I still have quite a bit to share from Kids Clothes Week. Getting pictures of everything has been a bit challenging, being that we were so desperately in need of new clothes that they were being worn hot off of the machine AND my trusty photo backdrop (which, incidentally is also our camper) was dropped off at the repair shop to get ready for our camping trip. It's been gone for more than a week and I still step outside with garments and camera in hand, ready to use it and realize that there is nowhere outdoors in our weedy, jungled yard to safely snap a photo these days:)
Anyway! Last week, in addition to sewing for KCW, I snuck a couple of entries into Papercut Patterns' Anima Pants Competition. I actually made myself two pairs and one pair for my girl. The pattern only comes in adult sizes but I really thought that the pattern would lend itself well to kids too.
I really love converting an adult pattern to kid size, like when I made a tiny super tote for STYLO. I didn't know how it would work out with clothing, but I am stoked. To get the pants pattern in my daughter's size, I did some kind of fuzzy math. I wanted to get a percentage so that I could reduce the size of the printed pattern. So... I measured my daughter's height and waist and then divided those numbers by my height and waist measurements. According to these measurements, she's about 60 percent of my size. I printed the pattern off at 60 percent and then proceeded as normal. It worked! And even though we didn't win the grand prize (so many FABULOUS entries!!) I was surprised and thrilled to be included as a "highly commended" competitor.
To go with the little girl Anima Pants, I made this Flashback Skinny Tee and embroidered a kitty face on it - heavily inspired by Made by Rae's DARLING kitty-faced-baby set from last spring.
Now, I hesitate to ever call anything a "tutorial" because I am such a novice myself. Just the same, embroidery can be tricky and in case knowing how I did this inspires you to make something yourself, I'll share what I remember about doing it:)
First, I cut out small shapes using knit stay tape and fused them to the front of the tee to use as a map for the embroidery. This step is fussy but the embroidery will look way better of the shapes are already outlined. If you were embroidering on a light-colored fabric, you could just draw the shapes using a dissapearing ink pen.
I used the satin stitch on the eyes and nose. And a split stitch for the whiskers.
I didn't fuse anything to the inside of the tee to cover the knots but they are holding up well to washing and not feeling scratchy to her either. After the tee was embroidered, I assembled it as usual. Have you embroidered on knits before? Any tips?
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