I spent a very enjoyable March following along the talented folks who jumped into the Me-Made-March or in one case Mama-Made-March. It made me want to start sewing again. I was so impressed at how easy they made it seem (hehe ...groan). Anyway, I did my usual thing of spending a whole month trawling through the sewing books I own, making notes, organising my sewing patterns, making lists of supplies I had and those I needed...my usual long journey to the beginning of something. But, then, when I started, I felt reasonably comfortable, instead of the clothes sewing anxiety that sometimes strikes me. All that effort and what if it doesn't fit..blah blah. I also solved the biggest problem by deciding to do more the "mama" thing than the "me" thing. Though trust me, it's all part of the grand plan of moving on to skirts for me next.
Somewhere along the road, I read to iron the tissue paper pattern before cutting it out - that seemed weird but I did it anyway. It actually wasn't that hard. I just made sure the iron was on low and it pressed out heaps of really big wrinkles.
I then laid out my new cutting board which had come recommended by Buttontree Lane - and I too loved it. I could confidently cut without worrying about my dining room table top. (sorry about the gloom in the photos - it was an overcast afternoon)
I had remembered from my sewing adventures in the past that I hated the pinning and cutting phase, so, this time around, I decided to trace the sewing pattern onto the fabric using carbon paper and a tracing wheel. It is a multi-sized pattern and potentially it could be used again - though this is actually a bit of a furphy because the pattern I have goes from size 3-8 and my little one is at the top of the range. I still prefer it though. It did save me some fussy cutting of the tissue paper. Instead I did fussy tracing but then I found the cutting really easy cause I wasn't wrangling the tissue paper and the fabric and those sharp and pokey pins, all at the same time. I did lightly pin the tissue paper to the fabric while I traced with the wheel but I didn't pin as I cut. The fabric is flannel (PJs after all) so it stuck together quite nicely and had a nice weight to it as I cut. The tracing took me about an hour, and the cutting took 15 minutes. I was really happy with that balance.
My photos aren't super clear but if you look closely you'll see that there are little red dots that form the shape of the pattern, and that I've traced the pattern marks and then gone over them with yellow tailor's chalk.
In the photo below you can see the red carbon paper all dotty and lined from running the tracing wheel over it mutliple times. I'm reasonably frugal and I've put it back in the cupboard for another day...I think it still has some life left in the red carbon.
That was enough for a single sewing session, so, I took Built by Wendy's advice and bundled up the trim, the bias binding, the cut interfacing and the cut out pattern pieces, labelled it all and then put it back in the cupboard. Crossed fingers it comes out next week and is sewn together and that I don't find it when Tess moves out to University.