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?

birthday raglans (3 of 6)

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.

birthday raglans (5 of 6)

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. 🙂

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.

dinosaur safari raglan (3 of 7)

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.

Swamp Rabbit Raglans

Posted on February 2, 2016 by oliver's fancy

swamp rabbit raglans (3 of 5)

A few weeks ago we took the boys to our little downtown outdoor ice skating rink that opens every holiday season. It just so happened to be the night that the local hockey team had some players there to skate with the crowd and the boys charmed the manager into giving them some hockey tees. Of course the only size the guy had with him were men’s Larges but he thought the boys might like the tees anyway… Lucky for them, this mama knows how to sew. 😉

swamp rabbit raglans (1 of 5)

I used the safari raglan pattern and centered the pattern pieces over the graphic print. I was a little worried that the print would be too big to fit on Eliot’s shirt but thank goodness, it fit just perfectly! I’ve sewed this pattern so many times, I didn’t even need to look at the instructions while I was making the shirts- just used the pattern pieces and whipped them up. I do so love a quick and easy project like this!

swamp rabbit raglans (2 of 5)

I used some laguna jersey in my stash to accent the tees- navy for Eliot and brown for Oliver. The tees are sizes 2&4 with a few mods…I moved over the center fold about 1/8″ to give a little more width and also added 1/2″ to the shirt hem and 1/4″ to the sleeve hems. I wanted these to be big enough to wear next year too but not too overly big right now. I think they turned out just about right. Oliver’s sleeves are a teeny bit short but I’m just going to add a cuff to them and they will be fine…especially easy to do since i was super lazy and didn’t hem the sleeves or shirt hem. 🙂

swamp rabbit raglans (4 of 5) The boys were so super excited to wear their new shirts and have worn them several times since I finished them last week. I love being able to give them little custom things like this…part of what makes sewing so fun. And we may have never been to a hockey game, but the boys can represent our local team with pride now in their new shirts. 😉 Also Oliver is going through a difficult photography stage- ugh. He’s really in love with his shirt but did not want to smile for the camera…goober. Oh well. Guess I’ll have to work on my photo bribery skills for next time!

swamp rabbit raglans (5 of 5)

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!

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.