KCWC First of the Month Challenge, Day 2 + 3

For the second and third days of KCWC I sewed up 4 flannel nightgowns, two for each girl.  

I used this Butterick pattern I picked up for $1 at Joanns a few weeks ago on the allure of FAST! and EASY! ringing in my ears.   Ever since I started sewing with Oliver + S patterns early in my sewing career I have been very hesitant to sew up Big 4 patterns, what with their crazy ease and usually terrible directions, but since Lily is sized out of my pajama pattern and this being a no spending challenge I had to make due with what I had around. That, and the girls are gaga for nightgowns. A dress that you get to sleep in? Pretty much a sure win. 

cheap black friday Joann flannel nightgown = lots of toddler kisses and loves.

So anyway, I can't say much for the ease, as it is your standard raglan sleeve nightgown, not a fitted party dress, but I can say that I chucked those directions in the trash after reading in the first step they wanted you to sew the bodice together and then do a strange origami folding and sew the arms in a U shape to the bodice. It's a RAGLAN, the easiest garment with sleeves ever, and not by sewing the arms in a U shape to an already completed bodice.  Why do they insist on making things more complicated than necessary? Anyway, they came together in a veritable flash, the girls love them and they are residing in a very empty cold weather pajama drawer.

 Frankly I am underwhelmed with the fit, the drafting seems to give both girls an odd hunchback look to them and the whole thing just hangs weird, but I guess you get what you pay for. 

cracks me up they are doing the same pose as in the picture by the bedside. They just might be one trick ponies.

I'm thinking of adding some decorative buttons and/or bows to the front neckline, looking at these pictures I think they could use some distraction to break up the great expanses of fabric on their little bodies. Of course I had to do the typical "jumping on the bed in new pajamas pose"

These definitely count as stash busting, the elephant fabric is going on 3 years old, and was the leftovers from another pair of elephant jammies made forever ago, and Lily's green flowers and blue rainbow/hearts/peace signs fabric has been laying around for 2 and 1 years, respectively. Out with the old!

Full disclosure I managed to break my rule of  no spending to buy 1 1/4 yard of Hello Kitty flannel for Isla's nightgown. I'm devoting a larger chunk of my sewing energies this week to clothing the big sister, so when she requested this fabric she remembered from Joann's specifically, I had to relent. So far then I have spent $5 more than I planned. (She's totally worth it)

Apparently I never managed to get a full shot of the second slightly psychedelic jammies, and this is the best I can do. Lily picked this fabric because she got a shirt from Grandma at Christmas with a peace sign and now she LOVES peace signs, even though it weirds me out a bit, I just go with it.

After digging through all my bits of fabric scattered around the house I have unearthed enough flannel to make another dozen (or more) nightgowns, so I might be adding another set if I have the time (and energy) this week!

KCWC End of the Month Challenge, Day 1

Whew, this week is flying by! I'm participating in Elsie Marley's kids clothes week challenge, and commited to sewing kids clothes for an hour every day this week. I'm putting my own spin on it and am trying to use only my stash fabrics and already owned patterns to keep costs down and make use of all this cotton laying around!  And I have been keeping good on that commitment! I have been knocking out projects left and right, it has just been a struggle to get them on my little models to photograph and blog which is keeping me behind. 

She decided in these photos she was going to try and "Sell" me those heart sprinkles. Where is she getting her modeling ideas from?

Lily has really grown over this summer and none of her pants fit her anymore, she has been wearing  some really odd combinations of too small dresses over shorts, too tight leggings and mismatching knee socks, so I decided to devote  a big push towards making her some basics to wear around the house and at school.  For the first day of the challenge I decided to sew up some Oliver + S Afterschool Pants. I've made this pattern once before in a crazy stripe and decided to calm things down and just go for a nice slate gray corduroy. 

These pants are pretty straightforward with no zippers, just an elastic waist, which is a must for us since Lily has been boycotting zippers for the past year, ever since she zipped up some tender tummy skin one morning.  I forgot what a nice sew it was to make these, even though there are a lot of little extra details on these pants everything comes together nicely and looks great in the end. Strange to think that Lily was still fitting in a size 4 in late spring I sewed these up in a 6 and the fit is perfect, Here's hoping they will last her until next spring as well, all the of the sudden is growing up super fast. 

As it is, they have plenty of room for all of her ninja moves, and apparently they are "so soft" so she is happy with them! I am happy that she has something to wear to school that isn't skin tight leggings showing off her little plumbers crack. (While it's a totally adorable plumbers crack, I think she is getting to that age when it is less socially acceptable to show off ones crack.)

KCWC Fall 2012

Guess what, I'm signing on to Kid's Clothes Week Challenge Fall 2012! 

You know, the huge kids crafting phenomenon that happens twice a year where you cross your heart and promise to sew clothes for your kids at least one hour a day for a week? Except, I think secretly it's really more like, cut and prep all the outfits weeks ahead of time, then sew for 3 hours a day, then take two more hours to photograph and blog your outfits and look like a superstar/generally awesome person who accomplishes so much in just 7 hours in one week! I kid, but I am guilty of it too. It really does feel good to take a week and just get stuff done, and look back at all the cute new stuff your kids are (hopefully) wearing.

This time around I have spent very little time planning or prepping so my outcome won't be nearly as impressive as I would like people to believe I am. Coupled with the fact my hours at work have been reduced since both my girlies are in at least part time school I get to pretend I am a stay at home mom, and I have the paycheck to prove it! This means lots of time, but little extra money to spend of fun things like new fabrics and patterns. Good thing I have plenty of perfectly good fabric lying around just waiting to be made into something fabulous. So my goal is to make my girlies some much needed basics while spending as little money as possible. I was going to call it, KCWC, Broke as Hell edition, but decided that was too negative so I'm going for KCWC, First of the Month Challenge! See you soon!