Pants

About a year ago you would have never found me considering to make a pair of pants for my girls or even draw a pattern for pants. I was always afraid that they would never fit right. But, practice makes better. And with having sewn so many skirts, jackets, PJs and dresses over the past year I felt confident that now it could possibly work out okay if I made some pants; simple pants.

So, I drew up two different patterns: one that uses one piece of fabric for each leg (= no side seams on the legs) and one with side seams and cuffs. Because I wanted something really fun for the girls to wear I chose loud and bright fabrics for both.

Cute brown and purple owl flannel paired with bright pink and more owls for the pockets.

Big fun pockets on the side and in back.

For the second set I used different prints from the Monkey's Bizness and Chick A Dee, Chick A Doo fabric lines.

Nice big pockets on this one, too.

And nice cuffs with a slight flare on the bottom.

When planning and making these pants I discovered how easy, quick and awesome French Seams are! Look!

Doesn't it look so clean and professional?! If you have never tried using this type of seam it's definetly worth trying. There are quite a few easy to follow tutorials available on sewing blogs.

Quite a few birthdays are coming up next month: Uroma, Nephew, Nieces AND Anika und Kordula. I have lots of plans for handmade gifts for almost all of them. But first, I need to sit down and finish Anika's pink cardigan.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Little Miss-Sweater and Repurposed Leggings

So, "K" is my Sweater-girl. She will wear a jacket/cardigan/sweater/shrug any day, time and location, no matter what the weather is. And, YES, she also wears them to bed. So, I felt kind of obligated to give her one that is not store bought. Initially, I wanted to knit a cardigan for her, but then settled on this super easy and cute crochet pattern from Lionbrand. And we all know, crocheting is much faster than knitting!

I followed the pattern in the largest size. I made the sleeves a little longer, though (from 1/2 to 3/4 length). Which, ultimately caused me to run out of blue yarn. Luckily, I have enough scraps of other colors on hand. I think it looks pretty with the pink cuffs and collar.

She loves it and has not taken it off since Sunday afternoon. Except when changing from Jammie tops to shirt and back.
In the meantime "A" requested a cardigan like this one as well. First she wanted yellow.... and then changed her mind to pink yesterday morning ... But, again, crocheting is fast. So, no big deal to lose an hour worth of work. Right? Right!

Then, a couple of days ago I ran into this awesome Tutorial at MakeItAndLoveIt. Out came a new set of leggings for the girls.

They look cute but are a bit too baggy and long. So, I will have to redo them before they can actually "really" wear them.

I am excited for my next post. A few weeks ago I ventured into drawing my own patterns for pants (children's of course). Can't wait to show you the results. I just need to find some time to edit the pics that go with the post.

Until then, Happy Karneval/Fasching/Mardi Gras/Paczki Day (I have had two already this morning and feel like I have been run over by a train!)

Random Update

Happy Thursday Everybody!

I really don't have anything great to present today. Just wanted to quickly show the Valentine's the children will give out at school tomorrow.

I found the idea for this on one of the blogs I frequently read. Unfortunately, right now, I cannot find it for the life of it. Sorry. Thank you Erika for the link.
Anyway, I asked the kids to make a funny face and hold one hand out like they are holding something. Took a picture, printed it on cardstock, cut it out, put slits above and below their fists and put a sucker through them. That's it.

And for the girls' Preschool Teacher I made this felt heart. The tutorial for this can be found at Sew Mama Sew.

And the following is the product of a VERY long and VERY boring conference call at work this morning: 50 some paper beads...

At least the girls will have something to make necklaces with tonight :-D