KCW Day 6

I will hopefully have another post to put up later today, but first I wanted to show you another outfit I made this week.  This top and pants is for my son Walter to wear to kindergarten.  I absolutely love how it turned out!

The shirt is (again!) from Lands' End.  I wish I could take credit for the awesome bear design, but I took the idea from a shirt I saw online.  I can't remember the company (something like One For Humanity?), but I fell in love with it.  Sadly, the shirt had long been sold out.  So I did what any good DIY mama would do--I made my own :)

I worked hard to size the applique just right.  In the end, I wish that I had made the bear a little larger.  I'm not sure why his haunches look a little wrinkled.  I think it's because I just finished this shirt and didn't have time to launder it before taking the pics.  I rinsed out the Fabri Solvy (a water soluble stabilizer that I use on the back side of the tee when I applique), but I think the fabric is still a little stiff because the stabilizer hasn't been washed away completely.

I didn't originally intend to sew pants, but I discovered that all of my son's brown pants for this fall are way too big!  Fortunately that 's no problem for this DIY mama--I'll just sew him some that fit!  I was inspired to do rounded knee patches like a pair of pants I remember seeing last year at teacollection.com.

 When faced with the difficulty of getting an even hem on the curve of the knee patches, I remembered a trick that I learned to help sew curves neatly.  I took my paper pattern and used it as a pressing guide.  I drafted my patch pattern on regular computer paper.  If you are working with a tissue pattern, you can just trace the piece you need onto cardstock.  Cardstock holds up very firmly to pressing.  I slid the curved pattern piece down about a half inch from the edge of the fabric (about as wide as I wanted the hem to be).

Then I used it as a guide to fold my fabric over.  The paper creates sort of a rigid edge that keeps the hem even without having to measure and fold it over with your fingers so close to the iron.  I then pressed over the paper and fabric with my iron.
   

I let the fabric cool briefly to set the fold, then slid out the paper pattern guide.  I did this on the top and bottom edge of both patches.

The result was nice, even curves with very little effort.  Then I placed the patches where I wanted them on the pant legs and top stitched (with a double needle) along the top and bottom folds.  This technique also works great with curved pockets that are applied to clothes.

Thanks again for stopping by!  I don't know about you, but I feel like my entire week has been spent sewing or procrastinating when I know I should be sewing!  I have let housework and cooking slide quite a lot this week :)  I will hopefully have two (maybe three? Fingers crossed) more things to show off before this epic week ends, so come back again!