The Undercover Bottoms Boxer Briefs
The Undercover Bottoms Boxer Briefs pattern is all finished and stocked in my store! I hope you and your little ones like it as much as we do! Undercover Bottoms Boxer Briefs
The Comfy Sleep Set on a Newbie
A few corrections needed to be made to the Comfy Sleep Set pattern download, so it’s unavailable for a little bit. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s back up. In the meantime, there are still a few days to enter my drawing for a copy of the Spring 2011 Stitch Magazine and all the fabric you need to make your own Comfy Sleep Set: Bacon & Eggs Comfy Sleep Set Giveaway.
Today, I thought I’d share a newborn set that I sewed up with the pattern. It’s a great set for a baby shower gift! In fact, this one was a gift for my friend, Jenna, for her new baby boy. Jenna let me steal him away for a few pictures so you can see the fit on a new baby.
This “little” guy weighed in at about 9 pounds, and he’s got plenty of growing room in this outfit. The combination of the stretchy knit fabric and the fold-up cuffs make this a set that you’ll get a long life out of!
Jamie is Four!
My sweet Jamie is four years old! We had a great time celebrating his birthday with family and few of his friends on Saturday. We started the decorations with the birthday banner that I finally sewed up.
This was one of those projects that was on my to-sew list for . . . um . . . years. It really is such an easy project, though, and I love that it’s one we can use over and over again. Why did I wait so long to make it?
I used the tutorial at Pickup Some Creativity. I did modify the size of the triangles so that the whole thing would fit on a standard three-yard piece of double fold bias tape which fits perfectly across our huge kitchen window. I also used my handy-dandy pinking rotary cutter to trim off the edges. Have I mentioned before how much I love that thing?
Back to the party . . . I love this picture of Jamie peeking over the gifts in anticipation. He picked out the ninja fabric for his birthday Charlie Tee Hoodie. I made him a Charlie Tee last summer with a similar fabric, and he wore it everyday that it was clean. I’m guessing this one is going to be worn just as much since I did laundry yesterday, and it was his chosen top this morning!
From the Lego-covered cake and the Lego-themed games to the Lego goodies that his friends took home, it was a crazy Lego filled day! We held Legos by our noses and tried to drop them into Mason jars. (The little ones had a clear advantage in this game.)
And, we tried to guess how many Legos were in the jar. Can you guess how many?
Happy Birthday my big boy! I pray that the year ahead is full of joy and wonder and grand four-year-old achievements!
Bacon & Eggs for Comfy Sleeping – Stitch Giveaway #1
Here’s the first of the collection of Comfy Sleep Sets that I have to show off. This cotton interlock is perfect for pajamas . . . even if the little guy wearing them is a bit away from eating eggs and bacon for breakfast!
The top in this set is so easy to pull on because of the criss-crossed top pieces, and the elastic-free waistband on the pants is great for comfortable snoozing.
This is the size 12 months on Charlie who wears between a 12 and 18 months in ready-to-wear clothes. You’ll have to excuse his poor little red nose. It seems that he’s been fighting a cold since winter settled in here.
Charlie’s wearing the pants over a medium AI2 cloth diaper in this picture, and the rise has enough room to cover the diaper well. (It does peek out a little when he squats down, but not enough that it would bother me at all.) The pattern fits perfectly over a disposable diaper, too.
On to my first Stitch Giveaway . . . everything you need to make your own Bacon & Eggs Comfy Sleep Set: one copy of the Spring 2011 Stitch Magazine with the pattern (and whole lot of other great projects), 3/4 yard of bacon & eggs cotton interlock and 1/4 yard of chocolate brown cotton/spandex rib knit for the trim pieces. To enter, just leave a comment here sharing your favorite thing about baby clothes. You can earn extra entries by posting on your blog or your facebook page about the giveaway, too. Just click on the Contact Me button right above my picture and send me the link to your post. This giveaway will end on Friday, 1/28/2011 at 10 p. m. central. The winner will be chosen by random drawing. Enjoy!
Stitch Magazine & The Comfy Sleep Set
SQUEEEEEE! I might be a little excited. The new Stitch magazine is on the shelves! How do I know this? I know because I bought two copies at our local Hobby Lobby last night.
I have three more copies coming in the mail, too! Why would I want five copies of one magazine? Well . . . there’s this Comfy Sleep Set pattern in there. Isn’t it cute?
And that Comfy Sleep Set pattern? It has MY name next to it! SQUEEEEEEE!
Whew, I’m all good now. I promise to stop squealing at you. I am really excited about having a pattern in Stitch magazine, though. It’s such a fun and exciting new sewing magazine. If you haven’t checked it out, you really have to. There’s this really cute Comfy Sleep Set pattern in this issue . . . but there are lots of other great patterns in there, too. I’m already making a list of the ones that I want to sew.
I have some other Comfy Sleep Sets that I’ve sewn up ready to show off to you tomorrow, and I’ll have a giveaway, too . . . because, really, I don’t need five copies of the magazine. I’ll share!
Celtic Crafting
It’s been a little while since I blogged about homeschooling. We just started a new study of the middle ages, and my amazing hubby found some great craft projects to go along with last week’s study of the Celts. Allen had a blast putting together the Celtic roundhouse village above.
On Tuesday, Samantha and Allen pulled out our box of polymer clay and created their own Celtic beads. Samantha turned hers into earrings . . .
. . . and Allen strung his beads together into a necklace.
My children often surprise me with their choices on things. Ray gave them a list of the projects that they could choose from for the week on Monday and let them decide which two to complete. Allen, my all-boy boy, choose the paper and glue craft at the top of this post, and, Samantha, my sweet little girl, built this working K’Nex ballista.
All of this week’s craft ideas came from the Tyne and Wear Museums site.
One More New Pattern Coming Up – Boxer Briefs!
This pattern is one that I’ve had quite a few requests for. I’m always happy to put together a pattern that you want, especially when it’s something that we can use at our house, too! I made these two pair of boxers, along with a few others, for Jamie, and he doesn’t want to wear any of his storebought undies anymore! The two above show the front fly options–with and without the opening.
Here’s a view of the back. The final pattern will run from sizes 12-18 months up to size 12. These are perfect for using up small scraps of cotton knits that you have leftover from other projects.
These last four pair are on their way to my friend, Mika, of Froggy Girl Designs and her four boys. They very kindly offered to test out the fit for me and report back. As soon as I hear from them, this pattern will be ready for testing. The romper and coveralls pattern is coming along, but I’m setting aside business sewing for a few days to work on some birthday fun for Jamie. Today he turns four!
Adding a Little Detail with Your Serger
I was working on this laptee for a t-shirt and cloth diaper set that I’m sewing for a swap and thought I’d try out this idea that’s been running around in my head for awhile. A lot of ready-to-wear clothing has detailing like this around the neckline and sleeves. They use a special machine to do it, but I was sure that you could do something similar just using a run-of-the-mill serger. As it turns out, it’s really simple. I did take some pictures as I went along, though, so I could share with you how I did it.
I loved the result when the laptee was finished so I just had to try it out on a Charlie Tee. The pattern’s namesake is growing so fast, and he needed a couple of new longsleeve tees added to his wardrobe anyway. Aren’t they cool?
Just so you know, this serging method does leave a visible overlap at the back of the neck. If that little bit of messiness bugs you, you might want to just stick to using it for laptees or other patterns that don’t use a full loop of trim.
Honestly, though, once you put the tee on someone as cute as this? Would anyone even notice that tiny little imperfection? (And, just in case you wondered, I went hunting through my kids’ drawers and discovered that the clothing that has detailing similar to this almost always has an overlap at the back or on the bottom . . . and I’d never noticed it until I went hunting for it.)
Ready to try it out? Here’s my quick tutorial: Serger Detailing. Let me know if you have any questions!
Coveralls Under Construction
Whew! Getting this little boy to stay still for long enough to take a nice picture is nearly impossible. He’s not just walking at 10 months . . . he’s running!
I love these one-piece coveralls for the winter, as well as their summer cousin, the romper. They’re so easy to grab and go. Both the coverall and the romper will be included in my next Fishsticks Designs pattern release.
I’m designing the romper and coveralls in sizes newborn to 9 months with the overlapping neckline. It’s easy to pull on over those sweet newborn heads, and it’s a simple easy-to-sew design.
The larger sizes starting at 12 months will include patterns for both the overlapping neck and the basic t-shirt neckband. That will give you a little variation in how you sew these up. That’s always one of my big goals. I want you to get comfortable with a pattern and be able to sew up a wardrobe without everything looking the same!
I do have a question for you. You can usually only find these in ready-to-wear up to size 24 months. I think that there are a lot of mamas who would love to have them up to 4T, though, for bigger little ones who aren’t yet using the potty. Would you sew these in sizes 3T and 4T if you had a pattern available?
I’ll be working on the summer romper over the next few days. I’ll just have to make them a little big . . . there’s snow in the forecast here on Monday, so I don’t think we’ll be using them outside of the house anytime soon!
My Sister’s Apron
My sister asked me to sew her an apron for Christmas (well, okay, for sometime after Christmas). She manages a restaurant and shared with me that she is allowed to wear an apron that includes the colors black and red. (I did forget to ask if white was okay–I really hope it is!) I found this perfect fabric at Hobby Lobby last week. My dear husband when I said, “Look, I found the perfect fabric for Bobbie’s apron!” responded, “You mean because it has aprons on it?” (I might have rolled my eyes.) Well, yeah, sort of . . . but it’s also black and red–the perfect colors–and the aprons on it have this great retro feel to them. The whole fabric has a great feel to it. It was exactly what I wanted to give this simple apron a some excitement.
I used McCalls 2233 which went together perfectly according to the instructions included. (Yay! I didn’t have to modify anything!) I think it made for nice functional apron which should work very well for kitchen duties at home or on the job. I already have plans to make one for myself. I have the perfect fabric in my stash for it!
