birthday time again

This weekend it was Jamie's 6th Birthday and he had several requests and included amongst the Skylander and Minecraft  pleas came one for a Ninja t-shirt and the now expected birthday t-shirt. I started making these t-shirts when he was 3 (wish I'd thought of the idea before then) and he's no idea how pleased I was to hear him request I make him one again this year. I wonder how long this will last?

I thought I'd try a new pattern this year so I gave the Dolman Top pattern by Amanda at Kitschy Coo a try and I'm thrilled that I did. I'm hoping to try out some of her kids knit fabrics soon as they're really funky and organic too. The grey and navy fabric I used for this one came from Tissu Fabrics.

The top comes together really quickly and I even tried using my overlocker/serger to apply the neck band. I've always used my sewing machine for this bit before as that's what was recommended in my usual pattern and also because I was a bit scared to use the overlocker.

Each year I have to remember how I deal with knit fabric after mostly only working with wovens the rest of the year. I'd not used a twin needle before but it's really rather good although I'm planning on getting a stretch rather than ball point version next time as I did get a few skipped stitches. In theory if you've turned up an even hem when you use the twin needle as it forms the stitch on the inside of the hem it should cover the raw edge of the fabric. It mostly did but obviously my hem wasn't totally even on the inside as I managed to miss a section. Unpicking on knit fabric is not as easy as on woven so rather than unpick I stitched and extra row.

Since I already had everything set up I thought I'd make another one and use up the last of the Ninja fabric I bought as part of a fabric co-op a few years ago. This time I used a single needle but a stretch rather than a ballpoint one and no skipped stitches at all - Yay!! 

In this version I added the neck band in the same way as the cuff bands which worked fine. It's definitely easier to apply the neck band as written in the pattern but as I only have white thread on the overlocker it does show a little at the band join at the top but that me just being a fuss pot.

I made size 5/6 and there's room to grow even with Jamie being six but not so much as too make it too big. I used my overlocker to sew the seams and my sewing machine for all the top stitching. On the sewing machine in both cases I used woolly nylon in the bobbin, poly in the needle, lengthened the straight stitch to 3.5, reduced the top tension slightly to 4 and also the presser foot tension to 3. I wound the woolly nylon on the machine rather than by hand as is often recommended and it worked just fine.

I'm now thinking I might actually tackle a knit top for myself soon as I've had the Renfrew pattern stashed for a while now - we'll see.

Anyhow enough about t-shirts and back to the birthday boy. This year was his first (and last for quite some time) big party and he had an absolute ball. A very noisy and energetic time was had by all and nobody clashed heads or received any injuries in the soft play area so it's all good.

Of course you know there's a cake picture to finish this post so here it is. For those who don't know it's a creeper cake based on the Minecraft game that my eldest plays, of course Jamie wants to be the same as big bro so I endulged him. It's not a  pretty cake but then I guess a creeper shouldn't be pretty.

As an aside Minecraft images are all pixel based so ideal for conversion into quilts...

Bye for now

so making your own clothes.. is it more work than it's worth?

At the moment I've taken it upon myself to make some more clothes. I've been taken in by the Sew Lisette patterns and all the great versions on flickr.

My last attempt at making a tunic didn't even make it onto the blog as it had more than a few fitting issues. So anyway a suitable amount of time has passed since that disaster and I have once again fooled myself into thinking I could make myself some thing nice.

Now the Sew Lisette Market Blouse is a simple pattern to make but I cannot seem to get a fit I like. The 10 is too baggy/wide the 8 too tight at the hips, I have 2.5" difference between high bust and full bust, pooling of fabric at the waist at the back (sway back or big butt?) aargh! Maybe I'm just being a fuss pot and trying to make this blouse more fitted than it's meant to be but these are the same issues I had with my last top so I think not.

After my last fitting nightmare I bought myself Fit for Real People since it's recommended by just about every sewing forum out there. It is full of detailed fixes for all manner of fitting problems which is all well and good but trying to work out exactly which issues I have it doing my nut in. I'm currently trying a full bust adjustment on the size 8 but at my last attempt it made the top too tent like at the front. humpfff! this is all taking up far too much time and I'm verging on obsessed.

All this for a simple top, is it worth the hassle I wonder?  I really need to find a dressmaking course to go to I think. So if anybody knows of classes in Stirling or Perth please let me know, my sanity is at risk here!

I hope all your sewing projects are going well and I'll be back soon with another much more successful and completed project very soon.

Bye for now



ETA. I think I might of cracked it, watch this space.

kids clothes week challenge

Elsie Marley is hosting another Kids Clothes Week Challenge, the idea being you spend an hour (or more but at least an hour) a day making kids clothes for a total of seven days. I thought this would be a great incentive to get to grips with my overlocker and make a dent in the rather large stash of knit fabrics that are waiting to be used. I want to make some t-shirts for my youngest and maybe a top for my daughter, maybe a bit ambitious I think but I'll have a go.

Well day one and I have finished a t-shirt, (took a lot longer than an hour) and it does fit more or less (sleeves and hem length will be altered tomorrow) which is amazing considering the complete hash I made of overlocking it. I've re-purposed a couple of t-shirts that were heading for the bin. I stitched the car graphic onto the front before making up the t-shirt. It could have done with being further up but he-ho. I tried a new way of applique which I'll use again. I used temporary spary adhesive to stick the graphic to the shirt and used a bit of tearaway stabiliser on the back before stitching it. I don't like using bond-a-web to attach applique on knit fabric as it always leaves the fabric a bit stiff where the applique is.

This is the first t-shirt I've made and I certainly can't fault the pattern I'm using which is the amazingly detailed All the Rage Raglan from The Scientific Seamstress. The pattern has great instructions including those for a standard sewing machine not jut an overlocker/serger. One of the options in the pattern is to stitch the hems before sewing up the side seams. This means you have a nice straight hem but when I went to overlock the side seams the machine ate the fabric. It's something to do with the thickness of the layers of fabric at the hem I'm sure.  I couldn't keep the seam straight and the fabric got all bunched up and dragged into a big mess which resulted in a broken needle and a lot of bad language. After all that I just used my standard machine with woolly nylon in the bobbin, straight stitched and zigzagged  the edges and hey-presto a finished t-shirt.

So where does that leave me with overlocker? At the moment I could quite happily throw it out the window, if it wasn't so heavy. It scares me and it's very loud and seems to go at 3 speeds, fast, faster and lightning fast.

It's just teething problems........ isn't it?

happy sewist today!

Last week I got a lovely surprise email from Irene at Sew, Mama, Sew. She was asking if they could feature the Little Smarty Pants sharks shorts I made from my youngest, in their Back to School month. Well I thought and I thought....... no I didn't I immediately said "yes, of course, I'd be thrilled".  So today J's shorts are featured here and I'm chuffed to bits. So 'Hi and welcome' to anyone who has arrived here from Sew,Mama,Sew. The post about the shorts is here, I really must get round to adding tags and stuff to my posts.

On another note I received my latest batch of fabric yesterday, some gorgeous knit and velour. These are destined to be sewn on my yet to be befriended overlocker. I'm a bit scared of it but as soon as I get the party bags done I'll be firing it up and hopefully making some kids clothes, fingers crossed.