Real Life Real Sewing

Here I am, participating in Sew 20's first blog tour, it is quite an interesting concept, so I am pretty excited of taking part. This first tour focus on us (or people we sew for) wearing the pieces we made on real life. No posing for nice photos, etc. A while ago I wrote a post kinda similar to this (idea). I had collected a few photos of my kids wearing their handmades on a daily basis. This time though, added to the fun we were given a few questions, and I hope you all enjoy reading my answers. 

1. What do you look for when choosing a sewing project?

Most of all, I look for things that my kids (or myself) are missing at the moment. I like to do a sustainable sewing everytime it is possible. I usually look for projects that I know we need and will use. One thing I totally avoid is sewing items that will be used on a photoshoot and that's it. Of course I sometimes do it, guilty pleasures maybe, but if I can say no to a project like that I will. I also, always try to find a thrifty garment I can refashion into whatever I have in mind, so sometimes it takes a lot of planning and creativity to make these things work. One more thing I look for on my sewing projects is for a comfort and edgy look. 

2. Is there anything you would like to (or wish you could) do differently when selecting projects?

I have a tendency to want to sew all at the same time - don't we all? - One thing I'd like to do, is to get more thoughtful on the projects I take. I'd like to concentrate in one project at the time for a change, and really take my time to each piece of it. I tend to avois simple projects sometimes because they are too basic and won't teach me anything new, but I guess going back to basics is a good thing too and I should work on that. 

3. What is your most used/worn sewing project? This either could be of all time or currently.

Mmm... this is a hard question to answer to. When you start sewing most of your and/or your kids clothes, and you do this for years, there are quite a few items on the made list. I guess the most worn item I made my daughter was this coverall for kindergarden. wore it for two years, almost daily, and now that she's in a new school, her brother used it often in our house (that's him on the photo). 

4. Do you have a project that you thought would be used/worn frequently but just did not end up working out?

I might have sewn a few of those in the past. But when that happens I don't get attached to the pieces and I just pass them away. Usually that is easier if the garment in cause is mine and not from the kids. Then I might keep it for a little longer. One thing that didn't get a lot of use, although I really LOVED it was a blazer I made my daughter. It turned out too small, and she only wear it once, so I could take a few photos before I put it aside for good. 

5. What is your favorite tip or quote that applies to sewing for real life?

My tip(s) is to always look at what you have, either sewn garments (rtw ones, or hand-me-downs count as well). Make a list of what is missing. Go to rtw shops in search of inspiration and start your project when you are sure this will be something that you or your kids/husband/etc really need and will wear, and make sure you ask their opinions (when you are not sewing for yourself), toknow your garment will get a lot of use. 

Do you have any examples of Real Life, Real Sewing to show off? You can play along by using the #realliferealsewing on social media.

6/20 | Sew 20 Tour Kick-off | The Wholesome Mama | Wild & Wanderful | Randoms by Rydz

6/21 | Daydream Believers | Sugarplum Cuties | Friends Stitched Together | The Inspired Wren | PenSeb&Rox

6/22 | Sewstarly | Very Blissful | House of Estrela | The Berry Bunch | Musings of a Seamstress

6/23 | mahlicadesigns | sewingbyti | Candice Ayala | Call Ajaire | Sunflower Seams

6/24 | Beri Bee Designs | Lulu & Celeste | FABulous Home Sewn | Mae & K | Sew 20 Social Media Round-up

6/25 | Sew 20 Tour Wrap-up

EYMM |Daddy & Me Blog Tour|

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Para quem mora nos Estados Unidos (pelo menos), o dia do pai está quase a chegar, aqui já sabemos que foi em Março, mas qualquer desculpa é boa para celebrar a parentalidade. E por isso, usei o os moldes Parker’s Vintage Fit T-Shirt for Children & Men, homem e criança (EYMM), e o meu primeiro pensamento foi fazer uma t-shirt para os meus filhos (menina e menino), mas depois olhando para trás, já fiz vários looks mãe e filha, por isso, reconsiderei e acheique também seria divertido fazer um look só pai e filho, e cheguei até isto. 

Father's Day is around the corner for US residents, at least. It already took place in March in my corner of the world, but I feel like any excuse is a good one when it comes to celebrate parentwood. And so I used the Parker’s Vintage Fit T-Shirt for Children & Men pattern bundle (EYMM) and my first thought was to match daddy and both kids (girl and boy), but then I looked back in time, I have made a few mommy and me looks in the past, with the girl. I thought it could be fun to make something just for the boys too, and here's what we got. 

Lancem-me lá uns fogos de artificio, faxavôre! Depois de tantos anos a dizer que queria e fazia, lá costurei qualquer coisa para o namorido (de roupa, isto é). Hurra!!! A motivação veio mesmo de fazer parte deste tour da EYMM Patterns, com o tema Papá & Eu. Por isso, sim, hoje fico feliz.

Someone throw some firework for me please! After so many years meaning to, I finally sewed something (on the garment department, it is) for the hubby. Hurray!!! And my motto was being on the Daddy & Me tour for EYMM Patterns. So, yes, I am happy today. 

Encomendei o meu tecido da Sweet Mercerie porque o esquesitinho do meu marido não gosta de nenhum dos tecidos que eu já tinha em casa. Comprei então esta malha jersey em azulão, e outra em bege, muito parecidas. Gosto muito de ver o meu V. (namorido) de azul, destaca com o cabelo muito preto e olhos castanhos muito escuros, por isso usei o azul como tecido principal da t-shirt dele, e usei um retalho do bege para o bolso na frente. Para o meu S. (filho) usei o bege como principal e o azul para o detalhe do bolso.

I ordered some fabric from The Sweet Mercerie, because my picky husband didn't like any of the fabric I had in my stash. So, I purchased an electric blue slub jersey and a beige with black speckled jersey fabrics. I really like to see V. (hubby) wearing blue, it stands out with his pretty black hair and dark brown eyes, so the blue was used as main fabric for his t-shirt, and I used a scrap from the beige fabric for the front pocket. For S. (son) I used the beige as main fabric and the blue for the pocket detail. 

Ambos os moldes, de homem e criança, foram bem fáceis montar, cortar e rápidos de costurar. Fiz o do miúdo, depois de tudo cortado, em menos de meia hora. Ambos vêm com duas opções de gola. Escolhi a gola em V porque, se bem me lembro, era algo que nunca tinha feito antes. A primeira foi a do V. e não correu assim tão bem, não ficou centrada a 100%. Acredito que a peça da gola deveria ser um pouco mais longa (ou então meu tecido nãp tinha os 60% recomendado, é verdade que como é bastante elástico eu nem fui confirmar), na minha opinião tive de esticar demasiado a gola. O mesmo não aconteceu com a versão mais pequena. Correu tudo perfeitamente. 

Patterns, both men and children's were easy to assemble, cut and pretty quick to sew. I made the kid's one in less than half an hour after I had everything cut. Both come with two collar options. I chose the V-neck option, which if I can remember well, I hadn't done ever before. The first was the hubby's and it is not 100% centered in the front. I think the collar piece should be a little longer (or my fabric didn't have the 60% stretch recommended in the pattern - mine is pretty stretchy so I didn't even check), I had to stretch the fabric way too much in my opinion. I didn't have the same issue with the boy's version. Everything went smoothly and it looks perfect. 

Já com os bolsos foi ao contrário. O do V. ficou muito melhor. Comecei por costurar o do S. com um ponto zigue zague, mas a máquina começou a repuxar o tecido e quando tentei descoser para voltar a coser, não consegui porque o tecido é fino e a tendência era rasgar.
Assim que acabei por tentar costurar o resto do bolso o melhor possível, e para o bolso do pai já usei um ponto direito. A minha sobrinha estava cá em casa quando terminei as duas t-shirts, e quando lhes mostrei a todos as peças ao acabar, a miúda de 8 anos ficou toda entusiasmada e até eufórica quando percebeu que tinha trocado os tecidos nos bolsos. Adorou! Também fiquei muito agradada. Assenta-lhes a ambos na perfeição.

The oposite happened with the pockets though. Hubby's look much better, I started by sewing the boy's with a zig zag stitch, but it started pulling the fabric which is so thick that it made it impossible to unpick to sew again. So I just tried to do it as best as I could and switched to a straight stitch when attaching the hubby's pocket. My niece was staying over when I finished the pieces and showed them to my family. She's 8 years old and was all excited, noticing the matching switched pockets. She loved it! I was very pleased too. The fit on both of them is pretty good and spot on. 

As opções para o comprimento das mangas são também, mas como temos o verão mesmo ai, optei por fazer as mangas curtas, claro. Cheira-me que vou usar este molde mais vezes. Se ao menos o dia tivesse mais horas.

There's also two options for the sleeves lenght, and because Summer is almost here, I went with the short ones, of course. I see more of these in our future. If only the day lasted a few more hours. 

Make sure to check out all the stops on the EYMM Daddy & Me Blog Tour! (Note: the direct links below won't work until their scheduled day, but feel free to click through and check out their blogs any time!)

June 16

House of Estrela & The Wholesome Mama

June 17

SewJourners & Merri Poppins

June 18

HattieLu Handmade & Blessed x Five

June 19

Pretty and Precious & Adventures With Bubba and Bug

During the tour, all Daddy & Me patterns are on sale! Use coupon code MINIME on the EYMM site to save 25% on the Parker's T-Shirt patterns (Boy's or Men's or the Bundle) or the Hoodie patterns (His & Hers Hoodie or Zander's Hoodie or the Bundle) until June 21 at 11:59pm PST.

#MeMadeMay 2016 - week 4

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O desafio chegou ao fim na passada terça feira, mas só hoje consigo publicar o meu resumo da última semana e conclusões finais. Não usei todas as roupas feitas por mim que tenho no meu guarda roupa e cheguei à conclusão que: 1. tenho de costurar mais peças casuais 2. preciso de costurar mais peças para tempo mais frio 3. as minhas cores são sempre as mesmas. Penso que correu bem, falhei alguns dias, sete, mas o meu balanço é positivo. Até aqui nunca tinha conseguido passar da primeira semana. Uma coisa engraçada, é que mesmo nos dias em que não vesti nada feito por mim, os miúdos vestiram, quando não os dois, pelo menos um deles. Que pena não me ter lembrado de os fotografar a eles também. Infelizmente só não consegui costurar para mim. Acabei as joggers no primeiro dia e foi só. 

The challenge ended last tuesday, but I could only post this today, with my last week's wrap and final thoughts. I didn't use all the handmades from my wardrobe and I realised that: 1. I have to sew more casual clothes 2. I need to sew more clothes for cold weather 3. I always wear the same colors. I think it went well, I failed a few days, seven, but it is a positive balance for me, since I have never made it past the first week on previous years. A funny thing is that my kids were their handmades everyday, even when I didn't. If not both of them, at least one. Too bad I didn't think of photographing them too. Unfortunately I wasn't able to sew myself anything new, I finished the joggers on the first day and that was it. 

E agora para terminar, vamos lá aos looks da última semana. Dia 23: Um vestido reciclado na altura que estava grávida do S. com um casaco de malha de manga curto comprado numa loja de segunda mão. Dia 24: Uma das saias mais antigas que tenho no meu stock de peças feitas por mim. A t-shirt é de compra. Eu penso que fui eu que desenhei o molde, mas sinceramente já não me recordo se assim é mesmo ou se usei o molde de alguma revista.  Dia 25: Como não me apetecia nenhuma das minhas roupas, usei uns brincos, também eles feitos por mim, na altura, para a minha mãe, mas ela achou-os pesados demais e eu fiquei com eles e fiz outros. Dia 26: Voltei a usar as minhas M is for Motto Joggers, o primeiro par que fiz, aqui com uma t-shirt oferecida por uma amiga e uma camisa de ganga fina, de compra. Dia 27: Neste dia experimentei os calções que fiz também grávida do S. servem-me tão bem como naquela altura. Dia 28: Neste dia a escolha recaiu sobre um casaco que reciclei de um vestido de criança, e que nunca mais tinha voltado a vestir (fiz em conjunto com o vestido do dia 23 e podem ver ambos aqui). Por baixo uma blusa de malha fina e calças de ganga de compra, o normal. Dia 29: nada feito por mim. Dia 30: Um peplum que fiz reciclando t-shirts do V. e que vesti só mesmo para ter a certeza que estava na hora de o dar a outra pessoa. Usei como top com calças de ganga de compra. Dia 31: Para terminar uma reciclagem que fiz em Abril ou Maio, de umas calças fiz uma saia. Ainda não está no blog.

To finish this, let's look at the latest week's outfits. Day 23: A refashioned dress I made while pregnant with S. with a thrifted short sleeves cardigan. Day 24: One of the oldest skirts I made and have in my me made stash. The t-shirt's rtw. I believe I drafted this pattern but I can't be sure anymore if it is so, or if I used a magazine's pattern instead. Day 25: I didn't feel like wearing any of my me mades this day, so I went with me made earings instead. I made these for my mom but she thought they were too heavy, so I made them another pair and kept these for myself. Day 26: I used my M is for Motto Joggers again, the first pair it is, and wore it with a t-shirt a friend gifted me and a chambray button up shirt. Day 27: Here I tried on a pair of maternity shorts I made also while pregnant with S. They fit me just like that did back then. Day 28:  on a cardigan I refashioned from a kid sized dress this day, I didn't wear it again since when I made it (it completed the look for the dress I wore on day 23, and you can check them both here). Underneath I wore a rtw light knit shirt and jeans, as usual. Day 29: No me mades. Day 30: A peplum I refashioned from V.'s shirts, which I wore just to make sure it was about time to pass it on to someone else. I wore it as a top with rtw jeans. Day 31: Last, to finish, a refashion I made back in April or May, turning pants into a skirt. Not on the blog yet.