14/06/2012

Not another blooming pair of…

Yup, it’s anothery. This time a in teal corduroy (thrifted) with mock antique brass anchor buttons (not thrifted). Sitting alongside a vintage transfer singlet and a new fedora made with this dress’s leftovers and this pattern.

I went back for the Oliver and S Sailboat pants pattern to use as a bloomer base again here and I’m pretty smitten with this pair. It’s nice when you like stuff you make. The difference between these and the hot air balloon version is bloomer cuff here fits a lot closer to the leg so there’s a decent amount of puff, which I like.

So you’ve seen the lounging squid singlet here but it’s back again as the perfect partner in crime for these bloomers. They were quite literally made for each other. Why, all of a sudden I’ve been struck by the urge to make little ‘ensembles’, who knows. Anyone else afflicted? Best not to question and just get on with giving this style a fitting title…how about Vintage-Pirate-Modern? Sure, you can use it. And if you want to bloomify some pants for your lil’ man, the tutorial can be found here.

Maybe you’ve started to notice the number of hand-made stuffs photographed ‘on the wall’ out-numbering ‘on the kids’. Clothes on the wall don’t wiggle, since these days ‘photo sessions’ always turn into dance-offs between my one and four year old. On the stairs. On the table. No music necessary. These boys rock to their own beat. But me…I cannot verk in dees conditions!

07/06/2012

Hot air ball-oomers

Boy Makes

Between Kids Clothing Week in April and a jam-packed month of May I feel I’m just coming up for air now. As much as I love the thrills of sewing for a purpose or a challenge it’s nice to return to some slower paced, soul sewing. And that means I’ve finally had the chance to make more vintage boy bloomers! This time I ‘bloomified’ the Basic Pocket Pant from Growing Up Sew Liberated instead of the Oliver and S Sailboats from the Vintage May tutorial. I could try and make it sound glamorous but since the tutorial really only involves gathering the leg openings and adding cuffs, you can use any kids pants pattern you like.

In between scouting for thrifted fabrics and old shirts, Etsy is still my go-to destination for amazing children’s fabrics. There’s still plenty of mileage to go with this one; a japanese linen cotton blend with a charming yesteryear print that lends itself to things like pea coats and boy bloomers.

When I think of vintage clothing, I think of attention to details and there’s no shortage of fun to be had with them here. I widened the waistband for a bit of Harry High Pants and added self-cover buttons (you could add suspenders). Then used a sort of thrifted chambray from the stash for contrasting pocket backing and cuffs. And lastly added piping along the pocket edge. Given my stance on piping, I exercised great restraint here (I ran out).

Paired with a vintage transfer tee they make for a perfectly gentlemanly outfit.

31/05/2012

Squid on a sofa

Boy Makes

While Selma Sack Dress is under construction I’ve got summer singlets and a cringe-worthy story: For a while now I’ve been growing more and more comfortable with sewing knits, maybe even starting to think I’ve got this thing nutted out. Except for the hemming. No matter the stitch length, or how slow and carefully I go, I always end up with puckers. I couldn’t understand it, I’ve been using a walking foot. Haven’t I? Well, last night I found my real walking foot. The one I’d thought was the walking foot was actually my regular foot, and I assumed it must be the walking foot because it moves up and down like, well how a foot walks. It gets worse. Here is a quote from my Kniterview at Made By Rae: ‘I can put all knit sewing success down to the walking foot’. A Kniterview where I was presented as some sort of authority on knits? Someone even went out and bought one on my recommendation. I’m sure it won’t be the last time I make wild sewing allegations in public. But now I’ve actually found and used the real walking foot, it really is fantastic so I am officially re-recommending it.

After the great success of ‘man with antlers’ tee for Vintage May I’ve been itching to make more transfer tees using Leslie Rylie’s unbelievably amazing artist transfer paper. I’ve stocked up on fantastic vintage images like squids on a sofa and a steampunk airship from here. Addicted? Just a little. And Rae’s flashback tee makes the perfect canvas. I should probably be starting to leave sleeves on things but have been swept up in summer singlet action…first inspired by Kristin’s vintage strongman, then Inder’s stripey version and I’m loving the colours and style of Jessica’s singlet here. Kristin’s has a very helpful how-to for modifying the flashback tee to a singlet, which is not just a matter of shearing the sleeves straight off as I would have probably done.

I’m down to the last of what’s been a really great pile of thrifted fabric and having used up most of the bright stuff, am left a muted palette, like these two. It’s kind of refreshing. Maybe it’s the weather getting cooler. Another thing in favor of a good basic like the flashback tee is the fun you can have with mods. Sleeves or no sleeves, patterned or plain, embellished, colour blocked, ribbing or no ribbing. Instead of using regular ribbing for arm and neck bands, I wanted the same fabric as the shirt for the squid one and a contrast stripey knit fabric for the other. Since neither of these knit fabrics are as stretchy as ribbing, the length of the bands are only 1/2 ” shorter than the arm and neck hole measurement instead of the recommended 1″ and it seems to work well. I couldn’t love these any more. Oh, and good news…one just came out of the washing machine with the image intact!

30/04/2012

KCWC Day Five, Six, Seven: Blazer + Sarouels

Boy Makes

Hey I made it to the bonus outfit! The one I would attempt if body and soul were still in tact by day five? There’s even a whole day left of Kids Clothing Week Challenge, and of course I’m wondering….can I possibly squeeze something else out? It’s not helping that the KCWC flickr pool is overflowing with amazing sewing, and updated constantly. But, I am d.o.n.e. No attempt at a witty title today. When all I feel like blogging is ‘Yo. I made a blazer and some silly pants. The end’, I’m all KCWC’d out!

It’s okay, you can laugh. These pants are a little more ridiculous than I imagined. I was going for a woven version of day two’s Sarouels and went to town on the baggy crotch. I just figured the wider and lower that archway the better. They looks so cool hanging up. But on, the crotch creeps up and out and suddenly it’s all Senor Poofy Pants. Archie loves them, I assume because he gets a nice breeze down there. He’s such a dude in this outfit (t-shirt blogged about here) but I’m still unsure if these ‘pantaloons’ are ready for the public…

However, I feel like the bones are pretty good. The length is good, the cuffs work, the lower leg is the skinny shape I was going for. So if and when I revisit these, I need to tweak the width and obviously the depth of the archway. Maybe this shape would have been worked in a knit fabric. I’m loving how the details turned out…pockets, box pleats at the front and self-cover buttons with the fake button holes embroidered on.

I made a blazer. It has telephones. The end. Alright, lets be serious. I couldn’t resist making another blazer out of this fabric, also used here and here. While I can see this fabric might not be to everyone’s taste, there’s something about the colour and line drawings of retro phones that does it for me. Once again I used the toddler blazer pattern by Melly Sews with a couple of adjustments. I added an inch of length to the arms, removed width from the back and piped the perimeter with self-made piping (cord +bias tape). I don’t understand why I can’t get ready made piping anywhere at the moment. This is urban Australia, not the jungle! Of course I had to give welt pockets another try, just to make sure this time wasn’t a fluke. I found a tutorial for ‘piped welt pockets’, which are pretty fun. I suspect the ‘lips’ are supposed to be sandwiched shut but I quite like a peek at the lining from the outside.

27/04/2012

KCWC Day Four: Beach Shack

Boy Makes

Did I say shack? I meant hack. Beach Hack.

Day four of Kids Week Clothing Challenge and I’m guessing some of us are starting to flag while others are just picking up momentum. Okay, I’ll just speak for myself here…I am starting to flag. Today I was just not feeling it. How could I tell? Before me lay a couple of precious kid free sewing hours and I considered going back to bed. Um, what?! Yes, dire. I needed a boost. Fast. I needed….a mid-kcwc-hack job!

We are like the anti-hoarders at our place. Or just very good at re-cycling. Mr Cirque Du Bebe keeps gifting my ‘re-fashion bin’ with insanely awesome man clothes. Maybe he’s been mistaking it for the washing basket. Better check up on that one. Later. Anyway, the supply is so plentiful that I haven’t stepped near a thrift store in weeks. I had this singlet + sunnies as part of my KCWC plans but I was really dragging my feet to start. But once I spotted these tropical boardies in the pile…a beach bum surfie outfit was born!

Here’s the how…

Singlet- used a size 4 shirt as a guide for the length and width. The original neckline was too low so I re-sewed the shoulder seams, taking about two inches out of the front piece just below the shoulders, which brought the neckline up and kept the original neck binding. I kept the arm binding too and just sewed new side seams using the size 4 shirt as a guide. And hemmed the bottom as normal. I cut the sunglasses off another shirt and used the iron-on paper again to attach it.

Boardies– Used a pair of size 4 shorts as a guide for width and leg length. Because the whole waist band was elasticized I literally sewed new side seams, new inner leg seams and hemmed the pants at the new length.