New Jammies for a New Year

Up until a few days ago we hadn't pulled out the warm jammies, but normally they are a must in Northern Michigan. Both kids love footed PJs, but I've never attempted to make them before. Which is weird given how many Christmas PJs I've made. This year I was running a bit behind so the kids got New Year's Pajamas.

Now that my children have a number of homemade garments, they are becoming clothing connoisseurs; I'm starting to hear design comments and critiques:

"I want my next pair to have built in gloves, too." (Not gonna happen.)

"Mom, mine look good, but the tops and bottoms don't match." (But they "go.")

"Next time can you make the head hole bigger?" (Oops.)

Now I know, when I decide to make my skinny son the size eight PJs with the size 12 length thinking  I'll get a perfect fit that way,  I need to use the size 12 neck opening, too. Thankfully he loves them anyway. How could he not - they're footed Dr. Who pajamas, which according to my son makes them awesome. 

The pattern is Happy Feet Footed Pajamas by Peekaboo Patterns, available here. (Go buy it now!) I love this pattern and have now made four pair ranging from newborn  to size 12. They were super easy; the raglan sleeves make the top quick and simple with no armscye to ease or sew and each leg is just three pieces. I sewed both pair in one evening. If the pattern came in my size - I'd have a pair!

I did receive this pattern for free, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own. 

Happy Feet

Mackinac is having a little baby boom. One baby was born a couple of weeks ago, and two more (twins) are due soon. So, of course, I've been making jammies - specifically Peek-a-Boo Pattern's Happy Feet Pajamas. 

They are so stinkin' cute. In the newborn size they are adorably tiny. (I haven't had little ones that small for such a long time. Sigh...) And they were so easy to make; each leg / foot is only three pieces, so they sewed up really fast. The top has raglan sleeves, so there were no armscye (arm holes) to ease and sew. The hardest part of the whole thing was sewing on those little cuffs, but once I got the hang of it, they went quickly. I think each set took less than an hour and a half.  

I made deer set because the little guy's dad is a hunter. I remembered my husband's frustration when our kids were born. He was kind of forgotten in the whirlwind of showers and presents, so I wanted to make sure this dad to felt remembered. As for the sock monkey fleece, it was just too adorable not to buy!

I love that this pattern includes all the sizes from newborn up to size 12. Now that the baby jammies are done, I can get to work on bigger PJs for my kiddos. After making those little newborn feet, my daughter's feet seem gigantic! 

I did receive this pattern for free, but the opinions expressed above are my own.

My Daughter's New Go To Dresses

I've been doing a lot of sewing for my daughter lately. All using this pattern and I love it!

And when I say love, I mean love. It's from the same pattern shop where I got the pattern to make these pants and this blazer. 

One of my favorite things about Go To Patterns is being able to print the pattern out at home. Thirty minutes at the dining room table with the scissors and tape and I had a full sized pattern. I actually prefer these print-at-home pdf patterns to commercial sewing patterns; Simplicity, Butterick and McCall's print their patterns on tissue paper and, sometimes  they can be a pain to use.

The Go To Signature Dress has got a ton of mix and match options, so I can make a bazillion different things from it. So far K has gotten a maxi dress with inseam pockets and a flutter sleeve, and a short sleeve tunic with a kangaroo pouch. (OK, maybe I can't get a bazillion different options, but the math teacher in me is quite confident that 3 length options X 4 sleeve options X 4 pocket options X 3 waistband options = 144 combinations. And that doesn't even take into account that you can do things like put a cap sleeve over a long sleeve.

Plus, this dress is so easy to sew  up. At first I was a bit nervous because I'd never done a sewn-in neckband before, but it was surprisingly easy; Andrea's directions were quite clear and really easy to follow. After sewing in two of them, I feel like I've got it down. (Believe it or not, I actually like doing that step with my sewing machine better than using my serger.)

If making so many items from one pattern sounds odd to you, then you don't have a finicky child. My daughter is all about how clothes feel. If something is just quite so, she won't wear it. So rather than risk purchasing things she might like, it's just easier to make things I know, or at least can be fairly sure, she'll love. And the Go To Signature Dress fits that bill perfectly. 

The tunic length is perfect for leggings, (In fact, I may just have to buy this pattern next.) Actually, the next I need to do is to order some really cute fabric for another maxi dress. K is getting frustrated with me since I'm only letting her wear this one once a week.

I was given this pattern at no cost, but the opinions presented in this post are my own.

Pikachu Pants

My son loves Pokemon these days, so I shouldn't have been surprised when he asked to be Pikachu for Halloween. I love that he had a very clear vision of what he wanted to look like, "I don't want a Pikachu suit. I want normal clothes that make me look like Pikachu. And I want ears; ears on a headband, not on a hat or a hood."  I kind of got the vibe that he wanted to look cool. He is 11 after all, and I have to remember that when you're 11, you often worry about what your friends think...

I knew he didn't want a pajama style pant, but I had never seen a pattern for blue jeans. Until, I found this Skinny Jeans pattern. It was perfect, but the only fabric I could find was lemon yellow. No problem... 

A packet of this in the kitchen sink and I was good to go. The best thing about this kind of pattern, is there was no trip to the fabric store. Go to Patterns sells downloadable pdf patterns that you buy and print out at home. Let me tell you, that's a wonderful thing when you live on an island and the nearest fabric store is a 30 - 45 minute boat ride and then an hour drive away. So, once my fabric was the perfect Pikachu yellow, I just printed out my pattern and got to work. Sure I had to cut out the pieces and tape them together, but it was super easy, and it took a whole lot less time than a trip to the store.

I quickly sewed up a pair and S tried them on. He loved the pants, except he didn't care for how low cut they were in the front. As you can see, the front was two full inches lower than the back, and he didn't like how his underwear was visible over the top of the waistband. (Plus he is so thin, he has no behind to help hold his pants up.) I was surprised when he asked me if I could just add in more fabric to make them come up higher. Thank goodness I bought more fabric than I needed and I had enough to make a second yellow pair. (Yet another instance where being a fabric hoarder has been a good thing.)

In about 15 minutes I drafted a new pattern piece to raise the front up so it was about equal with the back. (I had to alter the shape of the pocket inside too, so if you want to know more about that email me, and I can go into more detail for you.) 

Just to be sure that the pieces all worked together, I made a second pair out of denim I already had stashed away.  It ended up being a really good thing because S told me those were his favorite pants ever and that he was never taking them off...

That was, until he saw the pocket on the next pair I made. As soon as he saw that pocket, the denim pants got demoted into second place and he christened these his "Pikachu Pants." Thank goodness my daughter will not wear jeans, because if she did, I'm sure I would not have been allowed to sleep until she had a pair as well.

If you're looking for a jeans pattern, Peekaboo Pattern Shop's Skinny Jeans pattern is a dream. The instructions are incredibly clear and it sews up fast - with a serger I made the third pair in less than four hours - including cutting the pieces and all the top stitching. You can find the pattern at Gotopatterns.com or just click here. 

I'm glad my son thinks it's cool that I make things for him and I think he'll get a of use out of these, (even if they are yellow!) Sometimes it can be so hard to sew for boys. 

Do you have any boy patterns you love? If you do, please let me know...

I was given this pattern at no cost, but the opinions presented in this post are my own.

Guess Who?

I have several big Dr. Who fans living in  my house, so I wasn't surprised when my son announced, back in August, that he wanted to be Dr. Who for Halloween. Specifically the Eleventh Doctor. 

The geek in me was thrilled and I thought, "Cool, that's a pretty simple costume to put together," and I started looking for a child size eight  tweed blazer at my favorite thrift shops. I found lots of navy blazers with brass buttons, but nothing even remotely tweedy. By mid-September I still hadn't found one so I had to go to plan B...

I found a machine washable jacket for next to nothing,

and used this pattern to make a lovely coat for my little Doctor. I'm glad the blazer I found was a lady's size 18; if it had been any smaller, a few of the pattern pieces wouldn't have fit. If you ever need to make a blazer for your son, I highly recommend this pattern. The directions were quite clear and, even with deconstructing the other blazer, I managed to finish it in one day (although since it's a Halloween costume, I did leave off the welt pockets.)

The best part of S wanting to be Dr. Who was he decided he had to grow out his hair. Back in August, S had a buzz cut - a very short buzz cut. But once he chose to be Dr. Who, he started to grow it out so he could have that little swoop of hair in the front - just like "the real Doctor." Every now and again he would ask me to style it, just to see if it had grown out enough.

If you've been around here for a while, you're probably surprised to see my son's face smiling back at you today. I started blogging in 2008 - back when my son was three and my daughter was two. At the time, it didn't feel right to put their faces out there. These days, both of the kids have been asking me if I will stop "cutting off" their faces in my pictures. So, after a discussion with my husband, and since they are a little older I've  decided to ease off my "no faces" rule.

I always try to make my kiddos treat bags that coordinate with their costumes. (Plus, later on they make a great storage bag.) Dr. Who needed a bag with a little bit of British flair and a Tardis (the time travel machine the Doctor travels in.)

It was easy to make with iron-on transfers. Luckily, I remembered to reverse the images first! I sized each one to print out on a standard size piece of  transfer paper.

If you have a notion to make one, I've included the reversed images below. They're big (about 8 in by 10 in) so only a portion will show in the post, but you'll get the full-size images if you right click and download them. I just inserted each one into a Word document and printed them out.

I was glad I made the blazer a tad on the big side since it poured here on Halloween. Luckily it fit over my son's rain gear...

Keep Calm original art here
Tardis original art here