Kid’s Clothes Week Winter 2014 // Day one

Kid’s Clothes Week – Winter 2014 has arrived 🙂

I love the rush of a dedicated sewing week and the fact that I always managed to get through so many of my much-belated projects (here, here, here and much more).

Nevertheless, for once, I have to admit that most of my winter sewing projects are completed.

I’ve sew winter PJs and coats for my 3 kids and a couple of pants to my younger boy (all not blogged, but still much loved around here). For my girl, once again several dresses/jumpers, dresses, blouses, tops and shorts were made.

Yet, I really couldn’t miss Kid’s Clothes Week, right?

So, I’ve added a few extra rules for my KCW sewing projects:

1. Only use fabric already in my stash. Also, pick fabrics that would not required a trip to pick additional notions/trims.

2. Priority should be given to patterns (that I already have) and that have yet to be tested or that I know (hope, lol) could make the transition into spring.

Simple and effective rules, I suppose, but hopefully these will help me to stay focused.

The week prior to KCW’s I selected the patterns and the fabrics. No extra trip to the fabric store was needed as I had evertyhting I need in my cupboard.

A few nights were saved for cutting and labeling the pattern pieces. So no additional stress was required and I could spend KCW sewing.

As in the prior editions, I know I’ll try to engage myself in a couple of sewing hours per night – KCW expects you to sew at least 1-hour per day during the week, but I’m hoping to sew for more than that (to my defense, I don’t have a sewing room, so I couldn’t justify setting up everything just for 1-hour of sewing (fun)).

My KCW Day One sewing project was actually completed yesterday, taking advantage of a cloudy rainy Sunday afternoon spent indoors.

I’ve been looking for a project for making a pleated tartan skirt for my girl for quite a while – I wore quite a few similar style skirts when I was young and somehow these look quite adorable to me.

Finding a suitable pattern was not an easy task, so when I discovered this pattern from Neue Mode (here) I decided to give it a go. I got it a few months ago and I just needed a great excuse to test it 🙂

For the fabric, I used a wool tartan I got from a stock out sale over one-year ago (it has been waiting for the right project).

I don’t recommend cutting a new pattern after the end of a long day. This skirt only has 3 pieces (2 skirt pieces and 1 waistband), and yet I failed to match the skirt pieces. To make it even worst, I only noticed it when taking these pictures (too late to go back or so I keep convincing myself).

It was my first time sewing a Neue Mode pattern and I must caution that the instructions for these are only available online. The pattern was quite easy to put together and I found the instructions quite detailed for a advanced beginner/intermediate level.

Complying with the above mentioned rules, I decided to sew a size 8 for length (size 6 for width) for my girl. I choose view A (simple pleated skirt) and added a velvet trim to the front skirt.

The fit is not perfect (a tad too big on her, I think) but it has some room to grow, which was my initial intention, so I might consider it a success.

I will definitely be using this pattern again (paying more attention when cutting the skirt pieces).

Aren’t pleated tartan skirts a must in a little girl wardrobe?

Thank you for reading 🙂

xx, Ana Sofia