A sewing diversion. Knit overalls from a photo

My daughter's closest friend is a charming young lady, with a strongly developing individual style. Her mother asked me if I could help her find a pattern to replicate these knit overalls, as she had been unable to find a similar garment in RTW, nor in the pattern catalogues.



Having possibly the largest collection of sewing patterns within 1000km, I felt well qualified to meet this request, particularly as many of my patterns are rather dated. This may or may not be due to some injudicious purchases of bulk lots on ebay in the past.
Much to my surprise, the closest I could come up with in a remotely appropriate size was this pattern from TopKids 42, published 1997, which shares only a few of the apparently desirable features of the subject overalls.



Somehow, I could not let this be.
I did not think this would be a good project for a beginning seamstress making a garment for a teenage daughter who had something very particular in mind. Knits are tricky IMO.

The best thing about being able to sew is making something that meets your inner vision of a particular garment, and the next best thing is making a garment that meets another person's inner vision - particularly if you are quite fond of that person. Unfortunately, I find it extremely difficult to meet the inner vision even of members of my own family, who by forceful education have some idea of fabric qualities and pattern requirements, so I embarked on this project with some trepidation, but also some insurance.
1. I wanted to make them
2. I picked the fabric and pattern to meet a clear visual guide from the recipient 3. It was a complete surprise to the recipient, and 3/4 of a surprise to her mother, whom I consulted for important things like favourite colours, but failed to inform that I was making the garment, rather than just assembling requirements. (A bit sly, but she forgave me)
4. I could use my daughter for fitting, as she and her friend are a similar height and build, and the overalls are a very loosely fitting garment.
5. The friend's birthday was approaching, so I had a good excuse to give her a present.

These are what I made.



I altered the pattern from a woven to dimensions more suitable to the cotton-lycra knit by taking 5cm in width from each leg and the front bib.
I used woven selvage to reinforce the crotch seam, the side openings and both the strap seams and the vertical seams on the bib. All the pockets are lined with cotton woven print.



This was a nostalgic project for me. The scrunched shoulder straps reminded me of the scrunchies I made to wear in my hair at primary school, and revisiting TopKids 42 had me searching through my photo album for the last pattern I made from the magazine (the print dress). Aren't they sweet toddlers?




I was happy with the project before I parted with it, but fortunately, it met with a very favourable reception.
Here is an excerpt from my Thank you card (published with permission from the artist)

.
Sometimes everything works out very nicely.

The end of the pyjama marathon

My husband found some bicycle fabric on the internet. He claims that he was not looking for fabric, just at cycling, but I am a little dubious about this statement.
I do not have many men's patterns, but digging around in my pattern stash, I came up with this.

Don't you love the sleazy type in the middle eating his sunglasses?
I think this must be a hand-me down pattern from my mother, who made a few board shorts for my brother in the late 80's. I don't remember buying nor using this pattern before, and it is cut out already.

After making all the other pyjama shorts, the pattern looked rather dull. I added a button front fly, winging it, and the elastic backed drawstring and topstitching I have been doing for the past few weeks in my sleep.
I am over pyjamas.
Here is the last gasp.

I am hoping my children will agree to co-ordinate for Christmas eve, and stocking opening whilst modelling this last grouping.
It is too young for the girls, but as the fabric was purchased at JoAnne's in 1998, in order to make matching pyjamas for my toddler girls, I thought that if I did not use it this year, I would never make this project.
The patterns are girls'- BurdaStyle 11-2008-134/5 again, boy's- Topkids 52 shirt 9 and TopKids unidentified shorts again.
Materials cost
Bicycle pyjama shorts Cotton fabric from BearPaw Quilts $US 8.99per yard + shipping, 3/4 of a yard $US 7.50, about $1 for thread, recycled button and pattern.
$US 8.50
Pyjamas for Christmas Eve
Deep stash Debbie Mumm Cotton at $US6 per yard, I used about 3 and 1/2 yards for the sets $21
Thread, elastic $5 (generous)
Bra straps $0.50 (Greenfields, Sydney, bulk buy)
Patterns- previously used, free
Buttons - recycled, free
$AUD about 30 for the three sets.
I will not be sewing for the next few weeks, as after I host a pre Christmas dinner for my family this evening, we are off to visit the in-laws, then will spend a week or so camping.
When we come home, all the sewing will be about me, me, me.

Back to real sewing (or I hate knits)

After my little foray into sewing with nylon lycra and wicking polyester, it was with great relief that I started on a lovely piece of shirting cotton.
I say lovely, but I am lying, because it is a cheap (but not very inexpensive -$12 per metre) lightweight cotton from Spotlight (2008). I do, however, love the print- and it is not a knit, which suits me just fine at the moment.

This is from TopKids 52 again (shirt #9). I have started with size 104, only 5 sizes less tall than my son, and as Deb pointed out in the comments on my last post, it is much easier to add length than to remove width.
Annoyingly, I still had to trace out the pattern. I have made this many times previously, including size 104 (I love keeping an online sewing journal, I would never have remembered which size I made before blogging)but the only tracing I have tidily stored in a ziplock bag with the magazine, is size 92, about size 2 RTW equivalent. The 104 tracing must be with my rashie vest pattern. It really is time to sort out my patterns.

I fiddled about with embroidery for the pocket. The print is slightly off grain, but I cut it out with the print vertical - and even on this small shirt, the pocket hangs a little crooked.
The black print shows through on the wrong side. To prevent this from marring the appearance of the shirt, I used plain white shirting for the facings, and undercollar.



I added a yoke to the back, by splitting the pattern above the armscye. I widened the back by 4 pattern stripes, unfortunately not quite enough to allow matching of the pattern on both sides - just look at the left side for me, OK!

The yoke lining and pocket lining are white cotton batiste. I bound the back neck opening with a self bias strip, and lining the yoke gives me something to which I can sew the bias.

This was so much more fun than the rashie. My son may look scruffy in the pool, but he will look smartly dressed at Christmas lunch.
Materials cost - $12 fabric, about $1 thread, recycled buttons, lining remnants, and previously used pattern. (the rashies and jacket were about $10 each)

TopKids 52 rashie disaster

My rash words about whipping up a sunprotective swim top yesterday afternoon came back to bite me.
I could not find my usual rashie pattern. My sewing materials/patterns/hidden stashes are not particularly well organized at the moment. Usually when this missing object situation occurs, I have a lovely time restacking everything, but I am feeling the pressure of my December 22 deadline, so instead, I looked through my TopKids magazines for an alternative pattern.
I have used TopKids patterns quite frequently, and find that my children are skinnier than the TopKids chart. Usually I make the size according to height, but scale down 2 sizes for width. I followed this practice with the rashie pattern - (#26, from TopKids 52) and had a fitting disaster.This was partly due to the reluctance of my son to stop playing and allow me to measure him.

My son kindly pointed out that it was not so baggy if he stretched out a lot.

However, I thought of all that fabric dragging him down in the surf, and put this attempt firmly in the maybe-next-year pile.
My son then graciously permitted chest and waist measurements, with a full 30 second time out from his cubby house construction, and I found that he is 5 sizes skinner than his height. Annoyingly, I had already cut out a long sleeved top from the original tracing, from UV50+ wicking polyester, for kayaking and hiking.
This fabric is not so stretchy as the chloroban swim wear fabric, so I thought it would make a reasonable lightweight jacket for our summer camping trip just after Christmas.

I added an adult size hood from Jalie 2795 at his request. I was not too unhappy with this jacket, until I saw how wonky and ripply the hem band appears in this photo. I cut it off, and added a deeper hem band.


I had lined the hood, as I think this looks more smart when the hood is worn down.

Overall, the jacket is a reasonable save, although I was reminded that my sewing skills are severely limited for knit fabrics.
I still had to make a rashie top, but I could not find a smaller pattern. My son cannot wear a rash top without a zip, as his head is quite large, and a wide enough neck opening leaves his neck and upper chest vulnerable to sunburn.
I am very bad at inserting zips into nylon lycra. I should have hand basted this, but I was not at all in the mood - I had to cook dinner! It looks rushed.
I also could not be bothered getting out my coverstitch and reading the manual again so that I could make it work. The hem looks exactly as if I could not be bothered.
I scaled the top down 4 sizes in width. The proportions are now off, and it still looks rather loose.
I am very unhappy with this rashie. However, it will keep the sun off. I may need to make him another one with more care, so that I can bear to see him wearing it - but that will not be happening this week.

Gift sewing - Topkids 59 skirt 24

I have been embroidering a t shirt as my handbag project for the last few days. This is for my niece who turns 8 this week. I do not smock for this family, as although they are gratifyingly appreciative of anything I make, they keep smocked dresses for "best", which means "worn once", where I am more of a " You want to wear that dress in the sand pit, sure - you will look gorgeous!" sort of smocker. (Smocking is resilient in the washing machine)
A few Christmasses ago, I was very rushed and busy, and did not manage to make presents for my 3 nieces of this family, so I bought presents. This gave me a disappointed feeling in my middle, so on the long car trip, then plane trip to Melbourne to visit them, I did a little embroidery on 3 plain white t shirts from Target to add to the present. These were a wild success, out of proportion to the small effort involved, - and were worn for the family photography that year. I was stunned.
So now, I embroider a t shirt for most birthdays (long story, sorry). This year, I was inspired by a hairclip set, and was quite happy with the embroidery. (Double lazy daisies - 2 pinks, orange, with french knot centres and detached chain leaves, all DMC cotton stranded)

I had bought a book for the rest of the present, and was planning to post the present yesterday. However I woke up at 5am yesterday morning thinking of lime green stretch cotton. On automatic (my usual state in the early morning) I found the fabric, this already traced out TopKids pattern in the right size, and hot pink patterned shoelace, gingham ribbon and bias binding in less than 5 minutes. You would think my sewing things were organized (you would be wrong).
The skirt took less than one hour to cut out, sew and embellish. Nothing went wrong, and the colours all co-ordinate. I did not even look at the t shirt while I was picking the fabrics. I think I made this skirt in a dream the night before, and was just repeating myself. Sewing is doing strange things to my brain.
I went around in a happy glow for the rest of the day, then, after work and dinner, thought I would finish the neckline and hems of 2 knit tops on the coverstitch, which has just behaved beautifully on 16 items of swimwear. The stitches skipped, so I changed the needles (and unpicked the hem - not easy, that pull the chain thing does not happen when I do it). I then spent 4 hours trying to thread the coverstitch and sew a hem without making a hole in the fabric.
After the 78th (I am guessing) time threading the machine exactly as the manual instructed, it suddenly worked, and behaved beautifully. Sewing is not for the faint hearted.

However, you can sew when it is too dark to take photographs

Despite my last post, I did do a little sewing this week. I was getting antsy, it was too dark after work to take photographs anyway, and my son needs a new Winter jacket. I wanted to use a Jalie pattern for a polar fleece top with a hood, but I could not find it. I was rather annoyed, as the plan was to work out the construction tweaks with the smallest size in the family, then make a jacket for everyone else as well. No luck.
After my fruitless search for Jalie whatever-the-number-is, I looked through my TopKids Magazines. These are getting rather old now, but if you look at the line drawings instead of the styling, children's clothes look much the same now as they did 10 or so years ago.
I made my son Jacket 22 from TopKids 51.


I have used some really awful red polar fleece for the body (originally purchased for a costume) and some not so bad green polar fleece for the sleeves and hood lining. The pattern had quite a lot of piecing and colour blocking - including the back, but I think it looks pretty good for two mismatching scraps.
My son is extremely pleased with it. I hope he likes the proper polartech one just as much.
Next time I make this I will use a walking foot for the piecing, as some of it is a bit wobbly here, but otherwise the pattern is pretty good. I have reviewed it here

Fast Christmas Sewing

Some months ago, I had the bright idea of smocking dresses or tops for each of my seven nieces as Christmas presents. Well, I have given up. Somehow I managed to make 2 or 3 outfits for the babies and toddlers, one outfit for a 4 year old, and my smocking mojo has worn out before I reached the last family, containing nieces aged nearly 4, up to nearly 9. I will not feel guilty, as they all received smocked birthday dresses this year.
Instead, I bought plain white t shirts at Target, and made these quick and easy cotton print skirts with a ruffle. I have put these in a parcel with a book each, and expect to have 3 happy nieces. The pattern is skirt 24 from Topkids Issue 59. The fabric is from Spotlight via my stash. I have altered the pattern only by using elastic attached to a drawcord for the waist gathering, edge stitching the top edge of the casing, and using a rolled hem to finish the ruffle.

 

DD the younger really fancied these skirts. She wanted me to make her one too, so that she can match her cousins when they visit us in January. I tried to convince her to make it herself - this is a really easy pattern, but there was no interest at all. She made me a cup of tea instead.

 

Naturally, once I had whipped up the skirt, she announced that she had no plain white t shirts. I am pretty sure this is a fib, but admit she is growing very fast, and did not want to plumb the depths of her wardrobe, so made her Jalie 2787, which she has been hinting about since I made my own unsuccessful versions. On her, it looks fabulous. I now love the pattern. She really likes the flutter sleeve. I used fold over elastic for the neck and cross overs, and am very happy with the outfit. ( The top was too long again, I have taken around 7 cm from the hem)

 

Here is a last photo to show the whole skirt on my daughter. I quite like the waistband, but my daughter says she likes to wear her tops out, rather than tucked in.

 

Topkids Issue 56 , Design 1, baby dress set

Whilst I felt quite happy to abandon all my ongoing projects in order to make another baby dress for my very new niece, I managed to restrain myself from starting an elaborate smocking project (that is next :)) ) and decided to make a little pinafore dress. The current delightful Spring weather in Queensland is not nearly so warm in Sydney,so I thought this sort of dress would allow layering, so more wear over the next month or so.
I looked through my extensive collection of TopKids magazines, and found this outfit in issue 56.

 

The garment shown in the magazine is made from terry toweling. I wanted to use denim or corduroy for a very casual wear look, but felt that this silhouette would be fine in a woven, particularly as I would like the baby to be able to wear this now, so any lack of ease due to using woven instead of knit in the smallest size ("newborn" 62cm length)would not be an issue for an average size newborn. After some fabric fondling, I decided to use a very soft fine wale corduroy, which fortuitously co-ordinates with some newborn size striped knit pants from my possible baby present stash.

 

You can see that I have made a few changes to the pattern. The magazine uses a bias binding to finish the neck and arm holes, but turns this in fully, then topstitches. I chose to use the bias binding as a contrast trim, so trimmed 5mm from these seam allowances, and folded over the bias, after sewing it to the right side, then stitched in the ditch on the right side for the neck, armholes and hem. In a more dressy garment, I would have handstitched this seam, but I wanted this pinafore to be both quick to construct, and extra sturdy - this SIL now has 3 children under 4 years of age and so no time to fuss with delicate washing techniques.
I also used my own adaption of the embroidery design both in shape and in the stitches used. My flower is very naive and simple (ie, quick, I want this in the post today)using 6 threads of stranded DMC cotton for running stitch petals and leaf, 5 threads in stem stitch for the stem and 5 threads in french knots for the flower center. I have added a few 2 and 3 strand straight stitches to the petals and leaf.

 

I changed the fastening from a placket style at the back to a shoulder fastening. In my opinion, this is easier for dressing the baby, and also means I could use novelty heart buttons instead of sensible flat, non baby poking buttons. Being careless, I failed to cut a longer shoulder to allow for this change, so used bias binding to extend the front shoulder, and to finish the edge on the back shoulder. I used buttonhole stitch loops to cope with the novelty buttons.

 

At the back I embroidered a lazy daisy, just for fun.