KCWC round up

One of the more productive weeks of my year is now over, leaving me wondering why I am not this productive during the rest of the year. It turns out that a shameless procrastinator like me could probably benefit from having a few deadlines in her life again.
Day 1:Day 2: Day 3:Day 4:Days 5 & 6:For those of you thinking, 'but aren't there SEVEN days in a week?', why yes, there are, but my day 7 was spent doing the laundry and then cheering on the Blue Knight:(Medieval Times was not as cheesy as I thought it would be - needless to say, the kids loved it...

So, you could say that I failed in the challenge.

Still, I thought that the week of sewing didn't go too badly:
:: Items of clothes made: 5

:: Fabric bought: only the grey plaid for my son's top, the rest was from the stash

:: Patterns used: none (I'm not getting very far in my resolution to attempt more bought patterns...)

:: Needles broken: one

:: Seam ripper used: about six times?

:: Blood drawn: only the once and it wasn't mine (my husband should have learnt by now that if he kicks over my box of pins, he should look before putting his foot down...)

:: Pins lost: probably hundreds...

:: Loads of laundry needing to be done on day 7: surprisingly, only 2

:: Rooms that now need tidying: let's not go there, shall we?

To be honest, the week didn't go as planned at all. When I signed up, I looked at the calendar and thought that that should be the perfect week for it. Instead, my brother-in-law got into that car accident (he's fine - just a broken hand, but he has a toddler, an 8 year old and a disabled wife to take care of and now needs a new car) and my mother-in-law came into town. So I never knew which days I might be hiding my pins and scissors while babysitting a toddler or which days we'd be having an impromptu family get together. Plus my son then got the 'flu.

So, instead of a week of finally attempting some patterns, I fell back on simple quick things that would usually get finished that same day. Still, I kind of like the way that simple looks.

KCWC day 6: something for the lad

My lad lives in t-shirts and shorts, so he misses out a little when it comes to handmade clothes. It's cheaper to find a t-shirt on clearance than to buy the fabric to make one - and a wee bit easier. He probably thinks that's no bad thing, but I still wanted to make him something this week. So here's a top for the summer evenings:I made up the pattern. He chose the fabric... which shed bits of thread everywhere, so I ended up binding the seam edges in bias tape. The hood is the only bit lined, as I didn't want it to be too warm.The sleeve wasn't the only part that I got the seam ripper out for, either. I thought that I might save some time by machine sewing a part that I would normally hand sew. Of course, it didn't save any time, as I didn't like the way that it looked. So, I ended up ripping that out and sewing it by hand after all.

Still, I'm happy, he's happy and even my grouchy husband made mention that he wouldn't mind one. I won't use that fabric again, though, unless I find our lint brush...

KCWC days 4 & 5: blogger, are you back?

I've finally got my last post back, but not the comments, so we'll see if Blogger is really back up and running.Day 4: Falling back on what I already know, here's a smocked top to replace the one she outgrew. Such an easy top - the hardest part is the ironing. I wonder if those thin oven gloves that I've seen advertised would protect my fingers when ironing fiddly stuff?Day 5: Friday the 13th. My son was off school with the 'flu, plus I was babysitting my toddler nephew, so my hour of sewing didn't come about 'til after the kids' bedtime. It might have been a better idea for me just to have had an early night instead... The seam ripper came out for the one sleeve - I redrafted it twice in the end. That serves me right for thinking "sleeves really are not as hard as I thought they were" earlier in the week. Hopefully I'll get it finished today - I'm finally making something for the boy.
Take care,

KCWC day 3 - scraps

Another quickie - a wee skirt made out of strips of fabric scraps. Then I ended up adding details like topstitching on each side of the joins and lining it. So, it wasn't quite as quick as I had first imagined it, but still, a quick project nonetheless...and it is, um, bright enough to suit a six year old's taste...Hmm, what to do next? I fear that babysitting my brother-in-law's kids is going to be robbing me of valuable sewing time...

KCWC day 2 - a workout for the seam ripper

Day 2 of Kids' Clothes Week Challenge: Bit of a busy day, so today's effort was something easy that I've made many times before: a peasant blouse, as modelled by little Miss Fidget:Not that my sewing machine was wanting to cooperate. It was having one of those days, where it tried to chew things up at every opportunity.One light and airy top for summer. Now I'm off to find something to make tomorrow.

Take care.

It has a silver lining

Kids' Clothes Week Challenge has begun! The making of this little short-sleeved dress for my daughter was greatly aided by my not being needed to volunteer in my son's class this morning, as it is a State testing week. I did still help out in my daughter's class in the afternoon, mind, and believe me, those kindergartners were full of beans today. So don't expect much in the way of photos - she was not in the mood for standing still...
I made up the pattern. It's just a fairly simple fully-lined dress, with a zipper /button loop fastening and a wee pocket.Like I said, she wasn't wanting to stand still today. She is still wearing it, though, which I take to be her stamp of approval.She lost her first tooth last week. There was much agonising over whether she wanted to give her first tooth to the tooth fairy - and what will the fairy be doing with her tooth, anyway? By much agonising, I do mean a discussion that lasted well over 3 hours... A new little tooth bag helped her decide. Then her brother lost a tooth that same day, so there was a little bit of hurried sewing going on in order to finish them both by bedtime. I used this idea, but didn't have the tutorial to hand, so it's my own dimensions and stitching etc. Meanwhile, my offspring were doing a little crafting of their own: bookmarks for their teachers, for the final day of teacher appreciation week. My son did the embroidery, while my daughter made a woven one, the end of which you can see below (it was a struggle to find a decent picture from the handful I took at the last minute the evening before).Hopefully I'll be keeping up with the KCWC each day, but my mother-in-law is in town and we're down to one car, since my brother-in-law broke his hand and his car in an accident yesterday. There's still the aftermath of watching his kids to clean up (he had a long wait at the ER), plus family dinners and the like are being planned. We'll see.
Ok, I had better go - it's time I put the kids to bed. Take care, all.

I'm still not ready for summer

Easter, two children on Spring break, day trips to zoos and gardens, a daughter turning 6 (cake turned out a little too sweet - her brother's last month must have just been a fluke...) and a visiting mother-in-law... I didn't have much time for blogging last week. I apparently also disappointed several Americans by NOT watching the Royal wedding (it was AT 3AM California time! I did have a gander at the photos on the newspaper's website in the morning, of course. I want some of that Union flag bunting - is there any left? Mainly to annoy my American husband by hanging it about the house...)I did squeeze in a little sewing time, though. 2nd attempt at sewing something for me: It started out as the summer blouse from Weekend Sewing, but to be honest, the only thing that I kept the same from the original pattern were the shoulder seams. I moved the bust darts up, lowered the neckline, changed the neckline, changed the construction of the neckline, moved the side seams in, added button loops and buttons, shortened the sleeves (I might be unrolling them and making them a cuffed 3/4 length sleeve yet - I haven't made my mind up)... Ok, I think that might be it for the alterations. Still, I'm happy with it. I made this version out of some fabric that I'd be willing to have for a pyjama top if it all went pear-shaped, but I've already worn this one in public without attracting any noticeable public ridicule... I've got the fabric picked out for my next version.Translation of the day:
(A bit of a rude one this week, but this came up during my friend's visit to the US last week...)

UK English: shag (slang) = sexual intercourse in US English

US English: shag = some sort of swing dance

You can imagine that she was quite surprised to hear her parent's American neighbours declare that they were tired out from too much shagging....