Monthly Roundup: April 2012 and KCWC

April was kind of a random month, but I did get a lot done.

I sewed:
1) Simplicity 2614 blouse for me
2) New Look 6587 dress for me
3) My Image Winter 2010/11 M1003 cardigan for me
4) Simple Apron for charity
5) Kickin' Back Sweats for Logan
6) Gertie's Modern Crinoline for me
7) McQueen knockoff skirt for me
8) Burda 7189 dress for me
9) Ottobre 03/2008-29 tee for Logan
10) Ottobre 03/2011-6 tee for Duncan
11) Ottobre 03/2006-12 shorts for Duncan
12) Ottobre 03/2009-23 shorts for Logan
13) Simplicity 2377 dress for Myra

That is a total of 13 items, 17 1/8 yards, with 10 5/8 yards from stash. I may have done a bit of shopping this month. Some of it was wedding dress related, so it will get sewn soon. The ugly total - 39 1/2 yards. Ouch! The next couple of months will need to be wedding dress only shopping.

I did a lot of goal related sewing this month as well. I finally sewed my LBD!! Thank you, Lori and Lynne for the motivation with the Wardrobe Basics SAL! I really think that some of my best and most versatile garments sewn to date have come from the SAL sewing. In fact, I am wearing two of the pieces as I type. I also sewed one of my SISC garments - Simplicity 2614. I have 6 more projects on my SISC list, so I'm going to get cracking on the spring/summer ones. I think Vogue 1050 is next up.

I also finally participated in the KCWC at elsie marley. I've been wanting to do this for the last few years, and this time I just decided to do it, despite a ton of other things going on, both in and out of the sewing room. My sweet hubby was unbelievably supportive. He always is, but this was above and beyond. I didn't even tell him about the challenge. He read about it here on the blog, and all week kept sending me off to the sewing room to sew. I would have never managed the hour per day without his help, but I ended up sewing 10 hours and 35 minutes over the course of the week. Thank you, honey!! I finished up the projects that I originally planned, which was one outfit per child, two knit tees, two pair of twill cargo shorts and a plisse dress. It was really fun to sew along. There were some truly spectacular projects sewn. Be sure to check out the Flickr group.

For May, I definitely have Spring fever! I'm planning some more warm weather gear for the kids, particularly Duncan, as the poor boy has no summer clothes. I've also been seriously crushing on the brightly colored maxi skirts I've been seeing on Pinterest and around blogland.

I'm thinking I need a pink one. Lace and stripes are haunting my brain as well.

I particularly like the stripes with a contrast yoke. Maybe not neon yellow, but I like the idea.

And I definitely need some gingham in my life. Like, now. I really like the scale of this one. Not huge but not teeny. Erg. Maybe I need some fabric after all...

And of course, my big project over the next couple of months will be a fabulous wedding dress! I'll keep you posted as that evolves. I'm still collecting fabrics and notions at this point. Anyone have a favorite place for bridal notions?

Simplicity 2377

Myra isn't desperate for clothing, but I didn't want to leave her out of KCWC, so I made her a quick peasant dress with my favorite pattern of this style, Simplicity 2377.

The fabrics are "Tutti Frutti" plisse from Joann. They are a cotton poly blend, and I am really a fan of them for children's clothing. The cotton allows them to be cool and comfortable, but there is just enough poly to make the garment wrinkle resistant and hard wearing.

I had a really hard time capturing the color accurately today. The sun washed the color out in the modeled shots, but they aren't quite as dark as the hanger shots. Myra chose the fabrics, herself - sort of. There was a sample dress at the store and she went crazy. She actually brought me the bolts of fabric and insisted that she had to have that dress.

I added a little polka dot ribbon to the bodice. I am pleased with the layout, since I managed to center the floral butterfly nicely at center front, and could frame it with the ribbons. I also deviated from the pattern for the sleeve finish. The pattern calls for cased elastic at the sleeve hem, but I like a little ruffle, so I hemmed the sleeve and used two rows of elastic shirring to gather the sleeve 3/4 inch above the hem.

I also lengthened the dress a total of three inches. I added 1 1/2 inches to each tier to balance the addition and keep the proportions even. Myra likes her dresses long and twirly and I like that it'll take a while to outgrow it.

This is the last garment I had planned for the Kid's Clothes Week Challenge, but I still have a day to go! I'm thinking I'll start on another pair of shorts for Duncan and see how far I get.

Ottobre 03/2006-12

The KCWC is going great so far! Thanks to my sweet hubby, I have managed to sew at least an hour each day and I have caught up from missing Monday, so that is great. I just finished the most complicated of the projects I have planned for the week - Duncan's cargo shorts.

The pattern is Ottobre 03/2006-12, which is the same pattern that I used for his Easter shorts. This time, you can actually see all of the cool details, since I used a high contrast thread for topstitching.

The front has a nonfunctional fly, which is tacked down with decorative bar tacks. There are hip pockets, also topstitched, which are fully functional. For these I used a tip from Sandra Betzina's Power Sewing and cut out the pocket bags with the pocket opening on the straight grain, which puts the pocket bag on the bias. This gives you a nice stable pocket opening that won't stretch out of shape as well as a bit of give in the pocket itself.

From the side you can see the cute cargo pocket that I didn't use on the dressier pair. The pocket has little darts at the lower corners that add fullness. I used a square of velcro as a closure. Don't all boys love velcro? Rrrrrrip! I also added a couple of appliques from the Mater tee shirt fabric. Since they're knit, I just stitched them on without finishing the edges. Boy clothes are fun like that.

On the back, there are plain patch pockets. I added another small applique to one. All of my topstitching was done with a twin needle on my vintage Singer. She had a bit of trouble sewing this fabric at first, which is unlike her. I realized about halfway through that the presser foot pressure was turned up from 4 to 7. No wonder she was pulling on the fabric so hard! Once I lightened that up, she did fine. I pivoted the corners with my twin needle using this tutorial.

The fabric I used is a stretch twill that I think came from Hancock. It's been in the stash a while. It has a nice bit of stretch, which I hope makes these comfy. I've a coordinating pair for Logan cut out, and should have that to show you soon.

Ottobre 03/2008-29 & 03/2011-6

Well, after a slow start, I'm getting some things done for KCWC. I started with the tee shirts for the boys, mostly because Logan has been really excited about the Mater fabric I found for him.

Here are my cuties in their coordinating shirts! The fabric is a cotton interlock from Print Knit Studio. It's a nice sturdy knit, but still soft. Perfect for kid's clothes. The ribbing is cotton rib knit from Fabric.com. I debated what color to use for the ribbing and binding. None of the blues I had seemed quite right, so I let Logan choose. He surprised me with the red! I really like it. So much so that I coverstitched all the hems with red as well.

Logan's shirt is from the 03/2008 issue of Ottobre. This was my first issue ever and I have sewn a ton from it. This is the first time for this particular shirt though. It is a basic tee with slightly forward shoulder seams, a rib knit neck band and stitched hems. The neckline is a little larger on this one, which is actually good for Logan, as he has a pretty large head and small necklines freak him out. It has a relaxed fit, which Logan also prefers. I did add 3/4 inch to the length of the sleeve. They looked a little short to me, and I think they were. The finished length here is just about right.

For Duncan, I used #6 from the 03/2011 issue of Ottobre. It is photographed in pink on a baby girl, but it looked like a good boy shirt to me. It is a sleeveless tee with an envelope style neckline. It is a great fit on Duncan without alterations. Since all of the neckline and sleeve edges are finished with binding, this was a super fast sew on the serger and coverstitch machine. It only has the two side seams to sew! Everything else is bound. I'm definitely going to make Duncan a few more of these.

Silly boys!

I did want to add just a little note about sizing in general. I've noticed that the newer issues of Ottobre (after about 2009) have a much closer fit, while the older issues are much more generously sized. You can really see that in play in these two tees. Both boys fall between sizes based on their chest and waist measurements. For both boys I used the larger size. Logan's tee (from a 2008 issue) is quite loose fitting with a slightly dropped shoulder line. Duncan's top (from 2011) has a very snug fit and the shoulder is right at his shoulder point. So, for those who sew with Ottobre, just be aware that the older back issues do tend to have a bit more ease built in to them. If you are looking for a closer fit, go with a style from a newer issue or size down

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Kids Clothes Week! and some catchup

Tomorrow begins the Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at Elsie Marley. This is the third year she is hosting this challenge. I've wanted to participate before, but was always swamped with other things. This year, I am still swamped, but I decided to go for it anyway. My kids need stuff.

The official challenge is to sew 1 hour per day, 7 days a week. Obviously the plan is to sew kid's clothes during that week, which I really do need to do, particularly for my poor neglected boys. My plan is to make one outfit per child. Both boys will get cargo shorts and short sleeve tees, and Myra will get a dress (that counts as an outfit, right?) I'm not sure I'll crank all of that out in a week, but I know that once I start I will finish, and that's what counts here! I don't generally keep track of my sewing time, but I think it would be fun, in the spirit of the challenge, to be sure I really do log at least an hour a day. I'll report back how it went once the week finishes. What are your bets? Over or under??

Before I start the kids stuff though, I have to finish my LBD! All it needs is a sleeve, side seams, hems and buttons. Hopefully, I can get that knocked out Monday morning and dedicate the rest of the week to the kiddos. LBD sewing time won't count for the challenge, so getting my hour in on Monday might be tricky...