Superhero Summer Pjs

Posted on April 29, 2015 by oliver's fancy

This is my little add-on to the end of Kid’s Clothes Week. I actually finished the shorts during the week but didn’t get the tanks done until after the week was up. A while back on a rare visit to our local big box fabric store, Oliver saw some superhero fabric and asked to get some. So I told him that I would let him come back and pick some out. When I realized he only had one pair of summer pjs, I thought that would be the perfect time for him to go get his fabric. He decided on the Batman and Star Wars fabric. While we were in there, Eliot fell in love with the “ninja” fabric and so I decided to get him some too. Even though he has plenty of pjs, I hate for him to miss out on all the fun. Plus these ended up costing me $3.50 per shorts so for once, sewing was actually the frugal option. 🙂

I used Dana’s Kid Shorts Made pattern for the bottoms. Eliot’s shorts are 2T and Oliver’s are 4. Oliver’s fit pretty perfectly with enough room to grow over the summer. And Eliot’s fit great with the disposables he wears to bed but are a little snug with the cloth diapers that he wears during the day. Since he’ll be wearing these to bed, that’s not a big deal, but it’s something to keep in mind if I make him any for day wear.

The tops are the Flashback Skinny Tees. I looked up the tanks I made for the boys last summer (blogged here) and used the same mods. To sum it up- I cut 3/4″ off the arm holes and deepened the neckline in the front and back a bit. I cut the neck and armhole binding 1.5″ wide instead of 2″ like the pattern recommends. Oliver’s is a 4 with a little length and width added to make sure it fits through the summer. Eliot’s is a 2 with just a little extra length.

All three of the tanks are made from Robert Kaufman’s Laguna jersey. I love having this on stock for last minute tees. The orange is from fabric.com and the blues are from Imagine Gnats. I had some fabric scraps left from the shorts and appliquéd them to the tanks for a little fun addition.

Once I was finished with these tanks, I realized that I actually own the Titchy Threads twisted tank pattern so I am looking forward to trying that one out later this summer on some other projects I have in mind and comparing that version with my FBST hacked version. But with this, I’m done with pjs for now! The boys should be set through the end of the summer. On to non-nightime related projects.

Oh and this crazy photoshoot…yeah, still working on getting pictures of the boys together that are even remotely decent…so just embrace the wild, crazy, and little bit fuzziness about it. Just know they really love these pajamas. K, thanks. 🙂

Cow Appreciation Day 2014

Posted on July 25, 2014 by oliver's fancy

I’m back to share with you the other project that I sewed in advance for Kids Clothes Week. It feels kinda like cheating to share something I made 2 weeks ago but an hour a day is the same even if it’s completed before the actual sew along week, right? I knew I wouldn’t be able to get much done this week and I couldn’t not have something to share! I think this one goes well with the kid art theme too since the tank graphics look like kid writing. flashbank tanks v2 (2 of 7)

Every year in July Chickfila hosts what’s known as Cow Appreciation Day where if you dress like a cow, you get free food. We are a bit of Chickfila addicts around here so this is one of our favorite days of the year! Continue reading →

Bicycle shorts for the birthday boy

Posted on June 7, 2014 by oliver's fancy

A Saturday post this week because blog things got moved around a bit, and I have more to share next week. Yesterday was Eliot’s first birthday. Cannot believe my little baby is already one year old! Time really does fly. This little boy has such a sweet laid-back personality and is a loving, happy little boy. I just wanna hold him all day and slow him down! He’s walking along everything right now and even taking 3-4 steps at a time. Going to be walking all by himself before we know it!

With Eliot being the second child, he really doesn’t need any new clothes/toys and sometimes I get mom guilt that all he wears/plays with are hand-me-downs. I know, it’s silly but I like him to have a few new things all to his own, so I decided to make him a birthday outfit to celebrate his happy day. I think these birthday outfits are becoming a tradition of mine. (Oliver’s second and third birthday outfits blogged here and here.)

Shorts are Dana’s Kid Shorts pattern. They are the basic elastic waist version, size 18 month with front bias-trimmed pockets. I love the little extra pop the bias tape gives the pockets. FYI if you cloth diaper, you may wanna size up on these shorts. Eliot can wear 12 or 18 month in shorts but the 18 month just fits over his fluffy bum. Fabric is a Michael Miller bicycles print that I picked up several years ago at fabric.com and it looks like they still have it in stock here.

Tee is a basic store-bought shirt, and I added the ONE appliqué onto it. Note: I find that this age is the hardest stage to take pictures of- constant crawling about, walking along everything, getting into everything. You just have to snap as they move and hope for some good shots. I am up for any ideas on how to get good photoshoots with a young toddler! Forgot how easy it’s gotten now that Oliver is older and like photoshoots, errr- bribes. 🙂

We just had a simple little family party last night with my siblings, parents, and some homemade chocolate cupcakes. Just enough partying to make mom feel like it was a real birthday but nothing overwhelming. A fun night for my sweet little baby boy.

spring kcw wrap-up

Posted on April 15, 2014 by oliver's fancy

I’m back for my final wrap-up for spring 2014 Kids Clothes Week. I made a little collage to show off my total clothing counts. Click on the collage to go to a list of all my kcw blog posts.

I really enjoyed the push to make as much of Oliver’s spring wardrobe as possible within a week. I was actually sad to not get more sewing time because I kept getting more tee and short variation ideas.
My main takeaway from this week was how much easier and quicker my serger made things. Don’t know why I waited so long to learn to use it. I even re-threaded it twice! (pats self on back). I also think it took my sewing to the next level and made my clothes look more store-bought. And lest you think I’m a sewing machine (see what I did there? 😉 ) by Monday afternoon, my kcw adrenaline rush had worn off and I collapsed on the couch during the boys’ naptime! I have got quite a busy sewing/blogging schedule the next month though so I am glad to have gotten my energy back today and gotten back into things! I’ll be back on Friday with something fun to share.

spring kcw: red geometric raglan and khaki shorts

Posted on April 13, 2014 by oliver's fancy

Whew, I just barely got in my hour today. With us having church on Sunday, it tends to be a crazy day, and in the past I don’t think I’ve ever gotten my KCW hour in. But I was determined to do it this spring because I had one more outfit I wanted to get done! In taking the photo shoots this past week, I realized that Oliver needed a pair of plain khaki shorts that would match with all his colorful tees. I got this finished right as the sun was going down, and we ran outside to snap a few pics before we lost all our light.

For the shorts, I (yet again) used Dana’s kid shorts pattern with the flat front and patch pockets. I really wanted to do something fun with the pockets and add some piping or bias tape like I did with the numbers one, but then I realized that would defeat my purpose of making shorts to match with every outfit. So they’re kinda a bit boring but practical. At least they have some pockets for treasure-keeping. I may go back and add some patch pockets to the back to give some more interest. The material is from an old pair of Ian’s pants that were in the upcycle bin. We really got some use out of that upcycle bin this week! Glad that I can now justify keeping all those old clothes around “just in case!”

The shirt is one of my faves from this week. (do I say that about every one? lol) I got the abstract geo print from the Fabric Fairy using a gift card (incidentally at the same time I got the stripes for this tee). The fabric is a cotton lycra blend and I really like the weight and feel of it. I have been collecting different types of knits over the last few months and getting a feel for the type I like and the type I am not as fond of (basically not a fan of poly blends even if they are cute).

I used the raw-edged raglan pattern from Sewing for Boys for the tee but made it without the raw edges. I added the white raglan sleeves to break up the abstract print a bit and then freezer paper stenciled the camera. I knew I needed to add the stencil so that my husband would be ok with the tee since he wasn’t a huge fan of the red print. I just knew it would look good though if I used it the right way! Glad my intuition was right this time. And he agreed that it looked cool once it was all finished.

And that’s a wrap for kcw y’all. It was a fun week and I made a lot of cute clothes. I think O’s wardrobe is looking pretty good for this spring/summer. I am surprisingly not burned out from sewing like a mad women, but I am looking forward to not having the photo-shoots/picture editing/blog writing every evening! I’ll be back in a few days with my final thoughts on this kcw and a roundup of all my clothes! Hope you had an enjoyable week, and even if you didn’t get done all you wanted that you learned some things and enjoyed the kids clothes sewing community! Make sure you check out the community website and browse all the fun clothes made this week!

spring kcw: triangle tee and number shorts

Posted on April 12, 2014 by oliver's fancy

Y’all I am in love with these shorts. I know they are just a wee bit crazy, but seriously, soooo cute! Right? Please just answer if you agree with me, ok? 😉 Shorts are made from this fun Citrus Numbers quilting cotton print I got from Tactile Fabrics after winning a giveaway from Sew, Mama, Sew. I wanted to make a few pairs of easy, lightweight play shorts for O, and this fabric just jumped out at me begging me to be shorts. 🙂

I used Dana’s kid shorts pattern again (3T) but this time just did a full elastic waist since they are meant to be play shorts and not dressy. I also happened to have this orange bias tape in my stash, and I think it adds the perfect touch to the shorts. Easy, fun, done. (Boba Fett shirt blogged here)

Shirt is the flashback skinny tee but tweaked just a bit to be color-blocked. Guess I’m kinda into that now, huh? I also added the aqua pocket for just a pop of color. Thanks to all those who weighed in on my IG post asking for advice on this one! Really happy with how it turned out. Triangles are the infamous Girl Charlee triangles- made quite popular after winter kcw and the Bimaa hoodie. Black fabric is from an old dress of mine in the upcycle bin. (Hey, I’m really using this mini me theme, aren’t I?!)

When making the shorts this afternoon, I was really hoping they would match with the tee because I wanted to take pictures of them together, but even O couldn’t pull off this duo! So separate photo-shoots it was. Thankfully he was a good sport about it. And I tried to majorly cull the number of pics I put here so you don’t have complete photo overload of the two outfits. You know, I am actually kinda sad that kcw is over after tomorrow because I keep getting more shorts and tee ideas to make. However, my husband and my house will be very happy when Monday rolls around to be sure!

spring kcw: boba fett and green shorts

Posted on April 10, 2014 by oliver's fancy

the dinosaurs came along for our photo shoot today. I think they had fun. 😉

You tired of seeing shorts and tees yet? Well I hope not because that’s what I’ve got for you again today. Far from being bored myself, I actually keep coming up with more and more tee ideas! Which is good because what I get done this week composes a good deal of Oliver’s spring/summer wardrobe.

For the tee, I used the raw-edged raglan in a size 4/5 from Sewing for Boys again. I like the pattern pieces of this tee, but, as a side note, I follow a lot of the instructions of the Flashback tee in the construction of this shirt. After this week I think I will be able to sew tees in my sleep! Oliver has two long-sleeve Star Wars shirts and would be happy to wear one or the other every day, so in planning his summer shirts, I knew that I would need at least one Star Wars one. Boba Fett happens to be my little brother’s favorite character so he was an easy choice (Oliver loves to be like Uncle Alex). My second time freezer paper stenciling was even easier than the first! This could get addicting. LOL. The white fabric is a jersey knit from Hobby Lobby of all places. They actually sell 100% cotton jersey, and I was really happy with it in my maternity tee last year, so I got some more to try out with Oliver. The sleeve fabric is from an upcycled tee- yay for using existing hems!

The shorts are my third pair of Dana’s Kid Shorts this week. This time I used some green denim I found in the remnant bin at Joann. There was a 1/2 yard bundle, and it was exactly what I needed to make these shorts. Flat front/elastic back again. I wanted to make some cargo pockets so I took the box pleat pocket piece from Rae’s Parsley pants pattern and sewed it to the bottom of the shorts. The denim was thicker than I had anticipated, so it was a bit tricky sewing all those layers of pleats in the pockets, but I’m really happy with how they turned out. Oliver is at the age where he loves pockets, and it’s fun to give him some to put his treasures in.

So that’s it for day 4. I have a fun photoshoot planned for tomorrow afternoon for my mini-me entry. If all goes well, you’ll get to see both boys and their daddy in some pictures. Fingers crossed for good naps and happy pictures!

What about you? How is your list going this week? Are you burnt out yet from sewing like crazy? I’m trying to pace myself so I’m not an exhausted, cranky mess by Sunday night! Oh and by the way, yesterday’s outfit is featured on the KCW blog today so go check it out and see all the other cool boy outfits she rounded up!

spring kcw: raglan tee and color-blocked shorts

Posted on April 9, 2014 by oliver's fancy

RaglanTee and Shorts8 After a recent trip to the mall, I have been itching to re-create some color-blocked shorts that I saw for O. Also this week is Project Run and Play’s design your own fabric challenge so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make a PRP look during KCW. (enough acronyms anyone? 😉 ) I really loved these khaki and green ones, but since I already made green shorts (blog post yet to come), I needed another color. The lower short fabric started out as hot pink capris from my sister’s goodwill pile. I rescued them and dyed them with some brown RIT dye. They ended up this nice maroon color. I could have dyed them again to get them more brown but ended up liking this color and decided to keep it. The khaki fabric is from an old pair of hubby’s pants in the upcycle bin.

I took Dana’s flat front short pattern, marked where I wanted the color block to be, and cut out both fabrics using 3/8″ overlap where they would join for seam allowance. Then I sewed them together, serged the seam, topstitched, and used the resulting piece as the regular pattern piece.

Oliver’s showing off his belly button so you can get a close-up of the top-stitching.

I wanted these shorts to look store-bought so I broke out my topstitching thread and used it for all the seams. I even created a faux fly and some faux pocket stitching. Fancy, huh? I thought so. These shorts were definitely a labor of love. I had to break out the jeans needle and stitch very slowly to get all the thick seams sewn up. In the end, totally worth it to have a pair of quality-made shorts. These babies won’t be falling apart anytime soon!

The tee is the (not-so) Raw Edged Raglan from Sewing for Boys. I used my serger for all the seams and my stretch thread for all the topstitching- So loving that! I also love my current table set-up because I have my serger and sewing machine set up next to each other, and I can easily go back and forth as I am sewing. The gray and white stripe is a jersey knit I picked up at the Fabric Fairy using a gift card, and the sleeves are part of an old tee (the rest of which you will see tomorrow in another shirt!)

The shirt is my first attempt at freezer paper stenciling- so fun! The hardest part was agonizing over what stencil I wanted to do- something cool but not too cheesy. In the end I remembered a free stencil pdf I found on Pinterest and used that. It was so fun to peel off the freezer paper and see the words underneath! Definitely going to be doing more of that in the future.

I am pretty jealous of this shirt and my nod to the mini-me theme is that I actually wish I had one of these in my size! Maybe after all this is finished, I’ll try to make one for myself, and we can really be matching. 😉 Not in the exact same colors of course but the same general idea. I know it’s cheesy but gotta do some matchy-matchy while he thinks it’s cool, right?