Sewing for Children

When my boys were small I would make sleep suits and vests and little jackets with hoods.  As they got  older I didn't make as much day to day wear as the choices for fabric for boys was not as inspiring and often worked out as expensive as buying ready made.  However I always made  them dressing up clothes, it used to be power rangers in every colour, pirates, Peter Pan which later became Robin Hood and anything they came up with I would make. 

There has been opportunities to work on the dresses of friends children over the years including a couple of flower girl dresses and some every day wear.  These have been shared before but as I was asked last week to do some more it reminded me and I looked through the pictures, here are a couple.

I really enjoyed making these and my former colleague said she is going to have a look at fabrics and get in touch, apparently this little style is quite hard to get in her daughters size.  The little hair slides were also quick to make.

Another dress I enjoyed making was this flower girl dress, the fabrics were beautiful and that is often the difference with having something made.

People often have flower girl dresses shipped in from China only to find they are tissue paper thin and don't live up to the photographs. It is worth finding someone local who can make these sort of items for children, that way you get exactly what you want and it is more unique.

It is wonderful to see so many bloggers sewing for their own children, I really enjoy seeing all the different creations and while my boys are teenagers now and don't want mum sewing their clothes they still come to me with repairs and sleeves to be shortened.  I look forward to making little items for friends in the future.

Quick Hanging Basket

My husband came home  from work today with a hanging basket he picked up at Home bargains at lunch time, it was £2.50.  That will do, seeing as the one we saw made up  the other day was £12.   I had plants already from the ones I bought on Sunday so it was up in no time.  I know you can get the plastic ones for about £5 but they usually only have about two plants in and I think the actual basket on this one is much better.

After tea I finished the other bridesmaid dress, so that is another  job out of the way and finished off the miracle morning the book I couldn't get on with last time.  After looking back I couldn't see if I had posted about it before but anyway it was better this time.  It mostly focuses on having a good positive morning routine that starts early and leads you towards getting more done. 

 I do wonder if I enjoy certain books more depending on what mood I am in to begin with, does anyone else feel this way?  The part about habits feels spot on , I know there are things I have been doing for years which come easily because they are routine.  In short if we get through the first, difficult weeks of forming a new habit and make it to a month we will have incorporated it into our lives.  There are a few good habits I would like to add.

Hemming a Bridesmaid Dress

This week I have been asked to take up two dresses for a lady used to work with, they are a very pretty chiffon on top,  so two layers to deal with.  When I have something like this I like to take my time, items for myself are usually rattled off in a hurry but not things I do for other people.

A few people have mentioned to me that they are over cautious about taking up skirts and dresses, any skirts at all that is.  If you measure accurately where you want the skirt to finish and put a line of pins there this will keep you on track, don't rush! I take longer with this part if it is something is special than the actual sewing because once you have this bit right that is most of the work done.

It is a bit crumpled I know, not my doing they are both folded into small bags I think they have been ordered from somewhere.  That faint line of pins you can see is the finished length so I will leave an inch below that and cut there, it is double thickness here so both pieces will be folded towards each other so no raw edges are visible.  To get my finish length I measured 5 inch up all the way along the bottom as that was how much I was told.

I had  a little dip there so I sorted that, now the pins in this picture have been moved as I carefully folded the layers up in line with the original pins then replaced them to keep both layers in place. It was then stitched close to the edge.   I then repeated the process with the chiffon layer but this time I only took off 4 inch  so it would hang below.  One  dress down and then I was very hot, so I will finish dress two tomorrow and share a few more pictures.  The cool shower  I had when I came home from work has worn off so no more sewing this evening.

Food this evening consisted of chickpeas, onions , tomatoes, garlic and all manner of other things cooked in a pan with spices, no recipe to follow just throwing in whatever I fancied and it was delicious.  It makes me wonder why I bother with the formal recipes at times, more success seems to be  had with the throw it all in pan method.