Sunday 14 October 2012

Funky pinstripe trousers: KCWC wrap


The end of Kids' Clothes Week Challenge Fall 2012. One more item done, and two still remain in the cut-out-and-ready to go pile. I quite like them there just waiting for the right mood to take me.

My sewing machine lost its mojo around Day 5. I got into making a pair of trousers for T out of one of G's old suits. There was a lot of this happening:



And thus a lot of seam ripping. This was after the full dis-assembly of the machine on Thursday night to get dust out (so much dust! oops for the not-so-regular maintenance).  And then some stupid mistakes caused by pressing on when I should have stopped. Stupid mistakes like attaching pockets with triple stretch stitch topstitching, so as to pop out and look all cool, but doing it in the wrong place. You do not want to unpick that, believe me.

And in the end, once it was all fixed and done (and that took me the rest of my daily sewing hours), I'm not sure how much I like these trousers. I don't know if slippery recycled suit fabric and bright yellow topstitching really work. But what the hell, they're wearable. This kind of gives an impression of the effect I was trying to get (so it wasn't entirely unsuccessful, obviously):


The pockets are lined with fabric from an old shirt of G's. I picked it as it had the same yellow in as the topstitching.


The trousers themselves are fully lined with a very loud yellow cotton, but I didn't manage to get any pictures of it. It was the only suitable fabric I had to line them with - and this is where the whole yellow thing started.


Collage pictures of T are the way forward. He really never ever stands still enough for an actual portrait.




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Having complained beforehand that I don't feel creatively inspired to sew for my kids, I feel as if I've had a lightbulb moment this week. I really, really enjoyed pushing myself to get excited about it. I've realised - from looking in the flickr pool and reading people's KCWC posts - that it's just the same but different. 'Design' for your children is a thing, too. A fun thing.


4 comments:

  1. I love those pants. I hope he gets lots of wear out of them. You've made some great stuff this KCWC. After really struggling this kcwc I'm actually sort of excited about the next one. I'll actually put my mind to some great kids clothes rather than using the leftovers in the stash that don't inspire me.. there has been so much great stuff in the flickr pool, you are right it can be fun.

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  2. what did you use as your pattern??? These turned out great! I too see all my flaws, but I think the pinstripe and yellow are a great unexpected contrast that work perfectly for a little boy!

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    1. Hi Suzanne! I used the basic kids pants pattern by MADE (at danamadeit.com). The free pattern there is size 2-3 and I just lengthened it a bit for my slim three year old. She gives instructions too on how to draw your own pattern if this isn't the size you need - or I also have slashed and spread the pattern to make it bigger for my 5 year old. It's a really good basic shape!

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  3. I'm loving those pinstripe pants!!

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