[Tamara]

I managed to finish just two black tees for the kids! A bit dismal considering I went nowhere all weekend (not even to collect the spectacles). I did get started on the purple playtime dress though – the smocking panel was a great distraction when we were all watching a “professional development” dvd on soil health. Really boring if you don’t multi task!

Today though, I will complete the final two black tees for the kids and make up that navy tee for me. Although, even though I did all those alterations, I need to make more. It kept riding up and there is nothing more annoying than having to tug the tee back into place.

I also hope to get on with those pairs of jeans.

[Tamara]

FINALLY, I finished those black tees for school. Noah thinks it hilarious they are called school bus t shirts ( seeing as this is his mode of transport today). I have changed my mind re the white tees. They will have to wait. I have to draft the pj pattern as this sleepover party is very definitely still on! So we need super duper pyjamas by Friday!

I will get to the jeans after I do the pj’s and am also hoping to have fresh size 12 field trip track pants sewn before Thursday night footy training. It’s co-old! All of a sudden! And I will be pushing my luck for one of those capes also.

With tomorrow out (nt scan and bloods) that means I gotta get cracking!

Have you recovered from the bug Nicole? Hope it didn’t hit really bad.

[Nicole]

Finished my first Metro tee. I made Hugo the XS and then skimmed in the waist to make it very fitted as that is what he wanted.

Vanity, thy name is a nearly 17 year old young man!

Nice pattern.

[with love Heidi]

I haven’t done much sewing this week. I’m looking forward to getting the rent inspection out of the way so I can sew with a slightly messy house!

[vothgirl]

I’m currently finishing up my first music box jumper that I plan to give as a gift for a friend’s daughter’s first birthday. Thank you Forum Ladies for recommending the pattern – it is highly enjoyable to sew as are all O+S patterns. 😉

I also have an Everyday Skirt cut out of pepper-colored chambray waiting to be sewn up as a birthday gift for my sister. Guess I’m turning into that person who gives homemade clothes as gifts – hope they’re well received! If not, I hope they’re returned so I can use them ;-). Once I finish the skirt, I’ll sew up the bucket hat I have cut out to match the popover dress and sunny day shorts outfit I’m working on for Ellie – a whole summer outfit from free patterns. I love it!

Next up after that will be an Everyday Skirt for me out of the aqua dotted Lisette chambray. And while my mum is here, we’re going to have some mother-daughter crafty fun and get the ladies’ metro tee pattern. We picked out some jersey from the Girl Charlee website tonight to have a go at making our own custom-fitted tees :-). We each plan to make one solid color basic tee, and I also grabbed a fun jersey print to try my hand at Liesl’s tutorial for the color-blocked high-low hem tee. All my tees are old and full of holes; I can envision whipping up a drawerful with this pattern. So excited to try sewing knits for the first time!

[Nicole]

Look at you Patricia, sewing with a new born. Well done!

I made Hugo some very yellow track pants today and drafted/cut the Newcastle Cardigan for him.

[Lightning McStitch]

Nicole, I’ll be very curious to see your Newcastle Cardigan. I was planning to make one for Flipper (hubby) out of the double sided windproof fleece I made my son’s vest from, but he’s a bit uncommitted due to the buttons and cardigan-ness of it. Meanwhile I found this amazing, thick grey knit fabric with a faux cable knit self stripe and so I’m going to make a grandpa version for my dad. And that WON’T sell my husband on the pattern but at least I’ll have fun.

Anyway a young man version will be eagerly viewed.

[EmilyG]

I have two family reunion dresses all cut. One is going to be part of a friends baby shower gift and the other for Delilah. I have another Burda romper cut for Barrett in a whale print. (I love a baby in a romper in summer). And Ella is going to get a hide and seek tunic is she would just settle on a fabric. My table is covered with fabric because she can’t make up her mind.

[mcholley1]

There is nothing better than a baby in a romper! So nice not to have elastic around their tummies on a hot day. We have a graduate student staying with us right now. There is slightly more housework and meals are a bit more of a production, but I’m still getting some sewing done to my huge stack of “cut, bagged, and waiting to be sewn.” I’m working on a linen sketchbook shirt for my boy. I used the short collar. It isn’t perfect, but the linen is too loose to unpick so on with the show…

[Nicole]

Shelley, Hugo is pretty non-committal about it. I have some very nice grey marl but we are running up a trial run in some celery green unbrushed knit first.

I will wear it ’round the house if he doesn’t fancy it.

I really really like it.

Love baby rompers! I can’t wait to sew the Hide&Seek again.

MC, I very much doubt it is less the perfect, you are the shirt queen, but linen is awesome for hiding small blips (if there are any, which I very much doubt)

Girly lunch needs to be prepped so if I want to sew I had better get going now!

[Tamara]

Oh a girly lunch…. Blissful!

I received my tags in the mail yesterday and attached one to the back of the jeans I have been taking ages to sew for Imogen. I buggared the fly so very many times but I got it right now so it is staying in! Currently doing the front pockets (because I was lazy and didn’t do them ages ago when I was supposed to) they look alright but very pink with all that topstitching – right up her alley.

I don’t think I will have time to sew new pjs before the weekend. It looks like the boys aren’t sleeping over now anyway. Its ok, call it a social experiment. It has saved me time and cliff hanger sewing anyway and that is alright too.

So I am just concentrating on jeans sewing this week so there are some to actually wear!

Hide and seek? Is that a big hint Nicole? It is a lovely pattern – I saw something similar in the clothing aisle of Target yesterday when I was whizzing to the toy section for party favours (as you do). It had butterfly sleeves thoughI think. Now THAT WOULD be a nice alternative for summer.

[jay_1965vw]

I know this is “what are you sewing now”, but this is what I won’t be sewing now I think. I’m putting this in here as here’s where the background has been… My sewing is going to be sadly curtailed during daylight hours unfortunately, unless I can solve the Audrey problem.

I have been sewing on our dining table, which is an 8 – 10 seater rectangle, with a long bench down each side to sit on. I put down a folding cardboard cutting board before I start, to protect the table from my sewing. Each evening before dinner I pack everything away into a storage box.

On Sunday afternoon I was sewing the binding onto the insulated vest for Audrey’s coat, and she decided to climb up onto the bench on the other side of the table. She fell backwards onto the floor, and her head bounced off the window. Fortunately the venetian blind stopped her from getting cut, but there was a lot of glass outside in the garden. She was more shocked than injured, although my heart was racing for the next 30 minutes.

Later Sunday, after we had taped up the window and cleaned up the glass, I realised that Audrey must have been back in the dining room, and had slid the cardboard cutting board so my sewing machine was actually teetering over the edge of the table. 5cm more and it would have been on the floor.

Skip forward to late afternoon on Monday. I was sewing the last buttons on the coat to button in the vest, and Audrey tried to climb up next to me on the bench. She slipped and put her teeth through her lip. Big hole on the inside, and little cut on the outside. Lots of blood and LOTS of crying. Poor little thing didn’t eat dinner and could only be consoled by Mummy. Luckily by Tuesday morning she was feeling much better, and her fat lip is not nearly as bad now.

So… net result is that I am not machine sewing while she is about. She isn’t interested in climbing on the benches when I’m not there 🙁

[Robin]

Will Audrey play under the table when you are sewing? I’d give Sophie scraps of felt or a bowl of buttons to play with. She really liked it under the table and didn’t get to play with “sewing supplies” any other time. She really liked to stick pins in things to. Mind you, she wasn’t the kind of kid to put things in her mouth and she was probably 4 at the time.

I’ve got a pair of class picnic shorts cut out and ready to go. I added length to the seat area. Let’s see how that modification works out.

[jay_1965vw]

Thanks Robin 🙂 Under the table isn’t good – she put her hand on my sewing machine foot last week! It’s also a trestle style table, so there is a big beam right down the middle.

I gave her a chinese dolly pincushion of her own with a few pins in it, and she loves playing with buttons too, but she wants to be up next to me.

I wonder if I put her little table nearby whether she will play with sewing things there instead.

We will get this for her (thanks to the suggester!) when we move to the US at the end of the year https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/102777334/toy-sewing-machine?ref=favs_view_3

[Lightning McStitch]

Unless you’re sewing as a job, or trying to meet a deadline, then I’d say stick to after bedtime! I like to work for minimum one hour if I start something and for most small children that’s quite a long time. It’s good for kids to learn to self entertain and have some downtime during the day but obviously not if the cost is split lips and broken windows!

And in my experience they always get into danger right when you’re doing the bit that you really need to concentrate on.