Kitty Romper

I've been very busy this last few weeks, I really do have my sewing mojo on and for the most part I have been loving it. I say for the most part, I just tried a project today and its gone horribly wrong so I am hoping that writing this post will help me refocus that negative energy back into something positive.

This is also a nice little bumper post as its not just 1 make but 2 combined into this adorable little vest and romper combo.

The patterns are from Ottobre magazine and they both come from issue 1/2016 (I believe you can order back issues). I do subscribe to this magazine as I just adore all the kiddy clothes. I have already made Master Fox a couple of outfits from this magazine and have a list as long as my arm of others I want to have a go it. The magazine is from Finland but I get an English version so there are no issues whatsoever. I love getting my quarterly bit of sewing in the mail, its so exciting :)

I have been putting off quiet a few projects from this magazine though because a lot of them call for a ribbed binding edge, which is something I have never attempted and to be honest was pretty daunting. There are some instructions of how to do this in the magazine but they are not the most descriptive. I really wanted to make Miss Fox a romper outfit though, and Mr Fox hates it when I make dungarees that don't have a popper fastening for east nappy access so I thought it might be time to give it a go. 

I am actually really pleased with how the binding came out. Its not perfect by anyone's standards, its a but wavy, but as a first (and second) attempt I don't think its too shabby. Its not a particularly fast thing to do but it was nice to take my time and try out something new and Mr Fox can be happy that he will be able to get babys little legs out to change a nappy without having to take the whole romper off! 

I also had a go with some metal poppers this time instead of the plastic ones I have been using. They turned out really nicely as well and feel a bit sturdier. Hopefully they stand up to a good few washes. 

The fabric as all come from Stoff & Stil which is a Danish company (I have sung my praises about Danish fabric shops before and my regret of not buying more fabric from Denmark!). They now a brilliant English website and a London address so buying from them is really simple. The quality of this Jersey is just amazing, and to be honest I think I can credit a lot of the successes of this project to just how good the fabric is. So much so that I have just put in another large order with them in a hope to rekindle that failed project I mentioned earlier (oops!). 

How adorable is the cat fabric too? Im so pleased this project was so small, there is plenty left for me to hopefully make a tshirt or vest out of post baby :)

I hope you love this adorable outfit as much as I do. I got a lot of satisfaction from this project and that should be just what sewing is all about. Look at the neck on that vest, its almost perfect. Do you have any projects you are especially proud of, and what made you so proud of them? 

I can't wait to see Miss Fox finally wearing this one. Its definitely the most practical of the outfits I have made her so far so hopefully we can get some good wear from it. 

Llama Llama Baby Dress

Hopefully you all remember my amazing Llama Llama dress, well obviously I saved the very small amount of leftovers I had from that dress in my box of fabric scraps which can only have been called the 'just in case I ever have a little girl' box of sewing supplies! Thankfully that box of scraps is now getting its very own lease of life again and this is one of the first makes from it.

Its ok for mama and baby to wear matching dresses isn't it?

The dress is the Puperita Mini Tulips dress which I have blogged about before. The dress is reversible but I have only lined it with a grey cotton as why would you ever wear it any other way round than this?

The pattern is for an overall type dress, so ideally worn over a tshirt or baby grow, but its such a simple pattern. Very easy to sew, easy to adapt and perfect for using up odds and ends of fabric you have collected. I made this dress in 3-6m so it will be a while before we are wearing it, but I think its a pattern better suited for slightly older children than tiny babies.

Just look at those happy little llama faces!! The fabric is Michael Miller 'packmates' and its 100% quilting cotton. Sadly its no longer listed on their website so you will have to do some digging if you wanted to try and blag yourself some of this fabric.

The fabric type isn't ideal for baby clothes as its very rigid but this pattern lends itself so well to a sturdier fabric as it doesn't call for much drape.

I don't really have much more to say about this make, I'm just going to let those little llama's do all the talking instead x

Lightning bolt baby romper

Oh look, another romper! I made this romper ages ago as a present for one of my friends in Denmark who recently had a little girl. I love hearing people having girls it makes a nice change to sewing boy clothes (and I love an excuse for sewing with a bit of pink). I guess this is something I will get to do more and more of now hazaa!! As you can imagine I already have the fabric for one of these for Little Miss Fox.

There's not much more I can say about this pattern, I have done it to death, but for quick reference it is the Puperita Jumpy Romper and this beautiful lightning print fabric is from Mauds Fabric Finds. Sadly there is non of this left which is such a shame, I could do with making myself an outfit from it I love it so much. You can see all the other iterations of this romper on my made by me: children's clothing page.

Annoyingly what has just happened is I have opened both the Puperita and Mauds pages to add the links and I think a new sewing project is going to get purchased in the next 10 minutes. I'm so weak!

Its really hard to take photos of white clothes, especially in the dull winter months.

Anyway I hope you didn't mind the quick whistle stop tour around this little make. I have actually made quiet a bit of stuff over the last few months, just that I either haven't had time to blog it or haven't had sufficient daylight to take a picture. Its a real shame I will try and get a few more quick blog posts up to show them off in the next few weeks.

Gold Polka dot Erin Skirt

Its been a few months since my last post but as you can see that little baby bump is coming along nicely! This means I am now at that really awkward stage of my pregnancy where my bump is too big for my normal clothes but not yet big enough for maternity. Such an awkward time I really hate trying to find something to wear. One of the things I did do though was pull out my Megan Nielsen Maternity collection of sewing patterns in a hope I can bridge the gap and get myself some maternity wear which both fits my style better and tries to use up some of the fabric I have stashed about.

Here you can see I made the Erin skirt and I used the leftover gold flecked ponte roma which I bought for my Christmas party dress. I still love this fabric, but my machine still hates it! Using ponte roma on this skirt was a really good choice, its stretchy enough to fit over my growing shape but firm enough to add a little support to my bump. It will of course work in a thinner jersey or anything else with enough stretch but I would recommend something with a little bit more structure.

The pattern is very easy to sew and has very good instructions. You add a bit of stretched elastic to the side seams to ruche the area around the tummy to add more fabric to cover the bump. If you look at any shop bough maternity tops this is normally how they do it too. The skirt it meant to come up over the bump and comes in a knee and midi length. Because of the length I find this skirt really flattering and its really easy to wear. You could pair it with a short tshirt/jumper or an over the bump over the top, its very versatile.

I actually bought this pattern pack when I was pregnant with Master Fox, but that was over 2 years ago now and my sewing must have vastly improved as I tried to make this skirt once and it went so horribly wrong I never actually ended up making anything from this pattern pack at all. Its such a shame as its such a lovely skirt. I think the problem I had was all down to the fabric which was a very thin poly jersey and it struggled so much to get the elastic to go in. I'm really pleased I didn't give up on it though I must have worn this skirt about twice a week since I made it I love it. My tip for the elastic is to tack each end in place before you put it under the machine, that way you can control the stretch as you go.

I'm actually finding that I am having a bit of trouble with body confidence this pregnancy. My bump is a funny B shape rather than that perfect D and I generally feel very big and I don't like how I look in most clothes. This is actually the 3rd time I took photos of this skirt as I couldn't get any I was happy to put on the internet. Its such a shame as I know I should just be enjoying my growing tummy but I think this is something that every pregnant woman must go through at at least one point in their pregnancy. I am doing my best to just ignore it and move on but it is taking conscious effort to do that at the moment. It doesn't help I am surrounded by lots of very slim pregnant people at the minute, who have remained slim with tiny little bumps, where as I just feel like I'm all squishy boob and belly.

I think I need to sew myself a few more outfits like this that flatter my style and shape and will help to give me a bit of confidence.

On the plus side though we found out that little baby Fox number 2 should be a little girl! I'm very excited to be able to experience one of each and obviously can't wait to sew up a few dresses. I will apologise in advance for the raft of baby clothing posts that will end up coming your way over the next few months, but they are cute so I am sure you won't mind.

x

Llama Llama dress!

How frickin' awesome is this dress! Seriously who doesn't need a dress with llama's on in their wardrobe?

Lets start with the fabric because lets face it that's all you really care about in this post. Its Michael Miller 'Packmates' 100% quilting cotton. How cute are their little llama faces! I struggled to find this fabric but I did manage to get a couple of meters from Ebay so hopefully you can find some too. I hope you can its totally amazing! I've talked before about pink and orange being my favourite colour combo so this is just awesome.

The dress pattern is By Hand London's Kim dress, now you can see why I needed to do a mock of this dress before cutting into this fabric. I made the straight neck version this time and its a lot better to wear, much less boobalicious, so I actually feel I can wear this in the day now. This dress is the ultimate summer dress. I made the hem a little longer than I usually do, because its cotton I wanted to be able to wear it without tights in the summer so I thought it best to air on the side of modest.

I actually think I have got the fit of this dress spot on now, especially at the back it fits like a glove.

I actually need to fess up though with this dress. Its a total copy of a dress by my new favourite source of inspiration which is Katie Makes a Dress in Australia who I found via Instagram. She basically made this exact same dress, but what with the cost of the dress, the shipping from Australia and the fact that I am not an 'out the packet' size I thought I would make my own version. Its obviously a different pattern but I love it all the same (sorry Katie). But if you want your own version of a dress like this and your not a wizz on the sewing machine totally go and buy one from her, they are so awesome and she manages to find the most amazing fabric prints.

I have always been a bit cautious about sewing with quilting cottons since making a couple of skirts which were just so full and just totally unflattering on me. But seeing Katie's amazing dresses and skirts pop up on Instagram all the time I thought I might as well give it a go. Also I have a couple of bought cotton dresses which I really like so I guess its more about finding the right pattern for it. This pattern works really well, I think the fitted bodice helps to flatter my shape with the fuller skirt. I want to do a search for a dress pattern  with more of a fitted pencil type skirt to make to try with cottons so if you know of any tried and tested patterns then shout up.

Boys Jersey Pants

 

How cute are these for cruising around the house in. Soft, warm, comfy and easy to move in. I love Jersey for kids clothes for all these reasons and having a little boy I much prefer him in a pair of joggers than jeans for his own comfort, especially as his comfort is my sanity!

I mentioned on my Jack skellington costume post about discovering the wonders of the Finnish magazine Ottobre which specialise in clothing patterns for kids. I love this magazine, I purchased a copy of issue 04/2015 and it has some lovely patterns in it. They are so good I am even contemplating getting into making and selling children's clothes (I think I need to sort time out first though). 

I used the Baggy Bottoms sweatpants pattern to make the pumpkins king costume and it was so good I decided to make another pair in sweat shirting fabric for master Foxs wardrobe. I bought the gorgeous star print from the Ottobre Etsy shop and the plain black from Kitschy Coo. I love the feel of sweat shirting its so soft on the inside I think I need much more of it in my life! I made a test version in the black first so as not to waste the expensive star print and they came out so nice I immediately started on the star print version but in the next size up to get a bit more wear out of them.

 

I have made a slight adjustment to the pattern which was to add the ankle cuffs as I much prefer the look of joggers with a cuff and also it helps to stop them riding up his leg as he's clambering about. I actually took the piece off another pattern but you can draft a cuff by loosely measuring the ankle, adding a seam allowance and then cutting it twice as high as you want the finished cuff.

What I have really enjoyed about making kids clothes lately is how much more improved I am getting on the over locker. I have learnt how to manage curves much better and the finish is really coming up great. I think that's what I'm most proud of with these pants is that the finished article is very professional and just as good quality as store bought. It does help that fit is less of an issue for kids clothes!!  

I hope you like them as much as I do I can't wait to make more pairs of these, and if you haven't checked out the Ottobre website yet you really should. I'm currently battling with my mind on whether to spend my Xmas money on a subscription or more fabric, the dilemmas . What would you choose?