Kids Clothes Week :: February 2014

For years I've loved checking out the fabulous outfits people sew for their kids during Kids Clothes Week, so I'm pretty excited to have signed up for this cycle! You can read more about KCW on the website, but the idea is that so many of us would love to sew more, but instead spend the time on housework, sitting on the couch, watching tv or even searching the internet for more stuff to add to the 'must sew' list. During KCW you pledge to find at least 1 hour each day for a week to dedicate to sewing kids clothes. There are 4 seasonal challenges a year, each with the theme - this week's theme is 'upcycled'.

I have a couple of projects in mind - some of which fit the theme and some that don't. Tonight I spent my hour cutting pieces for a beach robe from a towel, it could be upcyling, but it was a new towel so I'm not sure whether that's cheating a bit =) This will be my second time sewing up this pattern (The Beach Robe by Dana at Made) - the first one I made for one of Amelia's friends for their birthday. It was too cute not to get some pictures of her modelling it!

I used some terry towel I had hanging around and pre-made bias binding, and I am pretty happy with how it came out - the pattern really is very easy, quick to sew up and super cute (I love the extra long cost sleeves!). The instructions are so clear, and there are step by step pictures, that I would have no hesitation in recommending this to a total beginner sewer. The pattern also includes links to relevant tutorials on Dana's blog (like this fantastic post on bias binding) which are so helpful.

The only thing I would have liked to have seen that was missing is one of those 1" squares that are often on PDF patterns so that you can check your scale. Not having it meant that there was some guess work involved in printing and assembling the pattern - the instructions are definitely clear on what to do, but because the pattern was designed in the US it is scaled for 11"x8" paper which is a bit smaller than our A4 (also, the pattern mentions to watch out for this outside of the US, which was great because I wouldn't have thought of it!). I think I got it pretty much ok, although the hood didn't seem quite right - I'm not sure if this was a printer scale issue or not.
I definitely see more of these in my future! (In fact, it's possible that every child in my life needs one!). Hopefully I'll have a few new things to show at the end of the week!

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