KCWC Day 2/3

I know it's a Kids Clothes Sewing but a hat is also consider clothing sewing? No? 

My little girl is in need of a hat to cover her little head as she got thin hair and I'm worried the effect of the scorching sun will burnt her scalp.  I need one that provide enough coverage for even her ears. 

So, I went to search through my (growing) sewing books and found the Reversible bucket hat pattern from oliver + s.  I bought the book "little things to sew" some time back and didn't have time to sew anything from it yet. I would love to sew the tutu skirt, penguin bag pack and  red riding hood some days too.

Anyway, measure her head circumference and sew up the Size S.  The instruction is very clear with illustration.  I'll be doing one more for the older one soon since it's so cute!  I've used cotton from my stash for this small project.  Pink with polka dots and fuchsia with polka dots on the reverse side.

 Since I only managed to finish this late at night, Dora will do the modeling for me! Nice size : )

For this round of KCWC, I'm taking it easy cause I'm really tied up at my full time work. The past week was crazy with me staying late at work. But I do plan to do some more kids sewing for KCWC, even though it will be much lesser than the 7 pieces of clothing I did last year. 

Next up, hopefully, I will be able to sew up some swim suits! Stay tune   

2012 KCWC Day 1

I started the KCWC with a knit top. 

In fact, I made 2!

Shall we love at the details?

The first top is for my 2 year old. I took the pattern from a Japanese sewing book that has a lot of cute knit sewing projects. 

I love the details at the back which I've used a contrasting knit fabric with cheerful animal prints.

I also love the curve hem of the knit Tee that makes the shape so fitting.

Here's my girl wearing the her new tee.  The fit is just nice!

For the other tee, I took the pattern from another japanese sewing pattern book. It is less fitting and had button details on the shoulders.  It has some pleats on shoulder so the sleeve is a little puffy.

She loves her new tee.

So does her sister.

I glad the sisters love their new tees.

Half Yard Wonder - Scallop Pinafore Dress (Part 2)

Okay, sorry for the long break. Caught up at work. So, let's continue the tutorial shall we?

Part 1

Attach front panel to skirt

1) Find the centre front and mark the position. Place the front panel, right side face down, on the centre marking. The front panel bottom edge should sit nicely along the waistband seams allowance.

2) Sew the front panel down at the centre front. 

Serge the whole length of the waistband with the front panel. 

3) Turn the skirt with Right side face up. Top stitch close to the top of the waistband. Make sure that your waistband can still accommodate the elastic band. This will help to ensure that the elastic band will be snugged and not shift around.

Inserting elastic band

My front panel measures about 8" wide and I only want to insert elastic band to the back portion of the skirt.  Her waist is 20" so, the portion for elastic band is 20" - 8" = 12".  

You can either insert the full 12" elastic from one side to the other side.  I've choose to cut the elastic into 2 and insert from both end of the side seams. This is because I find it hard to insert a long piece of elastic through the back seams and the narrow casing.

So, my elastic is cut to 6" each.

1) I use 2 tools to help me insert the elastic band.  You will recognize these 2 from my previous post.  A looper (not sure the exact name) to pull the elastic band through and a hemostats. 

Basically, I attach one end of the elastic band through the loop and tighten it. For the other end, I clip it with the hemostats.

2) Insert the other end of the looper (the one with red pinhead) through the waistband casing and guide the elastic band through.

3) Once the end of the elastic band reach the edge of the right side of the front panel, place a pin to secure the elastic. Click photo below to have a closer look

4) Using your finger, loosen the loop that was holding onto the edge of your elastic band.  Then, pull out the looper from the other open end of the waistband, leaving the elastic band inside.

5) Remember the hemostats that is holding onto the other end of the elastic band? Well, it will help to prevent the elastic band from going inside the casing. Pull the end of the elastic to be align close to the opening and place a pin to secure in place. Remove the hemostats once it is secure.

6) Sew a straight stitch over the end of the elastic band to secure it. Remove the pins.  Do the same for the other end of the elastic band.

7) For the other elastic band, you will need to use another method as one end of the waistband casing has been sewn closed so you can't use the looper to pull through.

Using a sewing needle and thread, tied a knot at the end of the thread and pull it through one end of the elastic band. Do not cut off the thread!  Use the hemostats to attach the other end of the elastic band.

8) Insert the needle through the other end of the waistband casing, pulling the elastic band with it.  Once your needle reach near the front panel, poke the needle through the casing and pull out the thread.

9) Using your finger, move the elastic band inside and place a pin to secure.  Once you have done that, you can cut off the thread.

10) With the help of the hemostats, pull the other end of the elastic band to the end of the casing and place a pin.  Sew other ends of the elastic bands in place.  Adjust the elastic band to distribute it evenly.

Sewing the skirt
1) Match the back seams and sew in place.

2) Cross the shoulder straps at the back and pin the ends at the waistband.  Sew the straps at the back.

The Back View

Front View

Some more photos

Last one : )

Happy Sewing!

I'll take a short break this week so see you next week at KCWC!

Half Yard Wonder - Scallop Pinafore Dress (Part 1)

I realized that the post is a bit long so I'm splitting this up into 2 posts.   

Material

1/2 yard cotton fabric

matching ribbon

elastic bands (about 12")

Instruction

Front panel

1) From the 1/2 yard, cut out a piece of fabric of about 5" wide. This width will depend how wide you want the centre front panel to be.

2) Cut away the bottom of the panel.  My panel is about 5" wide and 7" long.  The length will also depend how long you want the panel to be so measure your kid first. 

I've chose the eyelet to be on the front panel but if you like the character print more, you can also chose to have that as the front panel as the main focus.

3) Fold the top of the fabric to the back, making sure to cover the eyelet.  Press.

4) Pin and sew 2 rows of stitches above and below the eyelets.  Try to sew neatly as this will form the ribbon casing later on. As you are using the selvage of the fabric, the raw edge of the folded fabric will not fray.

As the fabric is thin, I also iron some interfacing behind and sew another piece of coordinating fabric of same size behind.

Shoulder Straps

1) Cut the bottom of the fabric with the scallop print to make the straps.  As this strap stretch from the waist up to the front panel, this will be longer than the shoulder strap of the tunic. Measure your kid to get the right length to cut. Mine was 19.5" each.

2) Refer to the same method of making the strap from the scallop tunic tutorial.

3) Pin the strap to one side of the front panel.  I've tried to have 4 eyelets in front panel so the strap nicely line up beside the edge of eyelet. 

4) Before you sew, insert one end of the ribbon through the first eyelet into the seam allowance under the straps. This will ensure that you will sew the ribbon down when you sew the strap to the front panel. Sew from the bottom of panel and stop at the top of panel.

Do the same for the other ribbon and strap

   

Making the skirt

1) Cut away the red strip along the bottom of the fabric.  Cut neatly as this will be used as the waistband later on and you will need to insert elastic band through. We call this Fabric A.

2) Also cut away the top strap bearing the eyelets, about 2" below the eyelets. Cut neatly also as we will attach this later to the bottom of the dress.

3) Then, cut off the fabric above the eyelets, about 1" above the eyelet.  Cut neatly again as we will be using the cut-off for the backing of the waistband later! See, I told you I'm using almost every single bit of the fabric! Let's call this fabric B.

4) Take the eyelet fabric strip. Serge the raw edge and fold over and sew.  This will form the hem of your dress. Press.

5) Pin the hem strip to the bottom of the main skirt, align the seams and fabric are right side facing.

Sew with 3/8" seam allowance. Serge seams.

Flip the hem to right side and press the seams down and stitch the seams down.

Before hemming:

After: The new hem

Waistband

1) Pin the Fabric A (red strip) and Fabric B, right side facing, aligning seams. 

2) Sew along the top, just 1/8" above the red strip. Turn the strip right side out and press.

3) For the other seams, sew them together, lengthwise, just 1/8" below the red strip. We are making the elastic casing here. So make sure that the tube that you have just made can insert in a 5/8" elastic band, or whatever size elastic band you got.

4) Attach the waistband to the main skirt, with right side facing, aligning the seams. The raw edge of the waistband should align to the top of the skirt. Pin in place and sew with 3/8" seam allowance.

That's it for Part 1.  Will continue on attaching the front panel to skirt and elastic band in next post!