Mini Hudson Pants: the workout edition

Posted on January 21, 2016 by oliver's fancy

I first discovered this fabric because Rachael sent me a bit to try out. It was just so soft and squishy I knew that I needed more!! I promptly ordered yardage to make hudson pants for the lot of us, plus a running sweatshirt for me (more on that very soon!). The fabric is a terry-backed lycra wickaway. (Main fabric is the piston green color way.) It works really well for exercising in so if you’re needing some cold weather exercise clothes, you’ve gotta try this! I know it’s kinda silly to make clothes for the boys out of the wickaway but it was so cute that I couldn’t resist. Hey, they get sweaty playing too! Plus Eliot is in love with “comfy pants” and so I knew he would love these.

I would like to point out that I actually bought this particular color for Eliot and an orange colorway for Oliver but when I went to make O’s, he decided he wanted to match his brother and I managed to have enough of the green to make two pairs. (The fabric is crazy wide!). So I didn’t set out to do the matchy-matchy thing…It just kinda happened.

I seem to be the last person in the sewing universe who has yet to make mini hudsons for their kids. I’ve been dying to make the boys some, but just hadn’t had the time yet. And now that I finally got around to it I give it two thumbs up. Love it! Super quick and easy especially if you use the serger. I made the boys a size 3 and 5….Eliot’s fit great but Oliver’s are kinda big. Which is fine because he will grow into them but I think next time I’ll make his skinny self a 4…

And yeah, I could not get any good pictures of the boys together! They were being such goobers but it was so cold outside that I didn’t want to force them to stay outside too long. Headless shots are better than yucky indoor lighting. Also well aware Eliot’s shirt doesn’t match… #realkidsrealclothes, y’all… He’s even wearing his brother snow boots to complete his crazy get-up…Kids. But when he asks in his cute little voice to wear “the comfy pants you made me,” I’ll let him wear whatever he wants with them. He’s a good schmoozer that one.

A Very Cotton+Steel Christmas

Posted on December 7, 2015 by oliver's fancy

I saw someone on Instagram several months ago post a picture of the new cotton+steel Tinsel Christmas collection and I knew that had to be our Christmas pjs this year. I’m trying to make yearly handmade Christmas Eve pjs a thing. I’ve been pretty good at getting the boys’ pjs made the past few years but not so good at adult versions. This is the year I’m going to do it all! 😉 So far, so good since I have the boys pjs completely finished and it’s not even mid-December. Who is this person I’m becoming? Never fear my Christmas sewing list is a mile long and I’ll be sewing well into the wee hours of Christmas eve to finish it all!

Anywho, back to the pjs. I picked up the fabric at Fabricworm a month or so ago using a gift card I’d been saving and got my favorite prints out of the line. I knew the boys had to have this snow globe fabric. I mean, it’s just too cool that several of the places they’ve been in the last year and a half (Paris, San Fransisco…) are pictured in the globes! They got to decide which color they each wanted and thankfully there was no fighting over that! Though they were complete goobers during the photo shoot and so ended up getting their heads cut out of half of the pictures because they were just ridiculous faces.

Here’s the specs on their outfits:

Eliot:

Pants: Parsley Pants. Size 4. (sized up because of cloth diaper bulk.) Quilting cotton. No mods except cuffing up the hem for length.
Shirt: Safari Raglan. Size 2. Laguna Jersey in Onyx for sleeves. Thermal Waffle Knit for main body. Both from Imagine Gnats. The reindeer head is a freezer paper stencil.

Oliver:

Pants: Parsley Pants. Size 5. Flannel. Mods- widened the waistband from 1.5″ to 1.75″ to accommodate the 1.5″ wide elastic I had in stock.
Shirt: Old Navy (Oliver had this shirt in his closet and since it matched his pjs perfectly, it didn’t make sense to make him another one. Plus I used up the rest of my waffle knit on Eliot’s tee) . Added the reindeer freezer paper stencil in silver glitter paint.

The stencil didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned but overall I think their Christmas pjs are really cute. And they’re happy so that’s really what matters. Now the hard part is to keep them put away until Christmas Eve! And of course get busy sewing mine and the hubby’s pair. But, I almost forgot, if you check out my latest Imagine Gnat’s post, you’ll see I already have my shirt finished and it uses the same waffle knit that Eliot’s has!

Hawthorn+Rowan Sweatshirt Hack

Posted on November 30, 2015 by oliver's fancy

hawthorn-rowan hack (3 of 6)

I bought the Hawthorn pattern a long time ago and have been wanting to try it out for so long, but kept putting it off. Bigger projects like this take a while for me to get psyched up for because the time commitment is more than just a simple t-shirt. I was finally motivated to get to it when I realized Oliver didn’t have any simple zip-down hoodies for this fall.

hawthorn-rowan hack (1 of 6) The Hawthorn comes with two options- a full zip or half zip sweatshirt with a collar. I really wanted to make a hoodie so I figured I would see if the hood from the Rowan tee fit the Hawthorn neckline- spoiler alert: it does!

hawthorn-rowan hack (4 of 6)

I thought I’d give a basic recap for any of you who are interested in replicating this hack yourselves:

Constructed both pieces separately- size 4 for both.
Made the hood exactly as instructed except for the final step where you sew the front corners together.
For the jacket, I left out all the steps concerning the collar construction.
I did attach the front facing pieces to the zipper and just moved them down to start at the top neckline of the jacket since there was no collar for them to attach to.
Then I just sewed the hood to the jacket matching up the front and back middle points of each. I did end up seam ripping the front facing at the very top so that I could sandwich the hood between the main jacket and facing piece when sewing them together.
Finally I used the same twill tape from the rim of the hood to cover up the jacket/hood neckline seam- making it look very professional!

hawthorn-rowan hack (5 of 6) And presto- everything lined up perfectly and the jacket turned out so nice! Happy, happy dance!! I am so, so pumped at how awesome this looks. You know I’m a huge fan of Laura’s patterns anyway so I had high hopes that this hack would work out, but it turned out even better than I had anticipated!

hawthorn-rowan hack (2 of 6)

It did take me two weeks to finish this jacket because I was having some major brain lapses while sewing and would have to put it down and come back later. I’m just not used to sewing more complicated patterns with all the multiple facings pieces and such. But every time I would come back after a break, whatever I was struggling with would finally make sense and I’d move forward a bit. Next time I go to make this, I think it will come together super quickly since I’ve got the instructions all figured out now.

hawthorn-rowan hack (6 of 6)

My fabric is this yummy french terry from Imagine Gnats shop. I used the wrong side for the pockets and inner hood. She’s out of this color but here it is in a lighter gray colorway. I’ve slowly been buying up more and more of her french terry fabrics. It’s just so perfect for cozy fall and winter garment sewing. Oliver and I perused her website to pick out exactly which french terry he wanted for this jacket. He didn’t seem super impressed when the fabric came in the mail, but once I sewed it up and he tried it on, he loved it and is always grabbing his “cozy jacket” now when we head outside.

Halloween 2015: the Justice League Costumes

Posted on October 23, 2015 by oliver's fancy

So I would like to point out that it’s friday, the week before Halloween, and I’m done with the boys’ costumes!! Woot for early finishes! Now part of that is because there’s a party this weekend they want to attend with their costumes but hey, I’ll take credit for this early finish however I can.

I started asking the boys about a month ago what they wanted to be for Halloween this year. At first I was kind of hoping for another star wars run, but that seemed almost cliche with the movie coming out in December. And they both wanted to be superheroes this year. There was a bit of argument over who got to be Batman, but Eliot won that when Oliver landed on Green Lantern as his persona. Which is kinda funny because I know nothing of Green Lantern. A few months ago, I picked up a superhero board book for the boys and it’s kind of a dictionary of each of the Justice League members and what they do…that was our first introduction to Green Lantern. Oliver decided he wanted to be him so that he could have the ring- whatever works, I guess.

You won’t see a ring in these pics because I actually forgot to have him put it on (oops) but after lots of searching for a ring, we found one at Aldi in the Halloween section- it lights up and everything. So perfect and he’s so pumped.

Both of the boys are wearing Flashback Tees. Oliver’s tee is a 4 and Eliot’s a 3. I used Laguna jersey in Onyx and Grass. Eliot’s was a super simple all-black outfit with a freezer paper stenciled logo. Oliver’s required a bit more thought. I did a lot of google searching Green Lantern costumes and they all had this side inset of black along with the angled black lower sleeve. The triangle shirt insets took me a little more brain power than I’d like to admit, and I’m not sure they were 100% succesful- they should have been a bit bigger. But Oliver loves it so that’s really all that matters. FYI I mixed glow in the dark paint into the mix for both logos so both shirts actually glow in the dark- pretty awesome. And that will be super fun on Halloween night.

The pants I’m super in love with. I used the Fancy Pants leggings pattern in a size 2 and 4. I just love how their little legs look in fitted leggings- especially Eliot’s leg rolls… all the heart eyes. Though FYI Eliot is wearing a cloth diaper in these pics so he’s got a little more bulk down there than you would see with a disposable. I don’t like to make costumes for just one night so I’m glad these ended up super comfy so that they can be pjs once Halloween is over. Or regular clothes too… you never really know how they will end up in rotation. As long as they’re worn, I don’t care!

The masks are made from two layers of felt cut out with a layer of craft fuse in between for durability. It’s my first mask-making experience so they’re not perfect, but the boys actually wanted to keep them on for most of the photo shoot so I consider that a win. Maybe they’ll actually be worn for trick or treating. Plus it just makes this outfit tie in so well with the Kid’s Clothes Week disguise theme. Eliot’s mask is a template that I got here. Oliver’s I just winged from some pics I found.

I totally cheated when I realized Eliot could just use Oliver’s Darth Vader cape from last year (blogged here) Score for not needing to make another cape!! I know this is a picture heavy post but I just couldn’t resist all of these shots… Sometimes I find them too cute. And this last one, yeah Oliver lay down and posed all by himself. I could not resist taking a picture as I died laughing.

Hope your Kid’s Clothes Week and Halloween sewing is going well! I am actually making costumes for both me and the husband this year so I’ve got to get busy on them now…Cannot wait to show them all to you! I’m so excited we have a Halloween party to attend this year so I can finally justify family costumes. We’re gonna be adorable. 😉 and cheesy.

Spooktacular Dr. Seuss Raglan Tees

Posted on October 16, 2015 by oliver's fancy

So I’m on a total raglan kick right now…mostly because I’ve got the pattern out on my cutting table so it’s super convenient to just grab it and cut! I picked up a yard of this Dr. Seuss Halloween fabric on while tagging along on my husband’s business trip to Charleston this week. I like to stop by Five Eighth’s Seams if I get a chance because they always have some good eye-candy. I didn’t even know there was a Dr. Seuss Halloween line but I just could not pass this fabric up. I’m not normally a huge Halloween decor person but seriously, Horton and the Grinch dressed up…I just couldn’t resist. And since I still have most of the yardage left, I think I might make a quilt with the rest of it. That way we have something that we can pull out every fall to celebrate the new season.

But Oliver really wanted a shirt made from the fabric too so we did the quick and easy appliqué option. I seriously googled for shirt ideas for way too long this afternoon- making this decision way harder than it needed to be. I felt like a simple appliqué was too expected and not very exciting but when I thought about adding the raglan option to the tee, that made it a little more interesting. And just reading this, y’all are thinking “wow she way overthinks things…” yeah it’s true. I just can’t help it and it drives my husband crazy. and probably all the friends I text for decision advice. lol.

These shirts were both made with Laguna Jersey. The black is from the imagine gnats shop and the orange is scraps from this shirt (wow, how long ago was that?!). I was going to change up the colors for Oliver’s tee but he insisted on matching exactly with his brother so there you have it…two twinsies.

Oliver’s is a 4 and Eliot’s is a size 2. Pattern is the Safari Raglan once again…I added a 1/4″ of length to Oliver’s to help it fit my lanky boy a little longer. Neither shirt is hemmed because I’m lazy like that. I did secure all my serger seams so the shirts won’t start unravelling..ahem. Because that has happened on occasion when I’m extra lazy.

I know that it might have been silly to make them shirts when Halloween is so close so they’re only going to wear them a few times before the season is over but I’m glad I made them. I think it’s fun to have something a little special just because… it’s one of the reasons I am glad I sew. And now I can get a little glee out of seeing them in their little twinsies outfits. Yep, little boys sure are cute. Even when they aren’t huge fans of making nice faces for your camera. 😉

Swamp Rabbit Raglan Tee

Posted on October 9, 2015 by oliver's fancy

I have been so busy the last month with various assignments that I haven’t had any time for just-for-fun sewing. Don’t get me wrong- I’ve enjoyed all the things I signed up for but sometimes you want to do something just because. I finally had time this week to have some fun. I picked a quick and easy project- a raglan tee for Oliver. I love how easy it is to make kid tees…seriously it took us longer to pick out the fabric than it did to sew. Oliver is really into arts and crafts right now and he was actually a big help in the process. He helped me tape together the pattern, picked out the fabrics, chattered to me while I was sewing, and then painted the stencil on. It was fun to have him along for the ride.

I used the safari raglan pattern from Titchy Threads. I have long needed a good raglan pattern and Laura has filled the void. I’m a huge fan of her patterns. The fit and construction are always spot on. I sewed Oliver a size 4 and it fits perfectly now. If I want him to have room to grow, I might sew him a 5 but I’m pleased with how good this looks on him now.

We have this trail in our town called the Swamp Rabbit Trail and it’s a 13+ (wikipedia says 28.6 miles round trip) mile walking/biking trail that follows the bed of a former railroad nicknamed after the swamp rabbit. It’s a huge local attraction that now has shops and cafes along the sides of it. We are big fans and I run on it several times a week as well as bike with the boys at least once per week. Oliver is so familiar with it that he can tell you where the different attractions are along the route. So when I wanted to incorporate something local into this tee, I thought what better than to use our favorite trail?

I drew the pennant stencil and letters on freezer paper- after some trial and error with the letter sizing and then had fun (lol) cutting out all those tiny letters. I don’t have any gray fabric paint so I mixed white and black together until Oliver and I were satisfied with the shade and Oliver painted it on for me.

I think we are both pretty happy with how it turned out, and I am hoping it gets lots of wear this fall! The fabric is my favorite tee go-to: laguna jersey in royal and white/pdf from the Imagine Gnats shop.

Snail Sketchbook Shirt Take 2

Posted on July 5, 2015 by oliver's fancy

I’m back with another Lotus Pond shirt for you today. Previous one blogged here. This time it’s the multicolored snails (still available here). Funny story- I had a yard of each of the snail fabrics and asked the boys which one they wanted for their shirts. Eliot immediately grabbed the yellow snails and Oliver grabbed this version. Whew! No fighting for once. So nice when it works out that way- it doesn’t always in case you wondered. 😉

I wanted the boys’ shirts to be a little different from each other, so for Oliver’s version, I accented the snails with this artisan cotton in green-blue from imagine gnats store (it’s similar in weight to shot cotton or chambray). I used the accent fabric on the button band, the collar, and the yoke. This artisan cotton is the perfect contrast to the snails as it has both blue and green threads in it.

Oliver is wearing a size 4 of the sketchbook shirt and has plenty of room in the waist for his skinny little body. I think if I made him a long-sleeve version, I would slim the sides down a bit for a more slim-cut version, but I like this boxier look for a short-sleeve shirt. We were struggling with our photo shoot so I had idea to give him one of our old cameras we have and he had so much fun “taking pictures” of everything. Which led to an interesting discussion of film versus digital cameras as he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t see his pictures on my laptop. FYI his shorts are the sunny day shorts I blogged here. These are his favorite shorts to wear since he found out they match with everything! The drawstring got lost along the way because he kept playing with it and pulled it out so that part is a bit of wasted effort. Such is life, I guess.And now I’ve got to move on to another sewing project that’s easier on the eyes. I’ve about gone cross-eyed taking and editing pictures of these snails! At this point, my eyes are so fuzzy I can’t tell which pictures are in focus and which ones aren’t so I’ll apologize for any weirdness you see. I’m moving on to some selfish sewing now and will have something pretty fun to share with you on Friday- if I can finish up the sewing for it that is!!

Lotus Pond Sketchbook Shirt

Posted on June 29, 2015 by oliver's fancy

I’ve got one last Kid’s Clothes Week make to share with you- bringing my total makes this week to 4 pairs of shorts, 1 tank top, and 1 button down shirt. I had one more button down shirt that I was hoping to get to this week, but that was pretty ambitious so I’m not bummed to have skipped it for now . I’m just happy with how much sewing I was able to squeeze in this week!

This is an Oliver+S Sketchbook shirt (guess I was on a roll with that pattern) in a size 2T for Eliot. Timing wise this worked out well for me because I made Oliver a sketchbook shirt in 2T last spring for Vintage May (blogged here) and so all the pattern pieces were traced out already. Woot! This shirt is about as complicated as the shorts are easy so it was a huge bonus to have the pieces traced- about 7 or 8 of them in total, I think.

I’m not normally a short sleeve button down person but I think it’s pretty cute on little boys. Plus I’m so not motivated to do all the sleeve placket/cuff work of a long sleeve for a shirt that will be grown out of within a year’s time! I’m not a completely crazy sewing mom. lol. Even with the short sleeves, I had a time of it with those sleeves! I don’t normally struggle with sleeve easing, but I ended up with quite a few puckers this time. In the efforts of not being a perfectionist and also not having any more time to mess with it, I left most of them alone and hope no one will be looking closely enough at his shirt to notice them.

Snail fabric is from Rae’s Lotus Pond line for Cloud9. (not sure where I bought this but I found some at Fabric.com) I’ve been saving this fabric for this very shirt ever since I saw Jessica’s version…a long time ago! Side note- we miss your blog and Film Petit very much, Jess (not that she’s reading this but I think Kristin is so I’m speaking to you too 😉 )!!

I was just going to make the shirt straight snails, but as I was cutting it out I had the idea to add some chambray for a bit of contrast. The chambray used is double cloth and quite a nice weight (cannot for the life of me find a link to the exact fabric-sorry)! I wavered back and forth on exactly what pieces to make contrasting and ended up going with the collar, yoke and pockets in the chambray. I posted a picture of my progress on Instagram and was blown away by how much love this little shirt got. Thanks to all my IG friends for bolstering my confidence because I had a moment of self doubt as to whether the final project was actually any good or not. Love my supportive IG community!!

The 2t size ended up fitting Eliot fairly generously- leaving plenty of room to grow, but I’m happy with that because now it will hopefully last him a while before he grows out of it. Two year olds are a bit of a booger to photograph- hence the animal cracker bribes you see in this pictures. Whatever works, amiright? Anything is better than crying pictures. And that wraps up my summer 2015 kid’s clothes week! I didn’t stick too closely to the travel theme but I kinda feel each of my items could loosely work in that framework…I mean, snails are always traveling around to get places, right? 😉

kcw summer 2015: superhero shorts

Posted on June 26, 2015 by oliver's fancy

I’m back with another pair of sketchbook shorts to share with you. I know, I’m totally a broken record sometimes, but when you find a good pattern, you gotta squeeze the life out of it. I have been seeing superhero shorts around the internets for the last few weeks (check out these from Jane and then Tara’s got a great pair unblogged but you can find them on her instagram- @girllikethesea) and just knew the boys would love a pair for themselves. I took them to our local Joann and let them pick out the fabric they wanted and then I got to work.
I used the same mods as the last version- blogged here. To recap: Oliver’s wearing a 3T and Eliot a 2T- with about an inch cut off his length.
When I finished the shorts, Oliver decided he HAD to have a matching shirt. I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant until I realized he wanted something similar to the superhero pajamas I made him a while back. Because I’m a super nice mom 😉 , I decided to humor his request. We decided upon a white tank with a superhero pocket- he was very specific about the need for the pocket. The white (PDF to be specific) is more Kaufman laguna jersey. It’s the only color I have left actually so I’ve got to stock up on some more! I had this red ribbing that coordinated nicely with the superhero fabric so I used that to bind the arm and neck holes. I used the Titchy Threads Twisted Tank again for the tank top. Can’t say enough good things about how awesome that tank pattern is. Very highly recommend it. And I still have yet to try the twisted version but it’s on my to-do list!
Eliot did not get a tank because I ran out of time…and that’s totally unfair, I know, but being the less verbal child does have its drawbacks… His tee is an old up-cycle I made for Oliver way back during a long time ago Kid’s Clothes Week.
My next KCW project is not shorts- imagine that 😉 but the week’s end is coming so quickly I’m afraid I won’t get to it! I’m going to start plugging away at it during nap time today though so we will see how much I can get done!
Oh and I totally forgot about Rachael’s Shorts on the Line sew along going on, but head on over to Kollabora to view all the awesome shorts being made and link up your own if you have some. Quite serendipitous that I just happened to be in a shorts mood during all that! Don’t forget the Kid’s Clothes Week project pool either!

kcw summer 2015: sketchbook shorts

Posted on June 24, 2015 by oliver's fancy

A quick little photoshoot today to show you my first kid’s clothes week makes- two pairs of sketchbook shorts. I’ve had this oliver+s pattern for several years and I’ve made the shirt a few times (blogged here) but I never really gave the shorts a second glance until I saw these two versions from gail and tara…I mean, how could I not try this out after this cuteness?? Another item worth mentioning is that the more I sew, the more I enjoy using oliver+s patterns. They are just such an enjoyable experience all the way around- so well written and you end up with such a professional-looking garment. These shorts in particular are such a quick and easy sew that I highly recommend them.

I picked up this chambray anchor fabric at five-eighths seams back in January when I tagged along on my husband’s business trip to Charleston…sigh… I could use another one of those business trips now! Anywho I’ve been saving this for the right project and these shorts were definitely the right choice. anchor shorts (5 of 6)

One comment I would have on this pattern is it seems to run pretty long. Which is kind of funny because I thought the shirt version ran a little short. Oliver is pretty tall but skinny so I made him the 3T even though he’s typically a 4- and even then I deepened the hem a bit to have them hit where I wanted them to. Eliot is wearing a 2T and I cut about an inch off the bottom of his and also sewed a deep hem. Eliot wears cloth diapers so I sometimes have problems with shorts being too tight in the bum area but these turned out pretty good for him. Not a ton of extra room but they aren’t too small either.

Oh and in case you were wondering there’s some Dr. Seuss fabric hiding in those pocket linings- this little trick is making all my recent handmades get worn a ton! And Eliot has been asking for some “grinch pockets” so I’m happy he got himself some finally. 🙂I’ve got the sewing bug for this Kid’s Clothes Week so I’m excited to see what I can pull off- fingers crossed for happy naps and quiet times this week!