Will You Be My Valentine?

This past week was Valentine’s Day!  I thought I would show off the kids’ Valentine’s Day outfits, even though one really isn’t handmade.

First up, is baby sister.  For her I made a Bridille & Twig Pocket Romper out of an adorable hot pick heart print in double brushed polyester spandex from Knitpop.  I just love this romper pattern.  It’s trendy, but simple to get on and off.  I’m a big fan of rompers in general for toddlers.  They look cute but take the guesswork out of creating an outfit.  I accessorized it with one of the February bows from our Little Poppy Co. subscription.

(Don’t mind her refusing to look at the camera.  She was in a mood.)

For big brother, I wasn’t really planning on making a Valentine’s Day shirt for him.  He wears a uniform to school, so I typically don’t make holiday shirts for him unless it’s Christmas or the holiday is on a weekend.  But then I found out late the day before that he was allowed to wear a Valentine’s Day shirt too school.  I didn’t have time to make him a whole outfit, but I do have a Silhouette machine.  😉 I ran to JoAnn after work to pick up a plain red t-shirt and then I bought this cut file from Thread & Grain, at my son’s request. Thankfully I had some black heat transfer vinyl on hand.  Less than 15 minutes later, kiddo had a cool new shirt to wear to school!

I’m pretty happy how everything turned out, and the kids had lots of fun at their respective Valentine parties!

 

 

 

This post contains affiliate links, which means that I get stuff when you use the link to make a purchase. Thanks for contributing to my sewing habit!

Toddler in a Maxi

So the thing about toddlers is that sometimes they grow absurdly fast.  It’s not fair that, at the same time you’re having to make peace with their rapidly departing babyhood, all of a sudden they’ve outgrown their clothes. This happened with my 18 month old daughter, who overnight decided that she needed to go ahead and move up to the next size of clothing even though Mama had virtually no winter clothing in that size.  While I can (I hope) keep squeezing her into her slightly too small playclothes for daycare until I have time to shop/sew, all of a sudden her church dresses were too short.  So I decide to make a new one for her.

Thankfully I still had this left over yard of double brushed polyester spandex from a flat rate Friday mystery box I purchased from Vinegar and Honey Company back in the summer.  I had been holding on to it because I wasn’t sure what to make it into.  It turned out to be perfect for a new, late-winter knit dress for baby girl!  For a pattern I chose a Joy dress in maxi length from Made for Mermaids.  At first, I cut a maxi length because it would give me plenty of fabric to adjust the length (take that, growth spurts!) but as I got going I decided to leave it as a maxi.  I was a little worried that I was out of my mind for putting a long dress on a toddler, but as soon as she put it on all those worries disappeared.  Baby girl LOVES it.

She immediately started dancing and prancing around like a little princess.  It didn’t even really slow her down from trying to run all over church building!  Usually, she wants out of her dress for Sunday evening, but she kept it on all day.  Double brushed poly is a very soft fabric (a certain well-known multi-level marketing clothing company uses it for their leggings), so I’m sure the dress is actually quite comfortable for her.  I love that (a) it didn’t really cost me anything since I had the fabric and the pattern and (b) when it gets warmer I can shorten the sleeves and the skirts and turn it into a spring dress!

This post contains affiliate links, which means that I get stuff when you use the link to make a purchase. Thanks for contributing to my sewing habit!

Thanksgiving WeeBee & BeeBox

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!  This past week, we went to my in-laws house about 2 1/2 hours away.  Our Thanksgivings are always wonderful, low key days of hanging around the house and eating.  But, even though there is no need to dress up, I still like putting the kids in special outfits whenever there’s a holiday.  This year’s October WeeBox from Vinegar and Honey Company was perfect for the occasion!

Vinegar and Honey Company started something new with their October fabric subscriptions – now the BeeBox and the WeeBox each contain their own custom prints!  This WeeBox consisted of an adorable forest monster print (yellow for boys, blue for girls) and a coordinated sweater knit print (light blue for boys, purple for girls), both on buttery soft double brush polyester spandex.  SO CUTE.  In addition, they included a “Thankful Little Monster” vinyl iron on from Thread & Grain for each!

I let my son pick the pattern he wanted for his shirt.  Like almost every other time I’ve let him pick lately, he chose the long sleeve, cuffed version of the Neverland Tee from Stitch Upon a Time, without the front color blocking.  I think he looks pretty handsome…and I love how exited he gets about Mama-made clothes!

For my daughter I decided I wanted to do a simple A-line dress and leggings.  I chose the A-Line Raglan dress from Brindille & Twig.  I love how the double brushed poly makes it soft and drapey while still holding an A-Line shape.  I used the Bonny Leggings pattern from Made For Mermaids for the leggings (the pattern is free if you join their Facebook group).  I was nervous about how they would fit over her bulky cloth diaper, and even made the yoga waistband version to give us more room, but it turns out they were fine and I probably could have used the regular waistband!

Finally – Mama needed something new to wear for Thanksgiving too!  The Beebox this month contained 2 yards of this beautiful autumnal floral on a raisin-brown background.  After considering a few ideas, I decided that I couldn’t go wrong with another pair of basic leggings.  I used the recently updated free Peg Leg pattern from Patterns for Pirates along with the contoured waistband from the add on pack (also free)!  I love the way the contoured waistband sits higher on my waist.  A girl can’t have too many pairs of leggings, right?

With this new direction for their fabric subscription, I can’t wait to see what Vinegar and Honey Co do next!

(This post contains affiliate lengths.  Thanks for helping my sewing habit!)

 

 

Fall Feathers Romper

Even though it’s still in the 80s here (what gives?) it IS October and I’ve decided to get started on my kids’ fall wardrobe.   For my daughter, I made this fun romper set out of double brushed polyester spandex in a purple feather print and solid mustard, with a fun little fringe trim added!  And here’s some good news…this same set is available on my Etsy page!

 

Then I styled it with knee socks, teal moccasins, and a floral headband and made my poor toddler model it in 80 F weather.  She’s such a ham, I don’t think she minded.

Looking forward to when she can wear this outfit regularly!

 

Fabric: Plumb Coachella Feathers and Mustard from Vinegar and Honey Co.

Romper pattern: Summer Romper from Brindille and Twig

Shirt pattern: Movie Night pjs shirt pattern from Sew a Little Seam

 

 

August 2017: Back to School Weebee!

My WeeBee box tends to arrive at the end of the month.  So appropriately, this year’s August WeeBee theme was back to school!  Because I have a son and a daughter, I receive a double box with 1 yard of “boy” themed fabric and 1 yard of “girl” themed fabric, along with pattern suggestions and embellishments.  August’s box included one yard each of Riley Blake’s Crayola Crayons and Crayola Alphabet, along with a little bit of Crayola Triangles as an accent.  They also sent some really cute school-bus shaped wooden buttons!

They are such fun prints that I knew I HAD to make a play outfit for my daughter.  I’ve written on here before about how much I love the Harem Coverall pattern from Brindille and Twig.  Because these prints were all Cotton Lycra, they were perfect for this pattern!  I made the main body out of the Crayons, the accents from the Triangles, and then I used a little scrap solid blue and made a faux placket for the buttons!

For my son, it was a little trickier.  He is 6 1/2, and I was concerned the prints might be too babyish for him.  Fortunately he loves being involved in my sewing and happily picked out a pattern and a fabric scheme.  We settled on the Jolly Roger Raglan from Patterns for Pirates.  My boy picked Alphabet for the main body of the shirt, some scrap solid blue for the sleeves (which he wanted, in his words “not long and not short”), and added a tiny accent triangle patch out of the…Triangles.  For fun, and because I was out of matching thread, I did the hems in a zigzag stitch with a contrasting green.  He seems to like it, and I think he has good taste!

I love it when my kids match…but aren’t exactly identical!  What a fun was to celebrate the beginning of the school year!

July WeeBox Pajamas!

In addition to my BeeBox subscription from  Vinegar and Honey Co, I also receive their WeeBee Box! The WeeBee Box, like the BeeBox, includes fabric (one yard of a premium children’s textile) and a pattern suggestion.  The WeeBee Box also contains some sort of embellishment – an accent fabric, trim, buttons, etc. You can get a boy box, a girl box, doubles of each, or a double boy and girl box.  Since I have son and a daughter, I get the last one.  It’s a great way to get sewing inspiration for the kiddos, especially my son as the sewing world tends to neglect boys a little. 

July’s box included these fun teal desert/Egypt themed prints in cotton interlock.  Interlock was the first knit fabric I ever sewed, and I still enjoy how well it “behaves.” The only drawback is that the lack of spandex limits the stretch and recovery, which eliminates some pattern options.  On the other hand, it makes for EXCELLENT pajamas. (This is where I point out that the CPSC has a whole bunch of rules regarding children’s sleepwear and flammability.  I only make pjs for my own kids, and that’s it.)

For baby girl, I used the peacocks as her main fabric and the camels as the accent.  I opted to modify the footie Coverall pattern from Brindille and Twig. Instead of making the covered feet (I don’t want her slipping on our wood floor), I made cuffs instead. I can always put socks on her if it gets cold. 

For my buddy I made pajama pants using the free Movie Night Pjs pattern from Sew A Little Seam with the camels as the main and the peacocks as the accent. He’s getting big enough now that a yard really isn’t enough to make both pants and a shirt, so we paired them with just a plain white ready to wear undershirt.  He would prefer that to a pajama shirt these days anyway.  He loves the comfort of the pants, and that he matches baby sister!!

As a side note, we took these pictures right before baby girl went to bed, and she was NOT thrilled with the idea.  I give you the outtakes: