Kwik Sew Hoody for Liam

Excuse my blurry photo, but I think the smile is irresistable. That's my handsome Liam in his new hoody that I made for him last Friday. It's one of the items I promised to finish in this post. I did the embroidery a bit earlier, whilst I had a bit of a cleaning frenzy in my sewing room (not that you can tell anymore). We've used it before, but it's the one Liam chose for this top and it's from the Embroidery Library. I have a voucher they sent me for my birthday*, I must remember to go and spend it.



The pattern is from Kwik Sew's Sewing for Children. We've finally moved up from the Toddler book. Now that McCalls have taken over Kwik Sew, I'm wondering if these books will stay, or become a thing of the past? Apparently, the lovely paper patterns that Kwik Sew has are disappearing and being replaced by tissue. What sort of patterns do you prefer, paper or tissue? Do you have a favourite Kwik Sew pattern that you think should be snapped up before it gets switched to tissue paper?

*they do this for everyone, if you have an embroidery machine it is well worth signing up

Robot Hooded Jacket, Revisited

Just over two years ago, I made this jacket. It has been a firm favourite of Liam's and he has only recently started allowing Noah to wear it occasionally. The only thing is, it doesn't really fit Noah any more, either.



I have been meaning to make him another one for quite a while. In fact, I intended to make one last winter. Anyway, I finally got around to it over the long weekend.



The only major difference (apart from the size) was I made larger cuffs, to make more of a feature from the robot fabric. You can see in these photos, that Liam has the cuffs folded back, but it looks the same when unfolded too.

The Red Baron

It was a long weekend here just been, and the weather was awesome. I got heaps of stuff done! Lots of sewing and I even managed to get out in the garden and plant my bulbs that I have been wanting to do for weeks. Maybe soon I can come back and show you the result of that... wish me luck!



Anyway, this was the first thing I sewed this weekend, a hoody for Liam, using a $1 design from Embroidery Library. The fabric was left-overs from Paige's school uniforms from about umm... I dunno... 10-12 years ago? It's not a colour I would rush out and buy, but it looks nice on Liam. I wanted an embroidery on it so it didnt look too "school-uniformy". I had to borrow some threads from Mum as I just didn't have enough of the right reds.



I used the Kwik Sew Sewing for Children book, and I included the kangaroo pocket on the front for Liam to keep his hands warm and store treasures in.

Monkey Hoody

I quite liked how quickly the last hoody sewed up, so I made another.

This time I added an embroidery from Embroidery Library. The banana surfing monkey is one of this month's freebies, so if you want one for yourself, you should get one before the month is over.

Robot Jacket

I made this jacket for Liam out of some beautiful red polar fleece that I got from Spotlight.

I have lined it with the robot print interlock that I also got from Spotlight. I got some of this before Christmas, and loved it so much I went back and got some more.

I used the Kwik Sew - Sewing For Toddlers book to make this jacket up, although I did a lot of alterations.

I made up two hoods, and joined them along the face edge, facing each other, flipped them out to the right side and top stitched along the edge. I then left the bottom edge open.

Instead of making a facing for the jacket, I cut out entire front panels to face the inside. When I sewed the raglan edge to the sleeve, I left the lining part loose. I attached the hood as per the instructions in the book, but with the front facing folded back over the hood - sort of like when you put the collar on the pajamas. After the hood was attached I stitched the raglan edge of the facing to the already joined raglan edge between the front and the sleeve.

I also added a facing to the bottom edge of the sleeve after I chopped some off (to avoid exxxxtra loooong sleeves, lol!) The sleeve was fiddly, I sort of sewed up the inside of the sleeve, as well as the facing, folded the facing back and then top-stitched the facing down. It was trickier than usual, being so far up the inside of the sleeve.

Anyway, I am really happy with the way this jacket turned out.

Rockets and Pockets

The other day I went looking for a jumper for Liam. He had to settle for something that was a little short. The jacket he ended up wearing was fine only a few weeks ago. He is growing very fast.

I went to Spotlight to find some windcheating or polar fleece to make Liam some jackets. While I was there, I found this polar fleece with rockets and spaceships all over it.

The pattern is once again trusty old Kwik Sew - Sewing For Toddlers. With a few modifications. They have instructions to add a zip. They also have instructions to add a hood. They don't have instructions for both. I figured it out though. The big chunky zipper was a bit fiddly with my machine. Even with a zipper foot, the part where it attaches gets in the way.

When I was cutting out, I noticed that I had cut out the front panels upside down. I had heaps of extra fabric, so I cut some new ones. It wasn't until I was taking photos that I noticed that the back panel is also upside down. Oh well.

The jacket also has a kangaroo pocket. Well, actually, there are two pockets. They are currently being put to good use as a storage facility for matchbox cars and Thomas Tank Engines.

Busy and Productive Day

Haven't been in here for awhile, there was a bit of time there where it was a bit tricky finding the time and space to sew. Paige has moved back to her mum's, so now that she doesn't need her room full-time, it was decided that Liam could have his own room, and Paige would share hers with the sewing equipment. When the new baby comes, he or she can share with Liam.

So Paige moved out at the

start of April, and I think it was May before I started moving my sewing stuff out of Liam's room, and into Paige's. There is still stuff to move, but its nearly there. The great news is that I have a sewing room all to myself most of the time.

Somewhere in there, I managed to sew Liam a pair of denim-look jeans. They are really a very stretchy Lycra that looks like denim, not denim at all. When I get around to taking a picture of them, I will post them on here. They were really plain, just a pair of pants with some elastic in the top. I put the elastic in using stretch zig-zag. They are a little loose around the waist so he has a big nappy pin holding them up, haha.

May 30th was a big day for me sewing-wise. I managed to make two hoodies and a long-sleeved t-shirt. I used the Kwik Sew - Sewing for Baby pattern book to make these. I was surprised at how quick it all was. The hoodies have snaps up the front, so are easy to whip on and off, and there is a bit of elastic across the top of the hood to keep it on if we're out in the weather.