Wednesday 9 March 2016

Kids Clothes Week - February 2016

Aren't these trousers just the cutest?!

Back view of Purl Soho Baby Pants

My plans for February Kids Clothes Week this year didn't quite get off the ground properly unfortunately, due in main part to a poorly toddler who needed all my attention. Thankfully, for him and me, he was feeling better by Tuesday so I could get on with these incredibly cute trousers, or baby 'pants' as they're called on the pattern.  These are a present for the daughter of a friend of mine and I made the 3-6month size in the hope that it will be warm enough between March - June for them to be worn as the fabric isn't very thick.  This is the free Baby Pants pattern from Purl Soho and on the whole it was a very easy pattern to use. It's only 3 pieces and comes together relatively quickly. The only difficulty I found was in attached the cute bum patch, or 'rear gusset'.  As it's quite a tight curve it was really hard to keep it from puckering and it required a pretty crazy amount of pinning!



The dark chambray is left-over from the Stylish Dress Book Dress D and is from Merchant & Mills. The stripy fabric is an Ikea pillow case - more of which was turned into bias binding for my recent quilt.  I also had the 1/4" elastic so this was another make entirely from the stash.  All these recent makes should have led to a significantly smaller stash but I just spent some birthday money on some gorgeous fabrics from M is for Make and Faberwood last week so eh, it just kind of balances it out, doesn't it?!..



My other makes this week are 2 t-shirts from pattern no.10 from Ottobre magazine 1/2013. I hadn't tried this pattern before though so I sized up to the 98cm as the last Ottobre tshirt I made Harris was a 92cm and it's too tight now.  However the 98cm is actually a bit too big but he'll grow into it.  The navy and white stripy fabric is an old M&S tshirt a friend gave me as the neckline had stretched out too much. It is really good quality cotton and I was able to use the original hem band, sleeve bands and neck binding (though I had to cut and re-sew the neckbinding) so this was such a quick make!  


The blue, white and pink t-shirt, well you should recognise that pink fabric by now! So far I've used it for a plantain, a Marilla Walker Sailor Top, some recess raglans and now this.  It's almost all gone now but I'm sure there's enough for one more toddler project!  The blue and white stripy fabric was a medium Gap t-shirt I picked up in the charity shop thinking I could wear it but it was a bit misshapen.  Again I was able to re-use the hem and the neck binding but the t-shirt wasn't big enough to get sleeves from and I like the contrast pink anyway.  It still surprises me how large a t-shirt you need in order to get enough fabric to make a toddler t-shirt. I kind of thought the medium would be enough but really you need a large or xlarge if you're doing long sleeves.

So, a bit late in posting my makes but once again Kid's Clothes Week was a great motivator! I'm looking forward to making some spring clothes next - toddler shorts are so cute!! 



8 comments:

  1. Well done, great recycling of fabrics, I always feel virtuous whe refashioning. Those two tops are great. And as for the baby pants, so so cute.

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    1. Yes, me too! It's so satisfying using old clothes, and scraps. Though it does mean I tend to justify mode charity shop purchases than I really should - I have a big bag of potential refashioning right now! The baby pants are very cute aren't they?

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  2. Great makes, and excellent recycling of fabric. Those baby pants are just so adorable. I'm kind of gutted my boys are too wee for that type of thing now.

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    1. Thanks Helen! I know,I really wish I'd made Harris more little baby clothes, so cute!

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  3. All these projects are amazing Kathryn! You were on fire, despite also having a poorly wee lad to look after. Major props to you. I LOVE that you had to buy, well nothing, to complete them all! It's reminded me that clothing our kids can be done cheaply if you have time and s stash to plunder!) Lots of love xxx

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    1. Aw thanks Zoe! it's so satisfying how much you can actually get out of scraps isn't' it?! My next project is to attempt some trousers for Harris - maybe I'll wait till next KCW!

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  4. These are adorable!! I made similar ones when Quinn was a baby from the One Yard Wonders book but I'll have to check these ones out for the new little on the way! I love using our old clothes for the kid's clothes, it is so much more satisfying than tossing them out to good will!

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    1. thanks Michelle, and thanks for stopping by! I'd recommend the Purl Soho patterns, so far I've made these trousers and one of their quilt patterns and they've both worked really well and had really clear instructions. Oh it is so satisfying to reuse clothes isn't it?!

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