I’m pretty sure that I’m . . . um . . . a bit unusual. My oldest daughter, Morgan, and I decided early this morning that since it was a beautiful day, we should take the little ones and head over to our local nature museum and enjoy the great weather. Sounds pretty normal so far, right? Well, I had about an hour and a half before we wanted to leave, and there was one more top left on Jamie’s summer wardrobe list, and we were headed somewhere where I knew I’d have plenty of photo opportunities. I couldn’t resist grabbing my Charlie Tee pattern and sewing away.

I have to say that in a pinch, it really pays to have a good basic pattern that you’re really comfortable with. I grabbed the 5T Charlie Tee pattern tracing off of my pattern board at 9:25, and Jamie was pulling on his new “T-Rex Shirt” at 10:05. (And that included several minutes in which my sewing machine and I exchanged words over the fact that it tried to eat the jersey along the hem line.)

Raaawrr! Stomping and growling like a dinosaur in his new shirt:

And with that, all of Jamie’s tops for the summer are finished!

I spent the rest of my sewing time today working on something girly for a sweet two-year-old’s birthday party tomorrow morning. I’ll have to wait and show it off later, though, since that two-year-old’s mama reads my blog, and I don’t want to spoil the surprise!

We had a busy day today, so I was barely able to squeeze in my hour of sewing time. I used it to finish up those two pairs of Inside or Out Pocket Shorts that I started on Tuesday. The dark denim pair has the main pockets on the outside, . . .

. . . two back pockets and two cargo pockets with snap-down flaps.


I used a lightweight striped denim for the second pair. I’ve seen quite a lot of striped denim in the stores this season, and I love it!

This pair has the main pockets on the inside and two back pockets.


Two more bottoms checked off the list!

It rained all day yesterday which was great for sewing, but not so good for picture taking which is why this post is a bit late. Yesterday’s project was Undercover Bottoms Boxer Briefs for Jamie.



I love how little fabric these use–all of the prints on these came out of my scrap box–and they sew up really fast. These six took me about two and half hours of total time from cutting to finished.

I’m so excited about how close I’m getting to the end of the Summer Wardrobe lists!

Today’s plans include finishing up two pairs of Inside or Out Pocket Shorts for Jamie this morning, and I have a few UFOs (unfinished objects) that I’d like to get done this afternoon. How’s your KCWC sewing going?

Today’s project actually took less than an hour! These shorts are so fast to put together, especially if you don’t even hem them. All three pairs of shorts are cotton french terry AJ Bottoms. French terry rolls up on the cut edge, so I just skipped hemming the legs and let them roll!

Here they are in action, matched up with a Rockin’ the Raglan.

I bribed Jamie just a little by saying that he could run through the sprinklers if he let me take some pictures of his new shorts. “Can I go now?”

Sprinklers are so much fun!

Three more items checked off of Jamie’s Summer Wardrobe list.

I also cut out two pairs of Inside or Out Pocket Shorts today, and got one of them partially finished. Maybe I’ll steal a little more sewing time tonight and finish them up. I’d love to work on undies tomorrow.

It’s Day One of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge at Elsie Marley. Did you sew for an hour today? I actually sewed for more than that, and completed these two tops for Jamie.

I played around with a couple of different embellishment techniques on these. Both techniques are so easy to do! Up first is a Patrick Curved Raglan with this cute car applique. I drew the shapes up by hand and then followed my Easy Applique Tutorial to attach the shapes to the front of the top before sewing it.

Top number two is a Charlie Tee embellished with a dinosaur. This is actually the first time that I’ve done freezer paper stenciling, and it was a breeze! Just trace your image onto freezer paper, cut it out, iron the freezer paper to the fabric and paint. The hardest part is waiting for the paint to dry!


I’m really excited about getting as much done as possible on the boys’ summer wardrobe lists this week. With these two tops finished, I only need one more to be done with Jamie’s tops. His shorts list is still nearly empty, though. Shorts are definitely the plan for tomorrow!

There’s a bit of a story behind these shorts. I’ll do my best to keep it as short (hee-hee, pun not really intended) as possible. On the first day of Celebrate the Boy last month, Dana of Made posted a pair of black and white seersucker pants, and I fell in love with them! As soon as I saw them, I knew I just had to make some for my two little guys.

I happened to mention on my favorite sewing board how much I loved those pants and how much I wanted to sew some, and a few weeks later, I found a surprise package in my mailbox. Inside was a piece of black and white striped seersucker fabric (big enough for two pairs of shorts) and the sweetest note from one of my dear online friends, Casey! How awesome is that?

This is actually the first time that I’ve sewn anything with seersucker, and I have to say that I love the results! It sews together really easily, like a quilting fabric, and the boys wore these shorts all day long without a single wrinkle.

I used my Inside or Out Pocket Pants pattern with the pockets on the inside for both of these. I added back pockets, too. I played around a bit with switching the direction of the stripes on the pockets just to add a little interest.



Paired up with pastel-colored polos, these were perfect for Easter Sunday attire!

Now Jamie and Charlie both have one pair of bottoms marked off of their lists.

Speaking of sewing lists for children . . . Meg over at Elsie Marley is hosting Kids Clothes Week May 9th to the 15th. The challenge is to sew one hour per day for your children every day that week. Wanna join me? Just head over to Elsie Marley and sign up, and then get your list started, your fabric washed and dried and your patterns traced, so you’ll be ready!