[Sarvi]

All the carefully planned things in the world are no good if your kid won’t wear them! Hey, if you’ve got something good going and it works for the two of you, that’s all that matters. But if you would rather sew something else, maybe you could bring her in and ask for design input, getting her buy-in during the fabric selection process? Or maybe you could print your own design onto a solid shirting or linen — potato stamps can be a lot of fun. With the thrill of seeing her own art on a patch pocket or label, she might overlook the relative paucity of extras elsewhere?

[Unrelated digression and personal note: Sometimes it works for me and sometimes it doesn’t. I give in on some things, but not on others. There’s just no way I’m making a child of any age a full, ruffly skirt entirely of electric blue sequins, let alone a 3 year old. She has a great life and being denied this, her heart’s most burning desire, will not ruin her childhood. Maybe she gives me a look that chills my soul when she sees my interpretation of a ‘blue dress with sequins’ but that’s ok, too. She doesn’t have to wear it — win some, lose some. She can assert herself by choosing something else to wear, and I can provide guidance by limiting the options from which she can choose. Happily, at this age she’s onto her next project within minutes and the Tragedy of the Insufficient Sequins of Aught-Twelve is long forgotten.]

[Tamara]

you can also use a combination of quilting fabric and other fabric. Say for exmple you have chosen a shirting fabric to make for example the Music class top. You could choose (or your little one) corduroy, velvetten or denim for the skirt or even a quilting cotton if you are sewing for warmer weather. The same can apply for the other way around.

The combination of fabric can allow your child to learn abou texture whilst wearing it – the luxurious feel of velvet and the soft silk feel of voile for example.

Fabics other than quilting cottons come in different weights that will allow you to identify what is suitable for bottoms or tops. Denim could be confusing because they go in weight in oz. the heavier the oz the more likely you are to have it be for pants and skirts and possibly jackets. I like to go no higher than about a 7.5oz for dresses and anything heavier is for pants, jeans etc.

Encouraging input from your child will benefit in the long run and they will be more likely to wear it without the need for subtle pushing to see the parent’s point of view. It makes it fun I think to get their input and you don’t have to take everything they say and put it together, elements in small doses sometimes are better.

[needlewoman]

I have usually used quilting cottons for my resucitated kids’ sewing mainly because I have so much. One of the reasons I bought more O + S patterns, (and became hooked) was I also had other fabrics in my stash – usually bought from Country Bumpkin which used to retail in my suburb. Find it hard to find nice other sorts of fabrics locally. However, as others in this discussion have hinted, quilting cottons do vary in quality enormously. I find the hand test is the best – if it feels/looks cheap and nasty, it usually is. Moda fabrics are usually extremely reliable in their quality, as are Michael Miller’s, and more fabrics companies are becoming so. Unfortunately, over the last couple of years, the quilting cottons bought by the bigger fabric retailers (like Spotlight) are of extremely poor quality. Although they are marketed from top companies, and the designs are the same, they are obviously what I’ve been told is “first run” where the dyers/printers practice the fabric’s design on inferior fabric. Obviously, this is a lot cheaper than the better quality fabric. These days, shopping for fabric takes me a lot longer because what looks lovely on the bolt does not necessarily have “a good hand”. And then, Aussie retailers (inc. quilt shops) moan that sewists buy online from OS because we are fed up with paying over $20 per metre here despite our dollar being above parity, and we can purchase wonderful stuff for half the price – or less in sales. We used to have more dedicated fabric shops, but so many have ‘deceased’ (long before online purchasing was a way of life).