By the bucket load!

I have definitely had a siesta with my sewing blog.  :)

I had promised my two girls ages ago that I would make them a hat each, hubby had an order for one as well, and I thought I would make one as a birthday gift for a close friend.  Anyway, this time, I managed to remember to take a few photos of the Lazy Days hats (pattern from Make It Perfect).  These are basic reversible bucket hats.  Instructions are easy to follow, but I tend to finish off the hat by following the instructions on this tutorial so that I don't have any hand sewing.

Here are the finished results.

Father's Day hat for hubby

Hat for Daughter #1

Happily modeled by Daughter #1 (it's a favourite for daycare)

Hat for Daughter #2

Hat for friend (same fabric pattern, two different colour schemes)

A dress for my niece

I was asked if I would mind making a dress or two for my niece for Christmas.  I made one a-line dress but for the other, I thought I would make something a little fancier.  I used Simplicty 2677.

I picked a pretty blue floral print from Spotlight and teamed it with a crisp white for the contrast tie.

I think it turned out great.  I just hope it fits!  :)

A-line dress bonanza!

I managed to get a few A-line pinafores done for Christmas.  One was for my niece and the other two pinnies were for my own girls.  I used Simplicity pattern 5489, which is about as easy as it gets.  Although you do have to do two buttonholes, the bane of my existance!

I basically followed the pattern, just made each dress a little unique. All fabric was from Spotlight - they have a fabulous range at the moment. I hope they all fit now!  :)

Sneek peek at niece's dress

Pink and purple flowers, with purple batik border

Samantha's dress

Pink with a ruffle hem

Love the buttons!

I used an iron-on butterfly motif to give it some interest

Asha's dress ...

It's all in the fabric

what else but hooty owls for Asha?  :)

Cargo pants for a boy

For my nephew, I am making some cargo shorts for his Christmas present.  I bought the Inside-Or-Outside-Pocket-Pants pattern from Fishsticks Designs through Etsy.  These pants/shorts have side leg cargo pockets, inside pockets at the waist, a flat waist band at the front with an elasticised waist at the back. This was the first time I had ever used an e-pattern, so I was a little nervous.  Stick-taping all the pages together was very easy and the pattern came up a treat.  I traced it out, cut the fabric and away I went! I started this last night and finished it today, so it's been pretty quick.

Fabric was all bought from Spotlight - I just picked up some soft cotton drill.  Since I was making two pairs of shorts, I picked a blue camouflage fabric for one set of shorts and a skull & crossbones fabric for the other pair.

Here's the camouflage shorts.

Front view

Back view

Detail of cargo pocket on the leg

pocket off the waist band

Finished product!

And the other shorts are here ...

Front view

Back view

Close-up of the back pocket

Cargo pocket detail

Viola! Ready to wear!!

I'm really pleased with how they turned out.  I just hope they fit now.  :)

Tutorial - a petal pin pocket

A few months ago, I made a petal pin pocket for a friend.  Since then, I've had a few people ask me how did I make it.  Actually, it's very simple, so in response I thought I might try to make a quick tutorial.

What do you need?
- fabric 25cm x 50cm (or two pieces, each 25cm x 25cm)
- pellon 25cm x 25cm (pellon is lightweight fusible wadding)
- felt 20cm x 20cm (buy at Spotlight, Lincraft or a craft store like Riot)
- a small button
- pins

all the necessary 'ingredients'

Drop me a message for the pattern pieces (I don't know how to attach a PDF to this blogger page) and I will email them through to you.  Alternatively, let me know how I can attach a PDF to this post!

You need to cut of two pieces of the main petal pattern from the fabric.

pinned and ready to cut

Once that's done, you will also need to cut a main petal pattern piece from the pellon.  Fuse the pellon to the wrong side of one of the fabric pieces.  This piece will be the outside fabric for the pin pocket.

Left piece has the fused pellon attached, right piece will be the inside fabric

On the fabric piece that does not have the pellon, mark the centre on the right side of the fabric (I use a chalk pencil for this).  Then, make a  2"-4" (5-10cm) cut around the centre of the piece (not on centre that you have just marked, just close to it).  This is what you are going to use to pull the pocket through after sewing it together, so try to keep it as small as possible.  Keep the cut smaller than the felt piece, as the felt will go over the cut so you will never see it.

After the cut has been made

Cut the felt piece out.  Mark the centre. Now you are ready to sew!

Putting the right sides together, sew around the two large fabric pieces using a 1/4" seam, backstitching at the start and end of the sewing.  (Hint : the pellon is on the outside while you are sewing.)

Once you have sewn around the outside edge, you will need to trim and cut the seam allowances back. Use small sharp scissors to take notches up to the stitch line but take care not to cut through the stitch line.  Once you have done that around the entire edge, pull the pocket through the small cut you had made on the fabric without pellon, taking care not to rip the cut further.  Roll the edges between your fingers to help it sit flat and then press with an iron.

Now match the centre mark on the felt with the centre mark on the fabric.  Pin the felt in place, matching the curves.

Showing how the felt is pinned down
(orange lines indicate where to sew)

Now sew from one side to the other side, four times.  This is what provides the petal appearance and gives the 'fold' lines for the pocket.

Now, on the tab, sew a button hole, measuring the button you are going to us to give you the length required.  (I love an automatic button hole!)

Once the botton hole is done, sew the button on the outside, on the edge opposite to the button hole.  And viola, you're done!  Put a few pins in it and it's perfect as a small gift.

Variation - if you don't want to do a buttonhole, it would be easy enough to use a small loop of hat elastic.  Put this in as you are sewing the two fabric pieces together (would be on the inside while you are sewing).  If you do this, I would probably cut the tab off and re-shape that side to be the same as the others, in terms of continuing the curve.

I reckon all of this can be done in about 30 minutes.  Too easy! :)

Boy's satchel bag

Another opportunity for a handmade gift.  A friend's son had his 4th birthday recently and after discussion with his mother, I thought a satchel might be a good idea for his many toy cars.  Again, I used the small tote bag pattern from Nicole Mallalieu's website (I know I can make this bag!).

So, what fabrics do you choose for a 4 year old boy??  Cars, of course!  This time I did a simple patchwork for the satchel flap, using some Disney Cars fabric that I bought at the local craft show a few months ago (I knew it would come in handy sometime). The lining of the bag is also done with the same fabric. I used a dark denim for the body of the bag, stiffened with the heaviest interfacing I could find.

And here it is .....

The Bag.

Lightning McQueen!

a try-hard arty shot of the strap and strap guide

the clean lines of the strap

I've posted it off this week (finally).  I hope the recipient enjoys it.  I am very pleased with how it all came out, as you can tell from all the photos!

Oliver + S Birthday dresses

One set of patterns that I quite like are the Oliver + S childrens pattern (see http://oliverands.com/patterns/) which tend to be classic sewing patterns for children.  One of the patterns I have bought was the Birthday Party Dress pattern.  I was fortunate to win a some gorgeous pink floral twill fabric earlier in the year and I thought it would be perfect as a feature panel in the O+S dress.

Left : approx 20cm x 20cm section of fabric ; Right : a close-up of the print

The plan was to use 21-pinwale (lightweight) corduroy for the main body of the dress and the floral fabric for the feature panel.  I selected a bright yellow corduroy for Samantha's dress and a dark emerald green corduroy for Asha's dress (bought from Spotlight). 

Now, I have to say, I started these dresses months ago but they were left unfinished for a couple of months.  The delay was partly because I made Samantha's dress first and I was a little unimpressed by the instructions.  It took me a little while to figured out how I wanted to do it for Asha's dress.  And then once both dresses were almost done, I delayed because I had 10 buttonholes to do (seriously, I have an aversion to buttonholes).  Anyway, I finally finished them - here they are!

Asha's dress on the left, Samantha's dress on the right

Front and back of Samantha's dress

Asha's dress

Pleat detail on the front

Button detail on the back

a happy camper!  :)

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  I have to mark up the pattern with the changes I have made so that I remember them for next time.