kcwc fail

I've followed Elsie Marley's blog for a while now and have always been inspired by all those people who jump in to the kids clothes week challenge.  I've never felt I able to participate, though, until this spring -- the NHL playoffs are on so my husband is fully occupied, volleyball is over and fastball has yet to start I've got time in the evenings.  I've been planning what I would make, gathering supplies, tracing patterns, cutting stuff out for over a month now but it's looking like it's going to be a fail before it even starts. 

Last week I lost access to my flickr account (long story short -- we switched to bell and I didn't even think about changing my email address with flickr because I thought it was connected to my hotmail account.  Now I can't change it to my hotmail account without first signing in through rogers.  Which I don't have access to.) and I'm still waiting on help from the flickr people to reinstate it.  I could open a new account but . . .

And then I've been fighting with my sewing machine this week.  I thought it was just my state of mind (am I the only one who feels like I have to be calm when approaching my sewing machine or it senses my tension and reacts badly to it?) but I tried again today and it's still skipping stitches or, if I increase the tension, the thread breaks.  I've re-threaded it, changed the needle, used different thread, tried different types of material, and adjusted the tension but I think it needs a tune up.  In the 7 (or 8?) years I've owned this machine, I've never taken it in.  And it's got a lot of use in the last couple of years especially.  I phoned my local shop and they estimate it will take a week.  ONE WHOLE WEEK without a sewing maching.  It honestly makes me twitchy to think about it. 

So it looks like the bucket hat, circle skirt and sunday brunch jacket I had planned for this week are going to have to wait.  Sigh.

Another O+S Family Reunion Dress

I don't really like making things the same twice but J. coveted Thing 2's birthday dress (which Thing 2 has only worn once, by the way) so I decided to make her one.  I let her pick out the buttons for the back without telling her what I was making, and, at $7, the buttons cost twice as much as the fabric but she loves them. 

It took me ages to cut out as I had just enough material if I jimmied things around and cut each piece out on it's own.  It's a size 4 (J. is 6, almost 7) with about 4 inches added (or was it 5?).  Anyway, she could have done with another inch but I made it as long as I could with the material that I had.  Thankfully it fits and she wore it all day.  Hopefully she wears it again but I can never predict.  I'm halfheartedly hoping that Thing 2 will decide she wants to match and wear hers but she didn't mention that today (although she did wear the circle skirt -- yay!).  Oh well, I have a little niece who *may* wear it -- she's 18 months and is showing signs of having a mind of her own as well so it's not a sure bet ;).

Vogue 1247 - Top

I was intrigued by this pattern when I saw this classy top in silk crepe de chine at Sallieoh.  And this lovely one in orange shot cotton at Handmade by Carolyn.  Then I went into Fabricland, and Vogue patterns were on sale so it seemed like fate :).

But after I traced the pattern, it sat on my sewing table for at least six weeks until the spring top sewalong over at Made by Rae gave me the kick in the pants I needed. 

After reading reviews regarding the excessive ease of this top, I cut a size 14. I also added an inch in the length but really should've added two as I'm long waisted and this top is really short (to go with the excessively short skirt included in the pattern, I guess!)

The fabric is a swiss dot cotton voile from Girl Charlee.  It's very light, which is pretty much a requirement for this pattern as the instructions specify French seams for every seam.  And a whole whack of seams merge in the middle (I know they don't line up but there was no way I was going to pick them all out and try again after getting it all sewn together).

I didn't follow the directions for the french seams, by the way -- it says to sew at 3/8", trim and then sew 1/4" from the seam line.  I was being lazy and could not face trimming Every. Single. Seam so I sewed at 1/4" and then again at just shy of 3/8".  I got halfway through when I realized that trimming would've made my seams much smaller and on a top like this where you can see the seams through the fabric, that might have been nice ;).  Despite the French seams, this top came together really quickly and the instructions were pretty easy to follow.

The verdict in my house is that the fabric is thumbs down (too old-lady-ish) but that the top is *interesting*, if a bit baggy around the chest.  I think I need a couple more pleats to fix the crazy boxy thing going on in the chest area.  Next time, I would also forgo the seam down the back -- I had enough fabric to cut it on the fold and should have just gone with my gut. 

Circle Skirt

If Thing 2 rejects this skirt, I'll hang it up in my office because just looking at it makes me happy.  My husband's comment was "whoa, that's bright".  As if that's a bad thing! 

I used the tutorial over at Made and is Dana ever right about this being a quick project -- definitely under an hour (including the hem, which I hadn't done yet when I took these pictures).

According to the selvage, the fabric is Sketchbook by P&B Textiles.  I have no idea when or where I got it.  Miss Thing did pick it out for a bucket hat so I'm hoping it's also acceptable as a skirt.  And I've still got enough for a hat so she could be all matchy. Not that that would necessarily appeal to her, though, as she usually chooses things because they don't match.  Ehh, who can predict.  Obviously I can't!