KCW: Basic Pocket Pants

It seems the sewing gods did not want me to participate in KCW this week. After an early victory with the Hosh Pants, my sewing quickly went downhill. I spent most of the week working on the Oliver + S Music Class Blouse (I made the Music Class Skirt last fall, a great success!). I LOVE O + S patterns, but I made all the wrong choices with this one. The last straw came when I went to attach the collar and the notches were totally off, which is probably the result of using a french seam finish that threw off my 1/2" seam allowance. Now I have an almost-complete shirt and a collar with no hope of fitting.... *sad face*



SO... I put that failure away for now and choose to move on to a nice, easy pair of pajama pants. I used the Basic Pocket Pants pattern from the book Growing Up Sew Liberated and a super cute Hello Kitty flannel.



They took a little more time than the trace-and-sew kind of pajama pants I usually make for the kiddos, but I love the little details to this pattern! The contrasting cuffs, binding, and waistband are cute, and K absolutely loves the pockets! When she first saw the pants she exclaimed "THEY HAVE POCKETS?! For all my STUFF!"





I think I've got the clothes sewing out of my system for a while now, and I'm ready to get back to quilting and patchwork. I've got a few items to check off my to do list and then it's on to Christmas gift sewing! How did you do with your KCW sewing?

Kids Clothes Week: A First!

I've never participated in Kids Clothing Week before, so I thought I'd give it a go this time around! I didn't even realize it was KCW until I saw a post on Sunday, so I'm not going into this week terribly prepared. Patterns have not been cut out in advance. No fabric was been washed and pressed with projects in mind. I'm kinda wingin' it here, so I'm starting out with something simple: flannel jammie pants.



I bought this flannel months ago (ya know, back when it made sense to be making flannel pajamas), so I'm glad KCW gave me the little push I needed to actually get sewing. I've made her pants like this a few times before, but I did change it up a bit and added a little ruffle to the cuffs.



K was quite excited for the new pants. She asked if they were ready yet about a million times this evening, and luckily I got them done just in time for bed.

Flannel & Minky Baby Quilt

Last week I finished a quilt for one of my closest friends who just had a baby. Baby #4 to be specific! When you have 4 kids, you pretty much have all the baby stuff you need, so I think it's nice to make something special and one-of-a-kind for the newest member of the family. This quilt is flannel on one side and minky on the other—perfect for cuddling a little one!



I started two other baby quilts before finally settling on this one (you can see the other two in-progress here). I'm glad I choose this one to finish because I just love how it turned out. I had bits and pieces of two different flannel collections from Hoffman- To the Rescue and Beep! Beep!. I think the biggest piece I had to work with was about 10" x 15". So it was just a matter of putting up pieces on the design wall and seeing how it could all fit together.



I left out the batting, because I didn't want to make it to heavy which I think can happen when you're using minky. I also kept the quilting fairly light (just large diamonds) and it has a wonderful drapey feel. My only regret is that I didn't take better photos of this quilt, but I was in a bit of a hurry to give it to this little guy!