This whole mama-made summer wardrobe idea got its beginning last October or November, I think, when I received an email from one of the editors at Stitch magazine asking if I had any New Year’s Resolutions that I’d like to share in the Winter 2010/Spring 2011 Issue. It was a bit early to be thinking of resolutions, but I immediately thought of how many times I’d considered sewing a whole season’s wardrobe for at least one of my children. I have all these patterns that I’ve designed myself and really enjoy sewing, and I have a stash of fabric that threatens to overtake my home on occasion—why not give it a try and see how it goes?

My youngest two boys both fall in the size range of the majority of my patterns, so I decided before I started that I’d do summer wardrobes for both of them rather than one or the other. I started the planning back in February with snow still on the ground, but I didn’t actually start sewing until the end of March. Even with all the other things that I had on my list over the last couple of months, I managed to finish before the first official day summer! (We’re totally going to overlook the fact that it’s been over 100 degrees here for a few weeks already.) I am so excited that my little ones will be wearing mama-made clothes every day of the summer!

Yes, yes, I’m moving on to the wrap-up. Each category shows a small photo of each item. After each set of photos, you’ll find links to the posts where I blogged about each item, in case you want a closer look or more details.

Charlie’s 2011 Summer Wardrobe (Size 24 months/2T)
SIX TOPS

Dino Dudes Charlie Tee, Mint Chocolate Zoo Rockin’ the Raglan, Robots Rockin’ the Raglan, Puppies Appliqued Charlie Ringer Tee, Red Zoo Animals Rockin’ the Raglan and Dino Dudes Rockin’ the Raglan.

SIX BOTTOMS

Striped Seersucker Inside or Out Pocket Shorts, Three Pairs of Denim Inside or Out Pocket Shorts, Two Pairs of French Terry AJ Bottoms Shorts

SIX ONE-PIECE OUTFITS
All Austin Lee Rompers:  Appliqued and Colorblocked Super Charlie, Upcycled Tree Hugger, Brown & Orange, Blue & Brown, MM Gray & Black Stripe, Vintage Cars

SEVEN PAJAMA SETS

Sweet Pea Tank Set, Bacon & Eggs Comfy Sleep Set (Modified for Summer), Dino Dudes CSS, Tools CSS, Aqua & Green Wee Tot Lap-tee Set (Modified for Summer), Jamie Jumper (from the Wee Tot Collection, Modified for Summer), Howdy Tank Set

Jamie’s 2011 Summer Wardrobe (Size 5T)
TEN TOPS
Football Rockin’ the Raglan, Snakes Rockin’ the Raglan, Groovy Guitars Rockin’ the Raglan, Dino Dudes Charlie Tee Hoodie, Appliqued Super Jamie Charlie Tee, Upcycled Green Lantern Charlie Tee, Appliqued Car Patrick Curved Raglan, Stenciled Dino Charlie Tee, Dinosaur Charlie Tee

TEN BOTTOMS

Inside or Out Pocket Shorts:  Striped Seersucker, Dark Denim, Three Pairs of French Terry AJ Bottoms Shorts, Inside or Out Pocket Shorts:  Striped Denim, Ninja-tagged Denim, Khaki, Rocket-tagged Denim, Robot-tagged Denim

TEN PAIRS OF UNDIES
Six Pairs of Undercover Bottoms Boxer Briefs, Four Pairs of Little Fishies Undies

SEVEN PAIRS OF PAJAMAS
Appliqued Motorcycle Tank Set, Bacon & Eggs Comfy Sleep Set (Modified for Summer), Tank Sets:  Tools, Howdy, Zoo Animals, Green Ooga Booga, Blue Ooga Booga

.

Whew! That was a lot of sewing! Now on to other projects . . . maybe something for my bigger kids? Maybe, a couple of skirts for Skirt Week at crafterhours? You’ll have to check back in tomorrow!

I had great plans for this blog post. I tossed around which item I wanted to use as the finale to my Summer Wardrobe sewing and eventually decided that since we do live in Texas and my boys are big fans of cowboys, I’d go with the D&G Howdy PJs. I had this whole cute photo shoot idea planned out with both boys playing around the rocking horse, the rocking horse I borrowed for a photo shoot ages ago, the one that’s still sitting in my living room even though I said I’d only need it a day or two . . . I digress. (I really am going to return your rocking horse, Kelli!) We dressed the boys in their new jammies right after we’d cleaned up from dinner, and I grabbed the camera.

As is fairly normal, the whole family joined in to help with pictures. Usually when we take pictures of both little ones together, I crawl around on the floor with the camera while Ray or Samantha grabs Charlie, plops him down in place and reminds Jamie to stay put where he is. Then I snap as many pictures as I can before Charlie runs out of the photo frame. Most of the pictures look like this:

or this:

Lately, Jamie’s decided that he should “pose” for the camera, so we often have several like this one:

and this one:

Sometimes there’s dancing on the furniture:

Frequently, there’s an argument over something. Tonight Jamie let Charlie wear his cowboy boots.


Unfortunately, Charlie was not happy when it was time to give the boots back to Jamie.

I do occasionally lose my patience a bit with all this. Tonight, though, I laughed until I cried. Really, they’re kids, doing what kids were designed to do. I just went with it. 76 pictures later, the one at the very top of this post is the only one that I thought, “What a nice picture!” The rest, though, they’re the ones that are real life around here, and they’re the ones that years from now, I’ll look back at and laugh again. And that, as Paul Harvey always said, is the rest of the story. (You totally just said that like Paul Harvey in your head, didn’t you?)

Oh, and lest I forget, I finished both boys’ summer wardrobes! I’ll be back with a recap of everything sometime tomorrow.

Finally, for the record, this is the easiest way to get one- and four-year-old boys to pose in their mama-made pjs:

Nine pairs of shorts, and they’re all done! These may be a bit . . . um . . . boring? We tend towards the utilitarian when it comes to bottoms around here. We almost always grab a tee and jean shorts when dressing the little ones (and ourselves, for that matter), so it just made sense to stick with denim for the majority of these.

I wrapped up Jamie’s shorts’ list with four pairs of Inside or Out Pocket Shorts, three denim, one khaki, all with outside main pockets and cargo pockets on the sides. I added a Night Owl’s Menagerie tag to each pair for a little splash of fun.



Charlie got three pairs of denim IOP Shorts, one with outside main pockets and two with inside pockets. His have tags from my favorite online sewing board. I also added two pairs of unhemmed french terry AJ Bottoms Shorts to finish up Charlie’s list. (Those are exactly the same as the ones I did for Jamie during the Kids Clothing Week Challenge.)




Love the back pockets on these!

Shorts are finished, tops are done, rompers all checked off and undies are sewn. Only one pair of pjs is left on each list.

This vintage car print is one of my very favorites. Charlie had a coverall made from the same fabric this past winter, and people asked me all the time where I got it. I loved telling them, “Oh, I made it!” I just had to sew up a romper using it again for the summer. I wonder if it’ll get the same amount of attention.

I modified the Austin Lee Romper slightly by substituting the ringer tee sleeves from the Charlie Tee. The little extra splash of color is perfect!

Charlie’s summer rompers are all done! All that’s left on his list now are shorts and one pair of jammies.

How do I look? Thanks, Little Brother, for straightening me out there. I think I’m ready now!

So, you want to know about my new PJs, huh?

Well, these blue Ooga Booga ones? They make me want to sing!

And these with the animals on the shorts?

They make me want to dance!

And the green Ooga Booga ones? My mom likes them the best of all . . .

. . . because they make me want to sleep!

I guess I’ll be nice to mama and sleep in all of them. They are super comfy, and she is working on sewing me a whole summer wardrobe, you know!

I love sewing little undies. They go together so fast, and little boys (and girls) get so excited about new underwear! Jamie had a hard time deciding which of these to wear first.

These four pair of Little Fishies Undies wrap up Jamie’s summer underwear list . . . only a few more items left until his whole summer wardrobe is done!

Just adding a few more rompers to Charlie’s completed summer wardrobe list. I actually finished these three just before we left on our trip to Michigan. (There was a picture of one of them in my post about our visit to St. Louis.)

First up is this heathered brown Austin Lee Romper with orange sleeves.

Second is a baby blue AL Romper with brown sleeves. Mmmm . . . Goldfish!

This last AL Romper is sewn from Michael Miller’s interlock in black and gray stripes with the coordinating black on the sleeves.

The last few days I’ve been working on shorts, shorts and more shorts, and a few more pj sets, too! Charlie’s list is nearing completion. Just one more romper, one more pj set and several pairs of shorts are left.