Fall Jackets

It is fall in my part of the world and the weather has turned cooler.  The change of seasons always seems to bring a lot of chores - putting the summer clothes away, bringing the cool weather clothes down - and while I'm up in the attic I notice that there is a lot of stuff that we probably don't need anymore, and when was the last time I cleaned up here?  Which is all to say that I actually haven't been spending much time sewing lately.  I sewed these jackets a month or two ago and just haven't had decent pictures to share until now.

I enjoy sewing jackets for the kids because they get a lot of use - the kids have been wearing these jackets multiple times a week.  I also like all the little finishing touches, like pocket welts and top-stitching seams that makes them look polished.

I sewed the little guy a red and black jacket that we have been calling the "Deadpool Jacket."  I used the Jalie 2795 hoodie pattern. The front, back and sleeves of the pattern are each made up of multiple panels, which makes it a great pattern for color blocking. 

I used black and red sweatshirt fleece for the body of the jacket.  The zipper is grey because that's what I had on hand. The cuffs and pocket welts are black ribbing.  The jacket is not lined, but the seams are all serged and then top-stitched, which gives the jacket a polished look even without a lining.

The big kid requested a shiny silver jacket.  I used a metallic silver spandex that I have used before - although never on this scale.  I lined it with a grey heather jersey that was once a jersey sheet.  If it had been up to me, I would have lined it with something that would have contrasted with the silver, but the big kid was making the fabric choices, so that's grey it is.

The pattern is from Kwik-Sew's Sewing for Children, which has patterns for all kinds of staple clothing items, with lots of instructions for making variations of the basic patterns.  The sizing is a little out-dated (shirts are really wide, pants taper)  but once you know that you can adjust the fit -- the book even includes directions for adjusting length and width.

The jackets have already been getting a lot of use, and, absent a giant growth spurt, should serve the kids well in the spring too.

Bottoms Up(cycle) Quilt

I have been on a bit of an upcycling kick lately.  I'd really prefer not to throw anything away if it still can be used in some way.  That is especially true of clothes.   I will donate clothes that are in good condition, but some of the kids' clothes are too worn by the time they are done with them to give away, and, of course, some clothes have sentimental value.  I'd also rather keep the things that I made for the kids and make something else with them than donate them.   So, I stash them in a drawer or a bin in my sewing room until I can think of something to do with them.

Last year I made this quilt and used up a good portion of my stash of kids' t-shirts.  I still had a lot of pants that I didn't know what to do with though. Then when we were visiting my parents in California this past winter I took this picture of the kids:

I put it on the lock screen on my phone and, after looking at it daily for a couple months, I got the idea to make a quilt using the colors in the photo.  I started looking at my fabric stash to see what I had that would work, but then I realized that the kids' old pants actually had most of the colors in the photo: Sand, blue, green, grey, brown.  So I decided this quilt would be a perfect upcycling project for all those old kids' pants that I didn't know what to do with.

 Because some of the pants I wanted to upcycle were toddler sized, I knew I wouldn't be able to get very large cuts out of them.  I decided to cut pieces 3.5" x 6.5" and pair them together to make 6" finished blocks. I threw in some bottom-weight fabric scraps I had lying around as well to fill out some of the colors.

Once I cut up all the pants I sewed them together in pairs that I felt went together - for example, sand would be next to water or plants, so I would sew the sand colors to either blue or green and I sewed darker blues to lighter blues.  Once I had all my blocks sewn I played around with the arrangement a bit.  At first I thought I wanted a more literal representation of the coastline, but I wasn't happy with how it looked:

So I eventually settled on a more random arrangement:

I used Kaufman Shetland Flannel in Solid Denim for the back and quilted it in a stair step pattern following the lines of the blocks. 

I bound the edges with an army green twill that I think I got from the remnant bin at Jo-Ann's. 

The quilt is 10 squares on a side, so it finishes at 60" square.  I love all the different textures that the pants add and the soft flannel on the back. I'm sure I will enjoy snuggling under it when the weather gets cool again.  For now, though, I just like to run my hand over it and see the all fabrics memories.

Avengers Pajamas

My little guy is very much into Marvel super heroes lately. He has a gazillion Marvel action figures and Legos; he has started playing the Lego Marvel Superheroes video game with his brother; and at bedtime he almost always chooses a book featuring Iron Man, Spiderman or the Avengers. 

When he went to they fabric store with me a few weeks back he picked out this Avengers fabric, so I decided to make him some pajamas with it.  I used a vintage sewing pattern for the pajama pants.  The pattern has only one piece for each leg which worked well for this fabric since it is a pretty large scale pattern; it allows the images to be unbroken by a side seam.  I modified the pattern slightly by making the legs straight instead of tapered.

 

For the t-shirt I used the raw-edged raglan pattern from Sewing for Boys (affiliate link).  This is my go-to t-shirt pattern for the kids, although I rarely do the raw-edged thing.  It is super quick to sew up on my serger and, for pajamas, I can just leave the sleeves and bottom un-hemmed.  In this case, I was up-cycling an old shirt of mine for the sleeve fabric, so I re-used the hems.

I appliqued a few leftover panels from the Avengers fabric on to the front of the shirt with a zig-zag stitch and - as my little guy would say - "Wall-la!" a comfy matching set of PJs.

And now, I think someone wants to read a story.

Iron Man Raglan T-Shirt

The kids had a day off of school on Friday so I took the day off as well. What the big kid wanted to do most on his day off was to sew a new soft toy. He and I have been sewing up quite a few soft toys lately, which I will have to share in another post. But the little guy often gets left out of these projects. He rarely asks me to sew him anything until after he sees something I have sewn his brother, and then he just wants his own copy. Usually at that point I don't have the time or energy to make another. Last week, however, I took him to the fabric store with me and we talked about what he would like me to sew for him. He told me he wanted an Iron Man Mark 2 shirt. So on Friday I made that my first priority. I have a metallic silver spandex knit fabric left over from another project which I decided to use for the Iron Man figure. I then found an Iron Man coloring page that I could use for the shape. I printed out the coloring page and traced the outline onto Wonder Under (affiliate link). I ironed the Wonder Under onto the back of the silver fabric and cut out the shape, then ironed it onto my t-shirt fabric.

I used the raglan tee pattern from Sewing for Boys (affiliate link) and upcycled a 3X men's tee that I got at a bargain store for the main fabric, reusing the hem. The sleeve fabric is from an upcycled jersey sheet - also re-using the hem. Yay for not having to hem! I then printed my coloring page onto freezer paper and ironed it onto the top of my silver fabric applique. I machine stitched along some of the interior lines of the figure using black thread and a short stitch length to make ripping the paper out easier at the end. After I ripped the paper out I sewed around the whole figure to define it and added a white felt circle for the chest unibeam.

After all that detail work, sewing the shirt together was a breeze. My little guy immediately put the shirt on and started showing off his Iron Man moves.

Lightning McQueen Letterman Jacket

I sewed my little guy a letterman jacket for fall using the pattern by Fairytale Pattern Designs (affiliate link).

The body is red and black sweatshirt fleece, with red ribbing for the cuffs, collar and bottom band.

The pattern doesn't call for a lining, but I wanted this jacket to be warm enough for fall, so I added a lining made out of gray jersey.

I appliqued Lightning McQueen's number on the back and a Lightning McQueen patch that I bought on Etsy on the front.

Unfortunately I did not notice the typo in the patch until after the jacket was complete.  Did you catch it?  I should fix it before the little guy learns how to read.

But, for now, he thinks his new jacket is perfect.

August Mystery Challenge: London Dapper

I signed up to participate in a mystery challenge - where a group of bloggers are each assigned a random partner who gives gives the blogger a theme that they must create a project for.  Karly from Paisley Roots was assigned to give me a theme and she chose London Dapper.  I started looking on pinterest and saw a lot of suit jackets, button-down shirts, and trouser-style pants.  I told Karly this would be a challenge for me as I usually went pretty casual.  In the end I'm not sure I rose to the challenge so much as I brought the challenge down to me.

I considered making some formal clothes for my little guy because I am still the one who dresses him, so I knew I could get the clothes on him, while the big kid might flat out refuse.  But it is my big kid who is more in need of clothes now, so I decided to find a way to make an outfit for him that would fit the challenge.

In browsing pinterest I did see some cowl-neck sweaters in the dapper category and I knew my big kid would wear that, especially if I made it in fleece.  I used the varsity cowl neck pullover pattern (affiliate link) from Peek-a-Boo pattern shop and some navy blue micro-fleece that I had purchased for $1/yard from a fabric store near where I work.

I also wanted to make a collared shirt.  I was thinking that layering the shirt under the cowl neck pullover would give it a more formal look, but in the end the collared shirt wasn't even visible under the pullover.  My big kid recently told me he doesn't wear shirts with buttons, so I decided to make a knit pullover shirt with a collar and a slit so it could get over his head.  I mashed a few different patterns together to get the look I was going for.  I used a grey and navy striped knit that I had purchased on Girl Charlee, but I didn't quite have enough to make the long sleeves, so I decide to make a faux layered look with a solid navy sleeve underneath.

I had also wanted to make a pair of pants for the big kid.  I was thinking a trouser-style pair of jeans or something like that, but I didn't end up having time.  Then I realized that I had made him a pair of pants a couple months ago that I had never blogged about that could work.  They are made out of a tan corduroy that I think might have also come from the $1/yard barrel at the fabric store near where I work.  I used the little heartbreaker pants pattern from Sewing for Boys (affiliate link).  They are wide leg, where much of the stuff I saw in my pinterest search was skinny leg, but they do have kind of a trouser look to them and I figured homemade pants that didn't quite fit the challenge were better than store-bought pants, so I went with it.

In the end, I am pretty happy with the outfit although it doesn't exactly scream "dapper."

And I think my big kid will get a lot of use out of the items this fall.

Be sure to check out all the other bloggers who participated in the mystery challenge below:

Friends Stitched Together - History of Flight - 8/17

Felt with Love Designs - Under the Sea - 8/18

Knot Sew Normal - Fruit - 8/19

Friends Stitched Together - My Little Pony - 8/20

The Berry Bunch - Cover Up - 8/21

Pensebrox - Titanic - 8/22

Tangible Pursuits - London Dapper - 8/23

Rebel and Malice - Disco - 8/24

Sewing Sober - Espionage - 8/25

Sugaridoo - Musical Instruments - 8/26

Lulu and Celeste - Morpho Butterfly/Rainforest - 8/27

Paisley Roots - Classic Summer Movies - 8/28

Create 3.5 - Morocco - 8/29

Mae&K - Solar System - 8/30

The Sewing Sparrow - Safari - 8/31

Four Freezer Paper Stencil Tees

This post was originally published at Gracious Threads as part of their Embellish is for Boys series.  Be sure to check out the whole series for a ton of great tutorials and projects for spicing up your boy clothes.

Summer PJs

I have been sewing my little guy up a bunch of pajamas for summer because somehow no size 2/3 summer pajamas seem to have been saved from the big kid.  I don't know how that happened, since I saved nearly everything else.  Anyway, I also have a lot of cute flannel prints that I wanted to use up.  The fabric specifically says on the selvage that it is not intended for children's sleepwear, but I decided to use them for pajamas anyway.  I think the reason for the warning is that you are not supposed to make loose-fitting cotton items for children to sleep in because they can catch fire and burn more easily if exposed to a flame.  My children, however, do not play around open flames so I think the risk is a small one.

Guest Posting for Embellish is for Boys

Today I am guest posting at Gracious Threads for the Embellish is for Boys series.  Embellish is for Boys is a series about the various ways we can add fun details to our boys' clothes.  Each week Jess highlights a different technique, with a tutorial on that technique, guest posters showing off their projects using that technique, a link-up and a giveaway!  It is lots of fun, so be sure to check out the whole series.

This week's technique is freezer paper stenciling and today I am sharing several tees I embellished for my kids using the technique. So, go check it out!

Selfish Sewing Week Wrap Up

It is time to share what I sewed for myself during Selfish Sewing Week.  As per usual I can really only sew on the weekends, so none of this was finished until yesterday.  I did get a couple hours to sew during the week, but a serger mishap ate into some of that time.  I completed three items, although two I had started sewing before SSW (long before!).  But SSW actually inspired me to finish them, so that is a good thing!

First up is a top I made from the Deer and Doe's free Plantain Tee pattern.  I love the color of this fabric!   It's actually pretty similar to the color of the fabric I used for the zip-up hoody I made here.  Definitely one of my favorite colors.  I got it in the $1/yard barrel at the fabric store near where I work (I got  a lot of great fabric there!  Unfortunately lately there hasn't been anything good)

The scoop neckline on this top is perfect.  Not so low that a tug from my two year old will create a wardrobe malfunction, just a flattering scoop to elongate the neck and create a nice open look.

Here is the modeled shot. I don't really like to take pictures of myself and my hair wasn't washed and I was in a bit of a rush because the little guy was waking up  from his nap, but here you go.

You wanna know what the best thing about making tops for myself is? The sleeves are long enough!  I'm a little taller than average so sleeves on most of my store-bought shirts end a couple inches above my wrists (especially after a few washings).  It is nice to be able to make shirts with true long sleeves.

Next up is some work clothes.  This shirt was made using a basic tee pattern that I have, that I cut and spread  at the neckline to add pleats.  I used  a fabric that was left over from making my big kid a batman costume two years ago.
  

Here's a closeup of the pleats.  It might have been better to do the top-stitching on the neckband rather than below it.  I also think it would have been better to make the shirt a little wider so the fabric could hang more freely from the pleats.  As you'll see below the top is a little tight at the bust.

Here is the top modeled with my third completed item.  I am really proud of this one.  It is a skirt I made using Melly Sews instructions for drafting your own skirt pattern out of a stretch suiting fabric.  I had started this ages ago and then procrastinated about finishing it.  I was a little intimidated by some aspects of the construction and didn't know quite how I wanted to finish it.  I am glad Selfish Sewing Week gave me the incentive I needed to actually finish it.

What I had at the beginning of the week was a two pattern piece skirt with darts, with the sides and back already sewn together and zipper inserted. I thought about adding a waistband but I couldn't figure out how to do that since the zipper was already in (without pulling out the seam ripper), so ultimately I decided to face it with a  piece of the suiting fabric and then attach lining to the facing piece. 

I probably could have made it a little tighter in the hips - especially since it is a stretch fabric.  I am noticing in the pictures above that there seems to be extra fabric around the middle.  Oh well -- it is comfortable.  By the way, do you like my checking the Blackberry pose?  You will see me doing that pose all day long at work.

The skirt started off pretty plain, but when I tried it on yesterday I realized it was a little shorter than I like for a work skirt, so I decided to add a pleated ruffle at the bottom.  Makes it a little more fun, but still very professional looking.

I also did an exposed zipper in the back.  I see a lot of exposed zippers these days, so I thought I would try it.  It is pretty easy to do and, again, adds a little interest to the skirt.

So that's what I got done during Selfish Sewing Week!

Come back on Wednesday for a pattern tour featuring three lovely bloggers who have sewn up their own versions of my fox lovey pattern.  One lucky reader will win a free copy of the fox lovey pattern!