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!

Parsley Pants Take 3: The Tuxedo Stripe

Posted on April 22, 2013 by oliver's fancy

To kick off Kid’s Clothes Week, I am presenting the third (and my personal favorite) version I made of the parsley pants (Update: Pattern is now available!). This pair was made with some red bottomweight fabric (I think it’s denim) that I picked up a while back in mind for pants for Oliver. The third pair of parsley pants has one main modification from the other two- I took them in an inch on the tuxedo stripe line to make them more slim cut. I believe the final pattern version of this pant will be taken in 3/4 of an inch over the tester version- making them a little less straight cut than this version but not quite as baggy as the pj or linen pinstripe pants.

I also added a chevron tuxedo stripe down the side and some patch pockets on the back. This look was inspired by Rae’s version here. The tuxedo stripe is an option given in the pattern itself, but I improvised the patch pockets. I just think these are the cutest things ever! And the fit is superb!! I have to tell you how excited I am that this pattern has a snug enough waist to stay up, but enough room in the seat to make it fit well with both cloth and disposable diapers! I did the flat front finish with elastic backing again, and I have decided that this is my favorite finish for a more professional-looking pair of pants. The full elastic waist is great for pajamas, but the flat front looks a bit more polished for everyday wear.

um, seriously, what is this model pose, here?

Our photoshoot got rained out so I don’t have a ton of good pictures to share with you, but I did manage to get a few. However I have to pull up a phone picture to really show off the back of these pants…

FYI, we took these pics at the same time we took pics of my maternity shirt and Oliver was copying my pose in this picture…too funny how much they notice at this age!

Now to get started on my KCW list! I bought the flashback skinny tee pattern this weekend and have a bunch of Ian’s old shirts set aside to make some tees for Oliver- hopefully some of them coordinate with his new pants! Here’s a somewhat loosely organized list of what I hope to accomplish this week… aiming high like always:)

Flashback Skinny Tees- going to make regular tees and also attempt some dressier shirts using this pattern as a base
Quick Change Trousers for baby from Handmade Beginnings
Shoes for baby from Handmade Beginnings
Oliver + S Sailboat shirt and pants (if time)

Parsley Pants Take 1: the Pajama Version

Posted on April 15, 2013 by oliver's fancy

UPDATE: Pattern is now available here!

Well after that sneak peek on Friday, I am back with more information on these great pants. I thought it would be fun to share them with you one at a time over the next few days. Wait, that means I made more than one pair of pants last week? Oh yes, peeps, I made a total of THREE pairs of pants for the little man! Is he spoiled or what? 🙂 Not only did I want to do a good job as a pattern tester by trying out all the different variations of this pattern, but I must say that once I got started, I just couldn’t stop because I was having too much fun making cool pants!

Pre-hemming picture… we are really into driving cars all over the furniture right now.

As I mentioned last week, I got the opportunity to be a pattern tester for Rae’s new pants pattern: The Parsley Pants. I have been eying all the cool pants Rae has made recently (specifically during her Celebrate the Boy series), and anxiously awaiting the promised release of a basic pants pattern. So when she contacted me to see if I would be interested in testing the pattern for her, of course I jumped at the chance.

This first pair that I made is just the basic, elastic waist pant version of the pant. I figured I would make Oliver some jammie pants, and that way, if the measurements were way off, I wouldn’t have wasted some of my nice fabric on the pants. Let me tell you, this version is FAST! I was taking more care than usual to be exact since I’m testing the pattern measurements and even with that, these just flew together. This pants pattern only has one piece for each leg, unlike many patterns that have two pieces for each leg. That makes the construction really quick and easy. Also let me throw in a word of praise for Rae’s instructions. She offers hints throughout the pattern to help you get through possible trouble spots. I found that so helpful!

Oliver has just grown into size 2 (where this pattern begins in sizing), and he has a skinny backside so I wasn’t sure about the pants staying up. Happy to report that the waist measurements ended up being just fine- both with his cloth and disposable diapers. I did have to cut about 2 inches off the hem but considering that the size 2 runs from 33-36,” and he is only 33,” I kind of expected that. They still look a bit long in some of these pictures but that’s just because the photography model wouldn’t stop jumping and bouncing during the photo shoot. 🙂

Discussion is under way about taking an inch off the bottom of this size anyway because it is ending up a little long on several other tester versions. Another item under discussion is taking a bit of width off the pants because they are a bit baggy. I believe that the finished decision was to take .5″ off at the center of each pant leg to made them a bit slimmer, yet not have them be too slim for all of the options given. Whatever ends up happening, let me tell you that you will want to get this pattern as soon as it becomes available- which I believe will happen either this week or next week. I will be sure to let you know when it is available, and I will be back later to show you my other two versions…each one gets better so you won’t want to miss them. 🙂

Couldn’t resist this picture! He is in love with the doggies on his pants and wants to wear them all day! Makes this mama quite happy when her clothes are appreciated so much 🙂