Monday 30 June 2014

jaywalkin' & some new duds for elvis

on friday 13th june i was overwhelmed to find that i won the tessuti jaywalk competition.  as i said in my last blog post there were some fantastic entries and i am over the moon to be named the winner.

i had never entered a sewing competition before and i am really grateful to tessuti for putting on the competitions they do and offering such generous prizes. there are not many opportunities to enter australian sewing competitions and the tessuti competitions are great in offering a challenge to sewers, as well as showcasing the amazing support and positivity in the australian online sewing community.

on to some recent makes (er well, maybe from may…).  first up some oliver + s raglan t-shirts for elvis.  i'd never made raglan sleeves before, but am a big convert, given it eliminates the need to set in the sleeves.  i combined a variety of sizes for arm length, torso length etc based on elvis' measurements.  all of the printed fabrics came from either fabric.com or girl charlee.




i also used the oliver + s pattern to make a jumper from some fleece from spotlight.  for this i used smaller seam allowances and added cuffs to the sleeves and hem.


in this pic he has teamed the jumper with pj pants, made from some japanese cotton with bullet trains, purchased at pandora house in narita by mr flagg on a work trip. 


and this time with some different pjs, made from flannelette from either spotlight or lincraft - can't remember.  i also made him some black cords and one more pair of pj pants, all using my TNT kids pants pattern OOP simplicity 3584. phew that's enough sewing for him for a while. 


are you getting the picture that my kid has a thing for 'transport'??

lastly can i say a big hello to all my new readers, i hope you find some interesting things in my posts and thanks for all the lovely comments i received on my jaywalk dress!


emma

Monday 9 June 2014

tessuti 2014 jaywalk competition - my entry

wow may is a busy month at our place - my eldest son (elvis) has his birthday and thanks to having a great bunch of friends from mum's group when our first bubs were born may is one long party month.  added to that a few kids from elvis' day care also have may birthdays, meaning at least one weekend day and sometimes both are taken up with parties.  i did get a chance to do a bit of sewing during may but not as much as normal.

one of the main things i worked on was my entry for the tessuti 2014 jaywalk competition. here's my entry, a close fitting dress with three quarter sleeves.  i used simplicity 2054, similar to the one i made in my recent post.


i made the front by cutting the black/neutral jaywalk into strips of various widths and sewing them back together.  i also used some black ponte for the sleeves and one horizontal stripe.  for the back i made a yoke and used the contrasting white/neutral jaywalk. similar to last time i made this dress i added back darts.


i sewed the strips together on my regular sewing machine using a small zig zag stitch.


i also used my regular sewing machine for all of the dress construction.  the one place i ran into a bit of trouble which i hadn't considered was at the neckline due to the bulk of fabric i created.  i used a walking foot here and it went together ok.







i am pretty happy how this turned out.  its great to challenge yourself and try something new.  i'm enjoying checking out all the other great entries - good luck everyone!

hopefully i'll be back soon to blog a few of the other things i made in may.

emma