See You At Six pullover

I've always quite liked this particular See You At Six French terry, and when it went on sale on Cup Day at Fibresmith I snapped some up.

It's a lovely neutral green-grey colour (Climbing Ivy Green) with black print that says "Growing Ideas in the Garden of Your Mind". His little sister thinks that's creepy cause it's growing ideas in your mind, as in the mind of the person who reads the words on your sweater. She thinks it should read my mind.

I bought some of the matching ribbing and quickly and easily sewed up a Jalie 3355 just like the one I'd made in June for his birthday.

Rather than just do the stitching at the neckline, I figured it wouldn't hurt to add a little section of the ribbing as a sort of applique and then stitch it down. My regular sewing machine was off having a service, so I had to make do with the decorative stitches on the back up Toyota machine. There wasn't one that really looked like what I wanted, but I guess this one still looks alright.

The modelling shoot was kind of funny. First, we decided it was best not to sit in such a way that drew attention to the big scab on your knee...

Then there was some elaborate dance routine that would probably be recognisable to anyone less unhip than I am...

Which ended with him giving himself the giggles....

There you go. Cute kid .New long sleeved top. Enough said.

Details:
Pattern: Jalie 3355
Size: O - no modifications
Fabric: See You At Six French terry from Fibresmith, matching ribbing

Mid winter break - Jalie 2678

We've had the most incredibly cold weekend here in Melbourne, so it must be time to post some beachwear to the blog, right?

Back in June, the kids went up North for some sunshine and beach fun during the school holidays (thanks granny!) while Flipper and I stayed home and worked, and enjoyed the serenity. I'd only just sewn A her swimmers for the That Sewing Blab podcast and decided P needed some boardshorts. Enter Jalie 2678

I already had the grey and gold fabrics in the stash and I've genuinely forgotten where they came from. Then, as part of the Sewing Blab thing I won a voucher for The Remnant Warehouse and I added the very dark brown fabric to the stash. They didn't describe their fabric as boardshort fabric but it feels the same as the other two.

Boardshort fabric is lightweight, brushed, microfleece polyester. It seems to be widely available every where BUT Australia. There are lots of prints, but trying to find any locally, or any solid colours, or any from anywhere other than the US (bad Aussie dollar and huge shipping costs) proved to be really hard. I'm holding out hope that Joelle's might have some but I always seem to be free on weekdays when her shop decides not to open.

The sewing was all great and fun until I came to the instructions for the coin pocket on the inside. They simply didn't make sense. I eventually figured out what had to happen and decided there was an error in the pattern.

I emailed Jalie, and I'm happy to say they have issued an errata notice and updated their instructions. The cool thing about Jalie patterns is that even if you have an older printed version of the pattern, you can still download and print the instructions. Go help yourself to the new, corrected instructions.

There's a picture of the shorts inside out showing the successful coin pocket.

Here's an extract of my email about the error in case you've come here by searching for help with Jalie 2678 coin pocket (I love the idea that anyone ever finds my blog by typing "what the $#%^& is up with pattern number *** step ***")

{introduction and pleasantries}...

The 12th bullet pointed instruction says: 

- Fold pocket flap wrong side together (fig. 17). Pin flap to wrong side of pocket piece with eyelet (fig. 18)

And the illustrations show exactly this, with the pocket piece WRONG side up.

The very next step has you place the other pocket piece face down on top of the pinned eyelet pocket and flap:

- Pin hemmed piece over flap (fig. 19) and stitch (fig. 20). turn right side out.

Yet the illustration for this step now shows the eyelet pocket piece RIGHT side up. Contradicting the step before it.

In order to create the pocket with the flap outside the pocket and protecting the open edge it is necessary to follow the second, correct instruction not the first.

That is, the first instruction should read as follows:

- Fold pocket flap wrong side together (fig. 17). Pin flap to right side of pocket piece with eyelet (fig. 18)

And fig.18 needs to be corrected to show the eyelet pocket piece RIGHT side up.

{closing flattery and sign off}

And then moments after sending that message I went to attach my pocket to the shorts and almost sewed it closed. The top hem of the pocket needed to have been folded down twice. That resulted in another email and another correction to the instructions:

{awkward further pleasantries}

In the 11th bullet point instruction we are instructed to hem the top edge of the non-eyeleted pocket piece by 1cm. It is unclear whether that is a 1cm single fold hem, or a narrow double fold hem, but it would imply that only 1cm of the pocket edge is folded.

When one goes to attach the pocket a few steps later (fig. 21), the hemmed pocket opening would be stitched closed.

In order to not catch the pocket opening in the waist seam the hemmed edge of the pocket needs to be at least a 1.5cm seam, but would be safer as a 2cm hem. This would still be well covered by the pocket flap. Is the original hem instruction intending a double fold of 1cm, ie using a 2cm hem allowance?

{apologies for nitpickiness and sign off}

I had a look on sewing pattern review dot com and found quite a few people who had reviewed the pattern had commented on the pocket not working, or they had left it off altogether. The same on the Jalie website and the reviews there. I was happy to be the bolshie one who was convinced it wasn't me getting it wrong, or at least convinced enough to stick my neck out. You're welcome! :)

Thanks to my mother in law for sending me these snaps of the shorts being worn. What do you do when your little sister photobombs you like that?

Bury her of course!

I'm off to that very same beach myself tomorrow.

I'm going for a conference of course so I'm sure I'll have no fun at all. ;)

Jalie 3355 - birthday jumper

I've got so many things to catch up with on the blog and feel the need for a quick, simple one...

Two days before his 11th birthday, P was moaning about how nobody was making enough of a fuss and he doubted he'd "even get a homemade T-shirt this year". Well, as soon as I heard what a "special tradition" that was I thought I'd better give him his lousy birthday sweater after all!

Two nights before his birthday I quickly traced off the pullover from Jalie 3355 and rummaged through the stash for sweater knits and ribbing.

All three of these fabrics had only just enough for the this sweater and nothing left and they seemed to go together nicely so the cutting was done.

Then, of course, I decided it needed some kind of decoration. I found a bike chain love heart image on the web and used my (still) on loan Silhouette Cameo to cut it from iron-on vinyl. It was fiddly to place all the bits and iron it on, but it's kinda cool and he liked it.

To be honest, part of the reason I had put off making him anything was that I had already put in a purchase order for this sweater from Fyxo, with it's amusingly ambiguous bike love slogan.

But, it hadn't arrived in time. (I know, I could have made it myself, but I like to support people with cool ideas, and Andy has so many cool ideas!)

And as you can see, when it did arrive it had an extra bit of printing that I hadn't expected and so really should have been my bike love sweater! :) He got that one too and adores it.

I got a little bit fancy with the Jalie pattern and added a back neck binding using the instructions from the Basic InsTinct Tee.

And then I added one of Kylie and the Machine's cool labels in the side seam. I wish I'd thought to iron it straight first, as I stitched it in straight but it was folded/printed slightly crooked. Tiny details that weren't going to slow me down the night before the birthday.

I'm very happy with the fit of this pullover pattern. I made size O, with no adjustments, not even to sleeve length. It's so great to know that I have a pattern company that I can pretty much pick a size and make it and it fits the kids perfectly. I mucked up the sizing a bit on my Jalie for adults pattern sewing, but that's entirely my fault and is another blog post to come. It involves cool things and bike love too, so worth waiting for in my opinion! :)

Field Trip Raglans

Along with new trousers, P was in need of some long sleeved Ts for winter.

If you've read even one blog post about sewing for this kid you'll know it's all about sleeve length :) That's certainly the first thing that is outgrown with every long sleeved t-shirt. I should just shorten last year's winter tops to make next year's summer Ts - mental note to self.

These T-shirts are the Field Trip Raglan T in size 10, traced off when I had the pattern out to make the pants. If I remember rightly I added about 2" of extra sleeve length, but I should make the note to myself that this pattern does not run as short in the sleeves as the School Bus t-shirt. I can easily add about 3-4" to that one!

Both fabrics were lovely gifts from Sarah  (@fabrictragic) who had received them through an error in ordering and was allowed to keep them. They weren't her thing and she was intending to take them along to the Fabric ReStash Melbourne. When she heard I wasn't coming she pulled these couple of fabrics (and another) aside for me. She picked right as they're perfect for my kind of kid sewing. P loves them!

Both fabrics are merino wool blends. This blue one is a kind of double knit with a thin blue merino knit backed onto a slightly ribbed white weave knit.

I decided to use the reverse side of the fabric for the pocket and neckband. Then I thought it might be fun to give it a distressed edge look. The pocket is cut without the seam allowances and while the top edge is finished the other edges are just stitched on with a twin needle and left raw.

It took a bit of thinking to work out how to do the neckband and not have the lumpy seam inside the folded neckband. The neckband was sewn into a loop and then attached to the top, right sides together with only one of the neckbands raw edges sewn with the overlocker. Then the seam allowances were pressed away from the neckband and the neckband folded to the outside to cover the seam. This was then twin needle stitched in place.

It's a fun look and is no more fiddly than a regular overlock then twin needle stitch.

The orange fabric is more of an athletic knit. It came from the same store and is also a merino wool blend. The reverse side of this one has a very fine loop back finish. Similar to  loop back terry but with much tinier and closer together loops. I think it's very much designed for sportswear. I suspect it will be hard wearing, nice and warm and easy to spot in a crowd - that is to say, perfect for dressing a 10 year old boy!

No pocket or tricky finishes for this one, but the hems and neckband have a bit of rust brown topstitching.

I'm a big fan of raglan t-shirts as they're so easy to sew together. Quick and simple and well fitting and made with free fabric. Can't beat that.

Finishing up with a blurry photo out-take inspired by having watched the World Cup and seeing the defensive wall in a penalty shoot out:

Field Trip Cargo Pants

The second pair of pants I made for the kid with the cold ankles are the Oliver + S Field Trip Cargo pants.

It's been years since I made these pants for him. I use the raglan T-shirt from this pattern all the time, but I've only made him the pants twice before and once for his sister.

I consulted with him about the pattern and then went ahead and ignored his request to not put the cargo pockets on the side. He was good natured about it and we've agreed that the pattern can be a base for some school pants without cargo pockets another day.

The pockets are just really fun. They're constructed with sort of bellows at the edges so they really are as three dimensional as they look in these pictures. It had been a few years and I couldn't help myself but make them again.

Of course they add a fair bit of work to some already quite involved pants. The front is three panels with nice darts at the knee and lots of edgestitched and topstitched seams.

The back has two parts to the leg and regular patch pockets. The waistband is finished with a facing and belt loops and there's an easy to sew faux fly.

I made the size 10 with size 12 length. I only adjusted the length below the crotch seam so the rise and waist height is still that of the size 10. It was a bit confusing to get all the leg panel pieces the right length but luckily everything lined up. They're suitably long and could possibly do with the cuff being turned up once.

Mostly they are long because they're sitting a bit low on his waist. The main pitfall of sewing after dark (lack of sleep notwithstanding) is that I end up guessing at waistband elastic length. He tells me these are a bit loose. Thankfully not so loose that I'm compelled to unpick the casing and change anything. (thanks kid)

The fabric is a heavy duty something (poly/cotton maybe) that I picked up at Eliza's Fabrics for $3/metre. I intended to use it to muslin pants for me or Flipper but it looked perfect for these cargo pants. It's quite wide, so I suspect these are only about $4.50 worth of pants. Although double that figure for the amount of thread that gets used!

Details:
Pattern: Oliver + S Field Trip Cargo Pants
Size: 10 width, 12 length
Fabric: mystery poly/cotton home dec weight 
Notions: thread, elastic, button (for decoration)

NB: It turns out Blogger had some technical bug with commenting when EU privacy laws changed. I have finally found the solution to being notified that comments have been made and are awaiting approval, but sadly all comments now seem to come from a no-reply@blogger address so replying directly to you is getting harder. I'll keep working on it.... or change hosting services.....
Shelley xx

Burda 9406 - cool kid pants

So given the whole point of this blog is to remind me of the fittings and foibles of patterns this blog post should be a big F for fail, but the pants are so cool it's a self rated A+ (as always ;))

The boy was getting about in last year's trousers and there was a disconcerting amount of ankle on show! I knew with school holidays coming up I was either going to see a lot of school uniform trackpants, or those exposed ankles... or I was going to have to sew some new pants.

I jumped in with another pair of Burda 9406 jeans. This time in the largest size, size 10, sewing View B which is the longer length , intended to be rolled up at the ankle.

I'd previously made the size 8 with 9 length and they're now comfortably fitting his 7 year old sister, so these are proper fitted jeans. Sadly, the size 10 is as large as this pattern goes.

View B has these larger, low slung back pockets that belie the fact that it's still quite a well fitted crotch seam. Kids can have the appearance of dude pants without the saggy, dropped crotch reality!

The bit that is unchanged between the sizes and views is that the zipper recommended length is still too long (4 inches would be fine, don't bother with a 5" zipper as instructed) and the fly shield is still too short (add ta least an inch to the fly shield length). And that's exactly what I found the first time I made them, and forgot to amend the second time also.

I'm loving these on him so much that I might try and make another pair this year before he outgrows the pattern. Let's see if, for the final time, I can heed my own warning and get the zipper and fly shield length amended and right. Don't hold your breath.

The pattern shows the cuff being rolled considerably, whereas these are just turned up once. Maybe I'll add even more length to the next pair so that they can be double rolled this year, cuffed next year and regular hem the following year. That would be winning at lazy mum sewing. Just have to remember not to overfeed him in the meantime.

The fabric for these is a navy, brushed drill from Rathdowne Fabrics. I usually buy any hard wearing navy fabrics when I find them cheaply as it's school uniform pants/skirt colour and so these pants can double as school uniform pants for those winter days when the washing hasn't been kept up to schedule.

With its soft, moleskin like face it's a really nice fabric anyway and I'd happily have a pair of jeans made out of this. Maybe I just stockpile nice fabrics and then find reasons for having bought them...

I can't say what a difference it makes seeing the kids in clothes that fit. It's only now, that I'm insanely busy with other projects that I realise he needs more pants. I've cut and sewn one other pair that I'll share next, but then he has to get back in line and wait a while.

Details:
Pattern: Burda 9406, View B
Size: Straight size 10
Modifications: NEED to lengthen the fly shield by about 1"
Fabric: Brushed navy drill
Notions: Buttonhole elastic, buttons, jeans button, NEEDS 4" zip (not 5" as specified)

Double Knit Double Dipped

Let's not ask who wore it best, OK?

When it comes to modelling sewn garments for the blog, the champion in our house is this kid. He schools the rest of us every. single. time.

It's the same wonderful and weird, double sided poly knit from Fabric Deluxe.

The pattern is my go to T-short pattern for the kids: The Oliver + S School Bus T-shirt

I went with the size 10 again and added the usual 15cm of sleeve length. Yes, you read that right, 15cm! I'm perfectly prepared to concede my kids are monkey-like in their arm length, but I'm sure this pattern must also have shortish sleeves. Don't tell me I'm the only one who adds length to the sleeves on this one?...

For a bit of fun I sewed the neckband using the reverse orange side of the double knit. The pattern has a standard round crew neck, but my tutorial for sewing a V neck is right here. It's super easy and looks great. Also, kinda handy when the fabric has less stretch than a regular t-shirt fabric and you want to make your neck-hole a bit more generous.

Not much more to say about a t-shirt, but he can model it with his skateboard....

And only gets caught out looking silly when I say he has a spot on his face....

I'm sewing the other colour of this fabric now, and it's looking great. Come on over to the inner west and get some. The coffee is awesome over here too.

Jalie 2213 - Anorak time

Do you ever make something, thoroughly enjoy making it, literally gasp when you see your kid wear it, and then have them declare it is THE BEST THING EVER? No, me neither, at least not often...

But just sometimes....

The pattern is Jalie 2213, a now out of print anorak pattern that I got in paper format from Sew Squirrel a little while ago.

P had a store bought jacket that was navy and red (school colours) and that served very well on the cold morning bicycle commute to school. He had outgrown it and his sister gets it now that he has a new jacket to wear. It all came about when I found this fabric at Spotlight....

It's a two-layer, bonded fabric: Navy showerproof nylon outer and a red, microfleece inner. If you have a good memory you're probably shouting at the screen and reminding me that I already have a huge cut of windproof two sided navy/red fleece in my stash (used here) and you're right. But this is a bit showerproof as well as being a whole lot lighter and easier to sew. Totally justifiable.

The pattern is an absolute delight. I find the drafting of Jalie patterns to be spot on. The pattern pieces are always very well marked and match up perfectly. I've made size N as per his measurements with no alterations whatsoever.

That bears repeating. No alterations. This is the kid that I usually add anywhere from 5 to 15cm to sleeves in order to have them reach his wrists. The sleeve is largely part of the the top panel and is generous in both width and length. The combination of generous sleeve length and that shirt tail back hem make it ideal for winter cycling.

The bottom hem can be tightened with an elastic drawcord and toggle to keep the wind from getting in from underneath!

The front pocket is one big kangaroo type pocket with zippers under those storm flaps. I struggled to find zippers I liked and eventually had Jimmy at Jimmy's Buttons shorten some navy zippers for me. It turns out that the pattern requires you to trim the front yoke zipper anyway, so the lesson is to find long enough zippers and then cut them to fit yourself as you sew. Jimmy had cut the zipper teeth to the length I specified and that meant the pocket zippers were slightly longer (the tape above and below wasn't included in my measurement) than required. Luckily I could make my welts a bit longer and still have them hidden under the flaps.

He also dyed some elastic cord and the plastic toggle navy for me - such a gem.

The back of the jacket has a neat air vent opening with a mesh section over the centre back to allow some hot air to vent out. A lovely, professional touch for a sporty anorak. My random fabric shopping had served me very well as I had recently splurged on some active wear fabric (from Sew Active Fabrics) and in that bundle, with no particular designated use, was some red mesh. See, it pays to shop and hoard. :)

That photo reminds me: The one alteration I did make was to add a hanging loop.

There are a lot of panels and lots of topstitching to do. But, since none of my seams needed finishing, I could just trim them, topstitch them down and move on. And so it all came together fairly quickly.

I wasn't expecting a great reaction. He had turned his nose up at the pattern, saying he much preferred a full front zip. He had also asked for thumb holes and cuffs that would cover the backs of his hands. I always like to sew a pattern as it is the first time through and so I stubbornly ploughed on, thinking there could always be another version another day.

And then I was enjoying myself so much with the making that I stopped caring. Then I tried it on and loved it. Yes, it just fits me. A bit tight through the body, a bit too short and the sleeves only just come to my wrists, but absolutely wearable in a pinch. I instantly wanted to make one for me, one for A, another one for P... I'm keeping my eye on the other colourways of this fabric in Spotlight and the minute they go on sale, I'll be all over them.

Once he tried it on, he loved it too and the happy ending was there for both of us to enjoy.

Details: 
Pattern: Jalie 2213 (now out of print, but hunt it down, it's a gem)
Size: N
Modifications: Added hanging loop
Fabric: Two layer softshell fabric from Spotlight, knit mesh from Sew Active Fabrics
Notions: 3 zippers, thread, and a cute little zipper label that I got from Jalie when I ordered patterns directly one time.