Celebrate the Boy: Raglan Tee

Posted on March 11, 2013 by oliver's fancy

I had so many other projects to get to last week that I didn’t get to do any more boy projects…Boo! But the celebration doesn’t end until tonight so this last project is coming in right on time.

Somehow, I blinked and all of Oliver’s tees are too short! Guess he had a growth spurt overnight. Thankfully, I have quite a few old tees of mine and the hubs set aside to reinvent as Little Man tees. I really wanted to get a couple made today but it took longer than I anticipated to make the first one since I had to trace a new pattern size. I made the Raw-Edged Raglan tee from Sewing for Boys. (Same as this previous tee.) This time I made the size 2/3. The shirt is a teensy bit big but that gives him some room to grow. I had some problems with the collar being too small last time I made this tee, and while this one fits fine, it turned out just a bit wonky. Not bad enough to make me redo it, but a little off. However for a knit-sewing novice, I am fairly proud of how well I did overall. 🙂

Fabric used: The Blue and White stripe is from one of my old tees and the yellow cuffs and collar are from one of Ian’s. I was inspired to add the yellow accents after I saw some of the cool color pops in the Flickr group. Hopefully, I pulled it off ok. Hubs isn’t too sold on it, but I like it. Plus doesn’t this look great with his new skinny pants? (thank you Old Navy clearance!) And check out the other cool color pop- his orange diaper…hey cloth CAN be cool. 🙂

Originally, I had a yellow cuff at the bottom of the shirt as well, but it made the shirt too long and baggy (t-shirt dress, anyone?). I cut off the border and took the sides of the shirt in about 1/4 inch each to make the tee more slim-fit while still giving some ease for growing room. It’s starting to warm up down here but the days still have a chill so these lightweight long sleeve tees are perfect for this weather! Hopefully I will have time to make a few more soon!

By the way, the wagon was a gift from a friend and he absolutely loves it! I had a hard time getting any shots in focus because he was pushing it (running at high speed) all over the yard. He thought it was funny to chase after me and “get” me with his wagon…Glad for some sun and a chance to work off some energy outdoors!

Celebrate the Boy 2013: Update #1

Posted on February 27, 2013 by oliver's fancy

In the midst of all the crazy activity going on over here getting ready to move in to my shop booth on Saturday, I decided to take a little break yesterday to do some sewing for my boys. It is Celebrate the Boy week after all, and I needed a creative break.

First off, a super quick and easy project- some fabric belts. Oliver has been given quite a few pair of pants and most of them fall right off his skinny little waist- even wearing his cloth diapers! Looks like I have a tall and skinny kid…. just like his daddy. 🙂 I have been meaning to try this pattern for a while and just never got around to it. The belt pattern is the Hold ‘Em Up Belt from Sewing for Boys. I modified it a bit to make the belts 3/4″ wide instead of 1″ since 1″ is too big for his pant loops. I used some old D-rings I had saved from some discarded purses of mine. The blue one is my favorite. I just love the pop of color it gives. Fabric is from a Pink Castle order back when she had her moving sale: (FYI if you need a good online shop, I highly recommend Pink Castle Fabrics!) Metro Circles in Turquoise and Sketch in Coffee. Don’t know why I didn’t make these sooner- they came together so quickly and work really well on his pants. I used some Craft Fuse 808 as interfacing to make them a bit stiffer and they turned out a perfect weight.

Next up, we have my first handmades for little brother- some Quick Change Trousers. Pattern is from Anna Maria Horner’s book Handmade Beginnings. I made a few of these for Oliver and really enjoyed the pattern so I decided little bro needed his own pair. Size is 0-3 months. On Oliver, these tended to run big so not sure how soon the pants will fit the little man, but I can’t wait to try them out….Oh only about 14 more weeks till we get to meet this little fella! 🙂 I love the fabrics together on these pants. I used more of my Pink Castle order- the Metro Circles in Gray and some of the Summersville Alphabetty In Seafoam print I’ve been hoarding. Kona cotton blue is the coordinating reverse fabric. I love these metro circles and wish I had bought more! That’s all my extra fun I can have for now- back to shop sewing. Hopefully the move goes well this week and I can tackle some fun boy projects next week. Glad Celebrate the Boy is 2 weeks long!

Project Run and Play: Week 4- Boy Challenge

Posted on October 4, 2012 by oliver's fancy

This week’s challenge was boy week. Because I always sew for a boy, I wanted to do something a little special for this challenge. I wanted to stretch my skills and make something cool and fun. Well it was a crazy amount of work, but I’m very happy with how it all turned out.

I made a 3 piece outfit: skinny jeans, t-shirt, and a flannel jacket.

For Oliver’s David Beckham outfit, I drafted the skinny pants based on a pair of his pants. I was going to use that pattern again, but then I saw that Jessica had created a pattern for a pair of skinny cords that just happened to be in Oliver’s size. I loved the pockets and yoke detail on her pants, so I decided to try out her pattern. Note to self: little boys are bigger than little girls! We ended up with super skinny hipster pants. He has to wear his disposable diapers with these pants because there’s not enough room for the cloth diaper bum. Also with the super skinny bottom, they continually ride up so they look a little short, even though they are not. However, I can’t help but think the little hipster look is too cute on him. 🙂 I used a blue stretch denim that I picked up at JoAnn’s this weekend for the pants fabric.

The t-shirt is the Raw-Edged Raglan pattern from Sewing for Boys. This was my first foray into sewing with knits, and I am now hooked. Seriously, no hemming! I used an old t-shirt of Ian’s for the fabric, and it is just so fun to see the Little Man in a loved shirt of his Daddy’s. I had to adjust the pattern a little because even though it says that it starts at 18 months, my pattern sheet begins at 2/3. I took about 1/4 inch of all the sides of the 2/3, and it turned out great. I love the skinny fit and super long sleeves. The only problem we ran into was that my child must have a big head because I had to stretch out the neckline quite a bit to fit it over his head. Thankfully, I was able to stretch it enough to fit without having to re-cut and sew a new neckband. FYI using freezer paper as your pattern piece makes cutting out the knit fabric so easy because you iron on the freezer paper to the knit and then pull it off to reuse after you cut the fabric.

The jacket is also based on a pattern from Sewing for Boys. It is based on the Out on the Town Jacket with modifications. I wanted to have a straight-across neckline, not a sloping one like the pattern shows, so I just decided to wing it and cut out the neckline how I had pictured in my head. Guess what- turned out perfectly! Love it when that happens. I used a flannel from JoAnn for the outer and the same stretch denim for the lining. I was going for a look that was kinda in-between a button-down shirt and a jacket. If I do say so myself, I think I nailed it. This is the perfect jacket for a casual fall outing- especially around here where we are starting to get a bit of a chill at night but still have 80 degree days. This jacket came together so quickly- quite an easy sew- up until the buttons! The buttonhole foot on my machine is such a pain in the neck! I had to re-do several of the buttonholes because they were all uneven- and then the thread on the bottom was a nasty mess. I think it’s because of the thickness of the jacket that the machine didn’t feed well. If anyone has any advice for good buttonholes, I’d be glad to hear it!

So that’s my outfit for this week- if you are still reading after a super long post. I really enjoyed learning even more new skills and having fun with an outfit along the way! I have now added more raw-edged raglans to my list for KCWC next week! FYI there was a great post on Project Run and Play this week on sewing boy clothing, She echoed some of the same thoughts that I’ve had. Oh, and I have to give props to the hubby for the photography. He took all the pictures (for this shoot and the Beckham shoot), and I followed along as photographer assistant. He has a much better gift at photography than I do!

Sewing for Kids Workshop

Posted on July 4, 2012 by oliver's fancy

I realized that I never blogged in detail about my sewing class that I took at Whipstitch back in March. Because I learned so much at that class, I wanted to discuss it a bit and show off a few pics. To begin with, I have talked several times about how much I LOVE Whipstitch. Seriously, if you get a chance to go to Atlanta, you MUST go to her store. It is the perfect shop for the modern quilter/sewer. But even if you can’t get to Atlanta, she has an etsy shop where you can buy her fabric online.

I had been to Whipstitch last year when the hubs and I went to Atlanta for our anniversary. It is so modern even the hubs said he doesn’t mind going into it- Score! When I saw Rae blog about the class she and Karen would be teaching there in March, I jumped at the chance to go- meet one of my bloggy heroes and learn more sewing tips…perfect weekend. It just so happens that I have a birthday in March so the timing worked out well for me. No need for the hubs to buy me any other presents!

And it pretty much was the perfect weekend. We headed down to Atlanta after the hubs got off work Friday night (about a 2.5 hour trip). We have a very generous friend who lives there and offered for us to stay with him all weekend- thanks, Andrew ,for making our trip possible! (I’m sure he doesn’t read my blog but I’ll give him a shout out anyway. 🙂 ) There was a crafty meet-up on Friday night that I really wanted to go to but we got in too late for that…bummer.

I stayed at Whipstitch all day Saturday and the hubs very generously watched the Little Man for me. He dropped me off early in the morning for a free clothing workshop- given by Karen and Rae, came back for lunch with me and then took Little Man back to the house for an afternoon nap while I went to the Sewing for Kids Workshop. All day I was pretty much like a kid in a candy store.I know I am being a bit melodramatic here, but it was a dream come true for me. Being a mostly self-taught sewer, it is so helpful for me to get instruction from others. The Saturday morning tutorial was all about constructing handmade garments that look professional. A lot of discussion was given to seams and finishing touches. I really took away tons of helpful advice for clothing construction. Then in the afternoon class we made the treasure pocket pants that I have been addicted to since…from the book Sewing for Boys. It was a crazy whirlwind class because we were trying to finish the pants in 3 hours but it was loads of fun! Rae and Karen are great teachers! I am just sad I don’t live closer to Whipstitch or Michigan to make attending more classes at either a regular occurrence 😦 . Whipstitch just happens to be about 5 minutes away from Ikea so after my class was over, we headed over there with our friend Andrew to have some fun.

Here are some pics of the weekend…They are mostly instagram shots because we didn’t bring the regular camera.