She Who Sews

This month's theme for the Eli Monster ambassadors was the Rainbow. We each had to pick a colour. So Layla jumped on the message straight away, claiming purple (Indigo).



We originally went for a purple, with a purple cats on white print interlock. But it was a big disaster. I haven't quite got the hang of sewing it yet, and unpicking it wasn't an option. I'd ruined the fabric.

So we went out and bought the only purple looking fabric we could find in the local shop, and got this pale purple and deers with bow ties. Needless to say, she loves it!

So here it is, the Ijsje Top. We paired it with shop bought gymnastic leggings, and it's the perfect outfit for her to leap about, do gymnastics, and generally be an active little girl.

So the photoshoot went like this: Can I have a nice pose Layla?



Lets try it with your eyes open...



Less like a zombie?



Or giggle



Or pose like a Ballerina



Nope, cartwheel it is.



Starjump...



Sigh...



This top pattern, the Ijsje Top is on sale this month, along with the other ambassador picked patterns: The Academie Cardigan (you can read about my versions here), The Reizen Pants, The Spelen Dress (I made this dress from bright pink silk, here), The Feestje Dress and The Maritiem Top (I've made several, you can read about one here).

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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

I had grand plans for this outfit. It needed to be simple, wearable, and something that the girl agreed with. I let the girl pick both the patterns, and the fabric, so in theory it should be a winner?!



The fabric arrived quickly from Olumis Fabrics, and went straight into the wash. I put all new cotton lycra fabrics on a quick 40º wash, then I put them in the tumble drier. EEK! I know, I know, you're not supposed to tumble anything with lycra, but I find it does a good job of shrinking the fabric before I cut into it. I don't put the finished garments back in the tumble drier as I find the lycra disintegrates and the garments become fragile and non-stretchy (ask me how I know!).



My daughter chose the Frill sleeve tee by Made by Me Patterns. This is a new to me pattern company, and I didn't really know what to expect. Their measurement chart gives height alone, and basing it off that, the size 7-8 yrs should have been correct for Layla. How wrong could I be? When cutting out the fabric, I didn't really think too hard, but in the back of my mind I thought it looked a bit large. So I sewed it up and it was huge!

Here it is on Layla, like a baggy dress with sleeves like wings.




Frankly, it fitted my 10 year old boy, and even then, the frill sleeves were like wings. The neckband was baggy, and overall it was a badly fitted pattern.



So I cut the overlocked seams apart, re-cut the fabric in the equivalent age 5-6 yrs pattern piece, cut the frill sleeves in half and re-hemmed them. I used the 80% rule to make the neckband fit, and left it age 5-6 length. I didn't have any of the pink stripe left to make another neckband, so used the main fabric on this second version.



Now the tee fits much better, but I'm still not entirely happy with it. I don't think I'll make it again. Something is not right with the armholes and frill sleeve, it just doesn't sit properly, and even with the much smaller frills, they still just stick out.



But what about the fabric. Isn't this such a lovely print? Perfect for a stormy child, but happy at the same time. This is the Rainbow clouds and stars print in the mint colourway from Olumis Fabrics. It's a lovely pattern, but quite large, so perfect for a 7 year old's tee-shirt, but I do wonder whether it would work for a tiny baby top? I then used the candy pink and white stripes as the contrast frill sleeves to add a 'girly' hint to the tee.



A fun frill sleeved tee has to have a skirt to go with it, right? And that's where this simple skater skirt fell into the outfit perfectly. This is another new to me pattern, but is a freebie by Love Notions. This sewed up easily and quickly, and was easy to adjust thanks to the size chart. I made age 8 length, with age 3 width, and it's a perfect fit!



It is a simple two pieced skirt, with a yoga style waistband, all made from knit fabric. I used the candy pink stripe for this, and surprised myself with almost flawless stripe matching at the side seams!! I think this was helped by having beautifully straight fabric. Sometimes fabric turns up and the print seems off-grain, that's often down to stretching when being put on the bolt. But this stripe is the most perfect straight stripe I've ever laid my hands on.



Once the weather warms up, I'm hoping this becomes a go-to warm weather outfit for the girl. It's soft, stretchy and easy to wear. The skirt has already withstood an hour and half long soft play birthday party! You couldn't tell from the pics, could you!?



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*Disclaimer: I received the fabric for free from Olumis Fabrics in return for sharing pictures of it sewn up, however all views and opinions are my own*

There are loads of indie pattern designers around, and I am discovering more and more of them as each week passes. I discovered Sew Straight & Gather last summer at the release of their Cafe Romper, which I fell in love with the looks of, and bought as soon as it was released. I was super excited to sew the pattern up, and printed the whole thing off and got my daughter measured straight away.

Then for a number of reasons I simply didn't get it sewn. The pattern is still sitting now in my pattern files, nearly 9 months later. And it's such a waste, as I'll have to re-print it now to several bigger sizes to fit Layla!

So when a few sneak peek pictures of the new Avenue Collection popped up in my newsfeed from the Sew Straight and Gather pattern group, I was intrigued and wanted to have a go at sewing them up. Especially as my pink, girly, dress loving daughter had recently started to want to wear trousers and t-shirts!



I was chosen as a tester mostly due to giving my Sewing Portfolios link in the tester application. If you haven't registered, it's a brilliant little website for people who sew. You get to build an online portfolio of your work (for free), showcasing your best sewing, whether that's clothing, or accessories or dolls. I have been building my profile since the site was launched earlier this year. Once a designer registers too, they can then see my profile from my link, and voila, all my work is in one spot, ready and easy for them to see if I would be a good match for them!



I chose to test the Flares and the Top. I really wanted to give the Duster cardigan a go too, but felt that testing 3 items was going to be a big stretch in a short space of time for me. I think I made the right decision really as this test actually started before two others (that had run over) were finished.



The patterns came together easily, everything matched, although admittedly I was only printing off one size for my Little Miss. There were a few teething issues with the fit of the bands on the back of the top, which were ironed out in testing (that's what it is for right?!) and also with the fit of the waist on the fitted version of the flares (who knew that generally children have a big sway back from the way that they stand!). Because of these few bits that needing ironing out, the testing actually took a couple of weeks longer than originally planned. This was absolutely fine by me. I often find that testing is rushed and that 5 or 7 days isn't enough to test out a pattern and get nice modelled shots edited.



Once these few pattern issues were fixed, the top and trousers were a lovely little fit. I added length to both the legs of the flares, and the arms of the top as I had to use chest & waist measurement for width fit for Layla, but she was too tall for those smaller sizes.



The fitted flares feature two functional (but small) welt pockets to the rear.



And a side zip to close them at the waistband. It's such a grown-up and smart look!



We sneakily used a trip to see my Mum for Mother's Day to take photos! It turned out to be a gloriously sunny day, and the walk next to the trainline along the beach was a perfect setting for photos. I wish I lived closer as it would be a regular spot for photoshoots!



My little Miss has already got a lot of use out of these two items. In fact, she has pretty much ruined the trousers by playing hard in them (a testament to their fit and ease of wear perhaps) and covering them in mud and grime from adventure playgrounds on several occasions.



I wonder if I should have made the flares in dark denim? What would you make them in?

I came across the Orbis Skinny Harem pants pants in issue 13 of One Thimble magazine. I totally dismissed the pattern for a good while because I am not a fan of harem trousers in any way. I really, really don't like drop crotch pants, I just think they look silly. Maybe this is because I'm a 36 year old woman, and not a child?!

But I placed an order online before Christmas to get a batch of pdf patterns printed, and as I was scrolling through my pattern files, saw that this one came as an A0 file, so I added it in and got it printed just in case.



As it happens, it was a stroke of luck. I found some lovely fleece back jersey in Truro Fabrics in their city centre store (it's not available online) and bought some in marl grey with glittery blue and glittery pink stars for the kids. I took a bit of a gamble because it only had natural stretch, and no added elastane, when the pattern calls for 30% stretch minimum. I didn't size up, but on reflection I think perhaps I should have done. Repeated washing has the left the fabric with hardly any stretch at all now, and the kids are complaining that they can't get them on easily, oh dear.



Tracing off the pattern was a little confusing, every single size was printed in black and white, which wasn't ideal as it's a colour file, but colour A0 printing is far, far more expensive than black and white, and I'm inherently tight with money! This is not to say the pattern is confusing in any way. If I'd printed at home, and used the layers function it would have been more than easy, but I'm not a fan of cutting and sticking lots of pages together, and figured I'd try to shortcut it by printing the whole lot at once. In this case, it kind of backfired at me! I found it easy to grade between sizes for my daughter (age 3 width, and age 5 length) and traced a straight size 8 for my son.

It's a reasonably fabric hungry pattern as each leg piece is cut slightly on an angle, with the two front pieces being separate for the diagonal faux fly. I had to be careful with the age 8 ones to fit it all in before cutting (I've made that mistake before!). The age 3 ones were a lot easier as obviously they're smaller ;)



I totally forgot to reverse the front pattern pieces to make the fly fold the opposite way for my daughter's pair, so they're both 'boys' way round, but I don't think it matters too much.



I made the decision to have a closed, un-embellished fly as I didn't want to make this a feature. In the pictures, the fly flap is open, but I sewed them both shut afterwards. I don't own a coverstitch machine, so I sewed the pockets down with a zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine. I've discovered that both my old and my new sewing machine don't like sewing jersey unless I use a walking foot. Thankfully, this makes the whole process as easy as sewing a normal straight stitch seam in woven fabric. Anyone can do it as long as they have the correct tools.

Since making these I have read a pattern hack to create a completely flat front with only one pattern piece. I'd like to give this a go for my next pair.



I think the end result is pretty cool. They don't look like drop crotch harem pants to me. They are growing on me. At first they just reminded me of men's long-johns, but I'm past that now.



The kids love them, they're comfy and soft and warm. They love that they can join their hands together inside the pocket at the back, as this is the special feature, the pocket is a continuous one from left to back to right side. I think it's a cool design feature at the back, and I like the way the pockets flow.



I think the next pair I make will be for my daughter, in a cotton lycra jersey, so they are more like a pair of leggings. I'm thinking maybe in pink, as that is by far her favourite colour!

What would your kids want to wear, a snugly stretch sweatshirt material, or a normal legging material pair?


*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

I responded to a testing call put out by a new pattern collective of designers who were asking for baby testers ideally, Petite Stitchery. I put my details down anyway, even though I don't have a baby to test for, and a few days later was delighted to be asked to test for them. As a new company, they had a range of patterns that they wanted testing, and I was given the Rosemary Cropped Sweater.



I must admit, I was a bit dubious about it because it meant sewing with not one layer, but two layers of knit fabric! I was added to the tester group, and went ahead with downloading the pattern in excitement. My little skinny Layla is a bit awkward to test for, she's average height for her age, but is super skinny. So going by the measurement chart (American sizing as the pattern designers are American), that put her in age 2-3 for chest, but Age 4 for height (she had just turned 5 at the time). Sometimes it's hard having a skinny child, you have to adjust every pattern, there is no 'just cutting a size and sewing it'. BUT, the end result is that you get a piece of clothing that fits properly (That is the plan anyway!).



I then sewed the cowl closed with a topstitch all the way round. I didn't like how this caused the fabric to stretch. I used a zig-zag stitch with my walking foot, but it still pulled the fabric as it fed through the machine. Unfortunately, this caused the edge of the cowl to pucker and pull slightly, which is OK, because you can hide it by turning it under.

This little sweater was certainly cropped. Too cropped in fact. It was supposed to hit at belly button height, but my little skinny minny doesn't follow size charts, and silly me didn't mash the sizes properly. So, her little cropped sweater ended up a little short. But she was smiling and thought it was wonderful! She quickly decided it would become her gymnastics warm-up jumper.



This second version came together really quickly, after all, I'd already made any mistakes I was likely to come across. I used the same method again to join the two layers, this meant I didn't have to worry about topstitching sleeve cuffs. And this time, instead of topstitching the cowl turning hole closed, I opted to handstitch instead. This leaves a much, much cleaner edge, and doesn't leave the fabric pulling under a walking foot.


This sweater fitted much better, and seemed to go down really well with Layla, who normally refuses to wear anything vaguely warm! She was actually choosing to wear this jumper voluntarily. I took this as a huge compliment, but of course, it's down to the pattern itself, not just my sewing!