Christmas Sewing Round-up

A quick round-up of the Christmas presents that were sewn up by me. Mostly, these are all patterns I have sewn previously, so not much to add.

Another Perfectly Preppy skort, from the pattern by the Scientific Seamstress. This was a popular choice again featuring favourite colour, purple. The spots fabric is a cotton, and the lining a poly/cotton poplin.

The free downloadable popover sundress pattern from Oliver and S. I chose not to use a contrasting fabric for the yoke and straps, as suggested in the pattern. This is made from a very light weight cotton.

These shorts in a size 18-24 months are made using the Oliver and S Sketchbook shorts pattern. These are made from a remnant of cotton drill used previously. These looked and sewed up very similarly to the previous pairs made with the Burda 9793 pattern. I would choose to sew the Burda pattern in preference to this one, while the boys are in the size range for it.

These mens boxer briefs were made using Kwik Sew 3298. Unfortunately, the yellow contrast fabric was a bit more contrasting than anticipated! They sewed up quickly and easily, would sew these again with a more considered choice of fabric. The main fabric is a cotton jersey, the contrast a cotton/lycra jersey.

Perfectly Preppy Skort

Also for my niece's birthday I made a skort from the Perfectly Preppy Skirt/Skort pattern by the Scientific Seamstress. I made her one of these for her last birthday, which she wore at every opportunity.

After consulting with my sister (her Mum), it was determined that her current favourite things are butterflies and the colour purple. With this insight, I went fabric shopping for inspiration, and found what I hope will be a hit.

The main fabric is a quilting cotton with an interesting texture to it, and the lining and shorts are made from a poly cotton poplin. Because the purple is quite dark, I matched the shorts to the pink in the main fabric for a bit of contrast. My only variation from the pattern instructions was to use adjustable buttonhole elastic in the back waistband.

I again opted to make the version with the full circle skirt, as this is a great summer style. Something I'm really pleased about with this version is that the weight of the quilting cotton makes it drape really nicely.

You can see my previous version of this pattern here.

Children's Hoodie

I recently made a fleece hoodie for my son for Playcentre. I chose a fleece with rockets and planets as he has an interest in all things space.

I used the All the Rage Raglans pattern with optional hoodie from CarlaC, the ScientificSeamstress.
As I was using fleece rather than jersey, I did as recommended, and went up one size from his usual to a 5.

As always, the instructions were well written and left no room for confusion. The only change I made was to top stitch the raglan seams, and the hood seam.
Next time I plan to add extra seam allowance to the raglan seams so the topstitching works a bit better.

I was a little worried when it was finished, as it looked really long and narrow, but actually when he wears it, and lifts his hands up high it still covers his tummy - so we are calling that a design feature!

T is quite slim, so would suggest maybe going up a couple of sizes for the extra width through the body if this is not the case for your child.

Rock and Roll Shirt

Today is T's birthday, and so the grand unveiling of his 'rock and roll' shirt has arrived!

As I've mentioned previously, T chose the fabric as we were looking around the fabric store a while ago. 'Nuf said!

For the pattern, I used this Bowling shirt  by Scientific Seamstress. These patterns are great, especially if you are new to sewing, as the instructions really walk you through the process step-by-step. If you have a bit of experience under your belt, you might find the 47ish pages of directions overkill!

One part that was really quite well thought out, is that you make your button holes on the placket before you attach it to the shirt, so that if you end up with wonky button holes, you need only cut a new placket rather than a whole new front piece. Fortunately, I was happy enough with mine, so didn't need to do any extra cutting.

The main fabric is a cotton, and the blue lining and contrast is a poly cotton poplin.

Originally I had planned to have the plackets and collar in the main fabric, but when I was doing the cutting out, I couldn't think which way up to cut the collar pieces, so made them in the contrast instead.
Now that it is all made up, I'm quite pleased I made this change, as it looks a bit more, dare I say it, 'ROCK and ROLL'.

The last minute change I made was to change out the buttons. I had picked clear buttons when the plackets were going to be patterned, but these didn't look quite right with the plain plackets and yellow buttonholes. So I found some yellow hands, which T loves - he thinks they are 'high 5' hands. Success!

Final pic is the birthday boy himself, in his new favourite shirt.

Bucket Hat and Skort

I recently received the Oliver and S book, 'Little Things to Sew', and the first project from it I tried was the Bucket Hat pattern. 

My niece had her 2nd birthday coming up, so she was the recipient of the first one.

The hat brim IS even - just doesn't look like it with the jaunty angle teddy wears it!

As we do not live near by, here it is modelled by one of the teddies. The hat is reversible, so can be worn either way.

Along with this I also made a skort using a Scientific Seamstress pattern. I used the same lime green gingham poplin as for the hat.

This pattern is a downloadable PDF, with extremely clear instructions and diagrams, and individual pattern pieces for each size. The only alteration I made was to insert adjustable elastic into the waistband, as my niece is quite small.

I would definitely recommend these patterns and have a couple more I intend to make soon.