kcwc day 2 - simple sweatpants

Ok, so nothing glamorous here.

Just a pair of sweatpants that were very much needed by my 4 1/2 year old boy. Lately he's been totally into comfy pants (when he was younger he only wanted to wear jeans), and the few pairs we have are about 3 inches and 2 sizes too small. So, I decided to whip up a pair with some fleece from my fabric stash.

I was kind of lazy with these pants and didn't bother finishing any seams. But hey, you can do that with knits, right? I also made these after C went to bed so I wanted to try them on him first before I invested too much time in making them all neat and tidy. Here are the details:

Pattern - New Look 6746 view A pants, size 5. Originally I was going to just copy a pair on sweatpants he already owned, but as I mentioned, the only sweats he had were 2 sizes too small. So I decided to try using this pajama pant pattern I had on hand and just add the ankle elastic and, Voila! Sweatpants!

Fabric - Gray heather fleece from my stash. I know this isn't 100% cotton but I'm not really sure what the blend is. It's suuuper soft and cozy though which I know C will appreciate :) I also added a little Japanese linen twill tape with a cute monkey on it so we can easily tell the front from the back.

General Thoughts - Again, another super easy and quick project. Two pattern pieces and sewn with a knit fabric so no seam finishes. Sewing time was probably just about an hour after the cutting out the fabric pieces. The only thing I'd do different is to add a little extra room in the butt area when folding down and sewing the waistband to make them even more comfy.  But, C does seem to love these so I'm calling this a success! Hooray hurrah!

 

And on a side note, check out yesterday's twirl skirt in action

a japanese pattern book GIVEAWAY!

It's been a little damp and dreary over here on the West coast so I thought I would shake things up a bit with a 'chase-the-November-gloom-away', 'pre-holiday-celebration', 'thanks-for-reading-my-blog' GIVEAWAY!!

If you've been reading this blog for a little while, you may know that I have a bit of a thing for Japanese sewing pattern books. Aside from the lovely, creative photography and detailed, (relatively) easy to follow instructions, I find the actual clothing style to be the perfect balance between classic folksy and ultra modern. Oh, I love it so!

Back in June, I was super excited to find that Vancouver actually has a used Japanese book store that sells a small selection of these books (which I blogged about here). Although there are now quite a few places that sell these books online, it really is nice to be able to flip through the pages and kind of 'size-up' the patterns to see if they are actually doable. Some are definitely more detailed and easier to follow than others. So during my last trip there, I came across this awesome book (which is apparently now out of print).

I already own this book (picked it up the last time I was there), but loved it so much I thought it would be pretty cool to buy this one to offer as a giveaway. Now I admit, I haven't actually made anything from this particular book yet, but sereral patterns are on my to-sew list (which is getting pretty long..). The instructions (words are written in Japanese but there are a LOT of diagrams/pictures) look very clear and detailed and I think this would be a great book for an advanced beginner sewer who has had some experience sewing simple garments. The size range is from 90-130cm which would be approximately a size 3T to a 6 (if I'm wrong and someone knows the actual conversion, please let me know!), and there is a good mix of patterns for girls and boys (yay! more cool boy patterns!!) There are 26 patterns in total. And although this came from the used bookstore, it is in pretty perfect condition with the pattern sheet still intact and unopened (I'm thinking this was just purchased from somewhere as overstock..)



So, are you in? To enter, simply leave a comment below. Anything (nice) will do but make sure I have a way of contacting you if you win :) One entry per person (with the exception of the 'hoop-jumping' below..) I'm going to leave this contest open for a little while until end of day Sunday, November 27th (as I'll be a busy bee for the next week and a half doing last minute sewing for this market) and will have the good old Random Number Generator pick the winner on the following Monday. This is also open to anyone, anywhere in the world (with a legit mailing address of course).

And now for the 'hoop-jumping'..

For up to 3 more entries you can:

-follow my blog

-follow me on twitter (I'd love it if you tweeted about this post but not necessary for the extra entry)

-follow me on facebook (same as above, I'd be super happy if you shared this post but it's not necessary for the extra entry)

For each additional entry, please leave an extra comment below so it gets counted.

And there you go.

(and for all you local folk, another little reminder about this market coming up very soon on Nov 26-26!! Hope to see some of you there!)

bloomers and a cape

A friend of mine recently gave birth to a sweet little baby girl so I thought I would whip up some bloomers as a gift.

The pair on the left was made with the Bloomers pattern from Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter and the pair on the right was made with the Diaper Cover tutorial from the ever so awesome MADE blog. Both were fairly simple to whip up and they are both pretty darn cute!

I do think I prefer the idea of just rolling up the fabric to form the casing as instructed in the Diaper Cover pattern as opposed to using a bias tape/strip to make the casing as in the Bloomers pattern. It's easier and looks just as good. And if you use a soft, fuzzy flannel, the leg-holes stay nice and soft. It's funny how both are the smallest 0-3mo size but one pair looks like a full brief and the other a bikini. I guess the choices start early!

Next up is a cape I custom made for a 5 year old boy who LOVES red and Batman.

Here is big C modeling it. I made it with another shirt collar from my stash of UPcycled Shirt Dress leftovers, same as the other super hero cape I made over here. I'm sure I'm not the first person to use shirt collars for capes, but I have to say, I'm pretty smitten with the idea and I love that another part of the shirt can be used for something fun as opposed to being tossed in a landfill. Now I just have to come up with something to make with the cuffs. Ideas anyone..?

Btw, please pardon my rather crappy pictures. I tend to take most of my pictures with my iPhone (or more recently Android phone) because, well, it's just always right there. I really have to get myself organized and start taking proper pictures..