Tie-dye 'Beach' Mulberry Tunic and cut off jean shorts

Even though it’s raining and windy outside we’re feeling summery in the losing my thread household. We have booked a little summer break and are looking forward to heading off to the British seaside next month. With that in mind I made S some beach clothes…

First up… after testing the Willow and Co Ash jumpsuit I had to try one of the other patterns from the Wanderlust collection. Now that I have a little boy I thought I’d take a look at some of the unisex patterns and went for the Mulberry tunic designed by Olga from Kid Approved. There are some other Mulberry tunic examples here and here from other bloggers.

 I wanted something S could throw on at the beach after a dunk in the sea so I bought some terry towelling on ebay. White was a bit boring so we tie dyed parts of it purple; making a concertina from the fabric first and then tying elastic bands tightly round before dunking it in Dylon dye. I dyed the fabric rather than the finished garment which meant I could get some nice contrasting panels. There are a lot of nice details in this pattern like the back yoke that extends over the shoulders which look great in a contrasting tone.

I have been waiting for some time to use this neon pink bias binding! Kerchow! Actually applied the bindng incorrectly, not the fault of the instructions but my printer ran out of ink so I couldn’t see the picture properly and I only figured it out afterwards, never mind - it looks okay! I made a size bigger than the size chart as I wanted it to fit over other clothing (and also I’m hoping it’ll fit next year too).

I topstitched in pink...wish I’d used white now. The topstitching looks a bit wonky in the middle – it was tricky to get to lay straight, I think it's because the pattern is not designed for such thick fabric and the construction in this part has stitching through 5 layers, so getting the perfect finish with towelling was tricky, but it doesn’t matter. We like it!

I left the neck opening, opting against using buttons and used an embroidery stitch to finish the edging on the neck, hem and sleeves. I think it works well with the towelling but my husband thinks it is too open. Let me know what you think… I used an overlocking stitch to put it together so the seams are finished but not too bulky.

And now for the shorts...

To go with the hoody I made cut off denim shorts from some jeans S has grown out of. I frayed the edges with a quick unpick (it was chilly when we went ot the park so she didn't wear them together for our photo shoot). 

 

There’s a blog series which just finished on Elegance and Elephants called 'Let the kids decide', designed to encourage makers to let their children to have a creative input into their clothes…Normally S has very strong opinions on what I make and what she puts on in the morning so she is heavily involved anyway (she won’t wear it otherwise!) but I wanted to include something solely her idea in the project. I was thinking of a floral pattern for the shorts but I asked S and she suggested waves which was much better than my idea! Ironically I missed the deadline for that event because she decided not to pose for photos (oh well!).  

I used a stencil cut from card and decolourant paste to create the pattern and then picked out details with a Sharpie pen. Find out how to use the paste here on vera luna’s blog that’s where I found out about it! I was disappointed at first because it didn’t come out with as much of a contrast as I had thought it would but the more I get used to it the more I like it.

Just after the decolourant is applied

Not without mistake but at the end of the day it’s just something fun to put on at the beach and it was fun to make too. Can’t wait for our holiday now!

Kids Clothes Week - Refashioned Waistcoat and Tweedy Tailored Shorts

Yes, that's a car, not a camera!

Here are my first offerings for Kids Clothes Week - Let's start with the shorts. I love them!

 

I used Figgy’s Banyan pattern (again!) using the shorts pattern as the basis for these. I made a few changes though; I wanted a simplified tailored look so I took out the pockets and zip fly and redrafted the waistband so that it was higher and could feature the mother-of-pearl buttons (I saved those from an old cardigan). Using a bit of mint green thread to sew on the buttons adds a pop of colour.

I fully lined the shorts as tweed can be a little rough and used the Figgy’s adjustable waistband method which helps them stay up on S who has no bottom whatsoever! 

I love this herringbone tweed – I made a dress from it for myself a few years ago and used a small remnant to whip up these shorts. They would work well with tights in the cold too but we went for a summery look today as the sun is out and we want it to stay out!

These also fit in with another blog event happening at the moment - Calling All Kids on the excellent Alida Makes blog which is challenging people to make clothes for kids that challenge gender stereotypes...surely nothing crosses the gender divide more than purple tweed?!

Next, I made the little waistcoat out of one of my old tops that was stained and ready to be thrown out. I love the colour of the jersey though so I decided to refashion it into a cute little waistcoat.

After!

 I popped it on S inside out and went to work with some pins; I took in the sides and reworked the shoulder details, removing the lapel and making it smaller, then I popped some darts in the back and cut a curved high-low hem around the bottom to make the most of the drapey jersey. I have to admit making a curved hem on the slip jersey was tricky, but nothing a funky bit of orange trim doesn’t cover up!

 

Kids Clothes Week

I'm really happy to be involved in the Spring Kids Clothes Week this time round and even more excited about the things I'm planning to make! It's an online event in which participants sign a pledge to commit to making clothes for their children for one hour every day for a week. Sounds fun? The idea is to kick start people into starting those projects that they've always wanted to make, but some how got round to.

Once you've pledged your time it's the commitment that keeps you going...I know an hour a day is never going to happen long term, but I guess doing it for a fixed amount of time illustrates that no matter how busy you are at home, or at work (or both!), you can make some time for yourself to do the things you really want to do. If you can make one hour a day happen for a week, maybe a few hours every weekend doesn't seem so unachievable any more?

I love sewing because I end up with stuff at the end...a finished product, a practical, usable thing. So I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can do in 7 hours this week...watch this space!