Dinosaur boy

With the British summer being what it is, my boy needed a thin rain coat to make sure he stays dry but doesn't overheat. Luckily his mummy had some random dinosaur print PUL lying around so he is now the proud owner of this little number:

I made it based on a a pattern from a website called You Can Make This. It's an odd one that site- they have many many children's patterns but most of them are just horrendous (sorry but they really jar with my taste). And then you get some amazing ones. Like the jacket pattern from the Peek-a-boo pattern shop:

It occurs to me that children's clothing is perfect for practicing making new things. So far I have made two collared shirts for Oskar and so would feel confident tackling a grown-up sized shirt in the future. And now this- totally makes me comfortable trying to make something like this for me.

The pattern instructions were a bit of a nightmare to follow for this and PUL is a complete nightmare to sew- honestly, I had my zig zag foot, teflon foot and walking foot out as well as playing with the zipper foot. Was basting almost every seam and had to rip seams out several times along the way. Plus, the organic bamboo and cotton mix I used for the lining has got to be the world's most easily wrinkling material.. But it's ok. It all worked out in the end.

Have you ever sewn PUL? Any tips?

Summer bunting DIY

Remember those piles of triangles? They've now been turned into bunting. Here's what I did:

First of all, I made a template from cardboard. You can download one from here.

Then I set about cutting out the triangles. I drew all my triangles onto the fabric using a fade-away fabric pen and used pinking shears for this as it also finished the seams at the same time- win!

I then sewed the triangles together, right sides together, clipped the tip and turned then the right way around using a gorgeous bamboo point turner. Now it was time to press, press, press ad nauseum. First all the triangles and then the cotton tape which I pressed in half. 

I cut 3m strips of the tape for my bunting which meant I could fit 15 triangles on every string and still have a bit of extra tape for tying the ends. Once I'd done the pressing, I got to pinning the triangles inside the tape.

In hindsight, I would definitely recommend basting the triangles into the tape over pinning as this didn't attach them very securely so some of the triangles moved whilst sewing, giving my seam ripper an outing or two (or more).

Once I'd finished pinning the triangles, it was time to sew a long straight line. One more press and ta- dah! we have bunting.

Have you ever made bunting before? Will you try using my tutorial? Would love to see how they turn out.

PDF template for the triangles.

Pyjama party show and tell

They're finished! Just in time! Woohooo! Nothing like a deadline to get me to sew sew sew and Karen did give some pretty amazing incentives. Anyway.. Look look look:

Pattern: Sewaholic Tofino 

Size cut: Cut 14 waistband and graded the trousers from 14 waist to 10 hips 

Material: 3m of 1000 Cranes Indigo from Ray Stitch, 5m of piping cord, 5m of pink satin ribbon and 2m of wide pink satin ribbon, 1m of elastic.

I really liked this pattern though I did manage to get a bit confused with the grading as it was the first

time I'd done that. It all worked out ok though and the length of the pyjamas is just fine. I wasn't sure I wanted piping on the trousers but then my lovely husband convinced me that those were what made these pyjamas and of course he was right, as usual.

I had never made piping myself and was fairly sure you were supposed to use bias tape or something, not satin ribbon for it. Ah well.. It actually worked really well so I will be doing that again as ribbon comes in some amazing colours.

I also added some pockets to them following Suzy Bee's brilliant tutorial- I always need my phone!

All the seams are of the french variety as I am currently absolutely obsessed with that seam finish- it looks and feels great and also stands up to wear- what more could you want. The ladies at the craft club at Fabrications on Thursday were subjected to my squeals of joy as I worked out how to french seams with piping.

The waistband REALLY messed with my head. So much so I just ripped it out after trying to make it work. For some reason the buttonholes on my machine just refused to cooperate. You can see the mess here:

Worked well the second time around though. I was very impressed with the results of the waistband finishing- Karen's stitch in the ditch instructions were absolutely spot on.

I also made a top to match from some amazing bamboo stretch knit I found in Ray Stitch- it really is the most amazing material and I've already made a t-shirt out of it. No pattern for the top- I sim[lpy traced one of my existing ones and used some of the material for the trousers to make bias binding for the neck and arm holes and the little pocket.

I am very pleased with how these turned out- will definitely be making more of them. i've already spotted some really lovely organic flannel that would make a wonderful pair for the colder months. 

So there you have it. My amazing new pyjamas. That I may never take off because they are just TOO comfy.

Real life bunting action

I just wanted to share with you the joy that is making several buntings. It's taking a while but it is for a good cause. Ivy Street Family Centre is fundraising at a fair this Saturday so I'm helping out for creating lovely things for them to sell. I've had a bunch of floral fabric sitting around for a while and had also bought some seriously strong white tape from the now-closed Sew Fantastic for pennies so this is a perfect stash-busting project.

Pyjama party!

Having been following the amazing Karen of Did you make that? for a while and having been very impressed by both her amazing writing style and her brilliant makes, I decided to start documenting my own in this blog. What better way to get properly stuck in than with a pyjama party!

I've bought a very lovely fabric (Cloud 9 Tsuro 1000 cranes in Indigo, since you ask) from Ray Stitch. I also bought some of their lush organic bamboo jersey to make a matching sleeveless top to go with the pyjama bottoms. 

I got some lovely pink satin ribbon and piping cord which I've managed to frankenstein into some pretty ok piping:

I've cut all my pieces out (I'm going to use wide pink ribbon instead of the belt) and am all set. 

Now I need to work out how to attach piping on French seams...

Daddy's t-shirt to boy's top

Hello and happy Father's Day to all the daddies! I can't believe our house is already on it's second

father's day. Oskar surprised daddy with a father-son breakfast this morning:

As befits the day, I thought I'd show you what I've been doing with the t-shirts that get a bit too tight for Mykal. You guessed it- they get turned into Oskar's shirts.

First, you need a pattern. You can either buy a proper one, like the Flashback Skinny Tee from Made by Rae, or just copy something that already fits. I decided to copy O's pyjama top for this.

I folded it in half and traced the front and then back halves onto some pattern paper. I also traced the sleeves in halves which worked fine.

So now I had a pattern to work with. I made up one top which turned out nice but did show where I needed alterations (reduced width and added an inch of length). And voila- my messy pattern pieces were ready!

I cut out the pieces, ensuring the t-shirt image stays in the middle of the new shirt. I cut the sleeves from the t-shirt sleeves which saved me from finishing the edges on those.

A word on neck binding- on t-shirts where the stretch of the jersey is completely gone the neck hole may need to be a bit wider for smaller children (O is one)- sadly the robot one doesn't go over his head so will have to remake that one (red raglan sleeves anyone?)

Now if only I could catch the little blighter wearing one of the shirts...

I'd be very happy to post the pattern I made for my 1 year-old if anyone's interested.

*** Update: caught him on camera. Here's my little man striking a model pose in his new tshirt: