In addition to doing the Kids Clothing Week Challenge myself, I challenged the mommas on my favorite sewing board to join in, too. I may have even bribed them a bit with a prize offering. It was really fun to chat about what we were working on and share our creations as the week went by. I didn’t require it, of course, but there were quite a few Fishsticks Designs patterns sewn up. Here are just a few that I wanted to share:
Jamie sewed up Charlie Tees for her oldest two. I love how she narrowed the neck and armbands on her daughter’s top to give it a more feminine look.
Christine sewed a pile of Austin Lee Rompers, all recycled from adult tees. This one is my favorite.
Christine sewed Fishsticks patterns for her other little ones, too! Her son’s pjs are made from my free The Tank pattern and the bottoms from the Lazy Days Lounge Set, and her daughters got new Emmy tops.
Jill made this lap-tee from my Little One Layette pattern and embellished it with a dinosaur applique.
Mechela is finishing up a wardrobe for the new little boy that she’s expecting in a few days, and she added a stack of Comfy Sleep Sets and Little One Layette gowns.
Amanda has been working on summer wardrobes for her two boys, and I’m loving all of her Charlie Tee and Inside or Out Pocket Shorts sets. Here are two of my favorites.
Finally, I love this picture of Bekah’s four children. She sewed them all matching pajamas using The Tank pattern and the Lazy Days Lounge set bottoms, and she used a thrifted cotton jersey sheet set for the fabric!
I love seeing all of your creations from my patterns! Aren’t these all great?
I mentioned yesterday that I am heading to Michigan late this week to meet up with some friends. Actually, they’re sewing friends from the online sewing board that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. One of the mommas who coming is my dear friend, Jamie. If you’ve been around here long enough, you’ll remember that the two of us once had an online sewing business together called Fishsticks & Jam. In the several years that we’ve know each other Jamie has become one of my very closest friends, yet we’ve never met in person. She lives in Canada which is a long, long way away from here. Things worked out at the last minute for her to be able to join us, and I am beyond excited! I can’t wait!
Would you like to celebrate with me? How about a 20% discount code that you can use on my patterns from now through next Tuesday? All orders placed between Wednesday at noon central and next Tuesday will ship on Wednesday, May 25. The discount code is “Michigan”.
I know I’m supposed to be working on summer wardrobes for the boys, but Samantha, Charlie and I are heading off to Michigan next weekend to visit with some friends, and, well, highs are only supposed to be in the 60s. Here in Dallas, it’s been summer-like for months! Most of Charlie’s cool weather things are outgrown, so I set aside the romper that I had cut out and spent my sewing time today sewing up a quick Charlie Hoodie for him.
I did modify it slightly by adding a fold-up cuff. I’m hoping that he might be able to wear it again in the fall.
That wraps up Kids Clothes Week, but I still have work to do on the boys’ summer wardrobes. I’ll be taking the next week off to get ready for and take our trip, but I’ll be back to work on finishing those wardrobes as soon as we’re home! I will have some sewing to show you early this week, and I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures to share from our trip while we’re traveling. I may even have a discount code starting tomorrow morning!
After a crazy day filled with birthday parties, football games and fabric shopping, I settled the kids in after dinner to watch a movie while I pulled out these couple of UFOs (that’s unfinished objects, not transportation for aliens) and set out to finish up the last two pairs of PJs that are on Charlie’s Summer Wardrobe List. (I hadn’t sewn anything at all for Charlie yet this week!) It was a great plan until Jamie wandered over to my work table, saw what I was working on and gently reminded me (okay so maybe it was more of a whine than a gentle reminder) that I’d told him I would make him some pajamas from that tool fabric. A momentary panic set in because I did remember telling him that, but I realized that there was not enough left of the tool fabric to do a size 5T pajama set!
What’s a mama to do, but start cutting and piecing and call it colorblocking? A few hours later, two tired but happy little boys wore new pajamas to bed, but not until after one amazing husband helped one crazy sewing mama wrangle them long enough for some way past bedtime pictures.
Charlie’s Jamie Jumper is from my Wee Tot Collection pattern. I used the short-sleeve option and shortened the inseam on the legs to shorts length.
Jamie’s top is from my free The Tank pattern (you can find it in the sidebar on the right), and the pants are AJ Bottoms.
One more before we all collapsed into bed.
I have an Austin Lee Romper cut out to sew up for Charlie today. Maybe I’ll get that other PJ set finished up, too.
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!