Essentials and Updates

Just a quick post this morning before I dash out the door to an action packed morning of kids sport.

My over locker is back in action....yay!  The pieces arrived from Auckland overnight and I found a new mechanic to install them.  With my previous one I had to unscrew the machine and take the motor off and lug the darned heavy thing into the shop in the centre of town.  Well, my first problem this time was the centre of town....we don't have one currently!  The second problem was trying to park at the door was impossible and so was lugging that thing more than a few metres.  So, I found me a new mechanic.  I had seen this sewing machine supplier set up only a few kilometres from home and thought I would give them a try.  Turns out the fellow I rang there lives across the road from me and best of all he does house calls....yay.  So by lunch time on Thursday, I was back up and running....double, yay!  I was, at that point, suffering withdrawal symptoms.

Any ho, I thought I would start with a simple project to test the machine before I tried anything to complicated or on too thicker fabrics.  So, I whipped up some winter pyjamas for my youngest son, who incidentally is on a sleepover this morning so unavailable to be my model.



I started with an old pair of pyjamas that were showing way too much midriff and the sleeves were half mast.  The pants though, fit well even though they were a little worn in the knees.  I pulled these apart and they became my pattern for the new bottoms.  My boys prefer tees to button up tops so I found two identical near new promotional adult tee shirts in the recycled clothing bag and these became the new top. 





Because both tee shirts had large prints on the front, the top needed to be cut out of the backs and short sleeves of both tee shirts.  I simply lay an rtw tee of my sons on top and used it as the pattern and cut around it.  I created a double sleeve on the new top because the length of the fabric I had to work with necessitated this.  I even managed to use the existing cover stitching which meant I didn't need to get out and re thread my own cover stitch machine.  I was lucky with the ribbing as well and found a small amount left over from my daughters sweatshirt that I wrote about here  For the applique, I found just what I needed on the Internet, and printed it out in the appropriate size.  I cut it out and drew around it on my fabric which I then ironed on to some interfacing before cutting out.  I then pinned and stitched it using a small zigzag onto the new tee.

I know kids pyjamas are pretty inexpensive to buy, but this particular project cost me only time.  The tees I used for the top were destined for the recycling bin and the pants were made from a roll of fabric my husband won at an auction for $6 a few years ago and I think this is the third pair of pyjamas I have made from it so essentially this project was free.  My son is really happy with them and actually called them cozy, so I am one happy and popular Mum....can't ask for more than that!