KCW Day 7- Almost…

I had a good run at KCW this year, but I didn’t quite complete all of my projects…

I did work yesterday on another project, but didn’t anywhere near done…

I have three projects that I didn’t get done. Project 1: A cute little romper for a friends son, which means I need to make a pattern ’cause I can’t find one that I want. Project 2: A new pair of pants for my son, using Blank Slate’s Coastal Cargos pattern. And the last project, Project 3: Turning this adult octopus t-shirt into a kids tee.

Just cause KCW has come to a close, it doesn’t mean that I’m stopping! This week I have to switch direction to party decorations and quilting. But you will see these projects soon!

Did you finish all your projects??

The Banyan Tee by Figgy’s

ok, So have you gotten the Sew Fab e-pattern bundle yet? Yes, there’s a lot of girl patterns, but there are boy patterns there too! Including the Banyan Tee by Figgy’s.

Can I say super easy?? Yes, I can!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know how excited I was yesterday when I got my double needle to work to do the knits! YEA!! It wasn’t much at all, but I’ve been scared of it for a while. All I did was add two spools to the spool and threaded them both through to the double needle and off we went! SO in that sense, and the fact that the shirt was so easy to make, it was a great day.

But here’s the flop… I hate the fabric I used. It’s so girly! I love the color. But the dots and the weight of the fabric are too girly. Hence the  reason the Kiddo is wearing it over a hoodie. The pattern calls for a pocket, but with this fabric, I didn’t like the pocket, so I left it off. I don’t know, would the pocket help it not be so girlie???

Ok, enough about the flop side of my sewing…. Back to the plus! I love the little sleeve detail! Love it! A little turned up sleeve!

The pattern actually has a version for boys and a version for girls. Check out how cute it is on Jessica’s (from Craftiness is Not Optional) little lady! (her little lady is absolutely adorable, but you have to go to her website to see the whole precious thing!!)

And on a slightly different subject, it seems like the 100th Day of School Celebration is taking over this year. I’ve never heard of it before this year, but now I’m seeing in on blogs and FB all over the place. We had to bring in 100 things in sets of 10. So we decided to make a garland of 100 squares in 10 different colors.

According to the teachers it was a hit! The kids pulled it out across the room. And 100 2 inch squares makes about a 17 foot garland. So it honestly did stretch across the whole room!

So even though I love the pattern, but am not in love with the fabric of the shirt, my son loved it and wouldn’t take it off. He wore it to school and even told his teachers that I made it for him! I’d call that a 10 percent flop, 90 percent WOOOHOOO!

Be sure to get your bundle of patterns before time runs out (super early Monday morning)! Click here to purchase yours today!

 

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Hot Dog Day Vest Tutorial!

This is a re-post from a post I did back in July for Narelle’s blog Cook, Clean, Craft when she hosted the series Boy’s Own Style! I thought now that people are thinking about Halloween this could be a fun little project to share!

Enjoy!

First off, I have to say Happy National Hot Dog Day! Maybe it’s a US thing, but everyone can play along right??? Thanks for stopping by to join me here on Narelle’s blog! I’m Louise from I’m Feelin’ Crafty!

Who doesn’t love hot dogs?? And who doesn’t love dressing this kids up like a hot dog??? When Narelle asked me join in on her series, of course the first thing I did was say yes. Then I looked at the calendar and knew I had to join in on National Hot Dog Day! My husband and I brainstormed for an idea and he actually came up with the idea for a hot dog bun vest. At first I was like, no way! Then the details started coming to me and I fell in love with the idea!

So here’s how I made my vest!

Step 1- Gather materials: Red and White fleece, khaki colored denim, yellow buttons (for the drops of mustard ya know!), thread and the pattern. My pattern is for somewhere between a 3T and 4T.

Or you can make your own by tracing a vest that already fits (which is basically how I made mine…)

Step 2- Cut out all your pieces. Denim for the outside, Red Fleece for the inside, pockets, buttonhole piece and collar and White fleece for the mayonnaise pockets.

Step 3- Sew in the Pockets. 1, position the pockets about 4.5″ inches from the corner of the armhole at side seam, right sides to right sides. 2, Sew the pockets on the seam side only. 3, If you want to topstitch, do so now! Here I folded over the pocket and did a little topstitching. 4, Iron open the pockets, but be sure to not iron the fleece directly (put a cover over it before ironing)! 5, Stack the front and back pieces, right sides together, and pin. 6, Sew a continuous seam from the armhole to the bottom hem edge going around the pocket. If you did add the topstitching, it adds a little funkiness to the laying out and stitching the front and back together, but you just have to move it around a bit and be careful to not stitch over the topstitching.

Step 4: Add the mayo!  First turn over the top of the mayo and stitch. Sew on the mayo squirts on to the right sides of the front flaps of the inside pieces of red fleece.

Step 5: Sew lining. Sew front sides to back, right sides together. Leave a 4″ hole in one of the side seams to pull it all through later.

Step 6: Collar. Sew the two collar pieces together, right sides together. Only sew the two short sides and curved side of the collar. Trim the corners and turn right side out. Topstitch the three sides.

Step 7: Buttonhole strip. Just like the collar, sew the short sides and the curvy side together, right sides to right sides. Trim the corners, snip the curves (so that they fold over easier) and turn right side out.

Step 8: Add the buttonholes. Honestly, I am not a fan of buttonholes. On my machine, the buttonhole function doesn’t work. I need to get that fixed…. So please excuse my not so perfect buttonholes. Anyway, for this project, I added the buttonholes and I didn’t line them up on purpose. Have you ever seen a compete straight line of mustard drops on your bun? Me neither! So neither are my mustard buttons!

Step 9: Put it all together! First off, sew the shoulders together for the front and back, right sides to right sides. Pin the collar and the buttonhole strip to the front of the vest, right sides to right sides. Next, pin the inside of the vest to the outside, again, right sides to right sides.

Step 10: Sew it all together. Sew all the outside edges (but not the armholes! I got carried away and forgot to NOT sew the armholes and had to pull out the seams at the armholes!!!) Don’t forget to trim the corners!

Step 11: Pull it all through the hole you left in the lining and topstitch all around the edges, including under the collar.

Step 12: Sew on the buttons. I had an extra button, so I added a drop of mustard to the inside of the vest!

Step 13: Close the armholes. Fold over the outside and the inside towards the inside about .5″ and pin. Then pin the two together lining up the shoulder seam and the side seam. Topstitch!

And WAH-LA! You’ve got a little hot dog!

And we’re off to have a hot dog! Thanks again, Narelle, for having me!  While you’re eating yours, be sure to visit me at I’m Feelin’ Crafty!

 

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KCWC- Day 6 and I think I’m done

Back again! Another sweatshirt.

Not as excited about it as the other one I made, but I’m pretty content with it.

We picked out the colors from our stash. Probably about a year ago I was going to make the kiddo some sweatpants, so we went to the store to get some sweat shirt material and this orange was the color he picked out! Just a little bright, huh?? Then we used the rest of the Daddy’s sweatshirt, the arms and the pocket on front. And for the trim we used some more from those teal sweatpants that I had and never wore.

This one I made using the Pauley’s Pullover pattern from Sewing For Boys. The pattern was actually supposed to have a drawstring waist, but I didn’t really like it. So I took the ribbing from the sweatpants and finished the bottom. And honestly, it was just a bit too bulky, so I went back in and narrowed down the body a few inches.

When my husband saw the book laying open to the directions, he looked at the picture of the little boy and said, ‘That’s a cute kid, but I don’t like that sweatshirt!’ I then informed him that is what I was making… But then this morning when I showed him mine, he lit up and smiled and said, ‘That’s cute, really cute!’ And I know he was telling the truth!

So yesterday, the kiddo and I were chatting about the sweatshirt I was going to make and I asked if he wanted any image on it and he said yes, ‘A Harmonica!’ It was late last night when I finished it, so I gave up on the harmonica. Then this morning he saw it and his first comment was, ‘But where’s the harmonica?’ So back to the sewing machine for me… And I came up with this applique and stitching. I think it turned out kinda cute. Apppliqueing with fleece isn’t the easiest thing to do. It could have been a little longer, but… And it’s off-center. On purpose. But I wish I had centered it…. Oh, well, I’m pretty content! and the Kiddo likes it!

I had a couple more projects that I wanted to do, but most of them have been stuffed back on the shelf, except for one… It probably won’t get done for KCWC, but soon. Now it’s off to Halloween crafting!

Sew Ready to Play Impossible Mission with Cook, Clean, Craft

Ready for another installment of Sew Ready to Play??? Today we have Narelle from Cook Clean Craft! If you’ve followed this blog for a little while, you know Narelle and I have become blogging buddies and she’s visited over here a couple of times now and I’ve made a few of her projects! I love the Men’s Jeans to Toddler pants which made some super adorable pants for my kiddo! You’ve got to check out her blog if you haven’t already! So many more tutorials and fun for the boys.

Welcome Narelle!

Hi, I’m Narelle from Cook Clean Craft. After making UNO shorts for Sew Ready to Play last year (I still love them and they still fit – yay!), I really had to wrack my brain to come up with another game. I started thinking back to games I played when I was a kid, and suddenly this popped into my head:

“Another visitor? Stay awhile…Stay Forever” (in a very sinister voice!)

The introduction to the game “Impossible Mission” on Commodore 64, and so the Commodore 64 T-shirt was created:

Yes, I was a bit of a geek (hang on, I still am…), and loved playing Ghostbusters, Le Mans car racing and Barbie and more on our family Commodore 64.

(Scary to think how much more powerful his toy Leap Pad is!)

I remember the fights my brother and I had playing the C64 version of Monopoly (he’d  sell all my property to himself for $1 when I wasn’t looking). Aaah, the memories!

So how did I make it? I used the Raw Edge Raglan T-shirt pattern from the book “Sewing for Boys”. I had the some knit fabric in my stash that was the perfect Commodore 64 screen blue, and some white ribbing (I’m trying really hard to stash-bust at the moment!).

I embellished the front and one sleeve before I did the sewing – freezer paper stencilling for the front (no fancy cutting machine here – it was all hand-cut with an exacto knife – why do I always pick such fiddly designs (like this and this)?).

I made an applique for the sleeve from fabric scraps in my stash – using heat’n’bond lite and a satin-stitch (narrow and short zigzag) around the edge.

(a little wonky – don’t look too closely!)

I didn’t exactly follow the pattern for the T-shirt – I just can’t do the raw-edge thing… So I sewed it together with my serger with right sides together (after almost throwing it through the window when I decided to change threads – I’ve never had a problem threading it before, but it was up for a fight this time!), and hemmed the sleeves and bottom. I bravely did some contrasting top-stitching too.

And we ended up with a cute geek T-shirt (for a cute Little Man who didn’t want to model!):

Thanks for inspiring me again, Louise. For more fun crafty projects, head over to Cook Clean Craft. And a parting question: Are we cruel to force our geekiness onto our children?

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Happy National Hot Dog Day!

Join me in celebrating National Hot Dog Day over at Cook, Clean Craft where I’m sharing a tutorial on making a Hot Dog Bun vest!

Have you ever dressed your kiddo up like a hot dog??

 

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Pet Rock Carrier Tutorial

You might remember this one… A couple months back I shared this tutorial on Stephanie’s Blog, Hugs Kisses and Snot! I thought I’d share it here on my blog today! But if you haven’t, please check out Stephanie’s blog!

Today is just a day of hunting for pet rocks with me and the kiddo. And what do you need on a pet rock hunting mission? A pet rock carrier, of course!

Would you like to know how I made it? Great! ‘Cause that’s why I’m here! To show you how I made it…

Step 1. Materials

Fabric

Clear Vinyl

Interfacing

Thread

Scissors and/or Rotary Knife

Pinking Shears

Step 2- Cut pieces.

Circles- Cut (2) 4.5″ diameter circles for the bottom and (2) 5″ diameter circles for the lid. These dimensions include the seam allowances.

Trim pieces- Cut (2) 2.5″ by 13.5″ strips for the bottom and top trim pieces. Cut (2) 2.5″ by 14.5″ strips for the lid trim pieces.

Clear Vinyl- Cut (1) 9″ by 13.5″ piece of vinyl. Yes, there is actually something in the picture, but it’s kinda hard to photograph clear vinyl, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one!

Strap- Cut (1) 4″ by 30″ piece for the strap.

Interfacing- How much of this you use depends on the weight of your fabric. I used it for the top trim on the bag and between the bottom and lid circles. I didn’t use it on the lid trim or the bottom trim because of the heavy weight of the fabric I was using.

Step 3- Prepare the top trim piece. First iron on the interfacing. Then iron the strip in half. Next iron the edges over 1/4″.

Step 4- Sew the top trim piece to the vinyl. Insert the vinyl all the way into the folded and ironed trim. Top-stitch.

Step 5- Prepare the strap. Iron the strip in half and then fold over the edges to the inside fold. You’ll end up with a 1″ wide strip.

Step 6- Set up the bottom trim piece and strap. I use hair clips instead of pins. Love this!! I use it for quilting, too. Anyway…. Layout the bottom trim pieces, right sides towards the vinyl, 1″ from the bottom edge of the vinyl. Next, layout the straps. I located mine as shown above.

Step 7- Stitch along the bottom trim.

Step 8- Fold over the bottom trim and top-stitch. I didn’t iron the bottom trim pieces back, but you can if you want. The vinyl can be iron, just be sure to use a low iron setting and use a piece of fabric between the vinyl and the iron. It doesn’t take much heat to distort or melt the vinyl.

Step 9- Sew down the strap. Sew up from the bottom to about 1″ away from the top trim. You don’t want to sew them all the way to the top or else the lid won’t be able to fit on! I added a little rectangle piece at the top, just for a little extra strength and design! The second piece of this is to also continue to sew up one side of the strap to close the strap.

Step 10- Fold over the bag body, right sides together and stitch together!

Step 11- Add interfacing to one layer of the bottom circles and sandwich them together wrong sides together.

Step 12- Pin the bottom to the bag body, right sides together. The bottom piece that will be on the outside of the finished bag, will be inside the bag at this point.

Step 13- Sew the bottom and the body together. Use pinking shears to trim the exposed edges.

Step 14- Turn the bag right sides out. This will probably wrinkle and maybe even put some kinks in the vinyl. NO fretting! Iron it out like I mentioned in Step 8 and you’ll be fine! The bag is done! You can stop here or continue on (kinda like those Choose Your Own Adventure books back in the day… Do they still have those? They do!!) OK, sorry, back to the tutorial at hand!

Step 15- Ahhh… You’ve decided to continue on with this adventure, have you… Great! The lid! As with the bottom, add the interfacing to one layer of the lid. Then sandwich the two layers together.

Step 16- Sew the ends of the trim pieces together and iron open.

Step 17- Pin the two strips to the lid circles. Pin them to each side, right sides together.

Step 18- Sew the pieces together.

Step 19- Fold the trim pieces over and topstitch along the top.

Step 20- Fold over the raw edges about a 1/4″ and pin.

Step 21- Top stitch the edges together. And Wahla! You’re done!

Now it’s off to take our pet rocks to the rock yard to add to the family!

Enjoy your pet rock carrier with whatever you want to carry in it! And thanks again, Stephanie, for having me!!

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Celebrate the Boy 2011!

I’m really excited!!! I found this last year summer online, but missed it as it was going on in full swing. I was really hoping that I would remember it this year and I did!!

Celebrate the boy is a month long blog a thon by the ladies at Made By Rae and MADE about all things boys!!

It’s true, our little boy kiddos get the shaft when it comes to cool clothing options. You see it everywhere… Stores, the girls section is HUGE, the boys section…. little. Pattern books, everything girl. Boys patterns, well… not so much! This isn’t just about clothes, but I”m excited to see what everyone shares….

I thought I’d share a few of my favorites from last year. All of which our on my to do list on the side, but I’ll show you with pictures…

 

1. Mens Shirt to Boys Shirt from Made by Rae. I’ve been stockpiling shirts out of Dad’s ‘Goodwill’ piles for this project!

2. 90 Minute Shirt from MADE. Very cute. I think the 90 minute thing intimidates me though…. My son has a big head (Dad and son share hats… Need I say more….) so I love this shirt style. And it’s just adorable no matter what size head your child has!!!

3. The Slim Slacks for Boys from This Mama Makes Stuff. The girls get the skinny jeans, why can’t the boys have the slim slacks??? My buddy is still a bit on the short side, so I don’t know how they’d look on him, but I really want to try it out!

And I have contributed a few oldie’s to the pool, but I have a few new projects in the works…

What is your favorite thing to make the boys in your life???