ottobre 6/2007 wrap around and modified overalls

Here's ds#3 coming home outfit. What a pita this one was to make. The patterns are great just my own silly mistakes. The binding for the overalls which I initially made (see below) was too difficult to turn the tabs so instead I made the tabs more into a tear-dropped shape then stitched the excess underneath.

In the end I had to cut off the overall part because of my own eagerness to get snap happy with my new snap press. I didn't re-enforce it properly (despite testing) and was left with gapping holes in the tabs....I know...all that coverstitching...yikes. Lesson learned! In the end I am happy with the results as the overalls (in my opinion) aren't really practical with a newborn anyways. If I were to do the overalls again I would add more of a seam allowance in order to add snaps around the crotch area to make it more accessible for diaper changes.

New Look 6410

I made this for my mother-in-law's birthday this year. It's made out of a plaid twill which was given to me by her), and then a lightweight linen or rayon blend (not exactly sure). This was a learning experience for me as I never have done a lapped zipper before. I did cheat a bit on the waist as I was being lazy and didn't want to hand-sew the interior down for a cleaner finish. My theory is that you can't see it anyways, and also because I didn't want to go through all the trouble if her measurements were off :) {a lesson that I learned from the regency dress that I made for her - apparently by using only 1/4" of the 5/8" seam allowance it makes you a smaller size - LOL.}

Here's the lapped zipper

Ottobre - Elephants pj set

I decided to do elephants on my ds2 pj set. He's in love with elephants right now. I thought about also adding an applique to it but decided that I liked it just the way that it was. When he saw the elephants on the labels that I made he got so excited.

The pants are made out of 100% cotton rib knit with ribbing in white for the cuffs. I do love the rib knit for these pants especially because we cloth diaper and it stretches enough to go over the big diaper bum that he has at night time.I didn't follow the directions for waistband as I just serged then coverstitched it into place. This method is super easy and super quick.

DS#1 Requested

to have the same pj set as ds#2 but I didn't have enough of the navy blue interlock to do the pants. However, I found an extra piece in the scrap bin to make the sleeves so that I could use the rest of the striped jersey to make a pair of pants out of. My ds#1 then decided after all that he wanted superman instead of the blue jay embroidery. He also specified these labels to match...

Blue Jay PJ Set

Here's ds2's new pjs. He's in love with birds right now so I though an embroidered blue jay would tickle his fancy. It's made out of navy blue combed cotton interlock and navy blue ribbed knit for the cuffs and neck binding. It was all coverstitched (2-thread narrow) in a contrasting bright blue. I reversed coverstitched the waistband of the pants and the shirt's hemline. I just love the result and ds2 does too. Well so does ds1 who has asked for the same pj set and one with a bumble bee too!

Fall Outfit for DS2

Here's my second son's new outfit for the fall. I really have no idea what sparked me to make fall stuff when it's so freaking hot outside but I am so glad that I did. The sweater is from ottobre's 4/2007 #11 hooded sweater and the pants are from ottobre's new issue 4/2011 #7 Mickey Mouse pants. I really do love this outfit and am just hoping that the pants material stand up to at least one season. I'm not sure if it was a bad fabric or what but I ended up having to topstitch all the seams with my coverstitch machine as the seams just tore apart when stress was put on it, despite a perfect stitch. A while back I made ds1 an outfit using the brown organic bamboo valour that I got from the same place as the orange. The brown one has stood up to much abuse but hopefully my attempt to fix this fabric flaw will stand up. Fingers crossed. I originally bought it to make cloth diapers for ds2 but had a ton of materials left over so this was the perfect project for them.

I also added newly hand made labels of a fish, as ds2 loves fishes right now. I got vectors from the net and then added "hand made" under it. I then heat pressed them onto twill tape. They turned out so good.

Mama's New Maternity Bathing Suit

Bloom cami bathing suit (maternity)
Originally uploaded by angeleyes_88

We are planning on taking the kids to a water-park next week, so of course mama needed a new bathing suit. I just couldn't bear to show of my naked belly (although I totally admire those of you who can). I recently purchased this bathing suit fabric for less than $4.00 per/yard a couple of months ago (as my local fabricland sells bathing suit fabric for a hefty $18 per/metre (ouchy). I have never sewn with this material before but it sure was a learning curve. I did end up using my wooly nylon that I got from thread art a while back. It was sure a pain to thread though and remember reading somewhere to put nail polish on it in order to thread it. So I pulled the thread tautly and brushed my dark red nail polish on. I then let it dry for about 20 minutes while I cut out the fabric. It worked like a charm! I thread it through both loopers. I did notice that my tension or something was off but it wasn't a big deal to me. The whole dress/top cost $4 to make! It was a pain however to figure out the binding of the same material on my coverstitch machine. I'm not totally sure why it randomly runs off, despite trying to change the pressure foot, but I got it to work and just in time. The pattern is a modified Ottobre 5/2009 "Bloom Camisole". I added 1/4" to each side seam and lengthened it by 4". I then did a rolled lettuce edge. The binding is actually supposed to have tension adjusters put in but I only had enough to put up to my neck. I then added an o-ring and added more length. I'm actually really please with how it turned out, especially with all the new things that I was trying to learn.