I burnt the midnight oil last night to finish sewing my final piece of clothes for KCW – another Geranium top for Elena (elephants!). I had planned to make the pleated skirt option but, by the time I had printed out the skirt pattern pieces and stuck them all together, it was 9.30PM and all the lines were swimming in front of my eyes. I decided to cut my losses and go with the gathered skirt instead! What do they say? You have to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em?

I didn’t quite get the buttons sewn on before this morning’s photographs. I’d planned to get them on while the kids had breakfast, but it turned out today was too cold for Elena to wear the shirt to child care so I just went with a safety pin to hold it all together. The buttons are on now.

The sewing details for this top are – Geranium dress pattern, top variation, size 2T with gathered skirt and faux cap sleeves. No piping this time, just a notched neckline. I purchased the light pink fabric for the bodice (and think I’m going to live to regret the choice – it crushes if you even look at it the wrong way) and have been hanging on to the pink elephants since Elena was a wee baby, waiting for the right pattern.

I would have loved to make this one a dress, but I know Elena is more comfortable in pants right now and there’s no point making her something she won’t enjoy wearing. Maybe next time.So, all up, my KCW tally was: one pair of shorts for Elena, two pairs of shorts for Hugo, one dress, three skirts, one pair of leggings and two shirts. Ten items all up – far more than I thought I would get through, especially with the week we ended up having. I feel a bit bad that Elena ended up with the lion’s share of my sewing, but the truth of the matter is that Hugo’s still in the onsie and trackpants stage and, because he spends his whole time crawling around on the floor, just needs functional, stretchy clothes right now.

There have been some casualties, though. We’ve become pretty good at searching through Mt Foldmore for clean clothes. Alex will be very glad to get to bed at a more reasonable hour. I might even clean the bathroom (do I have to?), or fold some washing today (really?).

Kid’s Clothes Week runs a cycle with each change of season and challenges you to work on making clothes for kids for one hour each day for a week. You don’t need to be a blogger to play along – just be willing to stick it out at the sewing machine (or cutting board) for an hour to day and see how far you get. If you like sewing, have a child to dress and need a bit of motivation, I really encourage you to join in next season. You can check out everyone’s projects here. So many of them are amazing, it’s really inspiring.  Now, you’ll have to excuse me while I go and strip the beds…