Mad dash

My sewing came to a halt when Liora woke up and started demanding more attention and eye contact.  I haven't been able to catch my breath sufficiently over the last two three months to sew properly, or blog at all.  Oh, and I went back to work, too!  Here's what you missed over the summer.  The 2010 sewing season is now closed.

1. Another Ottobre mekko, this time in teal linen.  Pardon the chalk marks and wrinkles.  See above excuses.

2. Corduroy overalls in a pattern that screams, "My mama was born in the '70s!"  Houndstooth hearts, people!  This is the best pattern for baby overalls that I've found.  The contrast gathered cuffs keep the pants down at the ankles and there's lots of room for a cloth diapered tush.  The shoulder straps are thick and don't slip off.

His & hers

In the "his" department, a fancy shirt for Jonah. I hope to reserve it for trips to synagogue, as lately we've made an unfortunate habit of showing up in grass-stained pants and snack-smeared tees. I love cotton seersucker plaids for summertime, and figured that a simple shirt would facilitate matching the plaids (almost true, as you can see here!). Last week there was a $1.99 pattern sale at JoAnn and I made my inaugural purchase of toddler patterns, now that he's a 2T. This one, Simplicity 2627, fits a slim kid very well, though I could have added some length. It went on easily (unlike the far hipper Oliver and S sailboat top). My only modification to the pattern was to gather the sleeves before sewing them to the body of the shirt, so that they'd fit in smoothly.
Check out the airplane buttons! I made the buttonholes way too big, so I only cut them part-way open. Oops. Something about the irregular shape of the buttons made me think I'd need huge buttonholes.

The best part of this project was that it was an instant hit. I wasn't even planning on presenting the shirt to him, but Jojo saw it hanging on the closet door and immediately wanted to wear it - pointing at his ratty tee and saying, "Off!" Since I told him it was his "chemise synagogue," he pulled out his Jewish Holidays book and started un-velcro-ing the Torah. This was all a lot of fun until it was dinnertime and I had to get him out of the shirt. He ended up eating his dinner topless as a compromise.


















As for the "hers," my second garment from Ottobre is a pair of pink velour jodhpur pants (clearly, a wardrobe staple). The pattern was very easy to follow and I love the details - mock side vents at the hem, accent buttons - that set these patterns aside from their stodgy American counterparts. I had used most of this fabric to make an unspeakably hideous maternity dress, so I feel I've redeemed it now with this project.

First Ottobre "mekko"

(that means "dress" in Finnish!)

For my birthday, I received not one, but two subscriptions to Ottobre Kids magazine! Guess everyone knew how I plan spend the rest of my maternity leave. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on the baby, too.

Like Japanese patterns, Ottobre's patterns require a fair amount of elbow grease on the part of the sewist. You start with scary pattern sheets that look like this. You have to locate your pattern pieces, trace them onto tissue paper, add seam allowances, and then figure out the cutting layout. Some of this grunt work is actually pretty interesting, since you really have to think through how the garments are constructed.

So, about this dress. It's the "plum tree" dress in size 74 sewn in 100% linen. As I wrote about earlier this week, I have been rethinking my fabric choices for little ones after reading a particular blog post. The author came out strong for linens and I decided to try it. Linen is very yummy to sew, since it's thick and sturdy yet flexible. I like its rumpled look for kids' clothes, and the colors are rich with depth.

The dress features pockets (from a different pattern, btw) of Echino fabric, whose butterflies match the dress perfectly...










...and a mock placket with cotton lace and buttons. I haven't sewn lace since I was in elementary school, and like gathers, I think I'll be seeing a lot of it in the coming years as I sew for Liora!

Stripey dress

Another long-sleeved dress, here in striped seersucker (McCall's 5739). I know it looks quite rumply, but I didn't want to iron all the intended puckers out of the seersucker.

My to-do list

Some recent shopping has lengthened my sewing to-do list considerably. This post is basically a visual reminder so that I can come back to these fabrics in many months and wonder why I have 7/8 yard of one and 2/3 of another. On Sunday, I met my ever-patient sister in Portsmouth. She soothed the baby and advised while I shopped.

For example.
A rusty Fassett shot cotton and Alexander Henry circles for this tunic and pants set:
And fuschia Fassett shot cotton and Alexander Henry mushroom caps for a dress:

And a bit of this very interesting Echino print for who-knows-what.
Then things got really nuts, on an unplanned trip to JoAnn's today.
I reread a very wise post from Oliver and S last night about choosing fabrics for kids' clothes (titled "Approach Juvenile Prints with Caution") and decided I needed a large number of respectable solids to go with all this print silliness. From top to bottom, with planned project in parentheses: plum linen (Ottobre plum tree dress), turquoise linen (ditto), rust-mustard wide-wale corduroy (Oliver and S sailor pants), cilantro narrow-wale corduroy (overalls), plum knit rib and cilantro cotton knit (tights or tees), lightweight denim (jumper).

If I sew one project every week, I have a chance of getting through most of this before I resume work in September!

Zoo set

Another gift set, this one for baby Parker. The fabric is "2-D Zoo" by Alexander Henry, with a bit of leftover chambray at the cuff. Small prints really look great on small garments, a basic principle that I sometimes forget. I made the appliqué by enlarging a "p" on my computer and copying the letter. An initial is about the right level of personalization, in my opinion - it's obviously just for him but it doesn't broadcast his full name to the whole world.
Using a darker thread around the borders gives appliqués good definition and can highlight a color you like in the mix. Of course, it can also highlight all your little missteps around corners:

Monkey set

Another gift set of onesie & pants, this time for Shuba's baby-to-be. 100% cotton teal print with monkeys, accented with a pale white and beige dot print. Here's a detail of the top:

The whole thing:

My new label:

Tees reborn

I haven't done much re-purposing in my sewing, but it's a big presence on many sewing blogs. You take a man's dress shirt and make it into a skirt, or turn a woman's tee into a child's dress, etc. Last week I plucked some of my husband's old cotton tee-shirts from the rag pile, and turned them into baby pants.

On the left, you can see one shirt being cut up into pants. I've taken to copying pattern pieces onto tracing paper so that I can preserve all the sizes that come with the original pattern.

The pattern (Butterick 5326) has just one piece (cut twice) so it takes very little fabric - a size L man's shirt was perfect. The pattern is nothing special, though I do think that ankle elastic is worthwhile for baby pants. Since babies are rarely vertical, this keeps the pants on the legs! The teal pair on the left are from the same fabric as my earlier baby tights - the orange and green pairs are from old tees. If you have stained shirts (there was something like white-out all over the green tee), just sew the wrong side of the fabric facing out. This gives a more interesting surface texture. Plus, the inside fabric may be more brightly colored than the right side.

FO x2!

I'm on a roll, friends! Another sewing project has traveled from start to finish since I last wrote. One motivational strategy that I use frequently while sewing or knitting is to immediately start a new project when I finish something. Once that "Blouwolff design" label is put in place, I head straight to the dining room table and cut out a new project. I always find it easier to dive back into sewing when I know I have something all cut out and ready to go. Then, when the urge (or baby's naptime) hits, I'm ready. In this spirit, I cut out two pairs of pants, one pair of tights, and a tunic-dress a few days ago. More on the pants later once I've restocked on stretch fabric needles for my machine.

Here's the scoop on the tights and tunic that you see above.

The tights pattern comes from my favorite blog and is a snap. Find the pattern and excellent directions here. I used some ultrastretchy rayon/lycra that I found on sale at JoAnn's a few months ago. I also bought this fabric in deep purple, so I'll make some tights in that color very soon.
The tunic is a combination of McCall's 5739's dress (mostly) and top (the long sleeves). It zips up the back, but since it's a 6-9 month size I think this will present less of a problem than it would for newborns. The pattern includes a really amazing coat and beret which I definitely want to make soon. I used some super-special stashed fabric that I bought in Panajachel, Guatemala back in 2002. There's a narrow teal stripe in the design that matches the tights perfectly. The girly aspects of the pattern are well-tempered by the stripey fabric and I think the jewel tones flatter Miss Quetsch's complexion. This whole tights n' tunic thing is new to me since my older child is a boy, but I've been watching the bigger cuties at daycare and I am enthusiastic about the possibilities.

FO (finished object)

I finished something. It took about a month, sewing a seam a day here and there - the kind of thing that drives me crazy! This retro romper (Butterick 5326) is made from ultra-lightweight cotton seersucker, with a tiny bit of silver metallic thread mixed in. I love the elastic at the legs, which I think will compliment Liora's chubby thighs, but am less keen on the back button closure (although I traded buttons for velcro in an attempt to improve it). Personally, I think all baby clothes should open in the front. The tacky pink bow is attached to the clothes hanger, so please don't worry that it's part of the garment. Hopefully Liora will fit into this soon and I can add a picture of her modeling it.

A girl to craft for!

So, to update you all on the past several weeks (and to explain my absence from the blog): we had a baby girl on March 25! I was very surprised to have a girl, and my thinking went something like this: #1 No bris (circumcision), woo-hoo! #2 I will get my friend Arianne's awesome hand-me-downs, double woo-hoo! #3 I can finally craft the full spectrum of baby clothes, triple whammy woo-hoo! For those of you who don't follow the world of crafty books and blogs, it is a very, very girl-centric world. There aren't many patterns for boys and what's out there is pretty boring (although one of my heroes, Rae, took a stab at improving this over the winter: see here). Now all the twirly skirts, sundresses and ruffled tunics are mine to try at home!

I haven't been sewing very much. At all. But at six weeks, Liora is at least starting to fit into some of the stuff I sewed her before she was born. Here's the kimono I blogged about back in January. It fits a chunky baby this age very well and I like it much better on her than I did when I finished sewing it.Even the bias tape side ties, which I found a bit bulky with this gauzy cotton, look just fine now:
Hopefully I will have a new post soon about some postpartum completed projects!

Dotty chicks

Update from June 2010: here is my daughter wearing this outfit at 12 weeks of age. I wrote this post a few days before she was born.


Well, I may yet reach the bottom of my unfinished projects pile before the week is out! Today I sewed up a vest and overalls set from Simplicity 2523 (amazingly, a commercial toddler pattern for boys that I hadn't yet tried). The project was delayed a few weeks ago when I cut out the back of the overalls with the birds upside-down. Whoops. Of course this was unusual fabric that had to be mail-ordered (again) to correct the error. Ugh. About a year ago, I bought the original supplies for this project: Urban Flannel by Valeri Wells from Free Spirit and Kaffe Fassett (?) dot at Portsmouth Fabric Co.

I'm not too happy with how the vest turned out. The neckline and armholes aren't cut away enough, so it looks more like a shirt. In the future, I'd recommend cutting the seam allowance off these edges before encasing them in bias tape. At first I thought I'd missed something in the directions, but I went back and checked to be sure. Secondly, I found it impossible to get the bias tape to lay smoothly around the pocket curves. This left me with two puckery pockets, each a slightly different size and shape - too homemade-looking for my taste. That despite having gathered the bias tape in advance of coaxing it into a curve with the iron. Finally, since I didn't put buttons on the front over the velcro (redundant, right?), I've got visible seams on the outside where the velcro is attached within. Next time, I'd sew the velcro to the lining in advance to hide those seams. Or I could get up off this chair, go out, and buy three buttons to cover the velcro.

The overalls are more promising, in my opinion. I altered the design slightly by making the cuffs and pocket in contrast fabric (pattern calls only for contrast facing). They look to have ample room for a cloth-diapered tush and the snap tape at the crotch will be quite handy. Since I made the 1-3 month size, there aren't too many snaps - hopefully this will encourage my husband and our daycare provider to actually close the pants completely after diaper changes.

Feathering the Nest

Baby crafting right up to your due date provides not only distraction, but also a great motivation to complete projects. In that spirit, I passed some Braxton-Hicks moments this weekend by wrapping up the following:





The impending baby's fetal name is la quetsch (a small Alsatian plum). These plums are commonly used to make eau de vie and fruit tarts.

Two items for Jonah as he comes a big brother (which we keep talking about, although I can't tell if it makes any sense at all to him!). All of these appliqués were made with scanned/found-online images that I printed onto printable fabric sheets and then adhered using Steam-a-Seam before encasing edges in zigzag stitch. This technique has a lot of potential!