KCW Wrap Up

I ended up with 2 dresses and a skirt for Ellie this week in about 8 hours of sewing. I know my newbie-ness is showing since I know a lot of people participating in KCW finished much more this week, but that's okay. We all start somewhere, right? I'm happy with my progress and Ellie has a few more things to wear in the coming months. The light colored polka dot dress above is Simplicity 5695, View A. I shortened the last ruffle since Ellie is on the more petite side, and even so this dress won't fit her for a bit- but it's a great spring dress, so that works out.

I shared this dress last week. I used this tutorial with some slight changes for the top. I've made 4 of these tops now and if they still fit through spring I'll probably cut the sleeves shorter.

I finally got the girl to let me get a picture! I promise she wears everything I make, she's just not doing well with the camera lately. I didn't plan to make this skirt before KCW but I had seen the tutorial for it and planned to make it when she was older. But then I saw this navy fabric and the little polka dots seemed to call out for a circle skirt. I know, I know- it's just furthering the polka dot issue I have.


I think part of leveling up to be "intermediate" level at something has to do with knowing how to fix many of your mistakes in the easiest way possible, and I'm definitely not there yet with my sewing. I had to go back and fix on a few things and that ate up some of that time. In fact on Wednesday I ended up setting one project aside because I just couldn't deal with the problem at hand that late at night. I have learned not to work on knitting problems too late in the evening because it often makes it worse- and I figure the same probably goes for sewing since I still have to think pretty hard (and often google) how to fix or change something.


What next? Well, honestly the sewing machine is probably going to be put away for a bit. I need to get fall hats and mittens knit up since fall weather is truly here, and I really need to get to work on organizing the area that I use for sewing. I'm really supposed to be sewing in the spare bedroom, but the closet doesn't really work for storage as it is currently set up (not really sure how it possibly stored anything, to be honest) so I need to take some time to pull that out and get organized toward future endeavors. I did start pinning a few things to sew for myself, but for now it's back to knitting.

KCW Days 1 - 3

I've been able to get in a total of 5 hours so far this week- I worried about finding time on Tuesday and Wednesday, but one late night and an unexpected change in my work schedule gave me the time I would have missed. 

I have 1 little dress and a pair of sleeves to share with you today:

I've made 4 of these little tunic tops now and the fact that they've been so easy is what has gotten me to sew so much more lately. My last few sewing adventures had been a big bust and I had a hard time getting motivated to get back to my machine. But after these and some pajama pants for my boys, I'm back to sewing with a bit of confidence.

These are the beginnings of Simplicity 5695, view A. I'm making these in the 2T size, so they may be a little big on Ellie this fall, but should fit her a few months from now in late winter/early spring. I'm planning to also make view C in a coordinating fabric to this one depending on how it turns out.

I finished another little tunic dress like the one above last night, but haven't had time for photos yet. I'll add that in 

Ready Go!

Are you participating? 

I made my list last week and spent some time over the weekend getting ready for all the sewing in the next 7 days. Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be a bit of a challenge to find the time to sew around kids and work, but hopefully I'll find a solution. I'm hoping for 4-6 finished items by this time next week, and then a bit of a hiatus from sewing so that I can really dig into fall knitting (which is begun, but not making very quick progress).

I fear a polka dot problem has sprung up. I didn't realize that I was buying so many polka dots until they were all stacked together, and I know the three pictured here don't seem to constitute a problem, but there are at least three more polka dot prints not pictured here. The fabric on the left is for another long sleeve dress, the grey with white polka dots for a skirt, and the lighter prints are for short sleeve dresses that we can layer and carry into spring. 

I have some unpictured cartoon prints for boy pajama pants and some linen for some pants with a flat front for the boys. They have enough jeans now after a quick weekend shopping trip, but still lacking on the "nice" but comfortable pants front.

Planning for KCW

Kids Clothes Week is coming up on Monday and I'm planning to sew along. I originally thought I'd come here to write and tell you about needing to buy fabric since my fabric stash is significantly smaller than my yarn stash, but then I actually went into my fabric stash and saw the madness.

I haven't sewn more than a small repair here and there over the last 2 years until this recent run at the machine. And yet, there's all that fabric. I could hardly believe it when I laid it all out on the guest bed to sort. And now I need to store it in some way better than the stack of weird plastic totes that still line the wall since we moved in almost 2 years ago.


And best of all, I found a few projects I cut out at least 2 years ago that no longer fit my tall boys. I swear they have each grown at least a foot in the past two years. I think I can rescue both pair- the one that would have been Ezra's will go on to be Ellie's and I'm going to get creative with a second fabric so that Ender can still wear his since I cut them so long over 2 years ago. I'm not sure why I originally cut them to be so long, but I did and now I'm truly grateful for the cutting oversight.

All that to say that I'm working on a plan for KCW that is slightly different than I originally thought it would be, but still good. I'm over-planning by a long ways, but I'd rather have more to do than less and not run out when there is good sewing time ahead of me.


The priorities:

1. Nice-looking but comfortable pants for the boys. I have two pieces of linen from who knows when that look like they are big enough to get at least 1 pair of pants for each of them.

2. 1 more pair of pajama pants for each of the boys. Since I let them pick pajama fabric we will have a pair of Toy Story pants and also some cartoon dog pajamas.

3. Finish the last 2 long sleeve dresses for Ellie.



Extra:

1. I cut pieces to make an Olivia top before we left on our trip, so I'm planning to make that one as well if I can figure out the button hole thing. I did button holes on my machine once or twice a few years ago and my memory is foggy. I'll try to mess around with that this weekend before the KCW challenge begins.

2. I have 2 more pair of leggings cut for Ellie that just need sewn up.



Now to figure out what to do with other fabrics in the stash. I've given up on trying to figure out how it all got there.