Sewing for Kindergarten - Week One + Flickr Features.

What an amazing first week. I must say Sewing for Kindergarten have exceeded my expectations. (And you know I always have high expectations about everything - even though I sometimes pretend the opposite, ha).

Not only have the contributions been amazing but you have all received it so very well. 

Seriously, thank you!

The Flickr Groups have gotten some amazing new school clothes added to them.
Let's take a look shall we:

Teri from Climbing the Willow have made this amazing AMAZING color block dress for her daughter Mae. I mean, WOW! I want one too!
You really have to go check out the Flickr Group because Teri have uploaded four outfits and they are all really really fantastic.




Shelly have made these great blue W shorts (Blank Slate Patterns) for her son.
See the post on her blog Sew Shelly Sew.



Okay, last feature from the Preschool Flickr Group. Tasha from I Seam Stressed (I really wish I had come up with that name...love it!) have uploaded a ton of amazing things but these two are my absolute favorites. The top might not be on the top of the school clothes appropriate list but I just had to show it. So beautiful! It is a 'flipped' Oliver + S Roller Skate Tunic. The amazing knit skirt is of course a pair of 'flipped' Bubble Shorts from E&E Patterns. Great job Tasha!

You can see this and more amazing preschool clothes here:

 



In the Elementary Flickr Group I found this great back pack from Jane from the blog Buzzmills. The back pack is made from a Made by Rae-pattern.
I love the combinations of fabrics and it is obviously well made. Look at the even piping - yes!

There is much more here:

 



Looks like royal blue is a trend for the boys - fine with me, I love that color! And they look great in it!
Kristin from Sunny Sewing have made this t-shirt from a Ottobre pattern for her son.
Simple yet effective...perfect school clothes!

The middle/high school is not nearly as fully stocked as the preschool and elementary groups. I am not going to pretend I expected it to be. When kids reach a certain age Mommy made clothes is not exactly considered cool - I get it!
 I have heard a great advice about doing it with them. So they decide pattern and fabric. Kind of logic I guess but I thought I would just put it out there.
I will also recommend checking out this great blog Sew Cool for the Tween Scene that has some amazing inspiration and tutorials for that age group. 
Remember there is also an amazing prize from the generous sponsors for this group.



I can't wait to see what you add in the next weeks!

And in case you missed any of my AMAZING guests this week:

Thank you ladies!

And lastly....in case you missed my post (of course you didn't, haha). 

A click on the photo will take you there.

See you all next week!

Have a great weekend.

Sewing for Kindergarten - Living with Punks

Today's guest is the cool Susan from Living with Punks (yeah, I love that name too!).

I have only recently discovered her blog and honestly I have no idea why so late because it is FULL of great stuff. I have a lot of catching up to do there.

Susan has made her daughter Natalie this crazy cute backgammon skirt and on her site there will be a checkers skirt too. I can't wait to see that one!

So what are you waiting for? 

Off you go....

Thank you!

Sewing for Kindergarten - Melly Sews

I had the pleasure of meeting todays guest Melissa from Melly Sews at Fabric Weekend 2013 in LA and seriously I have never meet at more knowledgable AND helpful woman. We have kept in touch since and I can't even count the many times she has helped me with this or that - mostly technical questions - I mean, she knows all the answers. Thank you!

Melissa is the designer and owner of Blank Slate Patterns and is also part of Pattern Anthology. Yup, pretty cool.

Melissa's son Tater has designed this amazing outfit using two of his Mom's pattern. 
All I want to know is when he is getting his own line of patterns? Wow he is good! 

Which patterns they have used and to see more photos and details you will have to jump over to Melissa's blog to see.

Click on the link:

Thank you!

Sewing for Kindergarten - The Cottage Mama

Uhhh, do I have a beautiful thing for you today...made by Lindsay from The Cottage Mama.

I mean LOOK at this beautiful top made from Lindsay's own Miss Mathilda Dress and Top pattern (you can buy the pattern too from her website) in this stunning Liberty fabric.

I am in love! 

Lindsay is sewing for her daughter Savannah - lucky girl!

I am so much in awe of Lindsay because she is sewing with ruffles in such a beautiful way that even I like it - YES, that is meant as a compliment, ha!

Did you see her latest pattern tour? So crazy many beautiful things were made with her patterns. She for sure knows what she is doing!

Now hurry over to her blog and see all the other things lucky Savannah has gotten for her start in Kindergarten.

Click on the link below:

Thank you!

Sewing for Kindergarten - Chelise Patterson

I am VERY excited to introduce you to my first guest in my first ever series Sewing For Kindergarten: Chelise Patterson.

The first season I followed of Project Run & Play was the one Chelise participated in and I have followed her since.

I love her modern, clean and colorful style.

I mean just take a look at the teaser photo below:

Yup, I agree..... it is time to jump over to her blog and see and read about it all!

And give her some love now that you are there, okay. 

Maybe she will start blogging again?!

Click on the link below:

Thank you Chelise!!

Sewing for Kindergarten...Here we go!

Are you ready for almost four weeks of school clothes inspiration? All presented on kids who are starting Kindergarten these weeks.

THIS previous post will tell you all about my inspiration, the amazing lineup of bloggers and their kids (or nieces) who are participating AND the sew along where YOU can win amazing prizes from this series generous sponsors. See their adds in the right column.

So I had plans of making her 5 outfits (monday to friday, get it!) but my exciting participation in Project Run & Play made me cut down on the ambitions a little bit and ended with 3.5 outfit aaand I am pretty sure we will be able to find something 'old' in the closet for the other days, ha.

Here you see a t-shirt that is ehhh very closely inspired by a COS t-shirt she has used a lot. I don't very often copy clothes directly because well, I actually find it kind of easier to draft the pattern myself but this one is so simple yet so perfect and it was exactly what I wanted....so sorry and thanks COS!
The fabric is this ultra soft and drapey knit from Girl Charlee.

And then I made her a pair of very wide culottes in this thin light denim with elastic waistband and in-seam single welt pockets. I have tutorials for both culottes and the pocket on my tutorial page.
And some of you might think that sewing the buttons on the outside of the welt like that is a bit cheating but I knew she would be annoyed if she had to button and unbutton every time she would use the pockets. They would either stay unbuttoned or the pocket would never be used so instead I simply sewed them outside the pocket welt as decoration. They are from Lots of Buttons.

Another funny thing with the buttons...I could not decide which ones to put on. Lots of Buttons have sent me the most beautiful selection (to die for, right!) and I wanted them all but none of the ones I tried was exactly right. The only ones in the right size that I did not consider was the purple ones. They were Wilma's idea..... and hey they were exactly perfect. Go Wilma!

Next we have both of my kids' favorite attire a soft knit dress. I have made the basic version of this dress for Wilma a looong time ago - you can actually see it in my very first blog post where I presented a lot of the kids clothes I had made in the year before I started blogging. (I usually do not want people to look at the early blog posts because well, ahem I might still not be good at blogging but I have certainly gotten better, ha, but that first one is actually still acceptable. Go HERE)

So when I told Wilma I was going to make her some new knit dresses she requested long sleeves and a hut soooo Mommy here had to do a bit of pattern alteration.

And of course that blue part around the neck was not supposed to be there, ahem, but I like it. One of those many lucky mistakes. Sometimes you got to not focus on the actual mistakes but how you fix them afterwards, right! Definitely goes for sewing!

The red knit (like the blue from the previous outfit) is from Girl Charlee and the 'denim' blue is from Mood. Both ultra soft and have perfect drape for clothes like this.

I also bought this great green knit fabric with navy and white stars at Mood and I always thought I would make one of those knit dresses with it. But I did not have enough fabric when she wanted long sleeves and a hut so I decided to go for a t-shirt with a kangaroo pocket. This time I fixed the pattern before I cut the fabric and so no extra neck thingy was needed. Yeah, at least I am learning from my mistakes, right! The contrast fabric is the same 'denim' knit as from the previous dress. 

This was actually the t-shirt she ended wearing on her very first day last week. I really wanted her to totally decide what to wear that day (well, you know as long as it was appropriate school and weather wise) and I was soooo hoping she would choose some of these new things I made her...and I guess I was lucky.

Here she is in the hallway on the way to her class room. Her school did a staggered entry so she was in one day last week floating around to all the teachers in a small group of 6 kids and in the end of that week did we go in to the final 'meet the teacher'-meeting.

Today is her first real real day with her real teacher and real class and ohhhh joy (I hope!) taking the school bus. Seriously she has been talking about that school bus for the last year. I think there would be riots if I suggested to drive her, ha.

And last but not least what might be my favorite outfit I made for her. Maybe also hers because she ended up wearing this the rest of the day after the photo shoot.
The t-shirt is basically the same as the first outfit but with a little neck cut-out, bias tape and a pocket. The amazingly cool grey knit with a coating of pinkish shimmer is from Mood. The second Wilma saw that fabric she claimed it for her - non negotiable. Okay!
And the pants - oh the pants. I really hate the world jeggings...but never the less that is what they are. Leggings made with a woven stretchy material. This is super stretchy purple, or is it actually fushia?) cotton corduroy from Mood (yup, that Fabric Weekend had LOTS of good outcomes!)....friendship and fabric wise.
I had already decided to put visible zippers in before I saw Celina's (from Petit a Petit and Family) epic Pattern Anthology contribution but that did not prevent me from thinking of her when I was sewing the pants. I put mine on the outside of the leg. With all the work I usually find that sewing visible zippers is, I wanted to show them off for sure, ha.

A little close up of the details. The jeggings (argh) have simple classic side pockets and an elastic waist. Not really interesting enough to show off, ha. But the zippers and t-shirt pocket...sure!

But WAIT there is more.....
Since you all know by reading the intro to the post that announces this series that Chelise Patterson was the one that inspired me to do this series so I am happily sharing the honor of starting up Sewing for Kindergarten with her.
Make sure you do not miss her first post since April...and the amazing things she made for her daughter Drew!!

Find it by clicking on the banner below:

And come back again tomorrow for more Sewing for Kindergarten!

Sewing for Kindergarten - Flickr Features

Sewing for Kindergarten starts tomorrow but there has already been uploaded some great school clothes to the three sew along Flickr groups.

Please pin from the original blog post. Features will have links where provided. Thanks!

Like this cute 'flipped' Tinny dress from Handmade Frenzy. Uploaded to the preschool group. Perfect with leggings or tights for fall.

Or this insanely cool outfit from Nutta! Also from the preschool group.

And of course I extra love that she used my fellow Sewing Rabbit Creative Team member Jennifer's (Eat.Sleep.Make) Sienna Top tutorial. Find it HERE.

You have to go to her blog post and see the top from the front....it has zipper pockets!

Kristy Keely made these great versions of Oliver+S patterns uploaded to the Elementary group. So well made and I love her fabric choices.

Last but not least has this great knit dress been uploaded to the Middle/high school group.

Looks super stylish AND comfortable - my favorite combination.

There are many more great ones. You should check it out and show them all some love.

You can find all the groups here:

Remember each group will have a winner and the prizes are AMAZING.
So please start sewing. You have at least 4 weeks to upload more school appropriate clothes. And YOU could be the winner of the following prize packet:

And feel free to grab a button if you are sewing along. Thanks!

<a href="http://sewinglikemad.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Sewing Like Mad" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqt_A5BPpKiFKtPYNejL0ZC5KOl_ZAEVfmYjwL64hpaMewtF07aFRfecU_W0VHgF0RQkA1f2aYuSkJ9q-7cr-ebM1gJntG9PQ9ecQmY7SMdX4HpxPK52Eci5l7fIpkPFCI-ZekuYImfI_w/s1600/SFK+180x180+sew+along.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0"

See you tomorrow tuesday the 3rd of September for the first two posts in this series by me and Chelise Patterson. 

You don't want to miss it.