Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Blue Onsie Kwik Sew 3712


I decided to make a 'Onesie' an 'all in one' PJ for my son. I was kindly lent an adult size onesie Kwik Sew pattern 3712. We are lacking pattern shops in Wellington since the demise of Arthur Toyes, and Spotlight rarely have the pattern I'm looking for. Mr J was only 9 at the time of making so it was quite a bit of pattern grading down that I had to do.  I made this out of a blue polar fleece I bought about 3 years ago. This become my priority sewing in a bid to reduce the size (Volume not number) of my stash. 


I really wanted to use fastners/domes on the front for ease of access but wasn't sure they would stay together through two layers of polar fleece, so used buttons instead. Should have added a zipper. Firstly the material was too thick for my flash new machine to make decent button holes. I had to cut and hand bind the button holes.  Then I also forgot the ease of pulling up a zipper compared to doing up 8 buttons. 

It's been worn all winter this year, so I'd count that as a success.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Pop up shop dangers

This is why belonging to a bloggers sewing group is not good for me.  You get early knowledge of sales. This one was too good to pass up, even though I was trying to reduce the size of my stash (space it takes up, not number of pieces).  Levana is a wonderful textiles shop in Levin and they had a pop up sale in Wellington.  


Rather like a clear Santa Sack but material not toys
Along with some fabric for me I added to each order a few extra meters of each fabric under the "Someone from Fabric Hoarders will be able to make use of it" excuse.  I've just started making use of it now and the fabrics are lovely to work with. 

Monday, September 21, 2015

Pasley pants in vivid orange

My friend the crafty mermaid put me on to these pants so after buying my first PDF pattern I made a brown pair in size 5. They had a pinstripe but no pockets and fitted perfectly. Which meant he outgrew them in a couple of months.
Original size 5 boys with pinstripe.
I've now made a second pair. This time size 7 which meant they are roomy round the waist but way to long.
Very close to the true orange brightness that they are
This is also my first trouser pocket. 
Check out the Rocket pocket linings
 Hopefully Mr F won't grow out of his love of orange anytime soon. 

Friday, September 11, 2015

Sewing retreat Fabric Hoarders 2015

I was lucky enough to attend another retreat with my 'Once a month sewing group'- the Fabric Hoarders. It was held near Otaki on the Kapiti Coast. 

View across the Otaki River
It is about 7km off the main road close to the Otaki river. I went for a morning walk and it was beautiful.  Riverslea Retreat is a vegetarian retreat with lots of local and organic food on offer. It was catered which, once we had all agreed the selections, meant no cooking- and even better no dishes! 

We had a smaller number than last time so we could have the fire on in the main lounge where we had the machines set up.  That left good space in the other areas for irons, and cutting tables and most importantly the drinks and nibbles area.  

I worked on my second quilt Bright Quilt and started a dress for a friends wedding.

Added in with the sewing was a some shopping at the local shops and lots of laughter with friends and its easy to see why this is one of my favorite things to do.


Friday, September 4, 2015

Green Knitted Pixie Hat

I've moved on from scarfs to hats. I love this hat and the pattern was easy to follow. Unfortunately Mr F has decided his head gets too hot with a hat and only wears it with bribery. Me saying "But you look sooo cute" doesn't motivate either! 

Blue and Green wool hat.

Who can resist that cheey grin!


Sunday, August 30, 2015

Bright quilt part one

I started another quilt! I wanted to finish one first before I started another so that I didn't end up with too many (cough.. more) unfinished projects and the start of a quilting stash. 

I chose my favorite colours for this quilt. I'm planning on it being a T.V. lap quilt. I started making a 9 block quilt but it looked a bit boring as I laid it lumpily over my couch to check the arrangement. I ended up cutting those blocks in quarters. 



I took it to my sewing retreat and got lots of good suggestions as to the order. I did have to make an emergency shopping expedition as I needed one last fat quarter. Four shops and two hours of driving later I found the perfect piece. I can now see the benefits of planning and buying all your material before you start a quilt. 

Monday, May 18, 2015

Teaching boys to sew

Jeb has been very keen to sew for quite a while. He started  making tea towels which was great but he was a little over enthusiastic with my expensive sewing machine so we took a break for a while.

This weekend I saw that Spotlight had a sale in their beginner sewing machines so I purchased one. I will be a bit more comfortable taking this one out to classes as well as letting Jeb sew on it. Jeb did the marking and cutting, I ironed the edges and he did the sewing. It looks great and he's already making plans for his next item.

First apron
He even watched all of the instruction video. Which was useful as how many 10 year olds think their mother knows anything!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

blue nightshirt

I finally finished my button holes and sewed on the buttons for my blue nightshirt. It fits much better than my previous pink one, but I still had the same issues with the inside of the collar not sitting quite right. Would have helped if I had taken some more photos of this stage. Isn't that the definition of insanity - doing the same thing but expecting a different result? Funnily enough it looks lust like the pink one, but bigger.
The blue version 
This is the closest you'll get to seeing me in my nightie!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

emergency birthday presents

The benefit of sewing is that theoretically it is easy to whip up presents for people. I'm never that organised but after making pirate curtains for Mr J's bunks which have now dismantlement I had an excess of pirate material.

Pirate bag
I made a quick drawstring bag and tucked it away for emergencies - a quick addition of some chocolate made is a useful and well liked present.  Should probably make some more...

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Treasure hunitng with the Wellington Sewing Bloggers

The Wellington Sewing Bloggers network not only share fabric sale news, we sometimes actually coordinate to meet there together.  A local church was holding a fabric sale so of course I had to go.  I meet up with some of the Wellington Sewing Bloggers and had time for a hot chocolate afterwards. I have plans for the wool and the linen tablecloth. . 
Fabric fair treasures

New scarf wool I'm thinking
The rest of the goodies will go into the stash and the dome/fasteners I'll have a play with before I actually try and use them on some material.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Girls tunic top Kwik Sew 3769


I've made this top before for my goddaughter and it's a great top if you are making for children that are not easy to measure (especially if they live some distance away). It has a neck casing that the tie goes through, so the neckline is easily adjusted. It can also be worn as a dress/tunic or top.  

Kiwk sew 3769

Holes for the neck casing to go through


Top one complete


I made these for my gorgeous nieces. It was too hot for fabric shopping with them, but luckily I had some difference fabrics in my stash they could choose from, - I knew all the fabric shopping/hoarding would come in handy.

I did laugh when I was busy cutting these out and Ms 4 bounced into the room to see if I had finished yet, 20 minutes after choosing her fabric! I had visions of making coordinating hats, but decided to just go with finishing them and posting while they still fitted.  


Sunday, February 8, 2015

Lazy sewing - a guide

This is what happens when you have twelve white togas to sew for a school production with one days notice. You run out of energy to rethread your machine when the right needle breaks at 11pm at night.
Three thread overlocking for the lazy
So you sew with one needle on a default three thread overlocking style. I figured since they were being worn for 4 minutes once, they could do with a less stable thread. The overlocker is now proudly sporting new needles and black thread. I used to dread rethreading, but amazingly enough, found that if I followed the rethreading instructions exactly it worked fine. Its a very sturdy Huskylock bought second hand and rarely adjusted.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Prem baby''s blanket

My beautiful new pink and orange wool for a baby blanket.
There is a wonderful facebook group called earlybuds who make clothes and blankets for prem babies. I've been following them for a while and decided to make a premature baby's blanket for them. It meant I could knit in pink for a while as I never get to make girls things, and it was a small square (50cmx50cm) so I thought it was achievable. There were a couple of issues though.


My knitting needles when I went to knit today
Everyone denies it, but somehow my metal knitting needles got very bent! I was able to make a quick trip to the yarn shop nearby http://www.hollandroadyarn.co.nz/  to get new needles. I chose bamboo ones. They are very nice to knit with, and it was an easy project to take with me in my purse.
Mr F trying the blanket out for size
Its now finished, but I need to figure out how to get it to not roll at the edges then I can send it off. So that makes it project knitting no 3 completed.


Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Sewing projects half started



When I don't have the energy to actually sew, or lug my machine to the monthly sewing group, I take along projects that need cutting out with the intention to sew them up sometime soon. Unfortunately that box is a bit overflowing at the moment.

Behold my box of cut out projects

half sewn slip that needs a lot of adjusting to complete

Oliver & S Bucket hat
 The hat I've actually completed since these photos were taken.http://livinglifenz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/hat-making.html
A small size Oliver & S Red riding hood cape
The last cape I made from this pattern was fun to make and very cute. Just waiting for time to finish this.
This is a self drafted pattern from a cute wrap top that I own. 
There is a self drafting challenge coming up with the sewing bloggers so I might get inspired to finish this. I need to make myself some detailed  instructions so that I get the sewing order correct as there are rolled edges and seams to get in order.

Possibly a summer skirt
I'm not sure if this one will get completed. Its a skirt, cut out but its leftover material from my nightshirt. the nightshirt has faded dreadfully so I'm not sure if its worth the effort to make this up knowing its not going to last.  Also the boys have pointed out that I'm in camouflage when I'm against our blue floral duvet.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Bluet Dress

I bought this beautiful dress pattern with some of  the other Wellington Sewing Bloggers.  Its from a small independent pattern house in France. Very fancy.  Unfortunately their instructions were not so fancy.  I love the back and after the second re cut I got it fitting really well. The collar instructions were almost non existent.



The very cute bow in the back

The front I mucked up by getting paranoid that it would not fit around the middle and I didn't have enough material left over to recut the front centre panels.  I had to cut off a couple of inches at the front neckline as it gaped quite a bit, then I added a self drafted facing to the front that I wrapped around the front to use as a button placard.  

The front before alteration
The final dress
I extended the sleeves, but lost any form of shaping in the process. I have since reduced the width of the sleeves but they could do with a button at the wrist edge to reduce width even further. 


Thursday, January 15, 2015

Hat making


 I've restarted my hat making efforts. I made a very cute red hat last year, and it looked so great that I immediately bought some more material and cut out a blue and green hat. Then summer finished (it happens quickly in Wellington) and it sat around all last year. 


Oliver & S Bucket hat
I made it reversible in Mr F's favorite colors, but held my breath that although he'd grown a couple of inches last year his head size would be similar. Thankfully it was.  I didn't spend quite as long sewing circles round the brim as I wanted to get it finished and worn so it's not quite as well sewn as the red hat.  You can see in the photo below the set up at the fabric hoarders Sunday sewing - lots of big long tables to spread out on!
Reversible as well.
Mr F looking very happy with his surprise green hat.
I was also pleased to finish a hat for Mr D.  I had thought about making this for a Christmas present but knew I would be pushed for time so I didn't mention it. I did wash the material and dry on the line outside so it was hard to keep the fact I was making something starwars a secret! This is the Escape hat by Angel Lea Designs.  via PDF.  I made two hats, the first one a uregntly needed painting hat, which meant I used what I had to hand, which was a tan woven and a tan stretch - not the easiest combination to sew together. I also cut out sew in interfacing rather than iron on and decided to use that. It didn't have quite the same body to it but it was in use straight away so can't have been too bad.


In usage about 2 mins after making!

I added the fabric band that was included but only on one side to see how it worked. It was good to try it out but since it added to the sewing time I didn't bother in the starwars version.

With the fabric band

With a peek of geek

Or all star wars
 Apparently its perfect for cricket watching. Now only need to make one for Mr J and myself and we are all set for summer!