PJs, shorts and another apron

Hmm, mysterious post title that, I wonder what I'm going to show you?

Clem has a habit of begging me to make him things out of such ridiculously adorable fabric that I am powerless to refuse. Check out those little lions. On Japanese cotton lawn. Oh, I suppose a second pair of summer PJ pants won't go astray.

And then, the Heather Ross Briar Rose frog pond shorts. It wasn't until I looked at this photo that I began to question the placement of that log on the front. It's just a log, and I will think no more of it.

Both PJs and shorts were made with my go-to pattern for Clem-pants, from Japanese Pochee magazine. Alas, he's now in the biggest size!

Styled with his pyjama top this morning, and a froggy hop.

 And he wanted me to take a photo of him wearing Dadda's childhood fire hat. It's made from that really sturdy seventies plastic and is in amazingly good shape.

Lastly, here's an apron I whipped up this morning as a gift for my boss at the job I recently left. Australian readers will probably be familiar with the 'map of Tassie' reference and corresponding placement on the apron. Let's just say it suited my boss's sense of humour very much. Inspired by the Sew Liberated Gathering Apron (in this post), I made it with a great big kangaroo-style pocket so it should actually be quite useful for her, as well as silly. Maybe good for gardening.

The apron is made from a souvenir linen tablecloth I've been hoarding for a few years (plus a bit of plain natural linen). I've been tempted to make myself a skirt from it but I'm not sure I could exactly, you know, wear it with pride. Apron - much better idea. And hard as it can be to make the initial cut into prized fabric like this, I'm always happier to see it put to good use rather than languishing in my cupboard. Yay for stash-busting gifts!

- Jane x

Liberty's day out

Where should a five-year-old wear his brand new Liberty shirt?

To see prize-winning alpacas.

To exchange gazes with poultry.

To eat his first-ever, much-anticipated bag of fairy floss (in the cow stalls).

To milk a cow.

And see cream churned into butter. 

 To watch the wood chopping from the safety of his Dadda's lap.

And of course, to roll about inside a large inflatable ball on water.

We all spent a great family day at the Royal Adelaide Show, and a certain someone had a pretty fabulous time until of course there were tears and a fair old meltdown and we made our way homeward.

The shirt, which I finished the night before at Clem's insistence, is from the Oliver + S Sketchbook Shirt & Shorts pattern. I made the size 6 which fits this 5 & 3/4 boy well, except I would add a bit of length to the body next time. Instead of doing a full button front I cut the front piece on the fold and added a small placket up the top so the shirt just pulls on over his head. The placket was actually cut from the sleeve placket pattern piece of my Hawthorn dress! I made it a bit longer so the opening was a bit bigger.

The outfit Clem put together for our day out also included his 'animal and fruit shorts'. "You see, things from up in the air on top, and on the ground down the bottom!" was his logic. Couldn't really object to that.

The shirt fabric is a Liberty Tana Lawn from the shop, and it goes by the curious name of 'Ranga'. It's from their seasonal range. I was cutting a dress for myself from the fabric (you know, shop sample of course) and Clem begged and begged me to make him a shirt out of it too. Eek. He'd better not develop too much of a taste for Liberty! But he loves it, and I love him in it.

- Jane x

Stylish Dress Book style A

I briefly mentioned one of these dresses a couple of posts back. The pattern is Style A from the popular Japanese Stylish Dress Book. My first one, in an Alexander Henry cotton lawn - see further below - was getting so much wear that I made another. This absolutely gorgeous Anna Maria Horner voile has been in my stash for about a year waiting for just the 'right' project. 

Check out our seven day forecast and you'll understand why this is the best thing to wear right now (degrees Celcius): 35, 41, 42, 31, 36, 41, 41.  (42 being 107.6 Fahrenheit.)

Apparently I was never going to be able to get any photos of me that did not also contain a fairy-bread-munching five year old.

I should note here that I have the translated version of this book which is also graded up into 'Western-style' sizing. I haven't tried any of the other patterns yet but I can say that this one is certainly generous. By my measurements I made a muslin of size 14 which was so immensely vast, I went straight down to a size 10, which as you can see still has plenty of room.

I added simple gathered-top pockets to this first version to match the gathering at the front neckline. I also gave both dresses pintucks around the bottom above the hem because they ended up too long and I thought they could use a little more visual interest.

Then on the voile version I decided to use four small pleats instead of gathering at the neckline, and repeated the pleating on the pockets. Uh, sorry this is the creased-up version after wearing it all day yesterday!

Yes, it's probably a bit see-through in certain lights. And the style is loose and not the most slimming and flattering thing I've ever worn. But the supreme comfort factor and fabrics I adore are certainly winning in this heat!

- Jane x

best fabric evah*!

Why am I blogging a badly-posed picture of crumpled shorts I've already blogged about?
Because these 'pyjama' shorts have been worn six days five nights non-stop at the wearer's insistence, and they still look okay.
This means two things:
1. My parenting is questionable.
2. This fabric is awesome.

I am itching to make myself something from the remainder of the fabric. A dress, I'm thinking something shirt-dress style perhaps.

Can I just wax lyrical about this fabric - Alexander Henry Larkspur Painter's Dots in Blue - a little more?
- It's pretty. Clem keeps saying how pretty it is.
- It's gorgeous cotton lawn that feels light and soft yet crisp, doesn't crease much yet presses well, is smooth yet breathable... yum.
- It repels dirt and hides marks. I even spilt a little sparkling red wine on them as I was sewing, whoops, and you would never know. This is glamorous yet practical fabric, folks.

Here are a couple of patterns under consideration for a spottyfrock. What do you think?

This is really quite hard to see properly. Why do they make the images so small on the front? I bought this a while back because I loved the ribbon-tie version.

Now that's better, thanks Simplicity! This looks pretty cool, but may have sack-like potential. Loving all the groovy versions though! The stockings! The shoes! And pockets, hooray for pockets.
And thanks to the Men's Shirt Sewalong I am no longer scared of The Placket. I have made some beautiful, if completely unworn, men's shirt plackets....

Unfortunately I suspect either of these patterns would be best tested in muslin form first. Yawn. Think I might make myself a Honey Blouse first. Starting now, if the small peeps keep watching the telly for a while. In their dirty clothes.

- Jane x

*I reserve the right to throw this phrase around will-nilly for whichever fabric takes my current fancy.

KCWC days, um, two to five-and-a-half?

My Kids Clothes Week Challenge efforts have been, er, sporadic, however I think it would add up to the equivalent of around an hour a day. That's okay isn't it?
Yesterday I made these shorts for Jasper, from start to finish. Since they're made of linen, they look like he's been wearing them a thousand years already.

They're my slightly dodgy graded-up version of the Oliver + S Sketchbook Shorts, with added back pockets. The brown linen is left over from a pre-blog dress I made myself, and the pocket fabric is a quilting cotton, bought with grand plans, aaaaannnd... marinating in the stash for a while now.

Next up, and finished today, was the companion piece to Clem's pink pyjama top of my last post. He has some pretty definite ideas about his clothing. I bought some beautiful dotty Alexander Henry cotton lawn at the end of last summer and have been musing about the perfect pattern to make myself a dress. Meanwhile, mister 4y.o. spots it and demands it become his new pyjama pants. To be honest I bought plenty of the fabric and its crisp-drapey-lightness would be simply delicious for summer sleepwear. And, saying yes to the harmless whims of a 4y.o. is easier than arguing about it.

Hence:

yeah baby, the full self-styled ensemble

pockets!

totally danceable!

they do the hornpipe!

show us your dancin' bobbin*

Pattern is one I've used several times now, in varying lengths, from Japanese sewing magazine Pochee. They have nice shaping to them, although it doesn't show up as well on this version as I made sure they were big enough for comfy sleeping.

Now, I really want to get to a t-shirt or two. My first order from Spoonflower was delivered yesterday, eek!

Happy KCWC!

- Jane x

* Bobbin is Clem's word for his bottom

Negroni take 2

My dear one had just arisen from a nap so I'll leave his sleepyface off the interwebs

For my second attempt at the Negroni for the MPB Sewalong, I cut a size M but laid the size L neckline over the pattern and traced that, like so:

It really hurt my brain to figure out this alteration, which seems so simple

I kept the L collar pattern piece I already had, and changed the front facing neckline to match as well.

I used the Japanese cotton lawn. Andy expressed grave concern over its floral-ness at first but I think he's coming around now it's taking shape.

I am learning so much from the sewalong. There's helpful advice from Peter and other participants, learning by looking at the photos and notes of others on Flickr, and simply the trial and error of ploughing through it all at home. I'm thrilled to be getting the hang of sleeve plackets and edge-stitching:

I have been using my zipper foot to allow me to do a far more accurate and narrow edge-stitch

and between a few of us we have identified an apparent error in the pattern (which is nonetheless awesome), when it comes to putting together the sleeve cuffs.

The instructions have you make the outer cuff side 1/8 inch shorter than the inner when it should be that much longer, in order to cover the stitching you see here

One of the other sewalong-ers told me that Liberty lawn can be really tough on machine needles, so be prepared to change over once or twice during the final shirt making. I noticed that with this Japanese lawn too. I guess it's the very tight, fine weave. Difficult to get pins through, too. Before the Liberty shirt I will equip myself with more fine machine needles and maybe a set of fine, sharp pins.

I need to put buttons on this shirt and hem it. I would also like to figure out what's going on with the creases running from shoulder to under the arm.

I am becoming more and more fond of this faux-Liberty lawn as I go along

I am hoping for some group advice! I don't know if I have it in me to make another actual muslin before the final shirt. I have a lot of actual, um, 'real' work waiting for me. We'll see.

- J x