Green Banyan Jeans

Since it's been school holidays and P has been conscientiously NOT wearing navy pants, it became apparent he had almost no other pants that still fit.

It turns out I've sewn six pairs of navy pants and four pairs of navy shorts and no other bottoms for him all year. Time to rectify that and revisit (first pair here) the Figgy's Banyan Pants

I'd liked the baggy up top jodhphur-esque fit of the Banyan's, although I'm not as convinced that denim is the right fabric. The pattern is begging to be sewn in linen I think.

Anyway, green denim was at hand, and my current way of thinking is that denim always needs topstitching to look right. So I went a bit mental....

I used a bronze-y coloured shiny thread leftover from this dress and a more subtle mushroomy grey thread which you can just see on the pockets and as a little detail around the fly and between the pleats on one side.

I used two strands of thread to get enough visibility and I think it's a nice balance of subtle colours with a bit of detailing to make 'em look pro.

For more oomph on the back pockets I used that stitch on the sewing machine that goes forwards and backwards over the same stitch a few times.

I love playing around with back pockets. It seems that as long as they're symmetrical then any pattern can look good. I need to start a little gallery for myself (should probably use that Pinterest thingy) to remember pocket patterns that I've seen that I want to copy. Just need to work out how to subtly photograph people's butts.

For these non school issue pants I used the little clothing label that came with the pattern (love that).

It's a curious mix of jeans sewing with a naval shore leave kind of pattern vibe. He loves them

And how cute is the top that my mother in law brought back from a recent Mediterranean cruise?! My kids wardrobes are now almost entirely sewn by me with the exception of the T-shirts from around the world. On any given day the kids could be wearing a T-shirt from Madagascar or Syria or Canada... I really wish I'd started a checklist of countries at the beginning!

I'm pleased to say that second time around the zip fly was a breeze. I think I came to zipper sewing from the wrong end. The first zipper I ever installed was an invisible zip and so I thought it was all about sewing as close as possible to the zipper teeth. Turns out with fly zips a more casual and less uptight approach works best.

Just the way these laid back pants like to rock too.

Back to school next week and I'll miss the colour this kid brings to my day. He's good fun to have around.

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!









It's couture knock off time! Kenzo Kids style

I could be accused of getting carried away with "project" sewing (Exhibit A, Exhibit B) but there's a lot of fun to be had in making things just a bit more than was required....

P needed another pair of these pants:

I'd bought these from a now defunct store called Kids on Parade which sold lots of high end fashion clothes for kids. I suspect everyone else, like me, only bought anything from there when it was heavily discounted in the sales. These Kenzo Kids pants were one such bargain

They are a size 4 and have a lovely slim fit and have been P's good pants for almost two years but they're definitely now too short. I wanted to try and make my own and replicate all these little designer-y features.

I experimented with the patterns I had that seemed appropriate and came up with my Pattern Mash Prototype pants. They have proven to be a great pair of pants but were a little more of a relaxed fit than I wanted so I took half an inch of each back panel at the side seam. I also raised the back yoke seam about an inch by adding to the pants panels and subtracting from the yoke.

Then I took the scissors to the old pants and stole all those Kenzo tags (sadly not the pocket rivets as they're one use only)

Essentially I used the front of the Oliver + S Field Trip pants and the back of the After School pants, splitting the front pants to include the extra inner leg panel.

 

I bought some little pyramid rivets from Jimmy's Buttons which is also where I found this grey denim remnant. There was about a metre and a half on the roll and I paid 5 bucks for it!

 



I'm not sure what kind of modelling style we're channelling here....

So there are my Kenzo knock off pants, modelled above with (yet another) Flashback Skinny T

But I couldn't stop just with the pants. Nope, if you're going to wear Kenzo, it would seem you need to get a tiger on your sweater....

The idea of knocking off one of these sweaters with some fleecy sweater knit and fabric paint from Spotlight was just too amusing (for me at least)

I did a dry run here using the Field trip pattern again for the sweater, but decided in the end to do an upsized Flashback Skinny T. I cut a size 9/10 in width and size 5 in length. The blue striped one earlier is straight size 5 and perfect as a close fitted T-shirt using very stretchy fabric. This one could still do with more depth in the armholes and sleeve width and I should have cut the neck-hole back at the smaller size but I'm happy with it.

....if only cause it was fun to paint!

It's a long blog post, but stick around if you're curious as to how some of these things were done.....

First up, the detail on the pants pocket: I don't have a fancy sewing machine that does embroidery so there was no way of perfectly replicating the mid section of the pocket detail from the original pants.

But my sewing machine can do these stitches:

So I used the Orange A stitch for the straight lines and a couple of rows of the Blue J stitch to get the wavy midsection effect

 

And after Heidi taught me to topstitch with two threads I thought I'd try for three!  Using three lots of regular thread is STILL easier than trying to thread a needle with that thick topstitching thread! Here's another shot of how they all sat atop the machine:

 



Now to the sweater....

I downloaded the clearest and flattest picture I could find of the tiger logo and then traced it to tidy up some of the lines and make it clearer. Then from this image I traced again, using a Iron-on Transfer Pencil onto baking paper.

At this step the image needs to be in reverse. If you have a really clear image you can flip your paper over and trace it from behind. Otherwise, when printing the image you need to select T-shirt transfer paper as your printing medium and the printer will reverse the image for you. Or I guess you could reverse the image in any photo editing software before you print. Anyway, make sure it's back to front.

Put your traced picture facing down onto the fabric and iron it on. Be careful as the pencil marks do not wash off and the print is not really useful a second time over without recolouring all the lines. you can just see that I've drawn up a grid with washable pencil markings to make sure I got it straight first go.

Then you simply paint over the drawn lines. I used Setacolour brand paint as the green paint and it is lovely to work with. Two layers gave a good depth of colour with no brush marks. The orange paint however, was Jones Tones and it needs a lot more layers and then develops quite a thick plastic-ky feel and you can still see through it a bit.

 

These paints only take a few hours to be dry to touch and then you iron them (with a baking paper sheet or similar over the paint to stop it sticking to the iron) for a few minutes. Then they wash and wear really well.

So there's my Kenzo Kids knock off outfit.... As I'm posting this last picture I'm making myself laugh wondering if there's any way I can incorporate a conical Gaultier bra into a  princess dress-up costume for A...

KCW: Pants Pride!

A little while ago I posed the question to the clever crowd who frequent the Oliver + S forum of how to get the best topstitching effect. One answer intrigued me; With Love Heidi (A moniker that sounds friendly but a bit Bond girl as well) suggested using regular thread but doubling it up.

I'm happy to say this is superb advice. I've been topstitching like a fiend recently. It's far easier to thread two lots of regular thread than trying to thread a needle with topstitching thread. And that's even after I bought some special "embroidery" sewing needles. The definition that it gives is really nice, and as importantly, it saves buying reels of topstitching weight thread that then can't be used for anything else.

Speaking of reels of thread that never get used again, here's a few reels of thread that I bought ages ago to decorate the edges of some waffled cotton dribble rags for my then newborn.

I don't know what the official length of these thread reels is, but they seem to be never-ending. I immediately wondered what it might look like to use double thread of variegated cotton to do topstitching...

Here's the answer:

Really gay! (Not That There's Anything Wrong With That)

Someone with a bit more imagination than me might have guessed that I'd end up with a pair of rainbow pants, but I confess I really didn't see it coming.

But you know what, I  kinda like them. This is not at all my usual colour scheme. The fabric is a very weird, synthetic stretch, ribbed suiting that I picked up so cheap that these pants probably cost about 80 cents. I don't think they'll ever wear out and certainly won't require ironing or any care.

What's more, Australia desperately needs more pairs of gay pride pants on toddlers. We are being embarrassingly left behind when it comes to marriage equality. No less than 14 countries have legalised same sex marriage, yet it's something we can't even get a conscience vote on in our parliament.

For heaven's sake, even New Zealand are OK with it. Now they're not just 2 hours ahead of us but about 50 years ahead culturally.

So here's another photo of my Pride Pants:

 

 



And finally, let's let the pants themselves have the last word:

Right on, little pair of gay, polyester pants, I hear what you're saying.
Loud and proud!

Kid's Clothes Week 3/7ths and my first submisison

It was never going to be a sprint off the line when I chose to start my Kid's Clothes Week with the Oliver + S Field Trip Cargo Pants.

But these pants are awesome. There's such a lot of work with all the pockets, front, back and expandable side pockets and then all that topstitching. But gee they're worth the effort.

Whenever I ask P what colour he would like for something he always says "red AND green" which I figure will be fine come Christmas time, but otherwise I'm not quite with him, so to speak. The last pair of these pants had green topstitching so these have red. There. I'm really a pretty obliging mum after all.

This time I cranked up the elastic at the back as well so they should stay nice and high!

No time for nice modelled photos and the weather has just turned to rain again, so we're stuck indoors. I'm being attacked by two small people with Duplo guns as I type. At least they built them themselves, sigh. One is a Megablaster that can blast through my forcefield. The other one, I'm told,  is Me Baby One.

I only get to sew (or do anything in peace it seems) after bed time. So I'll start something else tonight to keep to the pledge of at least an hour a day. The Flickr pool for Kid's Clothes Week is looking fantastic. I could spend hours of non sewing time finding inspiration in there. But mostly I love that it all looks like spring, while I'm feeling immersed in winter already.