Self drafted Childs DIY towelling poncho from a beach towel

 

This was a very quick make and a long time to think about exactly how to make it. Two weeks in thought and just about 45 minutes actually cutting and sewing!

I do not have any photos of this on a person as yet but it does fit - goes over head etc. It cost just £5 using a beach towel from Asda. The small person I made it for says he loves it. I reckon it will fit up to age 3-4 years though current small person is around 2 years.

When you cut a towel it has ( like fabric with nap) all the designs going the one way so originally I cut in half, turned one piece the opposite way up, then realised to keep both pieces the same length and to keep as much fabric as possible available so I had to unpick the original hem on the front of the towel so that there was enough fabric to have it the size I wanted because I did not really want to have to use two towels for just about 1cm extra length due to cutting off a hem so I went to the trouble of unpicking. The unpicked edge then became my shoulder aand neck edge on the front. It could just as easy be the back but in my case it became the front. 

Then having unpicked the new top edge I hemmed the other end and I did a slight shaping for neck hole on both pieces. To do this I cut round a hoody coat in a similar size ( I used an outdoor coat hoody for sizing to make sure its a large hood. My outdoor coat actually has 3 seams but I squashed the hood to get a flat half a hood with just a central seam. It works!

The really big deal with this was to remember to turn the second half of the towel over before doing anything else over so the crab motifs were all the right way up hence I unpicked one original hem to give me the right length. I then hemmed it the opposite side to provide a new hem the right way up. 

Then I sewed the hoody central seam and used the original edged hem so I never actually hemmed it at front edge. Not perfect but it works.

  

and then overlocked along the edge to keep it from fraying. That does mean for a slightly imperfect centra front hem edge as you can see above but I topstitched it down. 

This is the central hood seam. I took minimal seam allowance so you can see the original hemmed edge is fraying just a little. Top stitched along the top seam and also the shoulder seams. Its not perfect but by the time I hand sewed the frayey bits in it looks as good as any RTW poncho. No one noticed ( but me!)

Top stitched the shoulders. Again the hem edge is the original towel edge carefully lined up as best I can do.

Below overlapping hoody central front.

No pattern matching due to minimal fabric available.  But it will work for swimming for a small person who feels cold after swimming. And its bright and affordable. RTW pochos for small children are £15 upwards in the UK so this is much better at £5 and actually has a nicer print than most.

All in all its a successful money saving swim poncho and looks as good as many RTW ones. Our small person likes it anyway. 

If you fancy making one of these and decide to give this a go please do let me know. With two towels you could make an adult sized version easily. Its shown below on an adult sized manekin.  So if you wanted a short poncho you could get away with just one beach towel. Two, I think, would work best for adults though.

My only advice, because this is really a very easy make, despite there is no pattern, is take your time cutting and think, think, think. It took me a full 2 weeks just contemplating and working this out in my head, but really its very easy, and very rewarding as well as useful.

Have a great week,

Bracken

Child's flying saucer needlecord dungarees

 

 I bought this needlecord red flying saucer fabric a few years ago.  It came in a few colours and I regret not buying other pieces. I bought just 1m of this so I cannot do a lot with it but it has made a lovely pair of dungarees for a small child. Since the child is not allowed to be photographed for the internet or on social media until they are older, I have not taken photos of the face, but hopefully you can see what the dungarees are like.

Wobbly legs because this child cannot walk as yet.

I used 3 different colours of buttons for these which are sewn random so as the child grows you can see more colours. 

I attempted the button holes on machine and despite unpicking them a few times they were still rubbish so I have over sewn then by hand. 

 

Not the best job ever! 

Next time I make a buttonhole I intened to just do it by hand from the outset and avoid the stress. I know hand sewn button holes are not very RTW or professional but they work well and can look nicer than these do and they are reliable so thats the way I will go from now on. And also when its for a young child you know they do not need to last very long because this will be outgrown within a year.This is the same pattern I used last summer for the fox dungarees  I made. Its just a larger size. I actually added about 10cm to the leg length as well because this child has long legs and I never trusted the pattern. I also added elastic cuffs to these so the child does not keep tripping over the legs, because I have seen a few small children do this with wider legged trousers and in the end its just going to put them off learning to walk if they end up tied up all the time - regardless of what is in fashion!

They seem to work well with the elastic ankles anyway.

I have since cut a couple of thin summer versions of these so once sewn up I can show you them. Its going to take a while though because I am now sewing button holes by hand!

Have a great week and hope the weather is good wherever you are in the world,

Bracken

Grey skirt with rainbow trim

 

I made this pattern before in both the short length (which this version is) and also the long length. The old blog post on the shorter version really shows how rubbish I was a few years ago at blogging and how much better my posts have become! It seems I never got any decent photos of my previous version of this pattern so I may need to do something about that because the black velvet skirt is a really nice garment and worthy of a better post. 

Its a Steampunk pattern but really the skirt is a lovely every day wear, that in the right fabric, works even for work. The last shorter length one was in velvet. I have worn it loads. This one is slightly different since its a woven stretch fabric. I made a short flapper dress frrom this fabric a couple of years ago and its a nice summer weight woven so I decided to see if it would work with what is really a stretch jersey fabric pattern.

I cut just outside the line I usually use for this skirt so its a little larger and you can see that in the photos. Its slightly too big really and less figure hugging than the velvet version and the other jersey versions I made before. I thought that cutting slightly larger should allow for the woven rather than jersey fabric, but maybe I could have got away with just cutting as usual? 

I do not know and did not want to take the risk but maybe next time I use a woven I should just cut my usual size and see if it works. I am working through offucts of fabric from my stash at the moment to reduce what I keep storing so I might make another in a woven just to see if it will fit. In theory it shouldn't because \i understand the jersey garments have negative ease, but who knows? Its worth a risk to just find out so I will make another of these in a similar grey "work" fabric and clear some ore stash. This will still be a decent enough summer short skirt that I can wear everywhere.

The pleats are large godets which are cut as part of the skirt anels. It has just 3 panels and is very easy to construct due to the high low hem meaning the panels only fit together in the right place so really you cannot go wrong when making this skirt pattern.

The fabric is a "boring"grey because I bought it for work clothes but with the rainbow striped ribbing it becomes still easy to wear but a little more fun I think. 

 

Unfortunately, I made the waistband slightly too wide so it goes a bit ruffled round the top like a tea bag trouser/ skirt waistband but I can live with that because I never tuck in my tops. 

To make the "piping trim roud the bottom I had to cut the ribbed fabric the opposite way which is a pain because its a long piece cut off the selvedge side of my ribbed fabric. The ribbed fabric was actually a bad buy because its too synthetic for what I bought it for and I canot handle wearing it as tops so I have 6m of the stuff but it does make a very cheap alternative to expensive ribbed cuffing and tubular ribbing for things like sweatshirts. I have recently used it for the cuffs of some kids clothing and it looks really good and is also nicely light weight. I may blog about the kids clothes another time. 

The top was made a while ago. Its a lycra dancewear fabric but was really cheap and I liked the print so much I made loads of garments from it a couple of years ago. Its used to fit me better but I have lost weight this year.

And for now thats it. I hope you have a great week and thanks for popping by my blog,

Bracken

Burda Style magazine Grey glitter sweatshirts x 2

 

My latest version of the Burda style sweatshirt from 01/2017 number 103. I have made this several times before. I just love the "tidy" construction with the pocket in the angled seams. Its just neat and this also makes it a real doddle to line everything up easily.

I made 2 of these since last time I found thats the minimum number I need to be happy and have a clean one at all times. Or nearly anyway.

Its worn here with my new grey ribbed pencil skirt that a made a couple of weeks ago.
This is a very easy outfit to wear I have to say.

It also works perfectly with my matching grey glitter Lekala sports trousers. I made them a few weeks back knowing I would eventually get round to making some kind of matching tops. Again I have two pairs of trousers. So two complete tracksuits I suppose really.

Of course with the matching trousers this becomes much more slouchy but also very cosy when its nasty and rainy as it is half the time at the moment. Today we have sun and warmth, then cold showers, and yes its changeable between proper shorts weather and winter right now. Thats the UK for you!

This time instead of one top withcuffs and one with mitts with thumb holes as I made the last time around, this time I made turn back extra long cuffs instead. I found I wore the mitts very little yet turned them back all the time so I have made the cuffs a fraction wider and made them twice as long. They seem to work.

So lots of photos of these tops which I have been wearing for a couple of weeks now so have to get them photographed before I forget and wear them out. Though last time they worked for a couple of years so hopefully this fabric is a good as the last I used. Its hard to see here but its a darker grey than my older ones with lurex glitter like before.

Have a great week and thanks for popping by to visit me,

Bracken