Raindrop robe

We lost our robe, so I had to make a new one. Melly Sews published her Sleepy Robe pattern just a week before Kids Clothes week - perfect timing! This pattern is so easy, and imagine...it is FREE and yet, comes in 4 sizes – 18m/2T, 3T/4T, 5/6 and 7/8!
I did some changes to the pattern, because we'll be using this for swimming and hood is indispensable. Fabric is SKÄRET Bath Sheet from Ikea. I tried to keep all possible original seems and I was really lucky with the hood, because I had an old hoodie, or part of it to be more exact (I used the sleeves already for these sweats) and the hood was perfect for this robe. I lined it with pieces of the towel and I must say that is the best feature. We already tested it and it does wanders for that wet after swimming lesson. Zipper was a practical choice, somehow belt don't work for us yet. P can't tie it himself yet, we it always ends up losing it or pulling it all over the floor.
String of the hood is a T-Shirt yarn I made not long ago.
I'd say this was a very productive upcycle:)

My way around stain removal

Kid's Clothes Week is always a good way for me to try to go through the pile of stuff waiting on my desk to be 'treated'. Way back during my first KCWC I challenged myself not to buy anything new, but to try to use what I have at home for my projects. Unfortunately, the pile has only grown since.

I will show you a bunch of T-shirts today, which went from useless to spotless:)

See, I am not your perfect housewife. For example, I am very bad at removing stains. VERY BAD! When P started his solids, the only way I was able to remove those carrots from his onesies was by boiling them on my stove. It is not really working for me, this stain removing business, I just can't be bothered to go through god knows how many chemicals just to remove a spot, when I can do this:

This T was fixed by mere accident. We were making a T for P and by mistake we printed a photo I had on my computer from the time I wrote this post for Budapest Moms. It is an illustration of a Cyclop by Csilla Kőszeghy. 
Although this was not the original plan, the deed was done, image was printed, iron on paper spent, we had to do something with it. Since this T-shirt was stained all the way up to the neckline (icecream) I decided to cut off this poor Cyclop's head and use it that way. I must say this proved that accidents are sometimes the best thing that can happen to you, because we received numerous questions about this T-shirt and I came out as very cool for making it. What is also very cool about it, is that iron on paper for dark fabrics (which is what this one is, because the image we wanted to print out originally was for a dark blue shirt) is thicker and more plastic, which means we could drip ice cream on this one whole summer and I was able to just wipe it off. This turned put to be a built in bib.

I had some Ts without the build in bib, which means more stains to cover up.

I cut this sign out from an old onesie all the boys from the family already used, so I didn't feel the need to keep it anymore for future generations. I also stenciled some star motifs with fabric markers to repeat the pattern from the sign.

Opening his eye-patch

Next one is also a cover-up from an old onesie, but flossed around with embroidery thread.

 

And just so you don't think P doesn't stain, he does...so we did his vest too. I met Dia (B!mba) for a coffee recently, and she surprised me with a bag of her fabric scraps.

 

I even drew some bird poo on there with 3D paint. My smart son called it bird seeds...I don't know why I didn't think of seeds instead of poo, but let's not dwell on that now.

Was this too much?
See my other T-Shirt refashions here and here or check how I made a beanie out of a onesie.

Plaid times two

It is KCWC week. Yeeeey!!! I love KCWC, two years ago I started blogging so I could participate in it. It got me back to sewing and for that I will forever be grateful. Apart from that, it is just a crazy exciting week that makes numerous women around the world turn in crazy sewing ladies. As for me, I am one of them too, I sew long into the night and sometimes make the kids try the stuff on before they leave in the morning. Hell, I had my son wear a dress just for the sake of a photo. I got to love upcycling and dropped my fear of knits.
Back when I started sewing I only wanted to do new stuff, buy a fabric, draft a pattern and sew something for my evening out. I never wanted to sew the same thing twice, I thought that was boring. AND, I hated it when my mom asked me to fix something, change a zipper or shorten some pants... and now that is all I do, clothes wise, I mostly fix or refashion stuff, and I love it. To make something from nothing is great, but to repurpose and reuse the same piece of clothing several times gives me butterflies.
My first KCWC project was a sweats upcycle for a skinny 2.5 year old. Now I have a 4.5 year old, whose pants become too short too soon, and I simplycan't make myself just buy new ones and set these aside, too easy:)

So here is out brown plaid pant getting a blue plaid (actually the same one as in that first KCWC project) cuff and some other blue accents to accompany it.

Mustard details off...

and blue on!

I added some blue accent to go with the cuff, took off the buttons and sewed them back on with blue yarn. I even coloured the embroidery with a blue fabric marker.

He's been wearing these since he was 2. When I let down the seem there was so much fabric there that I almost didn't even need a cuff, but it was so much more fun this way:)
What do you think?

How I saved our car seat cover

After 3 years of use our car seat looked like this:

until I did this:

 

leather knee pads. My fingers are pierced and hurt, but I love how it turned out.

I am awesome T-Shirt

As the title says, I think I am awesome! My whole life I was freaked out of sewing with knits. I started a while ago with some upcycles and it really wasn't that bad at all. But to make a T-Shirt was impossible to imagine for me. I thought I needed a serger, my machine isn't good enough and that I would fail miserably. But reading all the sewing blogs out there and seeing how people do wanders without sergers and any special equipment I though it is time to give it a go. Plus, what is the worst that can happen? T-Shirt turns out to be a disaster, I wasted a little time (not the first) and fabric (I upcycle anyway, so no biggie).

But I didn't fail:)
I am quite happy with the result. There are some things I will do differently next time, but in general, this is a perfectly wearable piece of clothes.

It is a little loose on him, but he loves it and he'll grow into it in no time anyway. I made it a bit longer than the pattern suggests. This T is made of two old T-shirts of mine. I used the old neck ribbing. Dana from MADE did a tutorial on this recently if you are not familiar with the process. I also made cuffs bigger and wider.

Pattern from Tank Engine (free, available in sizes 110, 120, 130). It is in Japanese, but there are photos if you are new to sewing, otherwise you will figure it out for yourself, it is a 3 piece pattern. The pattern lines up real nice and is very easy to work with.

What do you think?

Are you following my Free Sewing Patterns board on Pinterest yet?


Linking to The Train To Crazy

Tini clothes

Baby I started a nursery and he is not too happy about it. He cried a lot, so they asked me to bring in his favorite toy, but he had none so they told me to bring something in anyway. I went home and picked the softest plushie we had and hoped it would work and he'd accept his new friend. And he did! The bonded instantly, and he's been sucking on his ear ever since.
When I cleared out the closet this weekend I found some tiny clothes I just new I wouldn't be able to throw away and on Sunday night I decided to make a surprise gift for the new friends. Ilija is already into dressing, always trying to pull socks onto his head. I can tell you he was really pleased with what I came up with and it made him laugh out loud.

Blue vest is on the sheep because Ilija went nuts when I put it on his friend and started screaming NO, NO, NO! He loved the little overall but hated the vest for some reason. If I could see into their brains for a minute or two...

What do you do with the clothes your kids have outgrown?

KCWC Fall 2012: Day 7

I come from a huge headed family. Not that we get stared at on the bus or alike, but the matter of fact is that we all have really big heads. I mean, helmets eg. are not made in a size my dad would need and my helmet is probably the size someones dad wears. So, there was a fair change I will have big headed children. And again, they don't get stared or pointed at at the playground, but we do get hand-me-down clothes that a kid before them had no trouble wearing, and I simply can't pull it over their heads. 

This happened with the following sweater too:

So with the help of two stripes of knit cut off the bottom of daddy's old top and some snap buttons I made a cardie.

I don't think his head looks big at all. Do you?

And that was that. By bye KCWC, till next spring. I am missing you already!

KCWC Fall 2012: Day 6

You are probably thinking "Come on, sweats again! She could really do something else already!" But I am actually quite happy to be doing this. This is what baby I needs the most now, since he goes through several pairs in one day. The only thing is, I will really have to continue sewing next week, because P has been completely neglected this week. But hey, he did have one KCWC all to himself we had I.

 Again, I only changed the shape of the pant, and I added this pocket to cover up the ridiculously small pocket that was originally there.

One more day to go and then we have to wait for half a year for another KCWC. We should have a monthly get together, or something, don't you think?:)