children’s clothing

children's clothing, kids clothing, sewing, teen, tween

Bixby Creek Pullover

I think that I came across this pattern under the ‘teensewing’ tag (or similar) on Instagram. I thought that it was a little bit unusual and very cute. Clare agreed.

That sleeve detail! It’s so effective! And rather fiddly and definitely time-consuming, let me add. Not difficult, but it does require some patience and attention to detail.

The pattern is the Bixby Creek Pullover, by Phat Quarters. They describe this pattern as follows: The Bixby Creek Pullover is as versatile as it is unique with a relaxed fit for comfort & style. The criss-cross sleeves can be sporty or beautiful based on the fabrics and color-blocking you choose. This option can be made in the 3/4 length or long sleeve. The tutorial includes a pattern piecing template for accurate strap placement and a polished finish. The Bixby Creek Pullover can be made as a simple sweater with a short sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, or long sleeve with or without a puffed sleeve-cap. The athletic scoop back with strap details is intended as a cover-up layer for after a dance class, karate class, a swim meet, or a long day at the beach. With multiple sleeve length options, criss-cross sleeves, athletic scoop back, or simplified style lines you can create countless looks and combinations for all seasons. Suggested Fabrics are knits with 2-way or 4-way stretch, structured weave and some an element of drape. Specific suggestions include Cotton Jersey, Cotton Lycra, Cotton Spandex, Pique, Pointelle, light-weight Sweater knits, Thermal knits, or Hacci Sweater knits.

As you can see, we chose the criss-cross long sleeved view, and the regular back (for which I don’t have a photo that isn’t pretty much entirely covered in hair).

The fabric is a printed double brushed poly that I bought from Sewing Australia. It is NOT actually the blue colour that it appears in these photos; it’s actually much more of a greenish teal colour. This photo from the Sewing Australia website shows it much more accurately.

I have only sewn with double brushed poly once before. It’s marvellous to wear, as it’s super soft and stretchy, but I found that it was a bit ‘sticky’ to sew – it sticks to itself a little bit. Most construction was on the overlocker, with some topstitching on the overlocked. The sleeves were finished with doubled cuffs and the hem with a doubled band; this is my favourite easy way to ‘hem’ garments. I did twin needle around the neckband to secure it in place.

Clare really liked this top, and I love it on her (it goes so well with her stretch corduroy pants too) but she rarely wore it! She says that it’s actually too cold to wear it in cooler weather, because of all that sleeve ventilation. Definitely a garment for the transitional seasons.

Saturday, 19 October, 2019 by thornberry

children's clothing, kids clothing, sewing, teen, tween

Modkid Shelby for Stella

So, here is Stella in her three versions of the Modkid Shelby pattern! Firstly, I sewed her a cropped, short-sleeved top.

This is sewn from cotton/spandex – fairly typical t-shirt fabric. For Stella I sewed size 10, with the length of size 12.

This size combination appears to work fairly well for Stella. She’s grown so much taller over the past year – actually, despite the two girls being four and a half years apart in age, they’re now only around one clothing size apart, and are very similar shapes.

Hems were finished with a simple small zig-zag throughout. The finished length is just above the belly button, which she seems to like. This top has had a bit of wear since I made it, as has the next version that I sewed.

This time I sewed the long-sleeved version with tie front overlay. The stretch jacquard knit is from Super Cheap Fabrics.

I had attended an overlocking class shortly before I sewed this top, and took the opportunity to practice my rolled hemming skills on the edges of the front overlay pieces that tie together. This actually made for a nicer tie than the conventional turn and stitch, as the rolled hem resulted in minimal bulk.

This fabric was softer yet with more recovery than the blue knit that I used for Stella’s first top, and I think it gives a very pleasing result. She’s worn this one quite a bit over winter.

Finally, I sewed her a dress! This is in lightweight scuba that came into my stash from a friend, possibly originally from Spotlight. Once again I sewed size 12 length with size 10 width.

By this stage I’d sewn this pattern quite a few times, and I can now zoom up one of these garments very quickly. I used a straight stitch to secure hems, and due the fabric thickness I narrow hemmed the front overlay tie edges rather than trying a rolled hem.

Lightweight scuba type fabric can be quite satisfying to sew. No ravelling, very little shifting, some soft structure. Yes, they’re polyester central, but they definitely have a place. They also tend to be very smooth to touch, so Stella quite likes the way that they feel.

It’s often challenging to sew for Stella because she is very particular about what she does and doesn’t like. She was consulted at every step of the process when I sewed these garments, and fortunately it’s worked out well, as they’ve all had quite a bit of wear. We’re currently in the process of deciding what she’d like as her grade 6 graduation dress. We’ve finally identified a couple of patterns, and I’m going to give them a go in some stash fabric to see if she’s happy with the finished product. I never know until the final fitting! Fortunately, this dress was a winner over winter.

Once again, these three garments are good examples of how different fabric types affect the sewing techniques that you use and the finished effect. For more details on the Shelby pattern and to see the three versions I sewed for Clare, see my earlier blog post.

Saturday, 12 October, 2019 by thornberry

children's clothing, kids clothing, sewing, teen, tween

Modkid Shelby for Clare

I’m going to condense three garments into one blog post! Back I summer I came across the Modkid Shelby pattern. There are a number of tween/teen patterns in the Modkid range now, which I really like. There’s so much around for younger girls, and for those with fully developed bodies, but the inbetweeners (who also vary greatly in height) tend to miss out.

From the website: Shelby is a stylish crop top or A-Line knit dress with an optional tie-front panel and three different sleeve lengths. SUGGESTED FABRICS: Light to medium weight knit fabrics with at least 50% stretch and good recovery, like Cotton/Lycra Jersey, Double Brushed Poly (DBP), Rayon Spandex, Stretch Velour or Stretch Lace. This pattern comes in sizes 10 (tween girls) to 18 (teen).

Shelby dress line drawings

First I sewed Clare the Shelby top in the short-sleeved version with tie front panels (worn here with the Modkid Mara mini skirt).

Then I sewed a long-sleeved and lengthened version of the top, without the tie front panels.

And after that, I sewed a long-sleeved dress.

Each was sewn in a different type of knit fabric, so I’ll talk about them one at a time. The first one, in purple, was sewn in a cotton/spandex knit. You know, classic t-shirt fabric. I seem to have multiple different shades of light purple knits in my stash at the moment – and I never wear that colour! This first tee was sewn as a wearable muslin, that actually turned out to be extremely wearable. I haven’t made any notes on sizing but am guessing that it’s size 14 length with size 12 width.

That sizing looks pretty good to me! It’s a cropped top, and ends right at the waist. The instructions have the edges of the ties narrow hemmed by turning twice; I figured that would be much too bulky and just turned the edges once and zig-zagged them right on the raw edge to secure and neaten. The end point is nicely finished with a mitre.

The blue top – which is actually much more teal green than the blue that it appears to be in these photos – was sewn from a thicker spongy knit remnant that I picked up at The Cloth Shop, Ivanhoe.

This knit has great texture. I sewed the same size, but considerably lengthened so that it could be tucked into tops for winter to keep her middle warm. Not that I actually remember her wearing this top a great deal over the past winter – must ask her why not. I secured all edges with a simple straight stitch on the machine, which appears to have an adequate amount of stretch for this top to get on and off.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I love a V-neck with a centre front seam. It makes it so easy to get a super crisp V! The neckline is finished before the centre front seam is sewn up. You do need to be careful that it lines up nicely at the top – yes, I use a few pins – and then voila, lovely neckline.

With the dress I decided to make a feature of the seamlines and do some topstitching. This fabric is designer end of roll scuba/double knit that I found at Eliza of Sunshine. I wish that I had more(the girls haggled over who would get a dress from it). It’s not quite as stretchy, and initially it was too tight under the arms, but too loose through the body.

I did some on the fly alterations that improved the fit. I should have added doing a swayback/short back waist alteration to that list! Either way, I think that the end product is rather lovely. But it hasn’t been worn much over winter either! Maybe it won’t be long before Stella gets her wish and this dress migrates from Clare’s wardrobe into hers….

So there you go, three versions of the one pattern for the teen! And guess what, later I have three versions of it for the tween to show you.

Wednesday, 9 October, 2019 by thornberry

children's clothing, kids clothing, tween, vintage patterns

Vintage Butterick 6974

Have you tried to find a summer dressing gown in the shops that is the right size for a tween? Believe me, it’s difficult! Fortunately there are a plethora of patterns around.

Stella had been asking me for a summer dressing gown for ages, and I really don’t know why it took me so long to provide her with one. I had both the fabric and the pattern in stash!

The pattern is a vintage one, Butterick 6974. There are plenty of similar patterns around. This one is in children’s sizes 12-14, just what I needed for Stella.

Stella is very sensitive to the feel of fabrics. This one was perfect for her – soft and slippery. It’s also vintage; I’ve no idea of actual age but I suspect 1980s. The colour is actually much more peach and apricot than the pinks that show up in these photos.

It’s pretty much your standard dressing gown, with a band to finish the front edges, patch pockets and a tie. I did add loops at the side seams to thread the belt through to keep it secured at her waist. I also have a feeling that I shortened the sleeves considerably. I topstitched the front band in place rather than sewing it by hand.

Dressing gowns get plenty of use in our house; they really are worth sewing! Writing this reminds me that I have a whole lot of silk waiting to become summer pyjamas and dressing gowns for me. It’s lovely to have night/lounge wear that feels good to wear.

Friday, 4 October, 2019Tuesday, 14 September, 2021 by thornberry

children's clothing, kids clothing, sewing

Kwik Sew 3605 for Stella

I first sewed Kwik Sew 3605 for Clare, back in 2011. Then I sewed it again three times in 2014 (and bought the pattern again when I saw it on sale – I knew that I was on to a winner)! So it was the obvious choice of pattern when Stella asked me for new bathers at the beginning of this year.

One of the great things about this pattern is how mix and match it is – although each time I’ve sewn it my girls have selected the tankini top. Kwik Sew describe the pattern options a follows: Mix and match swimsuits. Halter style tops have lined cups. Tankini Top A: Ties at back neck. Top B: Band with hook closure on back, and ties at back neck. Boy-cut Bottoms C: Waist and leg openings finished with elastic. Bottoms D: Front lining and waist and leg openings finished with elastic. Pull-on A-line Skirt E: Waist finished with elastic.

k3605_a

This is a comparatively simple pattern to sew. I completely line the bottoms by cutting them out of swimsuit lining as well as the fashion fabric, sewing them up individually, then putting the lining bottoms inside the fashion fabric bottoms wrong sides together, then treating them as one when I finish the edges with elastic. That means that the interior seams are completely enclosed.

The fabric for both these pairs came from Rathdowne Fabrics. They have an excellent selection of swimwear fabric, both on the roll and as large remnants. The lining fabric came from them as well.

I wonder what size I sewed? I’d have to pull out the pattern pieces to check. This pattern goes from size 4 to 14. It may have been the Medium with the length of the Large.

This photo gives you more idea about construction. I use the overlocked for all the major seams and to finish seams, and use the zig-zag stitch on my machine to attach any elastic to the inside of the edges and then again when I fold the edges to the inside and secure them.

There is elastic around the underbust and along the top edge of the back of the tankini top, and on the waist and leg edges of the pants. The more you sew elastic to bathers edges, the better you’ll get at knowing just how much to stretch it as you attach it. Most of the time, you don’t need to stretch it much at all! I think that’s a fallacy when sewing bathers, that you need to have the elastic much smaller than the opening. You don’t! Think about it – bathers generally have negative ease througout, so the fabric and elastic is already stretching when it’s on the body. Add a little more stretch in places where the fabric will need to cup the body, like at the back leg/bottom, but otherwise don’t really stretch it much at all.

I notice in these photos that my zig-zag has a couple of skipped stitches. Make sure that you have the right needle in for your fabric, preferably a fresh needle! You want something that works well on spandex blends. My machine seems to prefer a sharps needle to a universal. There’s sometimes some experimentation involved in getting that right.

There are plenty of swimwear sewing references available nowadays, and I do suggest reading through many of them before you start sewing swimwear. But it honestly isn’t difficult! And it’s definitely highly satisfying, especially when you hit on just the right pattern for you. I strongly suspect that this pattern is going to get another run for the coming summer – Stella has shot up this year!

Friday, 20 September, 2019 by thornberry

adult's clothing, children's clothing, kids clothing, sewing, teen, tween

Love a bit of colour

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – sometimes you just need a instant gratification sew, and a circle skirt is the way to do it.

Clare loves a circle skirt, and she loves scuba. This brightly printed highly polyester fabric came from Spotlight. Digital prints really are a gift!

I used one of the myriad of circle skirt calculators that are available to figure out what radius to use. This is really easy – I fold the fabric in half, then in half the opposite way so that I have a square with folds along two edges. Try it with a piece of paper and you’ll know what I mean. Then measure the radius curve from the corner with all the folds. Then measure the length that you want – Clare requested 17 inches. Cut – and tada! One doughnut. All you need now is to add the waistband, and when it’s just wide elastic, that’s super easy.

Sew the elastic into a circle (matching thread helps), overlock it to the right side of the skirt, then flip it so that the overlocking is on the inside. And you’re done. No hemming required with scuba fabrics.

As it turns out, Clare would have preferred the elastic to be covered by the same fabric as the rest of the skirt, but I wasn’t inspired to change it. I have done that before though and it’s also straightforward. The joy of stretch fabrics!

If you need better instructions than my hastily typed efforts, take a look at these circle skirt calculators:

There are a myriad of others – Google and YouTube are your friends.

Thursday, 25 April, 2019 by thornberry

children's clothing, kids clothing, Lekala, sewing, tween

Sims inspired for Stella

What would you do if your tween showed you a photo of an outfit that she’d just dressed her Sim in and asked you to sew her a real life version?

What I did was sigh deeply, then say that of course I could sew something similar! And I jumped on to the Lekala website to see what I could come up with. I came up with these two patterns.

I plugged in Stella’s measurements, and around 15 minutes later I was printing off the patterns (yes, Lekala are that fast). Then it was into the car for a trip to Spotlight for fabrics. Stella wasn’t with me, so we had a pretty funny Whatsapp video call for her to select the fabrics that she preferred. I bought them, came home again, and a few hours later we had this!

Not the same as the original dress, but definitely Sim inspired! So, on to the details. I’ll start with the skirt.

The pattern is Lekala 4645, described as ‘double skirt’. Waist measurement is the key for this style. There is a zip set into the left side seam, and the waistband closes with a button and buttonhole. As is always the case with Lekala patterns, the instructions are fairly brief. It helps if you’ve sewn a lot before, or have a sewing reference handy to assist with any potentially tricky bits such as zip insertion.

The fabrics are cotton sateen. We thought that it would have the right amount of body and oomph for the style, and it definitely does. While this was a perfect choice of fabric for the skirt, I don’t think that it worked quite as well for the top.

The top is Lekala 4656 and the recommended fabrics for this one are ‘blouse fabric, lace’. The cotton sateen is okay, but something drapier would work better with the centre front pleats, and the edge finishes would look neater. A combination of the fabric type, self fabric bias strip finishing and the fact that it’s sewn in a rather small size makes the armholes and necklines bulkier than I’d prefer.

That said, the fit overall is pretty good and allows for a fair bit of growing room (much needed for Stella at the moment). I chose to sew a separate skirt and top rather than combine them into a dress because I thought that there was more chance of future wear if they were separates. I suspect that I’m right and that the skirt will get much more wear than the top.

You can see that there is plenty of room in the top! It was also very long – I chopped a fair bit off it and there was still plenty left to tuck in. That’s one of the hazards of using Women’s patterns for a tween, despite it being drafted to measurements.

One happy tween – and therefore a happy mother! It was fun to work together to turn her vision into reality.

Tuesday, 26 February, 2019 by thornberry

children's clothing, kids clothing, sewing, tween

New Look 6389 dress

Because Stella has had a growth spurt, clothes have moved more quickly than usual from Clare’s wardrobe to hers. Stella is about two years ahead of Clare (maybe a little more) in height for her age. Outgrown garments used to go from Clare’s wardrobe into plastic tubs for a couple of years before they entered Stella’s wardrobe – now it’s straight from one wardrobe to the other. They are wearing the same size shoes (pretty much the same size as me) so there’s no more passing those on! I wonder if Stella will end up taller or if she’s just doing her growing earlier? Clare didn’t really have a growth ‘spurt’ as such – she just kept on steadily growing and is now quite an average height among her peers.

So, the point of all this? I sewed New Look 6389 in the romper version for Clare a couple of years ago, and Stella is now wearing it. Seeing Stella in it prompted me to pull out the pattern again and sew the dress version. Mind you, Stella made all the design choices. Dress, high-low hem, halter neck strap, tie belt at the waist.

I’ve mentioned before that New Look have some terrific tween/teen patterns. Kids can be awkward to sew for once they’re no longer little kids. Height, breadth, development, they all vary so much from kid to kid. These cover quite a size range, up to girls size 16, which really helps when sewing for kids that are still kid shaped but larger overall, who wouldn’t fit properly into the shaping of adult patterns.

With my girls sizing issues are always at the other end of the spectrum. They’re pretty skinny (which I have to say isn’t due to their abundance of exercise or any disdain for eating junk food – it’s just the way that they are built) and they’ve generally been quite short for their age. Stella is no longer short for her age – she’s one of the taller kids among her peers now – but she’s still skinny. Because I this I chose a style with elastic, which allows for fitting adjustability, and I cut size 10 in the width of the bodice and skirt but size 12 in the length of the bodice and skirt.

New Look patterns are also quite consistent in their sizing, so once you’ve worked out what you need to do in one pattern, you can pretty much apply the same principles across the board. Of course, what you need to do will depend on who you are sewing for!

The fabric is from very deep stash – I think that it was originally part of June’s stash (a friend’s mum who kindly passed the bulk of her stash on to me when she moved into a retirement village). It’s a John Kaldor woven, possibly polyester, but amazingly good quality. I suspect it’s from the early 80s, guessing from the fabric width and the type of print. It’s random little black dashes on a coral background. Stella chose it. It was fabulous fabric to work with, and had just enough texture that it wasn’t slippery at all.

I sewed it predominantly on the sewing machine, using the overlocker to finish seam allowances. I decided to use the rolled hem setting on the overlocker to finish the skirt hem and the bodice flounce, rather than a narrow double turned hem. I think that this was a good decision, especially for the bodice flounce. It is a true flounce, cut as a curve, rather than a frill cut straight. This gives it lovely flare along the bottom edge, much better suited to a rolled hem.

From the pattern website: Girls’ pattern includes pull-on jumpsuit, romper, short dress and high low dress each with elastic waist. Jumpsuit and short dress have halter neckline, romper has straps with bows, and high low dress has thick straps.

newlook-girls-pattern-6389-envelope-front

newlook-girls-pattern-6389-front-back-view

The cover claim of ‘easy’ is correct – there’s nothing too complex in either sewing or fitting this garment. I did try it on Stella and adjust the elastic to size, which I’d recommend over just trusting the elastic lengths given in the pattern. This pattern has been around for a few years now, and I’m not sure how long New Look keep things in print. If you’ve got a tween girl to sew for I’d recommend adding this to stash.

Tuesday, 4 December, 2018 by thornberry

children's clothing, kids clothing, sewing, tween

Girl on the Go dress – the summer version

I’ve said before that Stella is quite particular about the way that her clothes feel (as well as fit). She likes soft, comfortable fabrics. Actually, who doesn’t! I’ve sewn the Oliver & S Girl on the Go dress twice already, both times with sleeves, and she’s worn them quite a bit. Time for a summer version!

The fabric is from Crafty Mamas Fabrics. It’s a European knit in cotton/spandex, it’s super soft and extremely good quality. I had just enough to eke out the dress by cutting one pair of the ties on the wrong grain. I figured that it wouldn’t matter to much, especially if I then paired one from the cross grain with one on the lengthwise grain. It’s a directional print but I doubt that you’d notice that it’s going different ways on the ties.

I always rave about Oliver & S patterns, and others from the same stable. They are always beautifully drafted, have great instructions, are fairly timeless in design, and the A4 pdf is arranged to minimise paper waste. They’ve always designed their pdf patterns like that actually – it’s something that lots of other designers could really learn from! None of this ‘just split the single sheet up into lots of A4 sheets no matter where the dividing lines go’ – with Oliver & S each pattern piece is thoughtfully laid out on the A4 to fit together nicely. They do also provide wide format if you want to take it to a printer – it’s always the last page of their pdf.

Stella does up the ties really tight at the front, so they pull the dress in at the back. There is actually plenty of room in it. I sewed size 10 – Stella is quite tall for her age now (eleven and a half), but she’s still skinny.

This pattern really is simple done well. The shoulder seams are slightly forward, everything is beautifully shaped to sit properly on the body. People are three dimensional, and the pattern takes that into account. From the pattern website: This simple pull-on dress and top is designed for knit fabrics with a little stretch. The View A dress features a fun front tie detail and short sleeves, while View B makes a classic top with 3/4-length sleeves. Both styles include a neck facing with topstitching detail and a forward shoulder for a comfortable fit. You’ll love the look, feel, and versatility of this dress and top which make great wardrobe basics for every girl on the go.

olv-os055gg2_prod_full

Screen Shot 2018-04-15 at 9.09.19 am

This pattern goes up to a girls size 18 (so those smaller adults that fancy it, I reckon it would fit!) so I suspect that it will get more use in years to come. Highly recommended.

Sunday, 2 December, 2018 by thornberry

children's clothing, kids clothing, sewing, tween

McCalls 7459 for Stella

Pinafores and overalls are all the rage at the moment! Clare is keen for me to sew her an ‘overalls dress’, but the pattern we fancy isn’t available in Australia yet. In the meantime, I sewed a pinafore for Stella! This was also part of my ‘the kids are away and I miss them so I will sew for them’ binge.

Stella was keen on a flared skirt – she likes to twirl! The pattern is McCalls 7459.

m7459_a

There are quite a few options with this pattern. Stella definitely wanted the traditional overall style bib of views A/D/E, and preferred the flared skirt of A and B over the gathered skirt.

m7459

With that decision made, I needed to figure out what size to sew. Stella has been through a major growth spurt this year – actually, a couple of weeks ago we had to throw out all of her shoes and buy replacements, because the ones in her wardrobe were three sizes too small! Her feet are the same size as mine now! She’s been growing up and up and up, but is still pretty skinny. Choosing a size is hard. In the end I sewed girls size 12. It’s great in length, but probably still too wide. Fortunately that really isn’t much of an issue with this type of style, and I do want to allow for a bit of growing room!

The denim comes from M. Recht, and I have to say that it’s lovely stuff. I never regret buying denim from them – it’s excellent quality. I went to Jimmy Buttons for the hardware for the buttons and buckles. That reminds me, because I chose to make the straps adjustable I lengthened them substantially when cutting out, as I knew that I’d be threading them through the buckles. The pattern is designed for standard fixed buttons and buttonholes.

There’s a zip in the side seam too – I used a fairly heavy weight metal one that I had in stash. There’s also a button at the waistband opening. I really don’t do a great job of hammering in those buttons – I often bend them a bit. It probably just takes practice, and I haven’t got the amount of pressure quite right. You need to bang hard enough for it to be secure, but not so hard that you make the button and it’s backing go out of shape!

As you can see, the pinafore is topstitched throughout. I used regular thread with a triple stitch, as I find that this gives me the best topstitching effect on denim. I’ve tried using upholstery thread in the past, but still prefer the finish I get with regular thread and a triple stitch.

I really hope that Stella gets some decent wear from this – it’s a trans-seasonal garment, and she really did need a few new things added to her wardrobe! We’re fortunate that my niece has a daughter who is five years younger than Stella, so we pass everything that Stella has outgrown down to her to keep or to redistribute among her friends. Stella’s wardrobe now looks the emptiest it’s ever been!

Tuesday, 20 November, 2018 by thornberry