Quilty Pants go Brick and Mortar!

Quilty Pants 2012, a set on Flickr.

The lovely and talented owner of Angellina's Toy and Children's Boutique in downtown Whitehorse asked if I would consider selling Quilty Pants from her shop. Ms. B does such a lovely job of sourcing her products and styling her shop that it was hard to say no to be included with such a fine selection of children's and baby's things. This marks my first foray into the world of wholesale pricing and making and there was a bit of a learning curve, but a happy one. While cranking out 30 pairs (60 legs, oh wait, they're also flannel lined, make that 120 legs!!) seemed a bit off putting, and I really wondered if it would spell the end of my love for these little pants, they are just too cute, soft, warm and durable for me to quit just yet! I've been making these pants for at least 6 years, I think, and they are one of my first made-and-designed-by-me items of which I'm pretty proud. The feedback from Moms over the years has been so important too - one Mom said her little guy won't wear anything but his overalls and quilty pants! I've made 3 sizes for Angellina's, 6 to 12 months, 12 to 18 months and 18 to 24 months. I have made them in sizes 2, 3 and 4 in the past but I've decided this year that folks can special order those sizes if they would like them. Angellina's is expanding their locally made products and there are some really sweet handmade hats, play masks and baby accessories down there right now - stop by and take a look!

Sunki Tunic Dress

Finally managed to try this fun pattern by Figgy's Patterns. It's nice to be able to search flickr for patterns to see what fabrics people use and for inspiration. I really like the pockets - hidden at the bottom of the light purple. This pattern lends itself well to the colour blocking craze that's out there lately. This two-tone purple is in cotton broadcloth. My next one I'd like to do in something heavier, maybe a twill, corduroy or velveteen? We'll see!

Finn's Goose is sending some gooses to some bruces!

3 Christmas Gooses - check! The goose stuffie is a really cute project from The Long Thread blog, found here. I made a couple last year too, but forgot to take photos. These photos were taken at 10am in the dark, yes folks, a 6 or 7 hour drive north from our house and you can kiss the arctic circle if you're so inclined. It has been a dark November and December, many of us are looking forward to winter solstice and longer days. There are more photos of gooses and contents of those drawstring bags on my flickr site, but if you are K, you aren't aloud to peek! I've already shown too much but had such fun putting these presents together that I couldn't wait to share. Finn will be excited to see his goose after school today. A few notes on goose-construction, it is really worth it to take the time to hand stitch the beaks first, then machine stitch. I learned this the hard way as my beak was very crooked the first time around (and Finn's goose has the most crooked beak but I'm hoping he won't notice!). I also skipped trying to stuff the skinny feet, it was beyond my patience! I'm impressed with Ellen at the long thread for stuffing those feet!

43 Pairs and Counting!

Click on the photo to see the rest of this year's Quilty Pants on Flickr. Frantically getting ready for tomorrow's swap and must go for a run - bye!

Matchy-Matchy

Another a-line skirt! These are a very quick skirt to make and a nice staple to the wardrobe. 2 twirly girl skirts accompanied mama's a-line and all 3 girls were very excited to dress matchy-matchy! I've recently made some twirly girls with a corduroy top layer, cotton under-layer that look like so much fun to wear - while being a bit warmer too! Twirly Girl skirts will be available this Saturday at the KidzSwap Meet. Stay tuned for photos!

My nephew's quilty pants - how cute?!

My sister in law has been an avid supporter and purchaser of my quilty pants and it was with great guilt that I FINALLY managed to give her lovely son a pair - he was almost one for goodness sakes! He really should have had a pair for everyday of the week starting at 6 months! But, now he is wearing them with great style, which I think he gets from both his mom and dad! My excuse for being late was that I wanted to make them with that super cute mini zoo fabric, even though I could have given a pair out of my supply, I really wanted to make a pair just for him - to match his zoo room! Thanks for the photo N - she is also a talented photographer!

A Castle Peeps Dress for River

This is my staple dress and has been since university - I'm trying to remember the first one I made and I think the recipient must be 16 years old by now! It's a burda pattern #XXXX. This castle version was for my very awesome niece with a great monster roar! Her dad is big in to knights and castles, and so is she! And monsters, and rocket ships, and robots and...

Square Neck Summer Dress - Happy Homemade Vol 2

Another lovely pattern and so quick and easy. The button loops at the back made for an easy closure - no button holes required.

Twirly Girl Skirt with Olivia!

Here is a fun skirt for a birthday girl today! Luckily her birthday landed on Kids Clothes Week Challenge!! Another thing that landed around here was a snow blizzard this morning! Not many of us are impressed - probably just the 5 and under crowd think it's neat. Luckily it has melted and turned to rain which is greatly needed - haven't had any rain yet this spring!

Kids Clothes Week Challenge - Dad's made-by-me sweater gone wrong...

I like to think that every knitter worth his/her salt has one of these, misshapen sweaters in their repetoire. I knit this for my husband a while ago and it took forever and it was too big and we tried to shrink it but it seemed to be short in the back and long in the front and it never seemed to look right. So, I decided to chop it into a sweater for our five year old. I didn't think I could actually cut into it - pretty scary and it was so much work to knit, I think it was 2 years in the making! But, better to use it than to throw it away! Now it looks great as a tunic sweater. I kept the neck line which, might have been a mistake as it is a bit of a big boat collar now. I'm also thinking it would make a great sweater dress for my niece after Finn is finished with it! I have so much overdue sewing on my plate this week, I sure hope I find the time to sew for KCWC!

Sneak Peek No. 9 - Littlest Onesie

Sneak Peek No. 8 - Quilty Pants 12-18 months

The famous flannel lined baby pants, available in sizes 6 months to 24 months. Please note that waistband adjustments are free since those baby bellies come in so many sizes!

Sneak Peek No. 6 - Littlest Hats

Baby toques by American Apparel and me.

Sneak Peek No. 3 Quilty Pants, 6-12 months

Kids Clothes Challenge, Day 5

Another pair of shorts from Happy Homemade, shorts "L". This time I skipped the faux fly since they're pretty busy with stripes, I didn't think it would be missed... The real reason is that I haven't managed to make that #@!#? fly without a seam ripper yet and I've done it twice! This time the pockets are lined with gears - just as good as frogs, if not better, for our little guy!

Day 3 - The REAL Day 3

So I got a bit ahead of myself and started this sewing challenge a week early! Luckily that happened since I haven't done anymore sewing since last week's, (correction, haven't sewn any KIDS clothing...) "day 3"! AND I blew it, over did it, as usual, and spent more than 1 hour on Day 3, probably spent 3 hours! I managed to finish some really cute shorts from the Happy Homemade pattern book in a train engineer's overalls stripe fabric but my model was not cooperating, as you can see! The shorts are the same pattern as the Pirate Pants. I haven't managed to start the shirt yet, not sure why... Coming soon though! I've also cut out another striped pair of shorts, same pattern, that look like fun too. So, after jumping out of the gate, last week, I'm not making any promises for the rest of this week!

Kids Clothes Week, Day One

I'm hoping to sew one hour a day for a week for Finn as part of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge (see button on right side)! Often my projects mean ideas for Finn's wardrobe get sidelined so hopefully this Challenge will help! Hour 1 was drafting the pattern for Boy's Shirt q in my Happy Homemade Vol. 2, Kids book! It's a short sleeve dress shirt with grandfather collar. Wish me luck!

Happy Homemade Vol. 2 Pattern Book and Pirate Pants

Once again, I couldn't resist a really cute pirate print on a Japanese linen/cotton blend. Nor could I resist this amazing Japanese pattern book for children's clothing. The pants are shorts pattern "l" but I just lengthened the legs with pants pattern "o", which is actually the same pattern piece provided in the back of the book. They're a wide leg, bell bottomy kind of pant that are really cute in my opinion. Luckily for me our little guy will wear anything - so far! This is a great book if you are in need of cute duds for the post-toddler years. More for girls than boys, as usual but really nice styles nonetheless! Click on the photo to see a few more pics of the pants.

The making of the Littlest Onesies

Here are a few new littlest onesie designs for this year (more elephants!). I use American Apparel onesies, made in the USA with long sleeves. I find the short sleeved onesies often get covered up as undershirts and babies never get to show off their smart shirts! If you use cloth diapers, the snap crotch design also helps keep everything where it should be! I tried brown onesies last year and they were a hit so they're back again this year along with basic whites.

First Knitting Post - what?!

How can this be my first knitting post? I knit all the time! Ahhh... I know why, because every knitting project I've done is usually late or "just in time" and gets sent out the door before I remember to take a picture! For example, these little fishies were wrapped and then unwrapped and then re-wrapped for precisely that reason - the photo shoot. This sweater is from a Zoe Mellor book that I found in our library (which has a great selection of knitting books, long winters you know...) and then my mom bought us each a copy. Mom went on to knit a zillion sweaters from it (I'll have to ask her for the official count but my guy alone has a rooster, a tiger and a puppy dog!). I used the rooster sweater pattern and mixed it with the butterfly border and then found the fish motif in another library book to come up with this 3-in-1 sweater. It's in a merino style cotton from Knit Picks and I'm wondering how it will hold up. To be honest it was very fluffy while knitting, I'm wondering if there will be anything left of it but the fish (which were knit in a different, lovelier cotton from local Knit Now shop) after a few washes. I like the idea of a cotton sweater and it is incredibly silky soft but time will tell how to holds up... I have visions of it getting wider and shorter, while the intended wearer, my super duper cute niece River just gets taller and slimmer! This could be a "buy local" lesson, I'll let you know.