Super sewing!

There comes a time in every child's life when they need a super hero costume!  Super heroes rule!!  My two eldest were recently involved in a school creative writing initiative with a super hero theme.  Had it been the usually 'dress-up for charity' type of event I would have probably gone down the shop bought route, but since the whole point of the initiative was to fire their imaginations I really wanted to give them the chance to design their own super hero costumes.  I should say that when I suggested the idea I thought it would be a quick make! It wasn't!

I sat the kids down with pens and paper and here's what they came up with:

Emily went for her initial, but William decided to go with 'A' for 'Awesome'!  Love it! 

I had thought of making the capes from adult sized t-shirts (inspired by Pinterest posts) but when we got to Asda it turned out they don't stock brightly coloured t-shirts in November!  Doh!  So much for a quick make!  We walked round the shop a couple of times before deciding on pillowcases.  They're a great size for children's super hero capes and they did nice bold colours so we bought red and blue.  I used a cereal bowl to trace a round hole for the neck and I angled off the corners with my french curve.  I trimmed the seam allowances, turned it rightside out and attached velcro to the tabs.  

I left the bottom open to do the applique so that all the stitching would be hidden on the inside, but once I'd finished I closed it up with a hem.  

To make the super hero logos I cut out templates to match the shapes that the kids had drawn, traced them onto interfacing then ironed them onto fabric.  

There were no yellow pillowcases (I guess it's not a particularly restful colour!) but we didn't need much yellow so I cut up one of William's t-shirts after persuading him to sacrifice it for the greater good!

I used a zig zag stitch to applique all the pieces together and to stitch the emblems onto the capes.

After stitching Emily's logo and finding the fabric a bit slippery I tried adding an extra layer of interfacing to William's badge and the extra thickness made it much more stable.

I was running out of time but still wanted to make some super hero masks to complete the outfits.  To make things easier I used felt, sandwiching three layers together to get the right thickness.  The nice thing about the felt is that it moulds slightly to the shape of the face which gives the mask a great 'authentic super hero' look!

I glued the layers together to stop them slipping about then zigzag stitched around all of the raw edges twice, catching elastic in the hem at either side.  

I added the star and the 'E' to correspond with their logos and prevent the masks from looking too plain.  I was a bit limited in my felt colour choices so ended up colouring some pale blue in with a dark blue sharpie to get the match.  

And there you have it - two bespoke costumes for the super heroes in my life!  Making things like this really makes me glad that someone once gave me a sewing machine and the opportunity to learn to sew.  It was so great to see the kids' reactions when they got to put it all on.  

I didn't get too many pictures of them - they didn't stay still for very long! - but I think they looked (and felt) SUPER!

On my sewing table...

A sewing space!  It's not huge, and there is still a huge pile of kids' artwork on top waiting to be sorted, but I finally have a sewing desk.  I'm hoping this will be good for productivity as I can now leave my machine out and fit in the odd bit of sewing whenever I've got a free moment.  

To start 2014 I'm making a Renfrew top.  Actually I'm making three!  In another bid to increase productivity I cut out the pattern in three different fabrics to sew up over the next couple of weeks.

The fabrics are a navy blue viscose jersey, a crazy print jersey with a fairly open weave, I guess almost a tissue knit, and a sweatshirt knit (all from Minerva Crafts) making for three very different Renfrews.   These were some of the fabrics I ordered for my birthday back in October.

Birthday bundle - hip hip hooray!

I  made my first Renfrew a couple of months back from the purple marl jersey.  I really love it and I wear it all the time.  I've cut out the long sleeved round neck versions in the blue viscose jersey and the sweatshirt fabric and the cowl neck 3/4 sleeve version in the crazy print, all in the size that I cut out previously.  This may be a bit of a gamble considering the very different fabric weights but it'll be interesting to see how they all turn out.  I feel I need to undertake a bit of trial and error in order to learn how different fabrics behave and affect sizing, etc.  If all goes wrong and they're not fit to be worn in public at the very least I can use them for pj tops!  Actually I think I really need some Renfrew pj tops in my life!

Back and ready for 2014!

Well, that was a bit of a hiatus!  Looking back at my last post I was so hopeful that the return to school of the older children in September would mean lots of time to sew and blog, blog and sew.  It turns out that, whilst I did have more time in theory, sleep deprivation isn't great for creative inspiration or productivity, and child number 3 has not slept properly for a long time.

"Who, me?"

When I say 'hasn't slept properly' I of course mean 'hardly at all', and when I say 'for a long time' I mean 'E-V-E-R'!  Whilst I have had a few projects pootling along in the background my motivation for doing them has come and gone depending on my level of sleeplessness, state of the house, etc.

More recently I have been getting more sleep (hurrah!) and accordingly I have been sewing and knitting more, but the blog has taken longer to get back to as I've been reluctant to spend precious time typing when I could be making! ;-)

Quick!  Must make superhero costumes before the baby wakes up!

I have been keeping up with reading lots and lots of blogs though.  They have kept me going with vicarious sewing satisfaction over the dry periods, and have inspired me to get back to it too.  I'd love to get more involved with the online sewing community this year and maybe join some of the sewalongs if I can find the time.  I so wanted to join in Gillian's Top 5 of 2013 round up but I procrastinated too long (also I think my list wouldn't have been so much a 'Top 5' as just '5'!).  Maybe next year!

Sneek peek of unblogged Renfrew construction

One thing that has been stopping me getting back to blogging is the whole 'taking pictures' thing, and I know I'm not alone on that one.  I take loads of construction photos that build up until my memory card is going into meltdown, but the finished garment photos are another matter. 

Gratuitous brightly coloured construction shot. 

I always like to see people wearing their finished items, and some bloggers out there are great at modelling their me-made makes.  Rachel at House of Pinheiro, Marie of A Stitching Odyssey, and Lizzy of Sew Busy Lizzy have no trouble looking glamorous, whilst Winnie at Scruffy Badger Time and Jo from The Amazing Adventures of Taracat never fail to inject fun and humour into their modelling posts.  Whilst I do wear the clothes that I've made quite a lot, there is always something that prevents me taking the photos - the light's not good, it's raining outside, there's nowhere tidy enough to pose inside, and, more often than not, my hair is a mess!!  Think I should probably just bite the bullet, stick two fingers up to vanity and get on with it!  I love all the garment pics I see on other people's sites whether they're slick and well executed or slightly fuzzy with washing piled up in the background (in fact those pics are quite reassuring coz we don't all have it sorted do we?!). 

So, plans for 2014 involve lots of sewing and knitting as well as a return to the blog.  Oh, and hopefully more sleep!

Sneak peek into a pocket!  ;-)