. Anyway, Hong Kong binding + topstitching means each seam in this jacket (and there are a lot!) is stitched 4 times! Crazy. I found myself trying to adjust the construction process to minimize number of times I had to re-thread the sewing machine. Oh, I also figured out a workaround to increase my machine’s tension so the topstitching thread isn’t (or is less) loopy on the inside. You know how when you’re winding a bobbin the thread goes from the spool around that little doohickey on the top before it goes to the bobbinator? Well, (at least on my machine) that doohickey has a bit of a spring on it for catching the thread and adding some tension. I found that by winding my thread around that thing before threading it through the rest of the machine, I got a LOT more tension. No more

Front side pocket. On examining my RTW jean jacket, these pocket linigns are cut as part of the jacket pieces, folded to the inside. Not a bad idea. Ah, well---next time.

loopiness underneath! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to try this until I was about two-thirds of the way along, so there’s a lot of loopy topstitching. Ah well. Live and learn. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to use the darker (right) side of the fabric or the lighter, shinier (wrong) side. So I used both! Keeping track of which was which was a bit of a pain, though.

Sleeve seams and bindings

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July 2, 2010 · 8:53 am

Adventures in denim

Kids' Jean Jacket pattern

Kids' Jean Jacket pattern

Last night I traced out Burda 9610  (jacket only) in kids size 7 and 9 (122 and 134 Burda sizes). These may be a bit big (the other stuff I’ve made them has been size 7 and 4, respectively, but I’m not sure that the Burda “equivalent US sizes” are actually equivalent) but I don’t have the kids handy to measure, and I kinda want these jackets to be presents for when we do see them next at the end of July. And yes, I have measured them before and written it all down. And promptly lost the paper. Although that was a few months ago, and the pesky things do tend to keep growing.

So, now I have the patterns traced out (fifteen pieces each for the jacket! That’s a bit different from that cowl-neck top!) and a *bit* more of an insight into how they will eventually go together. My main disappointment at the moment is to realize that they don’t really have pockets. Not only are there no side pockets, that flap is strictly decorative.

I am of course plotting how to change this. Making a pocket bag and an opening underneath the flap shouldn’t be too hard. Leaving a gap in the side of the centre-front/side-front seam and putting a bag behind this should be doable with just a little bit more ingenuity.

Also, I should think about seam bindings. I’ve never done un-lined jackets before (Hmm, now I’m thinking about lining them, maybe in a colourful fleece. Next time, Taran!). Since I can’t just serge everything, I’m thinking a hong-kong finish kinda thing. Best of all, since I’m not going to be fitting these as I go, I can do at least some of the bindings before the seams are sewn. Yay!

Next question: sparkly (under) side of the denim out, or subtler, less-sparkly “right” side of the denim out? Or a mix? Or just make at least the older daughter’s out of my black denim? (But I want the black denim for me!)

Also, while I’m sewing for children, I should whip up some little sundresses or something for my nieces. I hate to do this much unselfish sewing (I’m not as vocal about it as the Selfish Seamstress but I really do have a hard time putting a whole lot of effort into sewing for other people), but my sister-in-law is looking after my kids for the month. So that might fall under Advanced Selfish Seamstressing. I should call her and get their measurements and maybe quiz her on good colours/styles they don’t already have.

And, because I can’t spend all this time just sewing for others, I’m going to lengthen my Jalie capris pattern and get started on some full-length jeans for me! 🙂

Wow, ambitious much?

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June 22, 2010 · 9:07 am

Moratorium

Denim

Denim, denim, knit. The greyish denim is actually slightly sparkly.

might be too big of a word for it, but it’s gotta be almost time to stop buying fabric and start SEWING. Yesterday I bought 3m of sparkly blue, slightly stretchy denim, and 4m of a stained, really fine white knit ($2/m!!! yes it looks like crap, but even if I can’t get the stains out I can use it for muslin/knit-sewing practice without feeling guilty!)

Lovely stains!

The picture also shows a bit of the 1m remnant of dark-blue stretch denim I picked up last week. I think I’m set for denim for a while.

In my own defense, the sparkly denim is for the Burda kids’

Burda kids' jean jacket pattern

jean jacket pattern that I picked up last week. I also grabbed a variety of topstitching and denim thread for upcoming projects. And I still need to find a fabric if I want to make my hubby a shirt for the mediaeval faire later this summer (it’s not until mid-August, though, so that’s not too big a deal). And I wouldn’t mind some white cotton to make me a few more summery blouse/tops…who knows, maybe even a summery white sundress. Ok girl, getting ahead of yourself. Quit justifying. Start sewing.

I did (by dint of some tantrum-throwing) get some work done on the Danielle dress last night, which I will photograph later. Now that it’s sewn to the band, the bust is doing something wonky, so I will a) have to re-sew that seam, and/or b) wear the Cast-Iron Bra* underneath. I still have to cut out the lining, too. I really shouldn’t let myself get this far ahead in the construction before everything’s cut out. I hate linings. Actually, I just hate cutting, so it’s better to get it all out of the way at once, while I’m in that space. But I did the cutting early last week and didn’t get the lining fabric until Friday, so I’m kinda hosed on that front.

*the Cast-Iron Bra is a heavy duty, add-a-cup-size, molded foam bra. Its shape and fullness are lovely and absolutely unrelated to what I happen to have to fill it with. The first time I wore it to work, I kept waiting for someone to call me on it… “c’mon, we saw you yesterday… who do you think you’re fooling?” 😉 )

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June 2, 2010 · 2:34 pm

Jalie Jeans test type… 100% complete

No pics of them on the kid (yet… maybe after I wash them) but here’s the final details:

Jeans front finished---rivets and belt loops!

The rivets went in quite well (it’s much easier to hammer metal stuff in now I have a concrete garage floor to work on!). They did need to be shortened, but they seem to hold well (I’ll get back to you about whether they’re STAYING on in a few months). I experimented with not shortening one, and regretted it—it went together and didn’t damage the caps, but the inside cap kind of skewed off to the side, so the inside and outside caps are offset. You can’t tell from looking, of course, and it feels solidly attached… but not desirable.

The belt-loops as measured were kinda long, but that’s fine. I put them on after the rivets… before would have been smarter. I was going to sew them right by the edge of the front pocket, and couldn’t because the rivet was in the way. Not that their current placement is a problem,

Back---finished. Cool belt loops!

but note to self for the future. In the back, I criss-crossed the centre back belt loops. I like. 🙂

Oh, and I finally located and tried out my double needle for the belt-loops and hems! I bought it last fall, just to have a double needle, despite my disastrous results the first time I tried to use one (the bobbin threads got tangled and when I tried to raise the needle one of the tips was getting bent funny and snapped off. This was about five minutes into my first attempt to use it). But for whatever reason this time—better thread, auspicious alignment of the planets—it gave me not a hint of trouble this time. I did take the advice I read somewhere to put the spools on so they spool out the thread in opposite directions (eg. one clockwise, the other counterclockwise). Maybe that made all the difference. No idea. Anyway, aside from the fact that the double needle I have wasn’t purchased with jeans in mind and is a bit narrower between the two tips than the rest of the top-stitching, it worked perfectly. I did the hems with it (the zig-zag from the bobbin makes it stretchy, too, even on a regular straight stitch!). I wound up doing two rows of the double stitching on the belt-loops (the zig-zag underneath does a really nice job of finishing the triple-folded bottom surface), and I was worried that they were too uneven, but once cut into the short lengths they looked fine.

So, verdict? Definitely some loving-hands-at-home going on in the details. But, perfectly respectable from a distance (even I don’t notice the offset pockets unless I look for it) and the kid loves them. Considering her lukewarm reaction to her jacket, I am going to declare these a success. Which is good because I cut out my pair last night…

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May 31, 2010 · 2:21 pm

Jalie jeans, test type

Kid's jeans (first try on)

So, I took the plunge. Well, in miniature. Just putting the finishing touches on a trial pair of jeans… for my daughter. A little torn—on the one hand, they’re very cute, but on the other hand, there’s enough booboos in the construction and fitting issues that I’m a little dissatisfied—more with myself than with the pattern, however. Oh, and the plaid flannel in the cut-outs is the same fabric as the pocket lining, and was a pair of my hubby’s pyjama pants long, long ago. So glad I kept those scraps!

On the plus side:

  • they fit! Like stretch jeans should… which may actually be a little snug.
  • I LOVE the pocket design/yoke and front leg detail. We were inspired by a pair of jeans belonging to my younger daughter, and I think it’s so super cute. I am excited to see how it looks once it’s washed and frayed. The cut-outs on the front leg and the back yoke are both backed with another layer of denim behind the flannel, for strength. The pocket just has the flannel.
  • The red topstitching is super nice, even though it doesn’t show quite as much as I might like. I used the triple stitch with regular thread, and I really liked it for topstitching because it is SLOW…

    Are these not the coolest pockets EVER, I ask you?

    much less chance for me to mess up, especially along short lengths. All in all the topstitching, though not perfect, is a LOT better than my last attempt. My “edgestiching” blind-hemmer foot definitely shows its limitations along longer seams, although that may be as much shoddy construction of the foot (the screw that adjusts the front extension is really loose, so it jiggles out slowly as you go along… this is just as much a problem for blind hems as for edgestitching).

  • I also didn’t have any trouble catching the 1 cm seam allowances in my second row of topstitching; some people had complained about this in their pattern reviews.
  • I added the perfect amount of length to the leg (1″) (at least as long as they don’t shrink in the wash any more)… they should be perfect once hemmed as is.
  • I put buttons and buttonholes on the inside waistband to thread and adjustable buttonhole elastic through the back (a fave feature of mine for most kids’ pants these days). However, my gaposis-fixes were such that I don’t think she’ll actually need it.
  • hammering REALLY helped with a few of the ultra-thick areas. I am impressed.
  • I almost got the fly right on the first tr. Almost.

Negatives:

  • The instructions say to attach the back pockets before you sew up the centre back seam. Despite marking very carefully and gluing the pockets in place so they didn’t shift around, they’re still not even. Next time I will definitely put them on AFTER the centre-back seam is stitched (which is the next step anyway so it’s not like it’s a big rearrangement.
  • the yoke definitely needed adjusting for back gaposis. Now, my nine-year-old definitely has a booty for her age (to her father’s dismay), but on the other hand proportionately I doubt hers is any worse than mine, so I will definitely curve my yoke in a bit before I cut it.
  • I adjusted the yoke at the sides (since the centre back, which would’ve been better, was already topstitched and I didn’t want to take tucks due to the cut-out peekaboo layers at the yoke), which left a bit of a pointy stop at the top side.
  • the waistband kinda sucks. This is for various reasions:

    Kid's jeans: front (finished except for belt loops, hemming)

  • 1) I cut it on the straight grain, non-stretch direction, rather than on the bias or the stretch grain. This is because I like pants that stay up… but I should’ve added to the length because it was a little short.

    Kid's jeans: back (finished except for belt loops and hemming)

  • 2) I didn’t interface it. This might’ve been fine with a heavy-duty denim, but this denim is so light and stretchy, it’s just floppy. My bad. I got lazy and impatient (and forgot).
  • 3) I angled it in at the centre-back seam to further reduce gaposis, which was successful but left it with that little divet at the back. I am definitely excited to try my contoured waistband. Thoroughly interfaced.
  • the jeans button is a little off of where it needs to be; I centred it on the buttonhole, but its post of course needs to go at the END of the buttonhole. And of course since it’s fairly soft and floppy, this makes the whole fly (which IS interfaced, by the way) pull a little wonky. I suspect the solution will be to stitch the end of the buttonhole closed a bit. And next time, position the butotn AFTER cutting the buttonhole. I think for mine, I will hand-stitch the buttonhole so I can do a keyhole, but for these I just did the lone buttonhole setting on my machine. (and it says it all about how thin the denim is that I even COULD do the buttonhole on my machine, which doesn’t like to do buttonholes on thick fabrics at all.)

(sorry about the colour in the last two pics… the camera didn’t like having the black couch in the background. Also the jeans are  rather rumpled in the last couple of shots because she won’t take them off long enough for me to hem and put belt loops on.)

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May 15, 2010 · 5:39 pm

An oldie… Kids’ choli

My daughter showing off

This is a dance shirt I made three or four years ago now for my older daughter. The idea is loosely based on an Indian choli, a kind of cropped, sometimes backless blouse worn with skirt or sari or whatever (depending on the region). They’re popular in tribal bellydance, and a little more modest than the traditional bellydance bra top. I have about a zillion of my own, made to various patterns, which maybe I will talk about at some point, but this one seemed like it would make for a nice quick post.

I drafted the pattern for this shirt based on her measurements; kids’ patterns are SO nice to draft because you don’t have to worry about bust shaping. There’s a theme or principal in “folk” clothing where you try to be as economical with the fabric as possible—most pieces will be rectangles, triangles, or trapezoids. This makes sense if you have to spin and weave your own fabric—you don’t want to waste ANY of it. It comes at the

a choli (a kind of backless top popular in bellydance) designed by my daughter

expense of fit, of course… but that’s the nature of the beast. The other upside, however, is it makes the patterns dead easy to draft. My daughter chose the kimono-inspired sleeves for this shirt (and made up her own pose). Since you can’t see it too well in the photo, here’s a rough technical drawing of the shirt: as you can see, nary a curve in sight. The triangles under the arms are actually square gussets.

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May 10, 2010 · 5:44 pm

Going vintage…

Butterick 4918, The Little A-Line With or Without Shorts Beneath

So I may have mentioned at some point that I inherited a large chunk of my mother-in-law’s old sewing stash; in particular, after her divorce, the stuff I got had ended up in my father-in-law’s storage. When he liquidated that storage a few years ago, it came to light, and I nabbed it. Mother-in-law didn’t seem too interested in having any of it back (I checked)… so I inherited a few fabric remnants, a fair selection of thread, some random notions, and a bunch of old patterns.

Most of the patterns date to my MIL’s sewing heyday, which was the 80s (Most are also kids or babies patterns). I’m not quite willing to grant the 80s vintage status yet…  but there are a couple that are even older, and yesterday my younger daughter asked me to sew one up for her. It’s labelled as Butterick 4918. This is not the Butterick 4918 that turns up on my internet searches, which are a 1952 evening gown or a 1980s cowgirl shirt. It’s an A-line short dress with short puff sleeves and optional shorts (although the shorts portion of the pattern seems to have evaporated). From the hairstyles on the drawing I’d say late 60s; the price on the envelope is 60 cents (70 Canadian). The pattern is a kids size four, which I am hoping will fit my rather pint-sized not-quite-seven year old (I know, but the coat I made her from the rather less vintage McCall’s 3374 was also a size 4, and it’s too big. And the chest measurement looks right, which is probably more important… worst case scenario, it’s too small and we give the dress to my 3-year old niece. And then I have to figure out how to grade the pattern up for my kids).

Now, I’m not a huge fan of vintage patterns. I was scoping out some late-60s ones at my grandmother’s this spring and let them be. My basic problems are as follows: I’m not a big fan of fashions of the 60s, 70s, or 80s, and I don’t have a figure the 40s and 50s patterns would flatter (at least without major corsetry). It’s possible that I could do something nice with a drop-waisted 20s frock, but… well, unlikely. And even less likely that such a pattern is ever going to cross my path. As I mentioned above, I asked my grandma about old patterns lying around (nobody has moved out of that house since 1918… the new generations just keep on moving in), and she dug up a few, but all dating to roughly late 60s (And a little off-size, although probably close enough if I were really into making any of them). But for making them for my kids… well, I’ll give it a try. And I have to say, working off a one-size pattern is quite the treat. The seam lines are all marked; so is the direction of stitching. There’s the occasional diagram of which foot to use, not to mention an illustration of the zipper, and more match-points than you can shake a stick at. A lot of it is wasted on me (I am trying to get better at transferring pattern markings to my fabric, but I’m still pretty lazy. I need to get one of those markers that disappears in water, because otherwise I’m too tempted to use regular markers, which has had occasional disastrous effects in the past.) but I still appreciate having it there. I didn’t read the instructions, either, before I started construction, which I probably should have just for the appreciation of well-illustrated, thorough instructions. Ah, well. Also, the seam allowances are massive: 6/8″, or a full 2 cm.

Vintage A-line, child's size 4, Butterick 4918

I made one slight alteration—I lined the pattern. Mostly because the fabric my daughter chose (from that same MIL stash, actually) is really soft and drapey, and the illustrations suggest a fabric with more body. Also,

At long last, a zipper

I like lining things. This was my first zipper installation in a while (and my first on my new machine, and my first in a lined garment), so that was fun. It is not a perfect zipper, especially right at the top (I suspect some errors in my methodology… but it’s not bad (for me), and it’s nicely sandwiched between the two layers. Probably I would have benefited from reading the instructions more carefully (or any instructions)… but what’s done is done.

I dared to machine blind-hem both the lining and the shell separately. It’s my first machine blind-hem. Definitely not perfect (I could have done better by hand) but reasonable. I did a better job of easing the extra width in the lining than I thought I might on machine, so that at least was a triumph. Other triumphs include not having the lining peak out particularly at the neckline, and managing to catchstitch the lining around the sleeves (which I didn’t line) without having the outside end up totally puckered.

The original puff sleeve didn’t have an opening on the cuff, and I was a little concerned about my daughter being able to get her arm through, so I added some detailing to the back of the sleeve copied from my JJ blouse.

Back of sleeve detailing from JJ blouse

I won’t have enough length for an overlap, so I’ll do some kind of loop on one side and a little button on the other. Probably I should have embedded the edges of the loop in the cuff when I sewed it, but I’m not that organized.

All in all, a cute and surprisingly timeless little dress. Will update with photos of kid in dress (or news of a size disaster) when she gets home from school.

Edit: Kid in dress.

A vintage cutie

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March 15, 2010 · 10:09 pm

Coats for Little Girls (Part II)

My younger daughter wanted the older pattern, McCall’s 3374, view C in particular. I was a little worried about having enough fabric, so I opted for contrasting cuffs and collar out of another, dark-brown curtain from the same hamper. Good thing I did… as it was I didn’t have enough fabric to do two facings.

Using this pattern was a little trickier than the other, mostly because the pattern wasn’t lined and I wanted the finished garment to be.  I just used the same pattern pieces, although perhaps I should have graded the sleeve lining a little smaller; it came out a bit ripply around the fold-back cuff part. I could have used the facing-pattern to subtract the facing amount from the front pattern to make a lining front, but I didn’t bother; for the one facing I did have (ran out of fabric, remember) I just pressed the inner seam back and topstitched it to the lining. I did put interfacing on both sides; I wound up fusing it to the inside of the lining on the un-faced side, which was not my best idea… the stiff interfacing really shows on the thin lining. Maybe it’ll detach with wear… if not, at least it’s not visible when the coat’s on.

Other than that it went together not at all badly.

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