One Week One Pattern '14: Complete!

It's a wrap! Today was the final day of this year's OWOP challenge as hosted by Handmade Jane (thanks, Jane!), and a thoroughly fun challenge it was too. If you recall, I decided I was going to take part using the Playful Kitty baby leggings pattern from Ottobre magazine. Signing up to the challenge was a great push to bash out a few more pairs of this excellent and super quick pattern.

After making the original pair (on the left of the picture above) I revisited the pattern and made a few changes. I, umm, *coughs*, added the seam allowance that I should have added before, as well as lowering the waistline at the front by 2 cm. 

The second from left pair are made from some weird vintage cream and navy printed knit fabric. It's really thin and synthetic-y feeling but I'm also strangely drawn to it! I have a ton of it and will therefore probably make many garments for Dolores from it in the future, so I may as well start now! 

The stripy pair are made from some amazing organic interlock that is available here from The Village Haberdashery. These were made using scraps left over from the Moneta sample I made for VH's owner Annie in advance of the class I taught there a few times.   

The fourth pair are made from the same ribbed synthetic knit that I used last year to make a pair of pregnancy leggings from. You can see them in action here. By the end of my pregnancy, they were the only things I could fit on my lower half! I really like that she now has a version of the same leggings I wore whilst growing her!

So on the documentation of the challenge, because I'm sure that's what you really came here to see!

Saturday (Day 1):

Blue version 

Sunday (Day 2):

Cream and navy version

Monday (Day 3):

Cartoon print brown version

Tuesday (Day 4):

Cream and navy version

Wednesday (Day 5):

Stripy version rolled up in a natty manner

Thursday (Day 6):

Blue version (she was not feeling well today)

Friday (Day 7):

Started with cartoon print brown version, but due to a leaky nappy an outfit change was required before photography could commence. So, stripy version!

Conclusion:

I love this challenge! As I said before, I love it for many of the same reasons I love Me-Made-May. It's a great opportunity to enjoy and celebrate the things we've made that we actually want to wear in our day-to-day lives. Plus it's wonderful to see how people interpret different patterns, and it's great to hoover up ideas for future creating.

Regarding the leggings themselves, they are also a great success. The lowered front works well and I was surprised by how many not-too-bizarre-looking outfit combo's I could rustle up including this quartet. The addition of seam allowance on the pattern obvs makes them come up a fair bit bigger, and at the moment the pair without seam allowance currently fit her best. However, it's great to know that the others will last for months and months, especially because I created quite a large overlap on the waist elastic with an eye to letting them out further down the line, just like the pregnancy pair I made myself actually! In fact I'm sitting here typing this wearing the black pair of pregnancy leggings I made, with the elastic made a lot shorter again!

Baby Leggings and OWOP 2014

You know how it is. After a project FAIL that used up a whole load of time and sewing mojo, like my would-be denim sweet shorts, you often need a quick pick-me-up project. Something so quick and easy that it restores your faith in sewing. For me that invariably means making something from knit fabric. And what's even quicker than a project made from knit fabric? Something made from knit fabric that has JUST ONE PATTERN PIECE. 

Pattern:

I already have about five editions of the kids version of Ottobre design magazine from my subscription which ended last year. However, a couple of weeks ago I found the latest edition on sale in my local WHSmiths, and seeing as I have never seen them on sale IRL before, I was tempted to add another to the stack. At first I was reluctant to fork out £10, but when I saw that it had a baby/younger toddler version of the Tiny Path toddler leggings that I made my niece for Christmas, I decided it would be an investment. If this pair worked out well, I envisioned making a stack of these over the next however-long-Dolores-fits-into-the-sizes-of-this-pattern.  

Dolores is about to turn 11 months old, and is about 70 cms high last time I measured her. I traced the 74 size because that was probably couple of months ago now! I also added an extra 1 cm to the hem allowance because she tends to grow out of clothes length-ways long before she grows out of them width-ways. 

The thing to remember about Ottobre patterns is that they have hem allowances, facings and waistband turnings included, but not seam allowances. I didn't. I prepped this pattern, this whole one piece of pattern, whilst chatting to Pat and keeping an eye on Dolores, and totally forgot to add the seam allowances. DUHHHHH. I only remembered about the seam allowance after I finished sewing them. Anyway, the fit of this pair actually turned out ok, but I retraced the pattern piece, the one pattern piece, and added the seam allowance for future versions which will therefore hopefully last a bit longer than this one will.  

Fabric:

How good is this jersey fabric?! Not only is the print super cute, but it is also amazing quality. As you probably know if you read this blog often, I tend to either use stash fabric or harvest fabric from unwanted garments for my sewing projects. I do because fabric production and treating is very environmentally damaging, and I try to lower the impact my sewing habit has on the planet a little bit where I can. But this fabric was bought by a friend of mine brand new (as I wrote about here) and I must admit that it felt like a treat to work with and now have in Dolores's wardrobe. She bought it from myfabrics.co.uk and although they don't seem to have the same print anymore, there are a lot of other very cute children's print jersey if that's your bag. 

Thoughts:

Naturally, as soon as I made these I uncovered an enormous pile of hand-me-down trousers and leggings that I'd stashed away in Dolores's current size. But none as fun as these of course. I'm going to continue to make a load more of these leggings though in the next size up because she is growing at such an alarming rate, she'll probably need them next week. You'll have to wait for a modelled shot of these leggings, however you won't have to wait long because I've decided to use this pattern to take part in this year's OWOP challenge....

I was so pleased to hear that the OWOP is going ahead again! Originally hosted by its creator in 2012, Tilly challenged sewers with a fetish for a particular sewing pattern to wear the garments we'd made from that pattern every day for a week. I took part with Simplicity 2451 skirt pattern and found it a fascinating and fun challenge. It was great to be pushed to find new outfit combinations that incorporated my three versions, but also to see the many versions of others popular patterns that sewers around the globe had made and worn. It's a bit like a mini Me-Made-May, if you will!

This year it is hosted by the super lovely Handmade Jane and will take place from 6th to 12th September. I emailed Jane to check that it was cool to take part with a pattern that wouldn't be worn by myself, and she replied very swiftly to say that she insisted that I took part with this pattern! I can't wait to see what everyone else chooses as their OWOP pattern and to see how they wear them.