Parachute polo dress

We had a little burst of spring weather a few weeks back that had me excited to sew again, and A was keen for a t-shirt dress with a shirt collar...

This is the Oliver + S Parachute Polo lengthened and flared to a dress. A quick and easy modification.

I used the View B "girl's sleeve', and the size 12 tracing that I already had after making P's grade 6 graduation outfit last year.

The fabric is an organic cotton knit from Nerida Hansen. It's a lovely soft cotton lycra. It was a pleasure to sew and has been washed and worn a few times already with no sign of fading or wear and tear.

The collar and pocket (accidentally made smaller than the pattern intends) was a cotton voile from the scraps bucket.

There was a little bit of the Nerida Hansen fabric left over and I wondered if it could be incorporated into the side panel of the Parachute sweatpants - since I had the pattern out already. I reached for a green ponte dress of mine that I've worn on occasion but never really liked (poofy sleeves, silly neckline etc)

There's no way the pieces of the green dress would fit on the pants pattern, but the colour match with the green leaves of the floral fabric was too goof to pass on. So, I thought why not just repurpose the skirt, exactly as it is and gather/attach it to a t-shirt top...

The top part is the some pattern from Ottobre Spring (1) 2014 that I'd made back here. It's a bit tighter in this thicker knit, and maybe cutting the front on the bias affected the fit of the original design? Anyway, it was super quick and used up some leftovers as well as clearing space in my closet. Win!  

Grade 6 Graduation

Today was the "graduation" day for P's grade 6 class. I'm yet to see or hear much about it, as we weren't able to attend in person, and I was working when the live video feed went up. But I do know what he wore, cause I made it...

The dress code was "smart casual" and he didn't really know what that meant.  We talked about whether he wanted to wear a suit - some kids did, or a button up shirt - he thought he might. But eventually he decided he wanted a t-shirt with a collar and his all time favourite cargo pants.

I was running low on fabrics suitable for pants, so I hit up the Brunswick stores and picked up this blue drill for just a few dollars. It's a cotton/synthetic (judging from the weird smell when ironed) and is sturdy but also lightweight enough to be summer long pants.

Then came the fabrics for the top which were picked from the stash. The pattern is the Oliver + S Parachute Polo shirt. It's a great pattern for a polo shirt using a woven fabric for the placket and collar. The only thing to note is that the interfacing on the back of the placket would be visible if it were worn wide open. I usually peel it back off to the edge of the placket after construction. I should just remember to cut a thinner strip.

The cotton for the placket and collar is a cute Zonen09 fabric from years ago that I purchased from Maaidesign and made this shirt.

I'd just seen Kylie and the Machine's new Sweary Sewist labels and P and I bought a pack from FibreSmith and agreed that we'd sneak a couple into his outfit.

He approved f the "I didn't fuck it up" label in the polo as it applied to both my sewing and his 7 years of primary school!

I did make him promise not to show anyone, but I'm not sure how well that worked out. The label that I put on the outside was this "Quality Shit" one, slipped into the pocket of his cargoes:

The Oliver + S Field Trip cargo pants are his all time favourite pants. I've just cut the bottoms off the two pairs that I made back here (and here), and turned them into shorts.

This pair are a size up from those (size 12) with 1" extra length mid thigh, and another 1&1/2" length at the hem. That pretty much puts us at the end of the pattern sizing. I'm not sure what's more alarming for me: his finishing primary school or his outgrowing the Oliver + S pattern sizing

Details:
Patterns: Oliver + S parachute Polo and Field trip cargo pants
Size: Shirt: Size 12 with 1" extra sleeve length beyond the short sleeve line
Pants: Size 12 with 1" length added mis thigh and 1&1/2" extra length at the ankle hem
Fabrics: Grey cotton lycra, Cotton lawn for collar, interfacing and buttons all from stash. Mystery synthetic/cotton drill from one of the shops on the east side of Sydney Rd

Name your poison....

It's the kids turn again. I can't recall what inspired me to suddenly make my son a hoodie just as summer was kicking off, but I did. Rebel, hey.

The fabric came to me via an Instagram friend who I recently met in real life - and who then went on to cross to the other side of the world and party with my brother - small world!

Back at book week costume making time, Erin had sent me a message asking if I might have one of those fancy closures that would look good on her son's hooded cloak costume. I didn't, but it so happened I was at a fabric shop at that very moment (yeah, what  are the chances, right?!) and I spotted some gold braid and figured I could try making one.

It was fun to do and when I handed it over, Erin gifted me this loop back terry sweater knit Poison fabric remnant. It's actually a really nice quality sweater knit and I'm pretty sure came from ClearIt. She figured there might be enough left for a hoodie.

I used the Rowan Tee by Titchy Threads with the only changes being to the pockets. I knew it would have to have pockets but wasn't keen on a kangaroo pocket as I didn't want to obscure the print. So I drafted some in seam pockets and then topstitched them in pace. I never would have thought I could do that but for the Building Block Dress Book which gives instructions for changes just like this one.

The ribbing is the excellent 2x2 Ottobre ribbing which is perfect for jumper/jacket weight garments. The hood I lined in a simple black cotton lycra from the stash and then I finished the front hood edge with a red/black cotton tape.

It's a straight size 10, and I suspect I cut the sleeve length at full length and then added cuffs as well, but that's just my concession to this boy's arm length. The only complaint would be that for a jumper or hoodie the sleeves run a bit narrow. Perfect for along sleeve tee, but a bit skimpy for a jumper.

I was careful in my cutting and as I looked at my remnants of the original remnant I just knew there was another garment in there....

...and I managed to eke out a pair of Parachute Track Pants in size 7 for A.

I thought it would be a terribly clever idea to do some faux flat lock stitching by overlocking the seams wrong side together and then stitching the seam allowances down. It turned out to be a nightmare as the printed parts of the fabric are quite plasticky and the overlocker could not move the fabric along at all. By covering the bottom of the overlocker's presser foot with washi tape, and lots of pushing I managed to get the fabric to feed along bearably.

The pattern doesn't have pockets but I had already made that adjustment when I first traced them off in size 7 for P's school pants. There's a blog post on the Oliver + S blog that talks though adding pockets to this pattern.

In all it was a fun diversion in sewing up some wacky fabric with some lovely patterns and making everyday staples I know the kids will wear a lot.

Carnival of the Animals: Part II - The Cheetah

Mean mum that I am, I vetoed my son's suggestion of a fake fur animal onesie to wear to the theatre tonight. But, for opening night of the Carnival of the Animals he was allowed to choose any animal for his clothes. He chose the cheetah.

 The original plan was for a pair of cheetah jeans. I'd hoped they'd be subtle enough to double for everyday wear. Scouring the interwebs I found endless cheetah print fabrics that were silks or chiffons but nothing that would be hard wearing enough for boys pants.

At The Fabric Store I found a great light grey / dark grey denim and bought some, but he declared it was very obviously jaguar, not cheetah - and then gave me a lecture on the difference. OK, stash the jaguar print and get back to searching for proper cheetah fabric.

I found this cotton sateen at Spotlight and thought if he could wear bold cheetah print then why not cheetah print with a slight sheen!

The pants are the Art Museum Trousers by Oliver + S. I threw in black topstitching everywhere I could to try and make them look more like jeans and less like Hugh Hefner's pyjama pants.

I didn't think to focus on them for a photo, but you can just see on the edge of the picture above that I put little pyramid rivets at the base of the slant pockets.

The welt pockets were initially almost invisible and so I stitched around them to give them some definition. This takes a little bit of thought to prevent yourself accidentally stitching the pocket closed. The stitching needs to be done in two sections: the top horizontal line first with maybe one stitch taken into the vertical line. Tie those threads off, then start again with the pocket lifted upwards and out of the way. Now you can topstitch the sides and the bottom of the welt.

The pattern suggests just one belt loop at the back slightly offset from the centre. There is enough of the belt loop tube to create two, so I always do.

The only other modification was to line the trousers:

It would be possible to sew the lining to the waistband facing, but I didn't think of that. I basted the lining to the trousers before attaching the waistband, then finished the waistband facing with some left over bias binding that was just the right rust colour.

On a city street the pants look pretty loud and out there, but up a tree they almost do look camouflaged!

They're a straight size 7 and this is one pants pattern that definitely does not need length added, they are very generous in the leg length.

Don't ask me about the modelling. He was working it! :)

The top is the Parachute Polo again which I'd made here as part of my practice run for this outfit. Same size, same extra sleeve length.

I thought I'd done a great job turning the collar and rolling it so that the upper collar was slightly over the under collar, but then when I topstitched it it all seemed to want to curl back up. The perfect collar really does need two separate pattern pieces for the under and upper collars but I would hardly be bothered with that for a kid's polo.

Like I said, don't ask, I just don't know! :)

I really like this polo as the placket can be mostly hidden which is a nice point of difference to my own polo experiment. I'm happy to say that both the trousers and the shirt have been worn on their own and are really not that hard to bear when mixed with other everyday clothes.

His mask was from the local party shop and I used fabric glue to cover it. Nice and easy!

Ready for some cheetah action?

I'm a bit of a culture snob when it comes to attending the theatre. It's definitely a nice dress or shirt with a collar type of place. I think my little cheetah is sufficiently well dressed and plenty animal enough!

Of course the cheetah had to chase the zebra a bit, but luckily just for hugs, not to eat her...

And then it all got a bit confusing as the cheetah was still giving the camera Blue Steel while the zebra started roaring too

We're off to the theatre in a few hours and tomorrow I'll share what I wore.... See you then

Book Week: Tom the Cabin Boy

Do you remember Captain Pugwash? 

NB: Quotes and illustrations are from various Captain Pugwash books by John Ryan

"Captain Pugwash was a pirate. He thought

himself the bravest, most handsome pirate

on the seven seas. Here is a portait of him."

 

Well, the Captain was a bumbling fool with a useless lazy crew, but...

"He had too, a cabin boy called Tom, and

this was lucky, because Tom was really the

only person aboard who knew how to work

the compass, sail the ship, and make the tea."

 

This week was Book Week and Thursday was dress up as a book character day at P's school. Without giving any thought to the weather P and I decided on our favourite Caribbean pirate cabin boy, Tom.

Before we go any further, let's just get the whole Roger rumour out of the way. Sure, there was a cheeky BBC televised cartoon of Pugwash and some of the crew had very risque names but Roger the Cabin Boy is a myth. Right, back to Tom...

 Tom wears a red and white striped T-shirt with wide stripes and a ragged pair of blue pants. So I set out to do just the same for my little cabin boy. Then we set sail for a photoshoot and he proved that he too could scrub the decks, turn the capstan and make the tea!

His pants were easy. Yep, I obviously just hacked up a pair of old school pants (seen here new). He'd already worn through the knees so they were destined to be turned into summer shorts anyway. 

The T-shirt took a bit more thought. I'd just made the Oliver + S Parachute Polo and it seemed the perfect starting point with its side hem splits and good fit.

 I was never going to find such wide striped fabric so I chopped the pattern up in order to join sections of red and white cotton lycra and get my stripe width just right. The sleeve stripes are slightly narrower in order to make them fit, but it looks like I could have just cut the sleeves a bit longer and kept it all the same after all. I wasn't working to the pattern sleeve length but just aiming for something longer than a regular T-shirt.

The only other change was the neckline. I kept the height of the original neckline front and back but squared it off. After drawing the rectangular neckline, I just copied that line to make a 1.5" wide facing. The facing is sewn with a straight stitch, so it loses any elasticity, but a quick check showed it would fit easily over his head. Phew.

After having had some pleasant spring weather the week before last, this week we were plunged back into winter. Thursday, dress up day, was one of the worst and it rained most of the day. Of course he did wear shoes to school, and layered up with a singlet and swim trunks underneath. He shivered bravely through the parade like any long suffering cabin boy and then wore his school jacket for the rest of the day.

Today we were gifted with another nice sunny day, and while the wind is still cold, it's starting to feel like spring is almost here.

We had a family outing to the Polly Woodside, which I'd never visited and Flipper had last been to as a school kid! We had a fun tour along with one other family and then plemty of time to take pictures afterwards with no -one else around.

The holds and below deck quarters were wonderfully restored. The kids were fascinated by the latrine and the "poo rope" (apparently a rough hemp rope is suitable for bottom wiping ?!) and the captain's quarters were decidedly luxurious. Not quite as impressive as Captain Pugwash's perhaps...

 The Ship's Mate who took our tour had all the kids scrubbing the decks. He inspected each kids work and praised them all. When he got to P, who was last in line, he jokingly barked that his work was terrible, a disgrace to his ship and crew. Everyone, including P, laughed. But a moment later I could see his chin trembling and the little gulping movements of trying really hard not to cry. Oh, he wouldn't last a day at sea, this sensitive little creature of mine.

But he's nothing if not resilient. Only a few moments later he was telling the Ship's Mate slash Tour Guide all about Tom. How he's the one who always saves the day and rescues the ship and its crew. And then how it was Book Week, how he is Tom, and his mum made his costume. 

Then, not to be outdone, A pipes up about how I made her hat and coat too. Bless them both! :)

Sadly, we weren't allowed to send him up the rigging - he seriously would have loved to climb the mast - but he did have fun hamming it up for photos and this was a rare photoshoot were the kid keeps directing the photographer to "take one more like this". 

We got some pretty hammy poses, but I also love the skyscrapers that are rising out of the sea to starboard!

I had a lot of fun with this. I love books, love costumes and love sewing. We all had a few nights worth of dinner table conversations about book characters. What is literature and what counts as a book character. We all agreed that colouring book style merchandise from a film does NOT count as a book. There were too many ideas to keep track of them all for next year. Just one point to remember and that is to consider the weather.

Parachuting into the Art Museum

Some time ago, Sarvi (who's dress I just made) made the suggestion that those of us who sew Oliver + S patterns should endeavour to photograph our kids wearing the garment and doing the activity that the pattern is named for.

And then Liesl, with delicious humour, went and released a pattern called the Parachute Polo and Sweatpants. I've already made the pants here, but today I'm teeming the Parachute Polo shirt with the Art Museum Trousers. That would make for a hilarious Mission Impossible style photoshoot at the gallery. Or we could just ham it up at home instead...

Let's talk trousers first.

I've made the trousers only once before and they're still in rotation as school pants. The old ones were a lengthened size 4 and are getting pretty slim fitting. These are a straight size 7. No, there's no sound reasoning behind my jumping 3 sizes. I almost never get around to measuring the kids and apart from sleeve length I know they're pretty much smack on the age sizing in Oliver + S patterns.

The trousers are generously long and kind of an old fashioned trouser fit. By that I mean there's room in the crotch and hips but they're relatively narrow in the upper thigh. Exactly the kind of pants that I can't wear but that small boys wear very well!

I used some of my little iron on faux rivets and a single line of edgestitching on the pockets and seams. Sewn in a stretch denim they've come out as a halfway between casual jeans and more dressy trousers.

The great part of this pattern is the instructions for sewing welt pockets. I didn't sew the world's neatest welts here but they're not too bad and they really aren't half as hard as they seem.

Barely visible in the photo above are the belt loops which P loves. Completely unseen are the pocket bags and waistband facing which I cut from a light tan coloured cotton that formerly was a pudding cloth. Even though it had been washed, as I was ironing the seams the pants began to smell slightly Christmassy and very delicious!

 The Parachute Polo shirt is designed to be made in knit with a woven collar and placket, but it works perfectly well if use the knit all round!

This is a pretty stable knit and behaved quite well, although trying to neatly edgestitch a knit collar is not quite as easy as woven collar. I failed for the record. But couldn't be bothered making it any neater.

If your sewing machine doesn't like knit buttonholes then you'd certainly want to leave off the one that's right near the edge of the band portion of the collar. Otherwise you can do it exactly as per the pattern. Or can you?...

It was only as I was finishing the placket and was unsure about the length of my placket (the very next step said to trim any overhanging length) that I checked the forum and pattern for errata. There was quite a bit of discussion about how the collar fitted and an errata was issued to help with any trouble.  Too late for me as I'd already cut everything, but the errata finished by saying that if you follow the pattern it still works anyway.

I couldn't really understand what the problem had been and so the remedy didn't make a lot of sense and it worked perfectly when I did it as per the instructions. I'm still none the wiser. I've already cut another one and it will also be done as per the original pattern.

Nailed that sleeve length! The shirt is size 7 with 2&3/4" added to the sleeves. They probably don't run short but this kid has ultra long arms.

The only thing I do want to change for the next one I've cut out is where the interfacing on the back of the placket is positioned. It was very visible on the inside of the underneath placket. I've peeled it back and trimmed it right close to the edge of the placket, but if he was to wear it completely unbuttoned there'd be an ugly, visible strip of white interfacing on show. Is that what the errata was about?

I hadn't intended for these to be worn together, but he's chosen to do it that way each time they've been worn, and I'm kind of digging the autumnal colours. Honestly, it's almost springtime here and I should probably be getting excited about other colours but I just love these earthy tones all year round!

Both of these garments were needed, but were also test runs before making some others. That will be a more mad fabric that could prove to be quite an eyeful.

A fairy attempted to photobomb the shoot and was mostly smothered. Another will visit tonight to pay out on the first ever lost tooth! Last ever photo with a full complement of baby teeth: