deondergangvanmijnouders

No matter how hard I try to take care sewing my clothes, for now, I’m just sewing like the blazers when it comes to children’s clothing… well for my two year old at least. So today, for you who look for shortcuts, have a squizz at my lazy way to make children’s clothes! I don’t usually do tutorials, or plan on doing them, but it’s nice sometimes to share how easy things are as well. There are usually so many resources online, and rather than compile my own how to do shit here, I usually pin my favourites, on the pinterest… so follow there if you are keen for sewing techniques that are a little more refined than this blog post! These toddler trousers are upcycled from my Husband’s uniqlo t-shirt that was a lovely thick stretch knit that fitted snug and then after a few wears was too snug for him to be comfortable. For the pattern, I used Felix’s old trousers, a pair of stretch knit floppy harem or low crotch style toddler pants… call them whatever… they are just great little trousers ...

  Yay, I have a little Va Va Voom again to show you... this time it's a wiggle skirt refashioned from an amazingly 80s style golden glitter top: These kind of refashions are my favourite because I feel like such a freaking legend planning it out and then getting a right fit and then thinking I have 'the vision' for *anything*, and what an amazing designer I am. And then, really... ...it's just a freaking skirt made from two rectangle pattern pieces. But still, it's a finished & wearable project, right?! A win nonetheless! But no fashion designer here! The top comes from a Gippsland op shop... we went back to Australia for a visit in January and of course I had to do a rummage through a few stores, but it's just not the same as ten year ago... no vintage patterns, no fabric, not even good bedsheets for the 80s let alone 1960s! So when I op shop these days (not so much going on here in Shanghai, and that really is another story) I end up in the clothes racks l...

This week is Kid's Clothes Week and I've seen So Zo post about it before, so I thought I'd join in... because I'm on a "Joining In!" vibe, and looking for the motivational deadlines for sewing... but I didn't take note of the theme 'Wild Things' because I live in China and I'm working with what I've got at home and usually refashioning for my kids stuff anyways, because #sustainability & #slowfashion where I can.  These trousers could be zebra-esque though? They are refashioned from Husbie's tshirt, a thick top from Uniqlo that became a smidge too tight after a wash, and I followed a pattern from an existing pair of trousers that were hideously stained. This kid can find the dirt! But dirt in China is not hard to find, having said that... it's clean where it needs to be clean here in Shanghai, but where it's dirty it's horrid and perfect for child snooping. So Felix is dirty a LOT and hence why I'm not particularly...

I made a bag, and it's made of vintage tea towels. Tea towels from the old lovely op shops of my past. My idea was to bring a few tea towels to Shanghai so I could piece them together in a lovely way for cushion covers for our couch. I still have them cut up, but I just couldn't figure out the 'lovely way' for them to be sewn up. There was a gorgeous market stall at the Rose Street Market in Fitzroy that made lots of things from vintage tea towels, so I've always wanted to try it. I'm just a patchwork type sewing person. BUT, I gave it a go with the scraps, and made the kangaroo the focus/beginning of whatever this is called. A spiral of scraps, into a patchwork? I'm not sure, I googled scraps and patchwork till the internet broke, and I just settled on whatever I found, and I've since lost the page. (The internet breaks a LOT in China!) You sew onto stiffer backing fabric, the kangaroo bit, then you sew the first scrap (right sides together), then press...

A girl's T is now a (long) toddler T, thanks to a quickly overlocked refashion. It's a special thrifted tshirt from San Diego, and we often call Baby Darling Sweetpea from Popeye. I watched the film again while I was pregnant on a huge nostalgic kick and couldn't get my mind off little Sweetpea. I turned it inside out, pinned the neckline binding together and pinned a line to sew along and just overlocked like crazy. It's hard to do curves with the overlocker, so you can see one underarm hole looks different to the other, but for dear old Baby Darling, he looks sweet in anything ... I made it as long as the existing T because I though he might sleep in it like a nightie while we are travelling. It's super soft vintagey feel cotton, so might be comfy for him. xoxo to you and happy weekend!

Pretty boring photos today, sorry! We are leaving tomorrow for our holiday, and I'm running around with Mum and Baby Darling trying to get packed and buy stupid last minute things and get my sandals fixed, but I didn't want to leave without getting all my photos taken of my projects from December. If you recall , I'm making a thing a day in December, but as always with life, mamalyf, work, blogging and celebrations, I'm out of whack for blog posts, but all my projects are 'sewn' up and I'll post them here over the next week while I'm away. Hooray! A GREAT way to kickstart to the sewing hobby, I can tell you! Here's the leftover fabric from this project , and using some stashed red fabric for the bodice, it's now a dress! For a toddler! I am loving how easy it is to make childrenswear from scraps in the sewing room... and I'm getting a good radar now of what to keep (ie. what will be actually useful) and what to chuck. A good system for a mess...

After a bit of a bad run with sewing, I just quickly cut up my Stuffed Up Leggings and made some baby toddler pants for my friend, who is 18 months old. Absolutely straight forward, I cut the vertical crotch out from my pants, made it a little smaller by re-sewing the crotch (when you cut the overlocked seam, you cut a bit of the fabric out) ... then I made a waistband of elastic, and sewed the casing closed around the elastic (a bit of a rush job really)... for the hems, I rather absent mindedly stitched the overlocked edges up on the inner leg there, because the material won't fray... just the seam might. ABSENT MINDEDLY, because I'd just snuck into the sewing room after lots of champagne (but not too much) for the first time in ages. Mum and I are excited and getting ready for Christmas! Are you getting excited/ready for Christmas? ARGH! There will be so much food & drink, I can't hardly wait!

I made a little toddler tshirt from my Mum's hand me down tshirt: A refashion! Mum bought a couple of tshirts recently from Target, and this blue stripey one was just a smidge too small... knowing I'm on a sewing saga, she left it on my machine and I had to turn it into a little boys shirt. It's lovely soft cotton stretch, so I kept the sleeve length and BeeDee can wear it when it's super sunny, and it'll be cool to wear but cover his little porcelain skin from getting burnt! I cut the side seams of the bodice and the sleeves, and the sleeves at the shoulders/under arm bits, and then lopped off about 2 inches of the shoulders and just graded down the underarm bits of the bodice. Using the overlocker, I did the shoulder seams first (a bit dodgy below, but not really noticable on the boy) then re-attached the sleeves at the armholes (I did grade them down a bit on the shoulder making it a more toddler length) and then I finished by sewing the sides together from bodic...

Everynow and again, we just have to have practical sewing projects, right? Here's one that I'd been thinking about for a while (since the onslaught of BD eating real food, perhaps?)! Also, the fabric in our pram is a bit hot... and BD is quite a hot boy anyways... so it's probably better that he's lying on cottons instead of polyester blends (great for cleaning though, I guess). So yes, it's a pram liner. A pram liner. YES. (please don't tell past-Veronica Darling what future-Veronica Darling is up now... it's B-O-R-I-N-G and 2 years ago I would have died if I'd known I was sewing this shizz). But isn't it nice looking? The top fabric is from the 'nice' section of Spotlight (AKA the quilty part) and I got it to make hats like the Oliver + S one. And the bottom fabric is from the 'cheap' section AKA the rolls of stuff they put near the checkout... and you grab the little bolt and discover that there's only a metre for $4 or somethi...