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)

Birthday suit!

I'm going to preface this blog post by saying I do not take on commissions. I don't sew garments for sale and nobody, at least nobody I know, could pay me enough to sew something I didn't want to sew.

But give me an idea that I am interested in and I will absolutely run with it!

A little friend was having her birthday soon, and as she was about to turn 8 she had found a sudden fondness for a tiny size 18-24months blazer. Kids are hilarious like that, right? They flatly refuse to wear something until the sleeves only come to their elbows and their bellies are hanging out the bottom and then it's instantly their bestest, bestest piece of clothing.

I've always sewn something for this particular kid's birthday anyway, and my mission this year, should I choose to accept it, was to recreate this little blazer:

I'd never sewn a blazer before and it's the one pattern that so many of us have been waiting for Oliver + S to release the perfect pattern for (hint hint Liesl!). So, all I knew about sewing a blazer was that I didn't have a trusty pattern. But I knew I would have Liesl to talk me through it anyway, because I'd be using every trick I'd learned from all those other patterns to bring this one to fruition.

Begin the pattern search! The closest match ended up being Burda 9724, an out of print pattern that I managed to find. It's sized from 7-12 years and I was nervous that the size 7 might still be a bit big. To settle my nerves (sarcasm font) I purchased the two sizes of this Vogue pattern thinking the bodice block from that might be the right fit and I could change the hem length and overly puffed sleeves.

I need not have worried, as while my bigger, taller but younger kid measured exactly as per the size 7 measurements, the muslin I made was too small for her. It fit perfectly on the intended recipient and so I sent her mum off to shop for fabric.

She was struggling to find what she wanted on our side of the city when I remembered she may not know about Eliza's, and there she found this eggplant purple, wool tweed that has a lovely metallic gold weave. - and the perfect matching satin lining.

The only fit adjustment made to the pattern was to add 3cm of length at the hem. The rest of the fit was perfect, but it is quite a cropped jacket as illustrated on the pattern cover and it seemed that the un-hemmed length of the muslin was just right. Note to self: for my own daughter I would need to add considerable length mid torso as well as at the hem.

The other changes were to make sure this jacket matched the original. The Burda pattern has font pocket flaps, but no pockets. Easily fixed! The welt pockets from the Oliver + S Art Museum Vest (size 8 'cause it was already traced) fit perfectly under those flaps.

The other change was to add a kick pleat at the back. Here I referenced a Vogue dress pattern that had a kick pleat, but I still managed to muff up the lining part. I'd invented my own depth and width of kick pleat and so I didn't really know how, or by how much, I should trim the lining. Add in that the lining had some vertical ease which would overhang the hem, and some pleats centre back for extra ease of movement, and trying to make my kick pleat lining neat was a struggle. It's OK but it's not really how it should be.

The penultimate pattern alteration was a faux opening at the sleeve. Here I used a similar kick pleat shape but then sewed the pleat closed - a bit like a faux fly on a pair of kid's trousers. That way the sleeve lining could just be straight and attach at the sleeve hem in a regular circular fashion.

For the perfect buttons we took a trip out to Buttonmania where we found these divine "vegetable ivory" buttons. The centre purple is exactly the same shade as the lining, only matte, with a lovely almost suede texture. The periphery is like a shiny wood. There were multiple sizes available and so we chose a slightly smaller size for the sleeves. The very last pattern alteration was simply to use three front buttons rather than the two shown on the pattern

To make the jacket took barely 1m of fabric and my friend had over purchased by getting 1.5m - I guess at the Eliza price of $6/metre it was hardly going to break the bank to overbuy.

Of course I couldn't resist making a quick skirt to turn the jacket into a suit! There's something quite hilarious about an 8 year old in a tweed suit.

The obvious pattern choice was the Oliver + S Music Class Skirt. It's a gorgeous little straight skirt with these sweet kick pleats at the side. I knew the wool tweed was behaving very nicely when ironed and would co-operate just fine with the pleats.

To prevent the skirt being too scratchy, I cut a lining. The lining was cut for the front and back skirt panels and the side panels, all shortened to just below where the pockets end and the pleats start. I also split the waistband so that the inner waistband was the lining rather than the wool.

I sewed a wee tab out of lining and slipped it into one of the skirt side panel seams and then sewed the spare jacket button onto that. It's stitched to the lining as well so it lays flat and doesn't flop around, so the tab is probably redundant, but I thought it seemed a bit of a professional touch ;)

I also used one of my Kylie and the Machine labels that says: Made with Love and Swear Words. There weren't any swear words as it was a really enjoyable sewing experience but that's the kind of thing that was bound to amuse my little jacket wearing friend.

We delivered it on the afternoon of her birthday and she put it straight on over her school polo and modelled it for me - the only payment I ever insist on being a few photographs!

If you can track down the pattern I highly recommend it. The instructions are Burda brief, but it's very nicely drafted and is a lovely sew. I'll be keen to make one for A soon as I think worn with jeans it will be a super cute and very useful little jacket.

Details:
Pattern: Jacket: Burda 9724
Skirt: Oliver + S Music Class
Modifications: Jacket: added welt pockets from Oliver + S Art Museum Vest, lengthened at hem by 3cm, added kick pleat, added sleeve pleats, added one extra front button
Skirt: added lining and split waistband to give lining finish against the skin.
Size: Both size 7
Fabric: Metallic tweed from Eliza, fabric content is always a mystery but it behaved and smelled like wool when pressed. Satin lining.
Notions: Interfacing, thread. Buttons from Buttonmania

Back to the Boy Part 2

It's been such a long time since I made these clothes and I've been so busy and distracted, but in an endeavour to catalogue 2016's makes in the remainder of 2016, here goes...

After the success of the Burda jeans round 1, I launched straight into round 2 with a lighter weight, pale blue dyed denim.

Same pattern, Burda 9406. Same size: 8 with length of 9. Same mistakes regarding zip and fly shield length (NB: this size needs a 1" shorter zip than the pattern recommends and about 1" longer fly shield - or I mucked something up, who knows)

They're topstiched with grey thread, and I used a silver jeans button and some little iron on silver faux rivets. I think between this jeans pattern and  the Art Museum trousers I've got boy's long pants covered until he's an adult!

We were having such a cold, wet spring and I was getting so sick of seeing that Zander hoodie everyday I figured he needed another long sleeved pullover type top.

Back when I bought the Zonen09 Lars coat pattern I also bought the Ole pullover. I'd thought to use the free additional zipper conversion, but the instructions, all in dutch*, required a bit too much tinkering and I wasn't entirely sure I understood what I'd be doing. So I bailed and just went with the standard button up version.
*Note: the main pattern instructions are in English and are very well written, it's just the zipper tutorial that's Dutch only

I was going to have the cardigan close with snaps only on the inside, but the lining fabric I've used is a merino knit and it would never have had the strength to hold fasteners of any sort. Then I found these comically oversized buttons in my stash that matched my ribbing nicely so buttonholes were the solution in the end.

The merino lining makes it fabulously soft and cosy, but it is very hard to get his arms in the sleeves. I had anticipated it being worn over a T-shirt on spring/summer evenings, but this kid is a serious desert dweller. He seems happy in long sleeves and long pants no matter how hot it gets.

The outer fabric is a ponte from Spotlight. Technically leftover from a dress I made myself, but also used recently for A as well. Except that my dress doesn't fit and really needs to be passed on to charity, there could be some seriously dangerous multi-matching going on.

Size was the 128 standard size with no alterations (that I can remember, although it's possible I arbitrarily added sleeve length for monkey boy). I learned my lesson from the Lars coat that the Zonen09 patterns seem to run quite slim fitting. This one's certainly not baggy and I think is best suited to lightweight knits as a substitute long sleeved top rather than a real warm pullover.

I still have all my Christmas gift sewing to document, but time has got away from me.

We're heading out to the country tomorrow until after the new year. My Building Block Dress Book Giveaway will end, and you'll just have to hold your breath until I get back to find out who wins it. :) Sorry.

I've got plenty more to share next year and look forward to some more blog reading time as I feel hopelessly behind in following what you've been doing. Hope everyone has safe and happy holidays!

xx

School Concert Part 2: Time Warp Cool Please Mum

So, on to P's school concert costume request. His class were performing the Time Warp and the kids could dress as anyone from any era in the last 100 years. While he didn't quite know the era, or its pin ups, P had a very firm idea of how he wanted to dress. He described it to me, and once I showed him an image of James Dean, we knew we were on the same page...

He wanted, in his own words: "A white t-shirt, blue jeans and a leather jacket". He might have even said "please" after he saw the look on my face that followed the leather jacket part of the request.

I'd probably been nodding along, looking quietly smug at the t-shirt and jeans part. I can do those you see... Plus, he actually needed some new jeans. We discussed how the school dress ups box may have a jacket, or maybe a local "fashion" shop would have a cheap, shiny fake version that would do for the night. With the seed of disappointment well sown, I got on with the t-shirt and jeans part.

Not much to say about a T-shirt, but that it's the Oliver + S School Bus T-shirt. Straight size 8, no mods. Sewn in a cotton lycra from Anne's Discount Fabrics with ribbing from Maaidesign for the neckband.

I put a little bit of cotton tape at the back neck to help with which is the front and back, then double needle stitched down the neckband seam allowances. That was it for the Tee.

Then on to the jeans.... I didn't actually have a jeans pattern. Sure I've made other patterns into jeans patterns before and I've loved the Twisted Trousers turned jeans that P can still (just) wear. But I was up for a true, dedicated jeans pattern.

I searched for jeans patterns for kids, and there actually aren't many. The obvious choice would have been the Small Fry Skinny Jeans by Titchy Threads, but I was after a more traditional, less hipster shape, and to be honest,  I couldn't be bothered with a PDF and wanted a paper pattern in my hand. Enter Burda 9406

I can't say enough good things about this pattern, but first I need to make one or two notes for the future about what didn't work so well:

For this size (size 8, with leg length of 9) the zipper suggested length was 5". That's about 1" too long. It would probably work perfectly with a 4" zipper. Also, the fly shield was about 1" too short, and that was even after I'd shortened the zipper. For next time (which has already happened and I forgot to make the amendments): Use a 4" zipper and cut the fly shield about 3/4" - 1" longer.

But the zipper instructions were great!

The buttonhole elastic is something I often avoid as I find it folds and rolls horribly, but since I was sewing after dark and into the wee hours it was a good instruction to follow. Hopefully it means these jeans will last and last until they're capri length!

The fit and shape is exactly what we were after. No plumber's butt, not too skinny, not too baggy. I really highly recommend this pattern for boy's pants.

The hardest part by far was stitching down the belt loops. So many layers of thick denim! I had to hand crank every stitch, which meant I needed Flipper to press the backwards lever down since I didn't have a free hand for reversing over the loops. I really need to get the hammer out like Nicole does.

The denim was a $5/m score from Rathdowne Fabrics. I picked up this classic indigo and some black denim from a sale bin which had bolts that were flood damaged. After washing, there is only the faintest of water stain marks on the reverse side along one selvedge and I didn't even bother avoiding it when cutting as it can't be seen from the right side anyway. The quality of this denim is not like anything I've used before. It's absolutely the real deal. Yet the topstitching thread, elastic and button were probably the most expensive parts of these jeans!

And there we were, only three days into the "10 days 'til the concert" deadline and the jeans and T-shirt were finished. So you know what I did next, right? I found the deepest of deep ends and threw myself in....

I was never going to entertain the use of real leather - at least not this time round, with no time to make a muslin and the leather outlay being in the hundreds of dollars. The soft, pliable pleather on sale at fabric shops seemed too insubstantial, too girly. I went for the heavy weight gen-yoo-ine vinyl.

This was another project for which I didn't have a pattern, and that was almost what put a stop to it. Until I realised there was a jacket in an Ottobre magazine (the only one I own) that would almost fit the bill. I didn't think the size range would fit, until I measured the boy and he was exactly the measurements of the largest size for this pattern.

The jacket pattern is the Windy Jacket from Ottobre 3/2009 and it looked perfect, but for one thing: it obviously has a hood, not a collar.

I remember reading sewing blogs where the blogger would casually say something like "so, I drafted my own collar" and I would feel a mixture of awe, intimidation and then sheer fury at them not saying how one did such a thing. Turns out it's not that hard, but as a nod to my beginner sewing self I'm not going to just say that I turned the hood into a collar without a little explanation.

The hood pattern pieces look a little like this:

Of course the side hood pieces are the same, so the pattern only shows it once, but I've shown both sides and the centre section above so you can see the neckline. The neckline is the only bit that has to "fit" so we keep that the same.

Normally the lack of seam allowances in Ottobre patterns drives me nuts, but here's where it helps. Line up all the pattern pieces so they're touching and you have the finished neckline. Obviously if there were seam allowances you would do the same but overlap the pattern pieces by twice the seam allowance.

Then I've eyeballed about how deep I wanted the finished collar to be and followed the neckline curve, drawing a collar shape in - the orange line below.

Add the seam allowance all around, and there's a collar pattern piece. I made a trial collar in cotton canvas to test the fit and it went in just fine, so I cut the exact same collar in the vinyl for the final version.

Actually, I complicated it slightly more than that. The under collar (the one away from the wearer's neck) was cut with about 1/8" less height than the upper collar piece. When the two were sewn together the upper collar was eased onto the slightly smaller under collar so that the finished collar would comfortably roll out and down. With thick, 'fabric' like vinyl that kind of thing matters.

The pockets and the underside of the pocket flaps were made with black cotton duck canvas, saving a bit of heft and weight. Then the lining is just a black rayon lining, which along with the great fake leather covered button, and a zipper came from Eliza fabrics.

Not this particular zipper though.... But I'll come to that in a bit.

Both the outer jacket and the lining have these vent pleats at the back that allow for a bit of opening up room when it's worn. My grosgrain ribbon for the hanging loop was the only bit of colour after contemplating a fancy lining and finally deciding it should be all black.

There was a lot of topstitching and I went through two and a half spools of upholstery thread in making the jacket. A lot of that ended up on the floor as there was a LOT of unpicking - and quite a lot of swearing too mind you.

Ottobre magazines are famous for their lack of detailed instructions. This jacket had a third of a page of written instructions and not a single diagram. Not even a picture of what the finished zipper looked like. I got confused about quite where the zipper sat with regard to facings, flaps and lining. In my head I was overcomplicating things and imagining it was inset like the recent Lars coat or even the Zander hoodie. It's not. It's just sewn between the facings which are attached to the lining and the outer jacket centre front panels. But every wrongly sewn seam was sewn, finger pressed then topstitched before being unpicked.

By this time I was getting fed up and slightly reckless and was ironing the vinyl into submission. Hot vinyl is much more compliant to sew with but it is really not advisable. Turns out melted vinyl looks shit over those spots where the seams were thick and the iron contact was greater.

What was the deal with the zipper? Well, when I was at Eliza fabrics I was looking for an open end jacket zip in black. the only ones she had were too long, but since it was a plastic coil zip I figured it wouldn't be too hard to shorten. The zipper pull was kind of cool, it was a curved matte black sort of plastic sort of fabric looking thing.

As I was looking at the zipper the shop attendant (the one that I can't get a friendly smile from) offered some advice "they no good, they break" she said as she walked past. I looked at the zipper again, ran the slider up and down a few times, tugged on the puller a bit and didn't get it. What breaks? I asked. She pointed vaguely at the puller/zip (as opposed to the teeth which are the only other part) and repeated "no good, break". It looked fine so I bought it anyway. As I was paying she repeated that it's "no good, break here, I only charge fifty cent".

But it didn't break. And given how many times I unpicked and restitched the facings and plackets in my confusion, and given how I tugged on that puller to get it past my zipper foot as I stitched and restitched it, it looked to be made of good solid stuff after all.

Finally, after many late nights wrestling with both the Ottobre instructions and the thick, unwieldy vinyl, finally it was the day of the school concert. By 2pm all that was left to do was sew on the buttons, then pick up the kids at 3:30.

I sat down with a cup of tea, the radio on and my little pile of buttons. I gently pulled up the zipper to close the jacket and the puller snapped clean off and came away in my fingers. Faaaaark!!

There was no way I could sew another zipper in. The only thing for it was to try and replace the puller. I jumped in the car and raced across town to LZF. Technically they're kind of wholesalers, but I busted in the front door of the factory/showroom in much the same way as emergency doctors go through hospital doors on TV shows.

My slightly manic appearance must have inspired some sympathy as in moments they had whisked my jacket out the back and inspected it. The slider was a "closed" type, so a new puller couldn't be added. My face must have fallen even more dramatically. But "no worries lady" we can put a whole new slider on. I didn't have the time or the inclination to browse the catalogue of sliders so let them choose. Since the original dodgy one had a tiny Nike swoosh on it, they zipper man came out beaming as he'd put a "nice Nike" one on for me! :) - I would have chosen anything else, but he seemed so proud of his choice. Five minutes and five dollars later and I was back in the car heading for school pick up.

The buttons were sewn on as soon as we got home. P had his hair cut and then hammed it up superbly for me for a photoshoot. Man I love this kid!

 

After all that work I'm happy to say that he LOVES the jacket. Now that the pattern is traced off and it's plenty roomy enough I imagine I could add length and do it all again next year. Maybe even in leather?... Much like childbirth the torture is quickly forgotten when the end result is so cute!

Speaking of cute, there was a photobomber who was cropped out of many of the photos but this one is a keeper!

To anyone who has read this far. Thank you. Seriously. Thank you. :) That's the kind of perseverance we're talking about!


Details:
T-Shirt: Oliver + S School bus tee. Cotton lycra and poly ribbing. Size 8 , no mods
Jeans: Burda 9406, view B, size 8 with size 9 leg length, denim from Rathdowne Fabrics
Jacket: Ottobre 3/2009 Windy jacket. Vinyl from Spotlight. Size 128 +1cm sleeve length