Art Museum Shorts and some Bow-ties

Posted on May 16, 2016 by oliver's fancy

art museum shorts (6 of 10)

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably noticed that my sister got married this weekend. As my two boys are her only nephews, she wanted to have them be the ringbearers in her wedding. These two adore their auntie and are so sad that she is moving away- but the lego sets she got them as a reward for walking successfully down the aisle are soothing their wounds. 😉

art museum shorts (1 of 10)

FYI all these photos were taken with my iPhone as quick wedding snaps…And sorry about the overload of pictures. I just need a place to show off all of this cuteness!

art museum shorts (4 of 10)

My sister wanted a traditional Southern look for the boys’ outfits- seersucker, bowties, suspenders (which I picked up on amazon btw), boat shoes…basically the southern prep that is so not my typical style. But on a 2 and 5 year old anything can be cute so I was up for whatever she wanted.

art museum shorts (2 of 10)

I gave her several pattern options for the shorts and she picked out the Oliver+S Art Museum Trousers. I made a pair for Oliver for Easter last year and they are still plenty big in the waist so I stuck with the size 3 for him. I actually made Eliot a size 3 also. He’s still in a diaper and so has some extra chunk around the middle. It was super nice not to have to trace another size with all those pattern pieces involved!

art museum shorts (9 of 10) In order to make the trousers into shorts, I just cut off the pants about 6 inches from the hem when I was cutting them out and then tried them on the boys once they were sewn together to measure for the exact hem length. art museum shorts (3 of 10) I must admit to not being a huge welt pocket fan…I mean they look nice and all but they’re a lot of work for a little boy’s outfit. I made Oliver’s shorts with the actual welts, but Eliot’s shorts are fake pockets…and I don’t regret that move one bit! Now if I hadn’t made him his front pockets, he might have been rebelling on me. 🙂 See below picture for proof of his love of pockets.

art museum shorts (8 of 10)

The seersucker is a tan/white blend that I picked up at Five-Eighths Seams on a trip to Charleston last fall. If you ever are in need of seersucker, they’ve got it in almost every color combination possible! I was pretty relieved to find it in person so I knew it was the color I was looking for.

art museum shorts (7 of 10) Now on to the bow ties… I made some bow ties a long time ago when Oliver was in his Aunt Katie’s wedding. But I made legit tying bow ties that time and they were such a pain to keep tied on little boys. I remembered that I had seen Jane post a bow tie she made for Henry that looked about right so I went searching on her blog and found it here… with a link to the tutorial here…

art museum shorts (5 of 10)

The only change I made to the bow tie tutorial was to use some SF 101 in place of felt or fleece. I am super happy with how well these turned out! The bow was the exact stiffness that I wanted and the velcro closure in the back made it easy to get on and off the boys! The fabric is Kona peach which I ordered from fabric.com and it happened to match the bridesmaids peach dresses exactly. Woot woot!

art museum shorts (10 of 10)

The boys did an awesome job walking down the aisle and quite stole the show with their cuteness!! I just love how great these outfits turned out and hope they will get some more use out of them as church clothes this summer.

Halloween 2015 Part 2: Wonder Woman and Superman

Posted on November 3, 2015 by oliver's fancy

Notice a theme with our family costumes this year? Yep we all got to be super heroes. 🙂 I was so happy we had a party to attend this year, and so I finally had an excuse to get us all in costume. The boys got to pick their characters first and then Ian and I picked from the rest of the Justice League options…with Ian as Superman and me as Wonder Woman. Now this was a family friendly party so no crazy costume for me… 😉 So I did a lot of research on how to keep the WW vibe without showing off a ton of skin. I don’t have any great pictures of the adult costumes from our party but here’s a few Instagram and iPhone pics for ya.

Ian’s shirt is the Oliver+S metro tee. I bought the metro tee bundle a while back but hadn’t gotten around to sewing it yet. So this was my first time making it, and I was very happy with the great fit. I used the size S and added about 1/2″ to the shirt and sleeve length. I printed off a superman template and then freezer paper stenciled the logo to the shirt. I had planned to make him a cape and some other costume additions but ran out of time and he was happier with just the t-shirt so I called it good there. My shirt is the Union St Tee from Hey June Handmade- size M in the v neck and long sleeve option. I raised the neckline about an inch and thinned out the neckline binding by 3/8″. This shirt has lots of freezer paper stenciling! I don’t know if that was the best way to go about it but it seemed the easiest so I went with it. Once I was done with it, I kinda wished I had just made a separate belt and then a little skirt to go with the outfit because I loved the tee with just the sparkly gold W and I think I would have gotten a lot more after-Halloween wear out of it that way…but live and learn. And these Union St Tees are pretty easy to make so I can always make another one with just the WW logo if I want to. Oh and both tees are made with Laguna Jersey knits- what else did you expect? lol.I found these great socks on Amazon– with little capes on them and Primed them right to myself on Thursday night! Seriously, way too cute. I finished off my costume with a felt tiara (printable here). Oliver was really disappointed that I didn’t have the arm bands and the lasso but one only has so much time to invest in costumes and this was as much as I had time to get done. I’m pretty happy with how it all turned out and we had a lot of fun being a superhero family for the night.

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!

kcw spring 2015: sunny day shorts

Posted on April 20, 2015 by oliver's fancy

I am so excited that it’s Kid’s Clothes Week time again! I’ve got a pile of things to finish for Oliver and am hoping to get them all done this week. Mostly basics- the kid only has one pair of summer pjs! But since I know how easy it is to make pjs, I just can’t bring myself to buy him any. I let him pick out some fabric for new ones and plan to get them whipped up over the next few days.

First off, some new shorts! I have yet to have much success with getting Oliver to wear shorts this spring. He loves to wear his jeans every day- so I’m introducing him to the “jean” (aka chambray) shorts. Chambray used is the Kaufman Union Stretch Shirting– bought from Fabric.com a while back. This is a super lightweight chambray so it’s perfect for summer shorts. The pattern is the free Oliver+S Sunny Day Shorts.

I used Kristin’s tutorial to add pockets and a drawstring waistband to the shorts. If these look familiar, I made almost the same exact pair for him last year. (blogged here) That pair is too short for him now so he needed another pair. I made the 4T but added 1.5″ to the length because I think they run a bit on the short side. These are now a bit long but at the rate he’s growing, I’d like to give him a little length so hopefully they will fit all summer!

So theme for Spring 2015 KCW is Wild Things…You may think that this has nothing to do with wild animals. Think again. 🙂 I let Oliver pick out the lining fabric (my new trick for getting him to wear his handmades) and he picked out this Dr. Seuss menagerie print- from the Celebrate Seuss line- it has a mix of all the animals and creatures from a bunch of his books. Definitely fits the wild things label!

And a happy dance for new shorts! Here’s hoping for a productive KCW! What about you?What’s on your sewing list this week? Can’t wait to peruse the site’s community pool and see all the fun outfits pop up!

kcw fall 2014: sailboat top take 2

Posted on October 22, 2014 by oliver's fancy

Since the general consensus after Oliver’s sailboat top was that Eliot needed a coordinating one, I decided to use kcw as an excuse to make him one. First off, I needed a palate cleanser (thank you Kristin for inspiring me with that phrase!) after working on Halloween costumes (more on that Saturday) for 3 days straight and secondly, how could I not participate in the storybook theme?! The book lover in me just couldn’t resist.

Stripes and primary colors always remind me of Dr. Seuss- specifically Red Fish, Blue Fish (which is one of Eliot’s favorite books). This outfit may not scream Dr. Seuss to you, but it gives me that same fun vibe I get from his illustrations. I love anything Dr Seuss, and in fact have a small hoard of the Kaufman fabric line of his characters- you can see some of that way back here in Oliver’s toddler backpack. However I didn’t want to just make a shirt out of that fabric because it seemed a little too obvious. I kinda like the subtle nod to Seuss that I give in this top.

The fabric is the same as Oliver’s version just inverse colors (both from Mill End in Portland). I made this sailboat top in the 18-24 month size. Eliot measured into the 12-18 month size but he grows so quickly these days that I made it a size up to give him plenty of room. It’s a wee big- you can see that I rolled up the sleeves but it’s not ridiculously huge. I think it’s the perfect size to carry him through the winter.

I mentioned this in Oliver’s version but I want to say it again. I do think this top runs a bit on the short side so if your child is tall or on the upper end of a size, you may want to add a bit of length to the hem. Other than that, I have no complaints with this top. I’m not normally a facings fan, but I love how they turn out in this version. Typical Oliver+S style- everything is so professional-looking.

Love that I could make this top from pattern tracing to final buttonhole in one nap time. Granted I was pushing it as I was sewing on the buttons as Oliver was coming out of his room, but I made it! And Eliot just looks adorable, if I do say so myself. He’s still got that great toddler chub and I just love to squeeze it!

I also love that so far, both my boys are huge book worms. They would be so happy for me to sit and read them book after book! I’ll leave you with these final two pictures taken after the sun started to go down and we caught just a bit of the “golden light” time. So ethereal looking!

Striped Sailboat Top

Posted on October 11, 2014 by oliver's fancy

You know those days where you have to-do lists a mile long, but you just wanna blow them off and do something completely different? That was me earlier this week. I’ve had this Oliver+S sailboat pattern for oh, about 2 years and I have just never gotten around to making it. I just realized that my copy only goes up to a size 3T and Oliver is wearing 3T, occasionally 4, so he’s about to size out of this pattern.

This was no where on my list, but I just decided to have some fun and go for it. After all, I couldn’t let him size out of a pattern before I’d even made him something from it, could I? I pulled out this great heavyweight striped knit that I got at Mill End in Portland (why, oh why did I not buy more knits while I was in fabric mecca?) and got to work.

This top was seriously so quick to whip up! The reason I’d been putting it off so long is that I was afraid it would be long and complicated, and I just didn’t have time to put into it. Yeah, it was so much faster than I’d anticipated and very straightforward. It really only took me a couple of hours from start to finish- including tracing the pattern and cutting out the fabric. I love that this knit is a heavier weight so it feel more like a sweater- which is what Oliver needs more of for this fall. I also love the swingy shape of the top and the contrast buttons. I started out using an orange contrast thread for the facings but didn’t like the look it gave the top so I ripped it out and used an off-white instead. This way the orange buttons really pop.

My only complaint is that it’s just a wee bit too short so it won’t be too long before he grows out of it. It shouldn’t be too big of a deal this winter though because he will probably be layering another shirt underneath this one. However, If I make him another one, I will add a few inches to the bottom hem to make the top last a little longer.

Every time I use an Oliver+S pattern, I fall in love with them a little bit more. The instructions are just so well written and you end up with such a professional finish. Bonus part is this was a paper pattern so a nice break from all the printing and taping I’ve been doing for pdf patterns recently!

I have another yard of this same knit in a coordinating color way- with blue being the main stripe and off-white the smaller one and am debating on making Eliot a sailboat top from that. Too match-matchy? Hmmm…Feel free to weigh in your opinion in the comments! I don’t dress them alike too often but they get a kick out of it right now so it’s fun to do it every now and then…

FYI his jeans are the small fry skinnies I made him for vintage may. I think they are one of the most-worn items of clothing I have made him and he gets compliments on them all the time. Definitely worth the time I put into them!

All About Boys: Picnic at the Park

Posted on July 15, 2014 by oliver's fancy

Welcome to my stop on the all about boys week. For my destination, I wanted to make an outfit suitable for a summer evening picnic at the park. We have a great little downtown here in my town and spend a lot of summer evenings walking around the park and biking along the trails. We happened to remember this really cool Rock Quarry Garden near downtown that would be perfect for the photo shoot!

As mentioned previously, the goal for this week was to show you different outfits you can make using 2 free patterns: Dana’s basic tee and Oliver+S Sunny Day shorts. Continue reading →