General chat thread for BB girls who like sewing

[~Kim~]

Adapt and overcome Teni! Well done I stuff lots of stuff up. I either change the original vision or bin it lol.

MG mainly self taught here too. My mum used to sew and I learned a lot from here when I was a kid, but didn't really come back to it until the last couple of years.

Sagres, thanks for those blogs!!! Awesome patterns on there.

Abigail, love the vest!

BrightSparkles, mainly online for me too. I find the paper patterns you can get at the major fabric stores now are usually outdated or tricky or daggy or not what you want.
Try; Make it and Love it, Prudent Mama, You Can Make This, MADE page, Little Bird Patterns, Melly Sews, Ucreate

[misty]

Hi, I might join in here. Ive been doing heaps of sewing and other crafty stuff lately. In fact this last month or so has been the first time I've used my sewing machine in eight years! because I never had anywhere safe to set it up with kids underfoot. But I bought a secondhand sewing cabinet off ebay ($20! bargain!) and have been usuing my machine alot ever since. I used to sew all the time growing up. I was using mums sewing machine unattended (doing drawstring bags and such) before I ever started school. Thankfully it has all come back to me very quickly. Lately I've been making christmas bunting, skirts for my eldest, embellishing t shirts, ring slings, all of that basic kind of stuff that doesn''t require patterns and can just be freehand. I'm wanting to make a waldorf doll though, but am a little worried about screwing it up. I'm thinking I might by a kit off etsy, so I know it has everything in it that I need - and then if it turns out well I will have an idea of everything I need / want and source the materials myself. But I might have to wait until after christmas to start that project (just because of lack of time and money until then - I already have a dozen projects on the go). Has anyone here made a waldorf doll before?

[Sagres]

Ooh more blogs. Got my pinning finger ready!

No I haven't tried a waldorf doll, they look like they would be the kind of thing that looks simple enough but when you got into it, it would be tricky! Good luck!

[Astrid]

Semi self taught, along with learning from when others have helped me.

Have some bought patterns, if you keep an eye on spotlight or lincraft, they often have deals. Otherwise they can be exxie. If you pick right and find a pattern that has some good variations, it can last you awhile. Also I don't cut along the size lines of the patterns, I do my best to trace the pattern onto the fabric following the size line I want. That way I can use the full range of sizes for the girls.

[HotI]

i buy cheap interfacing (99c/metre) and transfer patterns on to the interfacing and then cut them out in the size i want. this way i can also adjust the patterns to fit measurements better (eg size 10 waist and size 14 bust)

[Beautiful Disaster]

ladies I have a WHOLE bag of pillow cases if anyone is interested. I used to be a linen chick so these are all out of my kit.

[Mrs P]

I've been doing some general sewing classes sporadically over the last two years. I find I don't really have time to sew except when I get to the classes! But I am obsessed with buying fabric and can never resist a spotlight discount voucher! I also buy from Sew Mama Sew and Hawthorne fabrics.

[misty]

Semi self taught, along with learning from when others have helped me.

Have some bought patterns, if you keep an eye on spotlight or lincraft, they often have deals. Otherwise they can be exxie. If you pick right and find a pattern that has some good variations, it can last you awhile. Also I don't cut along the size lines of the patterns, I do my best to trace the pattern onto the fabric following the size line I want. That way I can use the full range of sizes for the girls.

I was taught by my mum to cut the pattern to the largest size and then fold to the smaller size where needed and to trace the bits you couldn't fold (ie if it was a round curve) onto another piece of paper and just use that piece for that section. Not sure if Ive explained it right, but its easy and simple to do.

[~Kim~]

nuh-uh, no dolls for me. I made a teddy once. It was a disaster. I still have him. His arms are on back to front and he has no nose lol.

[jackrose]

Interfacing for pattern pieces is a good idea HotI, I tend to use anything lying around so have some in newspaper, butchers paper, Ikea painting paper… the best I have used is some baking paper on a roll. That lasted me ages but I have just run out so I might need some more.

I am also pretty self taught, after a few classes at high school making useless items - and generally mucking them all up. I practiced and mucked around for years but it is having kids that has got me properly sewing. I now find I can draft patterns pretty easily, make something from what I see online based on the few basic patterns I have at home.

As for pattern resources, I rarely, if ever by traditional patterns from Spotlight etc any more. I just find them too expensive and limited, one style per packet. I have made an exception for the Oliver + S patterns though as they are just so cute and I do like the look of the Oliver + S book, little things to sew. I subscribed to Ottobre and that has been awesome for getting a bank of basic patterns. I highly recommend a subscription for those of you wanting to build up a pattern library. Maybe Santa could orgainse one! Otherwise, I am a bit of a fan of the Japanese pattern books and have used a few patterns from Sew liberated and Heidi and Finn. Anna Maria Horner has a great sewing book with pattens for kids and my local library has some really good sewing books with fold out pattern sheets in the back you can trace: Amy Butler, Make it perfect, Growing up sew liberated, Sewing clothes kids love, Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross and anything by Lotta Jansdotta or Anna Maria Horner.

Misty, I like the idea of a Waldorf doll. I looked into it once but decided it was a big investment and a lot to learn for the likely one doll I would make. In the end I knitted one for DD instead. I say go for it after Christmas so you can take time and enjoy the process.

[~TT40~]

Im going to join this =) I got a sewing machine a couple of years ago, and made my wedding dress, got a handful of different patterns and took bits of pieces from different ones and put it together. Since then all I have done is sew muslin wraps together to make them bigger, and hem the edges of terry flats I cut up for cloth wipes. =P but keen to make some clothes for Spock =)

[danita]

I think I'm going to join in too I've been sewing for about 6 mths now and love it.

[Astrid]

I have the "Sew clothes kids love" book. Really need to pull it out and sew something. The problem with me is that I look at the harder patterns and want to do them, but I know I should start with the easier ones, so of course I don't end up sewing anything

[misty]

I've made a couple of teddy's before ( I have a *ahem* 'decent size' collection of teddy's - over 50 at last count ). But waldorf dolls, especially good waldorf dolls look much trickier to perfect - they do not seem as forgiving of errors. lol. Still, I'm thinking I will give it a shot and see how I go. I have enough kids that I can make more then a couple, and then of coursee I have 26 neices and nephews (with plenty more yet to come in the future) and already have 4 'grand' nieces and newphews. So I'm sure I wouldn't run out of people to love them if I didn't just decide to put the in a collection foe myself!

[jackrose]

Give the 'harder' ones a go Astrid. The thing I find about sewing is that if you take it slow and follow instructions carefully (and keep a calm head with a seam ripper close by) it all works out fine! The most important thing about sewing, or doing anything creative, is to have the strong passion to keep at it when it gets tricky. I go for the patterns I love rather than the ones that I think I should do and it keeps my interest. i threw myself into pattern adaptation before I thought I was ready because I wanted to make a Rapunzel costume for DD and couldn't find one that would fit out needs. It worked a treat and spurred me on. Hit the back of the book I say!

TT40, I can't believe you made your own wedding dress. You are officially my hero!

Misty, If I had all those kids keen for a doll, I would go for it too. Can you imagine all those little tweaks you could make to give them their own personalities!!?! Divine. Then there are the outfits…. swoon…

[~TT40~]

TT40, I can't believe you made your own wedding dress. You are officially my hero!

Basically I knew exactly what I wanted, I had it in my head and couldn't find it anywhere, and figured, the only way to get exactly what I wanted was to make it =)

[misty]

Well I've just started seeing a patchwork blanket. Trying to decide if I should sew it as is and give it to chantelle as a cot blanket, or buy more material and make it larger and give to Angel. Or make it larger still and put on my bed - but I'd prefer a red one, and this one is pink and purple. Hhmm decisions. It's the first quilt I've ever made, so I do like the idea of keeping it myself. I'm not sure if I'm going to put any batting in it or not either - I like the idea of keeping it very lightweight for summer when it's 30degrees overnight. So more of a blanket then a doona. But maybe I could get some lightweight batting, or make it a quilt cover instead. All these decisions I'd usually make before starting a project, but I just felt like sewing and didn't know what, so patchwork seemed the best bet.

[HotI]

Misty, that is exciting! I want to make a quilt/blanket something for each of the kids using their baby clothes and materials that i have made their clothes from. I am also wondering what to back it with. One idea i have is to do the patchwork, then back it with a blanket or polarfleece or similar, so that provides some of the 'plumpness'. i have the thought that they can take it camping when they are older and wrap it around themselves sitting around the fire, but i am probably dreaming and it won't be cool anymore. I should make it before they can tell me it is uncool. For now, when DD puts something on that i have made she asks "mummy make this?, tank you mummy"