Burda 07-2009 #140 Swim trunks and some cussing

I made the girls bathing suits so I figured I would make The Boy some swim trunks too. He'll love the sharks. Too bad I didn't drop the embroidery just a little bit further down the leg. On the next pair, I plan to make a deeper hem like what you would see on RTW shorts. I am also using a boot shoelace for the waist. I'll change that out for a regular white shoelace when I get a hold of one of them. This is a size 110 which corresponds to a size 6. My kids are tall and skinny so we will definitely be needing the tie string. They do have elastic in them too but it's probably not going to be tight enough.

Embroidery detail. This is from Emblibrary.com. My son is obsessed with all things ocean.

Son: Hey Mom, did you know that Vampyroteuthis is called the vampire squid from hell?

Me: Um, what?!??!?!?!

Son: The squid from HELL mom! What does hell mean? Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell.

Me: Where did you learn that? Hell is one of those adult words that kids shouldn't say.

Son: Oh. But what does hell mean?

Me: Well, it's a bad place. They mean a scary, dangerous squid. Where did you learn about it?

Son: On that DVD, the Blue Planet. Did you know that there is an Amazon catfish that eats only wood? WOOD, mom! Let's get one so it can eat the brush in the backyard.

Me: Hmmmm, I'll think about.

On a side note: this was a much better use of a cuss word that when he told me, "Mom, there's some fucking cheese on my tomatoes" and then said there was a "lot of fucking rain outside." I actually had to leave the room while me husband dealt with it. I was beside myself giggling uncontrollably. He's a total science nerd. I wonder where he gets that. He told his kindergarten teacher that he "loves her more than space and space goes on forever."

Here's the back. Boring, I know.

I put fun green eyelets in.

Here's the BWOF technical drawing. Obviously, ignore the top.

Burda 05-2009 #103 Knit Dress

I had a work party to attend last night. I made this saucy little dress from the May issue of BWOF. Could I go with a boring, plain, solid color? Nooooooooo, of course not.

Instead, I made a crazy-ass version of it. (I'm under this tree and a little worried that my stomping on the deck will cause the snow to fall on me.) This is a polyester/lycra ITY I bought from my local sewing boutique, Seams Like Home. It's super comfortable and I love the print. It's a little crazy but, as a friend pointed out, so am I.

The only bust alteration was to cross the "crosses" a bit more than normal. I basted it in place with the two CF together but it was a little loose with my lack of "girls". So, I just snugged it up and made the top tighter. That means I also had to make the waistband a bit smaller and the hip area too. I also made a small, 3/8"?, swayback adjustment. I think it would have looked even better with a solid black waistband. I wore it last night with these boots.

As Emeril would say, "BAM!" Hello, booty! There was no way to match stripes, blocks, and squiggles so I didn't even try.

It was a fun party with lots of dancing. If there is one thing I can do, it's dance.

Burda skirt on the hoof . . .

I braved the cold air and 1 degree F temperatures to bring you these photos. You can see how the flouncy-flouncy behaves with this fabric. I really do like the skirt, especially with that little extra bit of weight.

It's pretty fitted from the waist to just under the butt. I love flounces. This skirt reminds me of this Burda skirt quite a bit. (I just noticed getting that URL that these are both December skirts, innnnnnteresting . . .)

What's funny about this skirt is it always feels like I'm wearing only a half skirt. It is fitted from the waist to the butt so you feel it against you. But then, it flares out and doesn't touch your body so you don't feel it. More than once have I panicked about having it flipped up or tucked into the waistband because you don't feel the bottom section. One of my colleagues knows I sew my own clothing so she makes sure that there is never any wardrobe malfunction. She hasn't caught anything yet but I'm glad she's got my back if anything should happen. Thank goodness.

Burda 12-2009 #122 Flared Skirt

Sheesh. Long time, no see, eh? I have been sewing things but I just haven't had time to review things or post to the blog. This seems like the busiest winter ever. Like I said, sheesh.

Here's BWOF 12-2009-122, that cute flaired skirt from the December issue. I made it out of a midweight Justin Timberlake denim that I bought from the Fabrics and Notions coop over on Yahoo. It's a cute little skirt but I think the denim is just a bit too heavy for this particular style. Looks cute here, no?

When I wear it, the sides have enough body that they stick out at 45 degrees. If I stand still, it looks pretty funny.

The back is very cute, I think, and it does not have the sticky-outy issue that the sides do. I made pockets for the back but I really didn't like them when I basted them on.

To combat the sticky-outy-ness of the side parts, I added weights to the inside of the skirt. I asked my husband if he had anything that was small and heavy and he threw these at me. They are fishing weights. We use them for salmon fishing in the fall.

This is a close-up of the lead. It's very malleable so I smacked it with a hammer a few times to flatten it out.

Then I made two little lead-filled bags and handsewed them to the inside corners of the skirt. They pull the skirt down a bit but they don't totally do the job. I probably need two more in each side to completely weigh it down. Ah, well, it's only noticeable when I am standing stick stragiht and not moving. Luckily for me, I'm almost never just standing around. I am a WOMAN OF MOTION.

Here's the inside. I love using a contrasting facing on the inside of fly front like this.

I have a few more things to show you. Hopefully, I'll be posting lots of stuff in the coming days. Today was the last day with kids so I'm on Christmas Holiday Winter Break!!!

Green Pepper #150 Another Winter Coat

Well, it was only a matter of time. I had to make my son another winter jacket. I've used this pattern for a raincoat (which is lost at the moment!) and a winter coat last year. This is made of XALT breathable laminate with a layer of Malden Mills Polartec 200 on the inside for warmth. I lined it with Malden Mills sweat shirting fleece. It adds another layer of warmth and it's kind of slick for ease of wear. I added a reflective strip to the arm. I also added a few inches to the cuff. He has to roll them up but the next time he grows we'll just roll them down a bit.

This is a great pattern. The cuffs sort of look dorky but if it keeps his wrists warm, I don't care. He's an outdoor kid.

It is not triple lined in the hood. The inside Polartec 200 stops at the neck. The hood is only the laminate and the sweat shirt lining. He always wears a hat and three layers made it too thick.

KS 2605 Girls' Swimsuits - They're done.

I finished the four swimsuits for my girl-kids. They are pretty cute. The only alteration I made was to add an extra inch in torso length for my girls and to line the entire front instead of just the crotch lining. They did not have them try these on because they are part of their Christmas gifts. I'll use this pattern for years. It goes all the way to size 7.

I did what Kwik Sew recommended for applying the elastic and it turned out great. Here you can see that I serged on the elastic with black thread. Then, I folded it over and zig zagged from the right side. This is the inside.

This is what it looks like from the right side.

These are the original photos from this post.

Complete with weird poses. Those girls crack me up.

Another great gift idea.

So how cute is this little idea? I'm sure lots of people know about these and wear them while they run. But, for me, these little armbands are new. Super cute too. I probably won't give any for gifts but I will keep this in mind for my summer training season. I tore this out of the REI leaflet they send for the holidays. The top pictures are from the REI website. Here's a link to the page. They could be made out of little tiny strips of knit material. It's perfect for those of you who hate throwing away scraps.