School sewing and lessons learned

I don't care to think how many years ago it was that I last sewed a big batch of navy school shorts and skirts for the kids, but judging by how tight P's shorts were getting it was a while.
(whoops, 4 years, just found the post. Bad mummy! :) )

But they'd lasted well and so I'd put off any updating. Fast forward to the start of this school year and both kids were in need of some fresh clothing for their bottom halves.

I found some super cheap lightweight navy fabric at Eliza's and bought about 5 metres (for maybe $20). It has a little bit of stretch and I guess is best described as a tropical weight suiting fabric. I've used perhaps 2/3rds of it here to make the following:

3 pairs of Oliver + S Sketchbook shorts in size 10 for P - He's still comfortably wearing these size 8 ones, but I figured since he's almost 12 it was time to go up a size, and he measured perfectly for the size 10 although much taller. I didn't add length as they're a comfortably long pattern to start with.

For A, I made two of the Oliver + S Badminton skorts. This is a sweet pattern with a little pair of built in shorts and is one of the only skirts in her previous school wardrobe that she liked. I toyed with leaving the scallops off and just doing a straight hem facing but she said she liked the scallop bits.

And she got two pair of her favourite shorts, the Oliver + S Class Picnic shorts. Hers are all a straight size 10 as well cause while she's shorter and younger she's measuring the same in waist and hips as her beanpole brother.

As with any Oliver + S patterns, the sewing was a delight and I found I enjoyed working like a trojan to get them all made in the few evenings between holidays end and school starting.

And then the tragic part? After only two weeks of wearing and washing (like maybe two to three wears each for A's clothes) everything is falling apart.

I could cry, except in the scheme of heavy stuff going on in my life right now, some frayed school clothes is so trivial it's not funny. Which makes it kind of funny.

Anywhere I trimmed to 1/4" (and that was as close as I got) it's all falling apart. And of course with the Class Picnic and the Badminton patterns, that's pretty much the whole facing edges. I've just gone around the hem lines with a zig zag stitch as I could not bear to think of any more involved kind of rescue. That'll do and they still look better than the official school uniform clown sized trackpants.

Lesson learnt: Life is too short to buy shit fabric.

P.S. How classy is our rental? :) It's a bit of a dump but that clothesline is absurdly functional. Massive, blasted with westerly sun and ridiculous amounts of wind. If there was a surburban rental laundry competition I'd be all over it!!

Simple Sketchbook Short

It's the last day of summer and I'm about to sew myself a summer dress, but thought I'd sneak in a quick blog post first.

Not much to say about these shorts: Oliver + S Sketchbook shorts size 8, but the boy's modelling cracked me up enough that they warranted a blog post of their own.

I'm on a kick to use up the fabric in my stash, especially the smaller remnant pieces and this little bit of fabric was a left over from this dress (now too big and handed on so no chance of accidental matchy-matchy).

The fabric is a kind of twill with a pale blue shot effect. It's as thick as a light denim, is gorgeously soft and has a kind of peach silk texture. Needless to say he loves it!

I recently found an old knotted friendship bracelet that I'd made myself in high school. It was knotted on and I wore it continuously for maybe about 4 years before I got to the point at university where I had to scrub for surgery and then it needed to be cut off. The kids were fascinated by it, and by how long I'd worn it - there are specks of Mission Brown house paint on it where I painted the external timbers on our family home and it really tells a lot of stories.

Anyway, both kids had chickenpox last year. They're vaccinated of course, so I had healthy, well, bored and quarantined kids needing to be amused. I taught them how to do simple vertical half hitches and the friendship bracelet craze was reignited. We didn't think it would last past the first day of school as they have a uniform/dress code that prohibits jewellery, but it's hanging in there unnoticed so far.

A nice accessory when you've already (already!!) outgrown the sleeves on your Buttoned-Up Button Down shirt.

Anyway, the shorts: They got some topstitching in pale blue thread to match the shot weave and that's about all there is to say. It's nice to see him in some colour (that's not leopard print ;) ).

Back to the boy - Zonen 09 fabric love

Once I'd sewn up the boy's School Concert outfit and saw again what a gorgeous, appreciative little clothes horse he is, I couldn't help myself.... I went on a cutting rampage and cut out a shirt, another t-shirt, more jeans and a pullover. All for him!
 

The second pair of jeans and the pullover are yet to be photographed, but it made sense to start with the shirt and t-shirt as both fabrics are by Zonen09 via  the Maaidesign shop.

The t-shirt fabric is a knit panel called Cool Flakes in the Rust colourway. Out of a single panel it's easy to cut a kids t-shirt and there's enough left over to do the front panel of another t-shirt and colour block the rest. With a long torso-ed bloke like Flipper I don't think an adult t-shirt would be possible from one panel. Perhaps a raglan, but definitely not a regular tee. Shorter guys will get more mileage from their yardage!

It's a lovely quality cotton lycra and was very pleasant to sew with. The pattern is the Oliver + S School Bus Tee in a straight size 8, same as the recent white one. This time I used the same fabric for the neckband, for lack of a matching ribbing,  and it behaved perfectly.

The shirt fabric is also a Zonen09 fabric and I LOVE it. I bought it a while ago intending to make P a long sleeved shirt but kept putting it off. I'm glad I did 'cause over time the idea came to me to add welt pockets, split the collar, cuffs and plackets and use some contrast fabrics. Overdo it, that is, but hey, it worked!

The fabric is called Stickly Rockers and what looks like little squiggles from a distance are bugs up close!

It's a lovely blue that is really hard to get to look right on the computer screen, and is obviously not any kind of "normal" blue as it was also really hard to find a good co-ordinating thread to sew with!

The aqua mini check fabric is something I picked up locally and really cheaply, ages ago and have never known what to do with. It looks too much like school uniform fabric to be much use on it's own but I love it here. This is the kind of colour mis-matching that I never think to do but love it when I see others do it.

The pattern is essentially the Oliver + S Sketchbook Shirt with some modifications. I made a size 8 adding only 1" extra length to the body. It is a short style and I knew it didn't need to look like a formal shirt, or ever be tucked in. The sleeves didn't require any extra length (surprise!) but of course at the rate he grows it won't be a long term proposition!

The most obvious change is the addition of welt pockets. I just copied the pockets straight across from the Art Museum vest. For next time (ha, like I ever refer back to my own blog) I'd move them slightly in from the shirt pattern's pocket markings. Also, the pocket bags can be visible if he wears the shirt open so maybe it's better for a more formal shirt which will always be buttoned up.

I cut the sleeve cuff and front placket pattern pieces in half, then added seam allowance on so that I could have my contrast fabric on the inner cuff and inner placket.

I also decided to split the collar so that I could have a two-piece collar and get the contrast fabric snuck in for the collar stand. I know that deserves more of an explanation but I can't show you, and I can't explain why I can't show you (nudge nudge, wink wink).

A bit of corded piping across the back yoke seam.

This was a really fun shirt to sew. The shirt pattern's instructions are great, and all my tweaks worked nicely without any headaches or unpicking. I love how it looks with his Burda 9406 jeans, but it also looks great with a pair of Art Museum trousers (one year on and they still fit really well). I need to take this boy out to the theatre more often before he outgrows his one "good shirt".

Details:
T-Shirt:
fabric: Zonen09 Cool Flakes Rust panel from Maaidesign (link)
pattern: Oliver + S School Bus T-shirt, size 8
Shirt:
fabric: Zonen09 Stickly Rocker blue from Maaidesign (on sale now! click here)
pattern: Oliver + S Sketchbook Shirt. Size 8 +1" torso length. Addition of Art Museum welt pockets. Split collar, cuffs and placket

A pattern mash polo shirt

Why buy new patterns when you can combine a couple of good ones to get exactly what you want (and with no risk of dud sleeves to boot)?!

 

So, I wanted to make a classic polo shirt for P. I had just finished making his Spirograph shirt using the Oliver + S Sketchbook pattern and knew that it fit perfectly and the pattern pieces were still lying around. All I needed was a placket...

Enter the Oliver + S Jump Rope dress pattern. I've made this dress pattern four times now and it's just lovely. The placket instructions are very easy to follow but somehow leave you feeling like you're the genius for sewing such a great looking placket. Of course, this is my contribution to the Oliver + S blog for this month. You can see a bit more by clicking on the link in the image below:

Or just hang around here for more pictures of P!

The fabric for the polo came from Eliza fabrics in Sunshine and I think cost about $5. The collar and placket are leftovers from A's Moschino / Kill Bill suit. As an aside, I had a kid's wardrobe clean out recently and bagged up or gifted quite a lot of handmades. But the Moschino suit is still in the wardrobe. It's a bit short in the sleeves and legs, and so it's no use to us anymore, but I really don't know whether anyone is going to want a hand me down cream suit for a three year old. It's a bit strange, no?

Back to the polo shirt. In my efforts to match stripes, I thought it was correct to align the notches on the sleeve and the notches in the armhole at the same point on the stripe pattern. Obviously not. Is there a trick to getting the sleeve stripes lined up so that they appear to be a continual horizontal stripe with the shirt body?

I'd like to get it right as I have some striped fabric to make myself a Skippy dress, and there'll probably be enough leftover for another polo shirt like this one for P.

But before I tackle anything that requires thought I need a nice, foolproof project. My first attempt at pants for myself ended disastrously and I'm feeling a bit dejected. Somewhere along the way I mucked up such that my pants were about 3" smaller than the waistband. I thought they fit ok, so just chopped the waistband down to fit the pants. So very wrong! (about 3 inches wrong in fact). I don't even have the energy to go back over them to find out where I went wrong. Perhaps next year! :)

Part of my disappointment is that I had mentally planned a very funny, multi location photoshoot for these pants. I'm going to have to revisit the pattern if only for that reason!

I'm not all gloom though. In happier news, I raced my mountain bike a couple of weeks ago and had a win (lack of fitness cancelled out by lack of competition :) ) as well as beating the kids on the train this year. In tragic I-may-never-beat-my-kids-in-another-race-ever-again style I stood on the train platform with my bike over my head as the train pulled in. I may even have thumped my chest or pointed at the kids,...perhaps.

And then, as I gritted my teeth and listened to the dreadful grating noise of my thrice serviced Janome, I received an email saying I'd won a Toyota sewing machine. I didn't even know I was in a competition to win one, but apparently, by having entered the Show I had entered a lucky door prize as well. Bonus!

So the terrible, no good, too small pants were at least sewn on a machine that sounded sweetly happy to be in service.

If you want to see how to make a polo shirt from a girl's dress and a boy's shirt pattern. hop over to the Oliver + S blog. Or if you're curious to see what it looks like when mountain bikers take on a steam train, there are pictures of last year's race here.

A Sketchbook Shirt for a Duck

Last night was P's first School Concert. (it was also my regular French class which involves adult conversation, some wine, good cheese...). I'm sure you know which I attended.

I did the right thing and went and watched my little duck on stage. It went a bit like this: "Quack. Ooooh, lovely mud. Quack" then along with 24 other little prep kids, all dressed in check shirts, jeans and gumboots, they did a little dance. (they weren't all ducks. There were cows, pigs and horses and one appropriately bossy Mrs Wishy Washy)

So, my kid's first ever school concert required my first ever school concert costume. The notice came home from school the week before, saying they needed Jeans (got those), Gumboots (check) and a Check shirt (nope...).

 

But I did have one of mine that I had set aside when I did my big wardrobe clean out thinking it would be perfect to cut up for the kids one day. It was a Country Road shirt made out of Lyocell - which I hadn't heard of, but is a lovely soft, fine weave with a silky, soft feel. Checking that Wikipedia link, it turns out it's Tencel without the brand name rights. Makes sense, 'cause that's how it feels.

 

Anyway, I had thought it could easily make a sleeveless blouse for A. I had not envisaged trying to cut a long sleeved, size 6 Sketchbook shirt for P. But I did, and check out the photo of the remnants post cutting!

 



I am so proud of that! I had to unpick every seam. I thought and thought about how it could all fit. Thought I had it sorted but it was late and didn't start cutting. Thank goodness, as I'd failed to realise the check pattern was decidedly unidirectional and I would have muffed it big time. More thinking, more laying out pieces and I finally got it sorted.

I managed to cut every piece (I'd almost resigned myself to a different fabric for the inner yoke and the under collar) and I even added 1 inch to the length and 3/4" to the sleeves. Woohoo!

 

I didn't allow myself to entertain the idea of much pattern matching, but did try to get the front pieces and at least the uppermost placket to match. With some freaky sewing luck, one side seam also matches perfectly (but not the other) and bizarrely, without the slightest intention, the upper and under collar were absolutely spot-on.

 

An in-progress photo that had to go immediately to facebook!

 



Kind of pointlessly exciting because once that seam is pressed and the collar stitched you'd never notice, but weirdly thrilling all the same, hey?!

Speaking of stitching, I edgestitched and topstitched everything, giving it more of a country feel. The sleeve seams are pressed towards the shoulder and edgestitched and topstitched too. The side seams were flat felled, which is so easy to do with lovely soft, fine fabric. I've previously only done it with denim and thicker terry knit and found it to be a truly painful way to sew seams. This fabric resold me on the idea.

I had really wanted the back yoke on the bias, and while it's got a line of needle holes across it from an old seam, I managed it. The main back panel is cut about 1/2 an inch off the fold making the box pleat a bit scanty compared to the original pattern, but that was my only concession required to get it all out of the one thrifted shirt.

You can't beat this pattern for instructions like the sleeve placket. So neat and satisfying. (what's not looking so good is photos using the old D80 camera body and pushing the ISO in order to avoid using the flash - so grainy)

Love the fabric, love the pattern, LOVE the challenge of getting it all cut from one old shirt and REALLY, REALLY LOVE my little duck!

Pants, pants, pants, pants.....

Catching up a bit here by dropping no less than four pair of pants on the blog in one hit!

 

First up, three more pairs of navy (read: hard to photograph) school pants for P.

These first ones are the tried and true Oliver + S Field Trip Cargo pants.

 

 

I did all the edgestitching and topstitching, but since it's all navy, it's subtle. Nothing like those Team Australia (Oh, don't get me started on Tony again) pants that P's friend is wearing.

 

For a bit of something extra, I'm loving these iron-on faux rivets from Jimmy's buttons. They really look the business, but no complaints about scratchy metal bits on the inside.

 

Not only are there no scratchy bits, but the insides of these pants are so lovely to touch...

 

 

The fabric is a moleskin, which is undoubtedly meant to have this soft, brushed face on the outside. I talked it through with P and he definitely wanted the softness on the inside, and the more standard issue navy drill side on the outside. These super snuggly pants are his own little school uniform secret!

For the record, these are size 5, with about 3/4" length added at the bottom hem and the cargo pockets left off. No other mods and they fit perfectly.

The second pair of school pants is another pair of Sandbox pants in some more of the thick terry knit. I saved myself some trouble by not trying to flat fell every seam. The side seams are finished together and edge and topstitched and only the crotch seam is flat felled. So they look pretty much identical to the first pair but took half the time.

...and I used the genius suggestion from my blog commenter Rootaberger to use "one of those little plastic things that hold the string. You know, the ones you push down to loosen or tighten".

Well, I don't know if they have a name either (I'd guess at toggles) but I happened to have two on hand. I put one onto the original sandbox pants, and that definitely helps, but with these pants I went one step further: The elastic waistband on these ones goes all the way around and is fixed in length. The ties are stitched onto the elastic near the buttonhole outlets and thus are purely for decoration.

To make the navy pants production line a bit more interesting I busted out a new pattern for my third pair of pants:

 

These are the Figgy Banyan pants and it was my first ever time sewing a real zip fly. You know I took another photo of the pants as above, but slightly from the right, which hid that sticky out zip pull perfectly but was just a touch out of focus.

 

A close up from a better angle makes it look alright...

 

 



I found the pattern instructions were somewhat lacking when it came to the zipper insertion. I think there is a Figgy's photo tutorial and I know there are plenty of other tutorials on sewing blogs as to how to do this step well. But, when I'm using a pattern for the first time I like to follow just the pattern, as given in the package that I bought. It may seem perverse, but I feel like that should be sufficient.

Just checked: there is a Figgy's tutorial, but it doesn't address the main problem I had, which was quite where exactly to line up the zipper so that it's not completely exposed. The first time I sewed it on it was 100% visible. I unpicked it and chose some arbitrary distance to set it back and it is well covered by the fly flap, except that I chose a zip with a hefty pull, so that part does stick out a bit.

There was also no mention made of shortening the zipper. I'm sure mine was the recommended length but I had to trim a considerable amount off or it would have dangled down inside the pants a long way. Now I would have no concerns doing this again, but if it's your first time and you're a bit more timid and less slapdash, you may want to check out Cindy's awesome tutorial.

Anyway, there it is, and it works! I managed to sew the curve of the fly shield the wrong way so it's curved where it attaches to the pants and right angled at the free edge where it should be curved. Oops. Oh, and I got completely bamboozled with how the waistband attached. The pattern may not be to blame there as it was getting late at night and I was starting to do things the autopilot (Oliver + S) way.

 

Once I'd finished, and P was wearing them I was itching to make another pair straight away. Partly to correct my mistakes, but also cause they are such a great pair of trousers. I love the slightly jodhpur-esque shape and they look really trendy on. I have some green denim that I think will be awesome for this pattern.

 

These pants were the last cut out of the 3m of navy drill that I bought when P started school. From that I've made 2 pair of shorts and 3 pair of trousers!

 

Then, on to she-who-will-never-wear-pants. The only time I can convince A to wear pants is when we're taking the bikes down to the BMX track. She is of the opinion that princesses and ballerinas wear dresses all the time, except when they're working laps of the pump track!

 



But as you can see her pants are getting too short. Not surprising as they're over a year old now. The one pair of pants that do still fit her really well, are completely unsuited to mucking around in the dirt, and those are her Moschino knock off trousers.

My challenge was to make another pair of those pants, that were suitable for outside play, but princess-y enough to perhaps get worn...

The pants are a lengthened version of the Oliver + S Sketchbook shorts. The size is only 18-24 months but fits my 3.5 year old perfectly. I guess they're roomy shorts, and probably in that size there's some nappy room which is not needed anymore. My Moschino pants had a very straight leg and I tapered these ones slightly and kept the cuff, as a result they've ended up looking a lot like another pair of Banyans!

 

The princess appeal came via some metallic silver topstitching on the back pockets

Edit: Forgot to mention. The Sketchbook pattern does not have back pockets. These are size 4 pockets from the After School pants pattern.

 



...and some more iron on faux rivets, but this time, with diamantes (can't believe I just typed diamantes on my blog, ugh the things we do huh)

 

I doubled the metallic thread and the sewing machine coped fine with the straight stitches, but the decorative stitch did skip a bit. I probably needed to loosen off the needle thread tension as the metallic thread does seem very grab-by.

 

 

I'm happy with these pants for so many reasons. It was a small remnant of high quality denim that was just enough for this length and no more. I didn't need to draft a new pattern size. They were dirt cheap to make and I think they look pretty cool.

 

 

She's happy with them for those moments when a girl just has to wear pants, no buts about it.

 

 

 

P.S that blue top is the Oliver + S 2+2 Blouse and is one of the first bits of knit (merino jersey) sewing I did!