Thursday, March 28, 2013

chevrons gone wild

The theme of the 2nd week of Project Run and Play is 'Chevrons'. I took the theme quite liberally, and played around with the chevrons to create the tiger stencil that formed the basis of this t shirt.
 I doubted about the right color combination for a long time. Should it be brown and yellow? Grey and orange? Purple and grey? But then I found this colorful ribbon, which has a dark blue background. So grey and blue it became, with a pop of color along the sleeves and bottom hem.
After sewing the shirt together, I created a freezer paper stencil and stenciled the tiger, which would certainly be loved by M, given her recent feline fascination. However, the shirt ended up a bit short, and was thus destined for her little brother. 
Who, unfortunately, did NOT approve of his new t shirt!

O well, maybe it will grow on him before he grows out of it. 
Otherwise I'm sure that we can make another little boy happy with this cool tiger t shirt... 
In the meantime, M asked me to sew exactly the same t shirt for her. Glad that at least someone likes my style!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

beware of the dragon!

Beware! A dragon roams free in the woods. 
This dragon vest was created for the Waldorf school of my eldest. Her teacher wished to have all sorts of costumes for their role plays. I eagerly offered to sew a few items, and started off with this dragon vest.
As the basis for the dragon vest I used a pattern from Ottobre (Funny Fox 4/2012). I cut the back panel in two pieces, attached the two halves to the hood pieces, and then sewed the two sides together, inserting the tail between them.
I deviated from the pattern by omitting the binding along the hood and zipper, but instead lining the hood and body of the vest, since this would hide the seams on the inside and make it look much better.
the lined hood 
The dragon is slain
This was really a fun thing to make. Next up the list: an armor for a knight to slay the dragon!


cool knee pads


These pants with holes in their knees had been laying on the mending pile for weeks (if not months). I finally took the time to patch them. Once started, I figured that I could just as well spend some extra effort to make them a bit special.  


The first pair got large embellished pads, sewn in both side seams. I opened up the side seams with the seam ripper, attached the knee pads, and resewed the seams. However, it turned out that resewing the double seam was quite tricky. 

So for the second pair, I opened only the outer seam and appliqued some stars, Not just two to cover the holes, but a whole constellation of stars. 
Done. It took a bit more time than I expected, but I like the result. Two cool pairs of pants for my tomboy. 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

tigers


As said before, my oldest is very much into tigers and panthers lately. And she declared her favorite color to be red. This fabric from Darling Dearest is therefore bound to make her happy! 


I used a simple shirt pattern, drafted from an existing shirt. The tiger fabric was combined with some red jersey for the sleeves and back, brown ribbing for the collar and some yellow knit for the elbow patches. 


The result: a bold shirt that is loved by my little feline-lover.