KCW7

 THE END. Thank goodness! It had been quite the experience. I'm not positive it is an experience that I will ever repeat. For KidsClothingWeek we are challenged to spend an hour every day sewing for our kiddagers. I was kind of excited to put that much time into sewing. In an average week I most likely get to sew on Tuesday, maybe Thursday, and occasionally a Friday.

Turns out, my usual really works for me. It's a happy balance of sewing and real life. Working on this project every single day did speed things up but it also totally burnt me out. If I didn't have two very specific goals for this outfit (KCW and PRP) I would have thrown in the towel days ago.

This also taught me that the sewing is what drives me. It is the actual act of putting things together and making something new and wearable, something that others really seem to like. That's what I love. While it is fun to do the random details like bleaching a few stars or painting on the fabric, I do not enjoy having the entire project revolve around that. It was 5 DAYS of prep work before I finally got to sew. That is just too much in my book.

Kids Clothing Week is a seasonal thing, happening four times a year and at this point I am fairly certain I don't want to participate again. Maybe a couple months will go by and the "forget hormones" will set in, you know? The ones that allow mothers to give birth multiple times with out remembering the real pain of the previous time? Anyway, maybe those will set in and I'll think it is a good idea again. Maybe if I kept it strictly to sewing... We'll see. Haha. Have a good one my friends. I'll be back tomorrow with my weekly recap. See you soon! Never miss another post!

KCW6

Saturday! It's the weekend! I almost never sew on the weekend.  There isn't enough time with all of our getting out and about but it's KCW and Brett went to play football this morning so I took advantage of the time. Since I never get to sew on Saturday anyway I am treating myself with no chore for today :D Straight to sewing!

I finally, finally got to the sewing portion of this project and it felt so good! Well after I got past this stage...


I tried this stretch thread after reading a glowing post about it. Let me tell you it was a PAIN IN THE BUTT. Sorry to get so graphic but this thread was obnoxious. All went back to normal after I switched back to my usual, all-purpose cotton thread.


The shirt is all sewed together, just needs some final details. The jeans still need a waistband and back pockets! But that is a job for another week. Time to be with the fam!


Happy weekend, everyone! Never miss another post!

Sew I Made A Berkshire Blazer

Hey Everyone!
As you my have noticed from my Instagram, I have been sewing a Berkshire Blazer. It is a pattern made by the talented Melly Sews. It was already in my plans to make outfits for the kids to wear to Greg's wedding next week but when Melly announced her sew along for the blazer I knew it was just what I needed and just in time!
I purchased and downloaded the pattern easy peasy and it printed out and fit together like a dream. The only problem I really had with it was when it came to the collar instructions. I could not for the life of me figure out what the instructions wanted me to do. Once I did manage to decipher what I was suppose to do the phrase, "you will have to stretch one of your fabrics to fit". That was a problem. None of my fabric was the slightest bit stretchy. Not even on the bias! What is up with that I don't know. I was pretty upset at my blazer at that point but once I got it all figured out I was good to go. I think that now that I know what is going on it'll be much easier to do my next blazer and There Will Be a Next Blazer :)

So here we go. My finished product!


Brett was helping us take pictures and he thought giving Kent a stick would be helpful...



One design change I decided on was to put in a welt pocket. The pattern called for a patch pocket and I just wasn't feeling it. I'm glad I went with my gut because I LOVE the look of the welt pockets.

I couldn't get Kent to just hold open his jacket so I could get a shot of the lining that Brett hates so much. Instead I had Kent jump, jump, jump and hoped that one of the 23 pictures would show the lining. Mom win! A couple did and there it is. It may make Brett gag but Kent loves peeking in at his kitties.

Kent was pooped after all the jumping and only gave me sitting down pictures and I don't mind because how cute is this next picture? Love this boy.

Then we felt it was necessary to give daddy kisses for his photography help and the cuteness was too much for me to handle. I had to share.


How fun is that outfit? I'm totally in love and can't wait for Kent to wear it to the wedding next week. I also can't wait to show you the pics of Lorelai and Kent together in their wedding wear, be sure to check in on Monday to see! You don't want to miss it!

KCW5

Today's Chore: Floors
A little rant before we get started okay? Does it enrage anyone else when their kitchen/dining room floor gets cluttered with non-kitchen/dining room related things?

Oh my goodness, it drives me nuts, but funnily enough it is totally the first chore I let go when I get on a sewing fest. So after several days of neglect I decided to address the issue. I cleaned up the clutter and got out the mop and it felt so much better to work without who's its and what's its under foot!

Now on to the project...
These posts are getting a little redundant aren't they? Haha, this process turned out to be SLOW! Only two pictures today. Enjoy anyway.
I'm so happy to say that these stars are FINALLY all bleached and ready to go. The darker ones are wet but will be dry in the morning. I'm so excited to finally get to the sewing! I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

Never miss another post!

KCW4

Today's Chore: Bathrooms

Top: Master Bath
Bottom: Kids/ Guest Bath. Not too much work to be done, mostly tidying up and wiping down all surfaces and floors!

Today was a trial. If it weren't for KCW/Project Runway I think I would have thrown in the towel. Thanks to the destructive nature of bleach my stencils aren't reusable like they are with fabric paint. So 187 stars later I kind of want to hit my head against the wall. My day mostly looked like this.


But 10 minutes ago I managed to slip in a little time for this.

Progress on this little Wonder Woman made me a lot happier than star cutting did.

Tomorrow will be better!

KCW3

So Wednesday is hands down my busiest day of the week. I never get to get my crafty on, on a Wednesday. Since this is KCW I made an exception. I'm not going to lie, it was exhausting. I'm pooped, exhausted, going to bed.

Today's Chore: Errands
First thing Wednesday morning I spend a couple hours helping in Lorelai's classroom. I love seeing the dynamic of her classroom and knowing which kids are friends or not. It's also great to help her teacher with all of the repetitive time sucking things they just don't have time fore. I don't know how kindergarten teachers have time to get anything done! Finally and most importantly, Lorelai loves that I come to her class.
Next Kent and I get the grocery shopping done for the week. After hitting up a couple stores this pregnant momma has to get everything up to our fourth floor apartment. It forces me to get a little creative.

Then in the afternoon Kent and I take Lorelai to her dance classes.

It's all very time consuming so you can see why I don't usually get my sew on, on a Wednesday, BUT it's KCW soo...
I fit what work I could, in when I could so the pictures are pretty much just a hodge podge of whatever was happening when I managed to remember my camera.


The End. Until tomorrow.

Don't miss another post...

KCW2

First things first,
Today's Chore: Laundry.
Ugh, gag me with a spoon. I kept forgetting to get quarters last week so there was a bumload to do today.

Done! It didn't take toooo long but you can see why I didn't start project work until 1.


See that! Already something in there again! Such is the evil nature of laundry...Moving on...

So for day two of KCW I decided to photo document my project every 20 minutes. Turns out it is pretty boring to see pics every 20 minutes but I did it and now you get to aesthetically feast on the out come.

1:00pm I started with Lorelai's shirt, here we are ready to iron on the freezer paper strips.

1:20, I decided to iron the strips straight across the front and back of the shirt at the same time in an effort to keep my lines lined up. Time to fabric paint.

1:40, stripes painted and dry. Freezer paper is reusable so I pulled them off and replaced them to keep the stripes going up the top.

1:40 More stripes ironed on, I had stopped for a couple of minutes to feed Kent.

2:00 more stripes painted, dry, and ready to move on.

2:20 Shirt front and back done, sleeves done. Time for Kent's shirt.

2:40 Time to iron on Kent stripes. His are a little wider and further apart.

3:20 Yellow stripes painted, moving on to red.

3:30 Time to stop and get dressed to pick Lorelai up from the bus.

^cuteness^

5:30 Brett comes home and points out the McDonald-ness of Kent's shirt. I agree, start to hate it, and scrap that idea. Thanks to this blog post I know that I wasted precisely 50 minutes on it. Fantastic. Tomorrow is another day.

Don't miss another post...

Week 14 Recap 2014 (KCW1)

Last week I managed to squeeze in some sewing which is good but I felt like I kept running into stupid road blocks. I'm starting to feel the time crunch. Since there isn't much to report lets dive right into Kids Clothing Week...

Welcome to the first day of Kids Clothing Week where we are challenged to spend an hour each day working on kids clothes. This week I am going to be super busy. Lorelai is off track and next week we'll be going to Idaho for a wedding and I've got to get the lot of us ready for that.

So I decided do KCW a couple of weeks ago and I am reporting it all now.

Normally I only don't get to sew every day, usually only about twice a week so this is a big challenge for me. When I get on a sewing kick I tend to let everything else fall by the wayside. So I added another challenge, I promised myself to complete one chore before getting started with my sewing day.

Today's Chore: The kitchen.

I have a bad habit. During the week I keep up with the dishes swimmingly but when it comes to Saturday and Sunday I let it slide in favor of hang out time with the fam. There is something about having the hubby home that makes me super lazy, haha. So every Monday morning I'm faced with a sink full of work.

I was super tempted to let it slide, I'm ready to start a new project and I just wanted to get right to it! But I was strong, and I'm glad. I love having a clear conscience while I'm sewing. 'Cause when the hubby comes home..
"Have you been sewing all day....." (note the judgemental undertones)
"Yes, but look at that kitchen. It's amazeballs."
Yup, feels good.

Today was really a prep day. I pretty much spent my time gathering the supplies that I already own and figuring out what I need to pick up.

Then I realized I needed to redraft the t-shirt patterns I wanted to use. So I did that and cut it out.

I spent about 45 minutes hunting things down and pattern drafting. Another few minutes was spent on the material cutting and then it was time to clean up this mess.

Haha, not much to show for myself today but I promise there will be more tomorrow! See you then.

Don't miss another post!

Superman Hearts Wonder Woman

This challenge for PRP turned out to be an adventure in color blocking and freezer paper stencil painting!

This time around I decided to make an outfit for each of my super adorable kiddos. Be prepared, this post is photo heavy!

There was just too much cuteness to squish into a couple photos. Seriously, this Superman loves his Wonder Woman.

I began by working on Lorelai's outfit. The challenge this week was to make the fabric. I started by grabbing some plain white jersey knit and painted on some gold stripes.

Kent's shirt started out white with stripes too but I hated it. So I pulled this blue stripe fabric from my stash and added the red stripe. The stripes were all made with freezer paper and Tulip Soft fabric paint.

I painted Wonder Woman and Superman onto their shirts with some freezer paper stencils I printed out. I finished of Wonder Woman's crown with a wonderful button I found at Joann's. I love how it adds dimension to the shirt.

Kent does not understand why they don't have eyes. They just don't ok?!

Now the pant's... Those were a labor of love... Mostly just labor but I LOVE how they turned out! I used my freezer paper to make a ton of star stencils and then I used a bleach pen to make all of the stars. It took ages but these are easily my favorite made by me jeans.

I used the bleach pen to make all the Super S's on Kent's jeans to. Those I just free handed. I was going for a "look". Booty shot! Aren't those Super pockets so much fun?

I love making clothes that my kids love. I love that my kids love each other!




I also love that they will humor me for photo shoots :) How adorable are those models?

We did it! We made it to the end!

Thanks so much for reading along today. I've recently looked into bloglovin and turns out you can use it to follow my blog. Never miss a post again, just click this link!  (also link in the sidebar)

I'll be back every day this week for Kids Clothing Week, it starts tomorrow morning. I'll see you then!