Birthday Raglan Tees

Posted on June 14, 2016 by oliver's fancy

birthday raglans (6 of 6)

I haven’t had a chance to show either of the boys’ birthday shirts yet so I thought I’d just take pictures of both at once to show you. I started this tradition of birthday number tees back for Oliver’s first birthday and although I’m almost always sewing them the night before, I have yet to miss a year!

birthday raglans (2 of 6)

This year I used the safari raglan pattern for both boys. In the past I have done more intricate designs (see last year’s superhero stormtrooper), but with all that’s going on this year, I needed something quick and easy.

birthday raglans (1 of 6)

I finally realized that there was a short sleeve option on the safari pattern (duh!) so I printed that off and used that to make the short sleeves. I can’t quite remember now, but I think they are wearing a size 3 and 5. And as you can see, they are completely unhemmed…birthday tees are meant to be fun and casual. Who needs a hem on that?

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Both boys’ tees are made from Laguna jersey from the Imagine Gnats shop... I’m telling ya, it pays to keep a variety of colors in stock for last minute tee-making needs!

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Oliver’s stencil turned out a little harder to read than I had anticipated…I started out with a black stencil but you couldn’t see that at all so I mixed white and black to reach a nice gray shade and repainted it. But on that dark gray tee, it ended up a little more subtle than I had planned. It does have kind of a nice echo effect with the black paint behind the gray though.

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Eliot’s stencil is the result of me searching pinterest for 3rd birthday shirt ideas. I saw several variations of the three fingers tee and thought it was perfect for him as he loves to hold up his fingers and tell everyone how old he is. Unexpected side effect: I made the shirt green as that’s his favorite color and now he calls it his Yoda shirt because Yoda is green, therefore anything green belongs to Yoda. 🙂 Kids and their logic.

And that’s a wrap on birthday tees for another year! I don’t know how long they’ll want me to keep making these but I’m going to keep going as long as I can. 🙂

Thing 1 & Thing 2 Tanks…and a Thing 3

Posted on May 20, 2016 by oliver's fancy

things 1 and 2 tanks (7 of 9)

Soooo, there’s a reason my sewing has been sporadic lately. Which you may not have noticed but I have felt the lack of quite sorely. There’s another Crook baby coming late November 2016. Yay…and yikes. 🙂

things 1 and 2 tanks (2 of 9)

We are all very excited, and I am very excited to be exiting first trimester next week. Time to get some energy back around here! Obviously a new baby means some reveal sewing was in order! I have wanted to make the boys Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts forever and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that…and throw a little thing 3 in the mix. 🙂

things 1 and 2 tanks (6 of 9)

I used the Twisted Tank pattern from Titchy Threads- non twisted version obviously. Love this pattern for perfect summer tanks! Eliot’s is a size 3 and Oliver’s is a 4 with a 1/2″ added in length and a little extra width as well (I didn’t have the 5 traced and couldn’t find my pattern pieces to trace it out so we improvised).

things 1 and 2 tanks (3 of 9)

I found a template online for the logos and did some freezer paper stenciling to make them. I haven’t perfected doing two different paint colors on a stencil yet, but these turned out pretty good overall. I had to remind myself no one will see all the little imperfections in the paint. things 1 and 2 tanks (1 of 9)

Tank fabric is Laguna knit in red (what else did you expect? 🙂 )from Rachael’s shop– currently on vacation but will re-open the end of the month.

The baby onesie is also freezer paper stenciled…onesie is courtesy of carters. Hehe, I don’t sew everything!

things 1 and 2 tanks (5 of 9)

Boys shorts are also handmade Sunny Day shorts from last summer…so glad they still fit because I just love how cute they are.

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And for inquiring minds, yes I will find out what it is! Who knows whether there will be girl sewing in my future or not… Oliver is convinced it’s a girl but we will be happy either way. I mean, I’ve got the boy sewing thing going for me already so I’m ok with another cute boy. 🙂 And if it is a girl, I’ll be needing all the girl sewing patterns you can throw my way! things 1 and 2 tanks (4 of 9)

Safari Raglan- Dinosaur Style

Posted on April 29, 2016 by oliver's fancy

dinosaur safari raglan (5 of 7)

Ok, so I may be overusing this safari raglan pattern but it’s just such a quick and easy sewing project that I can’t resist! I’ve been in the middle of a sewing slump- mainly because I have some projects I HAVE to get done for my sister’s upcoming wedding and have been putting them off… Yeah I’m so bad about finishing those kind of things. It’s the welt pockets, y’all. Gotta make a pair of welt pocket shorts and I’m just not feeling the love right now!

dinosaur safari raglan (4 of 7)

This past weekend, I wanted to push through the slump by sewing some thing completely for fun. I got this Lizzy House dinosaur knit from Rachael a few months ago- I think I bought the very last bit that she had in stock! I knew the boys would love this fabric but hadn’t decided exactly what to do with it yet.

dinosaur safari raglan (2 of 7)

A raglan tee seemed like the perfect way to show off this print. I paired the dinos with some laguna jersey in navy. (you know me and my laguna love. 😉 ) Like I mentioned, I used the safari raglan by titchy threads. I used the same mods as I did for the swamp rabbit raglans I made for the boys this winter- sewing up the size 2 but moving the center fold over 1/8″ to add a little width and adding 1/2″ in length to the bottom. One of these days, I’ll just go ahead and trace out the 3 and stop being lazy!

dinosaur safari raglan (6 of 7)

I wanted these to be short sleeved and I didn’t have the short sleeve option for the pattern printed out, so I just eyed it and chopped the sleeve off around where I thought it should be. They turned out more elbow length than short sleeve, but I kinda love the elbow length so I think I’m going to leave them as-is.

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I had planned to hem the sleeves and bottom hem but decided I was too lazy and just left them to roll up. They look so cute all rolled up naturally so I’m calling it a design feature.

Oh and those shorts are some I made for Oliver waaayyy long time ago. They’re a little short for Eliot now and I love seeing his little knobby toddler knees hanging out of them. No way am I letting that hem out and getting rid of that cuteness.

dinosaur safari raglan (1 of 7)

I did make a tee for Oliver too. I was going to make his a little different than Eliot’s but he liked Eliot’s so much that we just did an exact copy. Hey, he asked for it! Gotta encourage the matching while it lasts. 😉

12917784_1719345668339948_556771109_n Oliver didn’t end up in the pictures because he’s not feeling well today but here the IG picture from the other day so you can see his. FYI he requested to take the picture in front of the quilt ladder because “it would look all colorful.” Love getting his input now. It’s so cute.

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.

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.

kcw spring 2015: rhino jammies

Posted on April 23, 2015 by oliver's fancy

I’m back with another pair of pjs for Oliver. This pair is basically the exact same at the previous pair except for different fabric and the rhino addition. I bought this jersey knit from Imagine Gnats at the same time I bought the deer fabric. She has a great selection of stripes, and I had Oliver look through and decide which stripes were his favorite. I would not have picked the red and grey for him but he loves it.

Again, flashback skinny tee in a 4T for the top. Coordinating grey ribbing for the neck and sleeve bands. I have yet to hem this version either. My husband just asked me why I never hem the knit tees….ummm, because I’m lazy? lol.

I wanted to have some fun with the “wild things” theme for kid’s clothes week so Oliver and I brainstormed different animals until we decided upon a rhino for his shirt. I decided to keep the rhino understated so I just freezer paper stenciled the outline in black fabric paint. I can always go back and fill in the outline if I decide it needs more substance. What do you think? Is it good as-is?

Pants are the fancy pants leggings, yet again. 4t. I used 1.25″ elastic in the waistband this time, and it fit perfectly and gives the waistband some nice structure. For added fun, I rotated the stripes in the bum panel.

Oliver’s first comment when trying these pjs on was “these are so cozy”. Score! I think the extra cozy factor is due to the rayon in the jersey. I normally just use cotton/spandex blend jersey but went out on a limb to try the rayon blend this time. It’s a little more slippery to sew with and quite drapey, but once sewn together I was pretty happy with it.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are going super simple on the photo shoots this week. KCW is all about sewing, and that means less time for shoots, so hope the less-than-stellar photography doesn’t bother anyone. Plus, photo shoot with pjs need to involve comfy couches and doggie pillows, right?

Hope your kcw sewing is going well. I’m loving all the “wild things” I’ve seen so far and am excited we still have 3 more days to go. Next up on my list are some more pjs- but this time summer versions with tank tops and woven shorts…so I am switching things up just a bit. 😉 Can’t wait to show you the fun fabric the boys picked out for these!