Selfish Sewing Week Preparations

Next week is Selfish Sewing Week and, while I do have some issues with the name, I plan to participate because it is a good occasion to get some sewing done for myself.

This year Selfish Sewing week is on Kollabora.  If you haven't visited  Kollabora, it is a pretty cool site where "makers" can share their projects.  You can see my projects here.  If you are on Kollabora you can link up your projects to the Selfish Sewing Week feed by putting "Selfish Sewing Week" in the "Inspired by" box for your project.

I have several projects cut out and ready to go - more than I can probably finish in one week, but better to be over-prepared than under-prepared!

I have a long sleeve tee cut out using the free Plantain t-shirt pattern from Deer and Doe.

I also have a shirt cut out using the same Boatneck top pattern as this shirt.  It is the same kind of fabric as well - a Stretch ITY Jersey knit from Fabric.com.

I also have this shirt that I cut out ages ago - it is a sleeveless cowl neck top that is self drafted by modifying a basic t-shirt pattern.

Finally I have a couple things that are partly sewn that I would like to finish. 

This is a sleeveless top with pleats at the neckline which is also self-drafted from a basic t-shirt pattern.  It needs the neckband fixed, the armholes finished and to be hemmed.

This skirt I was making from Melly Sews' instructions on drafting a skirt. I think it still needs to be taken in a little and needs a waistband and lining and needs to be hemmed.  I really doubt I will get to this one, but we will see.

Will you be sewing something for yourself this week?

Applique Shirts: Shark and Max Steel

I am starting to work on the clothes the boys will need for summer.  I've gone through the clothes I saved from when the big kid was little and found that there is a severe shortage of 3T summer clothes.  I am not sure why this happened, because I saved practically everything - I must have been going through a purging phase at that time.  So anyway, he is definitely going to need some tees and some shorts.

I wanted to use applique on the kids' shirts to make them more interesting and something they would be more likely to pick out of the closet themselves.  I had ordered this cool ocean blue tie dye from Girl Charlee (the fabric seems to be NLA, the link is my referral link) and I decided to applique a shark onto it for the little guy.  The fabric does remind me of deep water so a shark seemed appropriate.  And the little guy plays with a toy shark in the bath and likes to pretend that it is eating cars and people and soccer balls, so I thought he would be excited to have a shark on his shirt.

I found a picture of a shark that I liked by searching Google images and then I used photoshop's pen tool to trace around the shark (although you could easily do this by hand with tracing paper).  I then printed out my outline and traced it onto freezer paper.  You can actually print directly onto freezer paper - I'm not sure why I didn't do that.

I used a grey knit fabric for the applique and and applied wonder under to the back side of it.  I usually use knit fabrics for my clothing appliques because you don't have to worry about them fraying. I then ironed the freezer paper with the outline, shiny side down, onto the front side of the fabric.  I cut around the outline and then removed the freezer paper from the front and removed the paper backing on the wonder under from the back.  I ironed the applique onto the front of the shirt and then for extra security, stitched around the edges. (sorry I didn't take any process pictures - that is something I need to work on!)

This big kid is in to Max Steel these days, so he got a Max Steel shirt.

I used the same process for this shirt - using the same blue fabric for the applique as I used for the sleeves.  When I showed this shirt to the big kid he was excited!  Too bad it is still not quite t-shirt weather...

The pattern I used for the little guy's shirt was the raw-edged raglan from Sewing for Boys (affiliate link).  I just didn't leave any raw edges.  The big kid's shirt is a raglan tee pattern from Simplicity 5125.  Next time I make this t-shirt though I will definitely add two or three inches to it.  The tees are wider and shorter than I like and than the off-the-shelf ones he has in the same size.

Pattern Release: Fox Lovey Blanket

Today I am releasing my latest pattern - a fox lovey blanket (affiliate link).  I have been thinking about making a fox lovey for some time.  There are so many cute fox things out there, but I haven't seen any fox loveys.  I just know there is a fox lover, or future fox lover, out there who will love snuggling up with their very own fox lovey.