Hoppy Easter!

While taking pictures with bluebonnets the other day, we met the Easter bunny!  Serendipity! 

I made Easter outfits for the clever kids, which I happen to absolutely love (both the kids and the outfits)!  The clever boy got another jon-jon using my favorite pattern from Children's Corner.  I've made it several other times as well (here and here).  The clever girl's dress is the Oliver + S pattern "Family Reunion Dress". Love.  I wasn't sure if I'd love it since the clever girl tends to prefer twirly dresses, but I am so glad I gave this pattern a shot!

Here's the clever boy!  Whereas I usually find an image from Google Images for my applique, this time I designed it myself.  The clever boy has a few favorite things right now:  #1 is trash cans.  This fascination for trash cans has gone on for a very long time (in fact "trash can" was one of the first things he said!) so I knew I wanted a trash can on his outfit.  His other two loves are dogs, and recently, trucks.  So, I combined the clever boy's most favorite loves together to make an applique for his jon-jon.  I love it!  So does he.  He was thrilled that he could wear a trash can AND a dog-dog AND a truck all at once.  It is the trifecta of awesomeness!

 Happy, happy boy!

What will I do when he gets too big for jon-jons?  I love this pattern!

 

Here is the clever girl's Family Reunion dress.  Though it looks like it might be complicated, it really wasn't difficult at all.  This is why I love Oliver + S patterns.  They are classic looks and the patterns are written extremely well.  In fact the only tricky part was the piping edge, which I decided to add and isn't part of the original pattern at all.  I forgot to take photos of the back, but it buttons all the way up and has the same little tucks as the front.  I love the tiny details of this pattern: the tiny tucks under the neckline, the little button placket, and the lines of stitching along the bottom edge which give the bottom of the dress both interest and weight so it hangs nicely.  The clever girl is quite thin, so I cut this dress in a size 5 around but size 6 in length.   Oh, and the material I used is also from the Oliver + S company.  Their fabric line is called Lisette and, miracle of miracles, they carry it at my local Joanns Fabric store.  It is a great quality fabric.

I love it!  I think she looks darling!

My clever kiddos.  They really are something special.

Christmas Outfits!

I went a little crazy and made coordinating Christmas outfits for the kids this year!  I figure I won't be able to do this to them for very long, so I had better do it while I can!! 

My idea started with making a long Johnny for the clever boy, using my favorite pattern from Children's Corner.  I made him a short version over the summer and that pattern is so easy and so cute, it is one that I will repeat until he refuses to wear them anymore!  I found some super soft thin-wale corduroy at Joann's, and picked out a red/white stripe to use as lining.  Normally I just use a nice white muslin for lining, but since the legs would be rolled up a bit, I thought a pattern would be fun!  

As usual, I found the graphic for the penguin by searching Google images, and was able to use all scrap fabric to make the little guy!  I thought about finding a cute button or jingle bell for the top of the penguin's hat, but then realized that since the clever boy sleeps on his tummy and he would theoretically take a nap in this outfit some day, a button or jingle bell would not be a good plan.  So I embroidered a little star with some sparkly floss. 

Once his outfit was planned in my head, I had to figure out something for the clever girl.  I browsed my favorite kid pattern source, Oliver + S, and found the Library Dress.  This dress is supposed to have 3/4 sleeves, but I made them long instead.  To do this, I measured another of the clever girl's dresses to figure out the right length, and added the difference between the long length and the pattern's 3/4 length to the sleeve pattern, just continuing the pattern lines straight, no taper.  Easy peasy.  Configuring the pattern to fit my slender little girl was another story!  Based on the pattern measurements, she is a size 6 in length but more like a 5 (or maybe smaller but the pattern sizes start at 5) in girth.  So I cut each pattern piece with this in mind, using the size 5 lines for areas across her body and size 6 lines for areas of length.  The armholes were cut as a 6.  It was a bit tricky, but I finally got the pieces traced and cut!  Phew.

As you can see, I used the same green corduroy and red/white striped fabric for the Library Dress.  And here is where I underestimated my clever girl....  I did not plan on any applique for her dress, as I thought she might be "too grown up" for that.  Ha!  She isn't!  (Yahoo!)  I showed her the dress, sans candy canes, and the Johnny for the clever boy, and she got a sad face and asked where HER decoration was.  Why did he get a penguin and she didn't get anything??  All righty then!  So I added some candy canes with ribbon.  The candy canes are appliqued, but the ribbon is real ribbon that I tied into a bow and sewed to the dress.  That clever girl was on to something, because I honestly think the candy canes MAKE this outfit!  They took it from a pretty Christmas dress to an AWESOME Christmas dress!  The photos don't show the back of the dress, but there are buttons all the way down the back, the same little white buttons that are on the playsuit shoulders. 

This dress looks WAY more complicated than it really is.  I love it.  I think that the photos on the actual pattern cover do not give it justice.  There is another version with a collar, and I wonder if I could make it in a "uniform" color for the clever girl to wear to school??  Everything needs a collar, so surely this pattern would work!  Maybe for next school year...

Three cheers for sewing Christmas outfits for my kiddos!  

Hip hip hooray!  Hip hip hooray!  Hip hip hooray!

Are you doing any holiday sewing???

Fairies and Gnomes

Yes, I know, Halloween was totally 2+ weeks ago, but I still wanted to post the costumes we made this year in case it inspires anyone for next year!  If I wait until next year to get these posted, I'll forget entirely!! 

When I asked the clever girl what she wanted to be for Halloween this year, it took a while to convince her that Elsa (of the Frozen movie, in case you don't have a little girl running around your house) was not the best idea.  Once I explained that practically EVERY little girl was going to be Elsa this year, and wouldn't it be fun to be something DIFFERENT, she agreed and decided upon being a fairy.  I JUMPED on it.  Truly, I had to get her excited about it so she wouldn't be sad about not being Elsa!  And it worked!  She loved her fairy costume.  Once we decided that she would be a fairy, we brainstormed what the clever boy might be, and came up with a Gnome.  Love it! 

For the fairy, I didn't have to do a lot, as the main part of her costume was a dance recital costume from last summer.  I did make her a wand and her fairy wings.  

For the wand, I followed the directions on this youtube video to make a poof out of sparkly tulle and organza.  It is just like making a pompom, just on a much larger scale.  I cut a donut shape out of cardboard and then folded it in half and wrapped the pink and blue tulle/organza (holding both together) around and around the half-donut.  I wrapped a thin wooden dowel with pink ribbon and attached it to the poof with my trusty glue gun.  Then I tied some ribbon around the top under the poof just to make it extra fun.  I was so thrilled to find this tulle and organza that totally matched the dance recital outfit!  I win!  And the clever girl thought this wand was AWESOME.  She went around turning all of us into princes and princesses for days!

For the wings, I followed this instructable video.  HOWEVER, I could only find white tights, no sparkly pink or purple or blue or ANYTHING (ugh) so I used white and then painted them repeatedly with glitter paint.  And I say repeatedly because let me tell you, it was A LOT.  The thing with glitter paint is this:  It tends to be CLEAR paint with some glitter thrown in.  So if you are wanting coverage, it doesn't work so well.  I would do more searching for the right tights next time and avoid painting altogether!  Once it was fully constructed and painted, I glued sequins all over the wings in random patterns.  I thought they would provide some fun sparkle when lights hit!

Oh and that instructable video had a EXCELLENT tip for coverage under a leotard.  It happened to be cool on Halloween night, so the clever girl needed something over her arms, which a dance costume does not provide.  The idea from instructables was BRILLIANT.  Take a pair of nude tights and cut the crotch out - keeping the crotch seam IN but just cut the fabric part out of the middle.  Pull the tights over the HEAD, so the head is now going through what the crotch area used to be.  Put the arms in the tights legs and cut the tights wrist-length to make them long sleeves.  Now you have a thin nude long sleeved shirt that fits under a leotard!  Ta-da!

For the gnome, I figured he basically needed a hat, beard, belt, and blue jacket.  For the hat, I followed this AWESOME tutorial on deliacreates which uses all sorts of geometry and math to get a perfectly fitting felt cone hat.  I love the math part.  Made me think a bit and was lots of fun.  I pinched the hat together a bit on top to make it more gnome-y, and did a few stitches to hold the pinches together.

I made the beard with fur from the craft store cut into a beard-like shape - like a shaggy triangle-ish shape with a slightly rounded top.  I cut a few slits from the rounded top down about an inch, laid a strip of 1/4 inch wide elastic under the slits, then folded and glued the pieces down. Like this:

I intentionally made the beard so that it hung down around his chest area, not up on his face, as I knew there was no way the clever boy would go for that!

For the belt buckle, I cut a piece of yellow craft foam into a rectangle and cut two slits on the sides:

Then I put a piece of black 2-inch elastic up through one side and down through the other so it looked more like a buckle, and sewed the ends together, making it loose enough to go around the clever boy's belly while wearing the jacket.

For the jacket, I made Simplicity 2526, view D, size 2, out of navy fleece.  I made the sleeves 2 3/4 inches longer than the pattern suggested, and used a 1/2 inch hem on the sleeve, instead of the allowed 1 1/4 inch hem.  I think the sleeves on this jacket ran small, so I made them longer plus added more for a cuff.  I trimmed the cuff with yellow gingham so that the part that folded up was gingham.  I also used the gingham under the collar and in the button facing, so that the jacket would not be as thick in those places.  I love how this turned out!  The pattern was easy and sewing with fleece is a breeze!  No need to finish seams!  I had never sewn with fleece before!  If I ever figure out how to use my serger (some day....) this would be even easier, I bet!

Oh, and as a note, the pattern does not suggest fleece for this view of the jacket but does for another view.  I could not figure out why, so I found an email address for Simplicity and sent them a message.  They contacted me back right away!  Impressive!

So, not only did the clever boy get a great gnome costume, he got a jacket he can wear all the time!  (Note that the hood in the above photo is not part of the jacket but on the shirt he has on underneath.)

In all, a successful Halloween.  Both kids had a BLAST and the costumes were a total hit!

Another playsuit!

My second playsuit/Jon-Jon for the clever boy!  This is an Oliver + S pattern, called the Tea Party.  This pattern is really made for a girl, and comes with a sundress and bloomers pattern, but I thought I could make it work for a boy, too.  I added the pockets in the front.  Cute, huh?  Pockets on baby clothes always make me grin.  I mean, what do little kiddos have to put in their pockets?  A miniature billfold?  Keys to their cool ride aka stroller?  *smile* 

Another fabulous thing about this outfit is that every bit of it used items from my stash!  Yahoo!  The fabric is a cotton/tencel blend, which is very soft but wrinkles something fierce!  Oh well, it is definitely comfortable, so that's the important part!

If you sew for kiddos, you should definitely check out the Oliver + S patterns.  They are great.  Very well written, classic looks.  They now have an adult (women's) line, and recently made a pattern that would work for men as well.  I love Oliver + S.  I have a ton of their patterns on my shelves! 

The one thing I will change in the future about this pattern, and any other playsuit/Jon Jon pattern, is the use of snap tape.  That stuff is garbage, in my humble opinion.  It is a pain in the watoosie to sew on, and the snaps themselves are flimsy.  They don't stay snapped!  What is the purpose of snaps that don't stay snapped?  For the next Jon Jon I made, I purchased a snap setter.  THAT is the way to go!  A post about the next one will come soon!

Another Twirly Easter Dress!

You may recall that I made the clever girl a twirly Easter dress last year.  She LOVES that dress.  I mean to say she wears that dress at every opportunity.  When looking over photos of the clever girl for the past year, in practically all photos, she is in that dress!  So it was abundantly clear that I  needed to make her another one!  This time, I changed up the bodice a little bit. 

In this photo, the original front bodice pattern is in the back.  On top, I placed the new pattern.  Essentially, I measured over 1/2 inch on the upper right side, which is the width of the bias tape trim.  Then I drew a diagonal line from there to the bottom left corner.  Use the same pattern for the opposite side, just flip it over so the diagonal is going the other way.  Done!  I first added the bias trim to the diagonal parts of the parts of the bodice and had the halter straps come up from the under arm section.   I recommend, however, doing it the other way.  First sew the bias trim to the under arm sections, only the length of those sections.  Then add the trim to the diagonal sections, and continue these up for the halter ties.  I think this will lay more smoothly.  Once the bodice front(s) and back are sewn together, sew again up the bias strip on the bodice front top layer, affixing it to the bodice front bottom layer.  This way the criss-cross won't gap as your kiddo dances around! 
 

 

I love how the elastic shirring makes the bodice fit nice and snugly, and the halter looks so pretty from the back.

 

The clever girl loves the twirliness of the dress.  Again, it is perfectly danceable!  She has already worn this dress several times.  It has quickly become a new favorite!

If you have a little girl who loves to twirl, I highly recommend making one of these dresses, either version!  They are very fast and infinitely rewarding! 

Giraffe Shortall

I have started sewing for the clever baby!  Actually, I should probably now refer to him as the clever boy, as he recently had his first birthday.  I can hardly believe it!  How does time fly by so quickly??  Anyway, to celebrate his birthday, I made him a Giraffe Shortall/Romper/Jon-Jon.  What is the correct term for these things??  I am not sure, but I have become a bit addicted to them, so you will be seeing more versions from other patterns too.  I love the one-piece outfit for kiddos!

This pattern is from Stitch Magazine, Spring 2014.  Their pattern is called "Goldfish Shortall" however I vetoed the goldfish applique and decided on a giraffe one instead.  I am kind of in to giraffes for this little guy, as you can see here and here.  I actually used the same giraffe image for the applique as I did in the giraffe baby blanket, just much bigger.   And I learned something in the midst of this applique project!  I have done a decent amount of applique but this time, the fabric kept bunching up and it was not going well.  This may be because the outfit is lined, and both fabrics are cut on the bias, so maybe there was just too much going on.  Using a walking foot did not solve the problem.  So I brainstormed a bit and decided to use freezer paper.  Yes, indeed, I ironed freezer paper to the back of the fabric (so on the inside, on the lining) and then the sewing was a BREEZE.  Freezer paper to the rescue!  When I was done, I just ripped it off and I had a perfect (or perfect enough for me) appliqued giraffe!  So, note to self - when doing any sort of applique, go ahead and iron some freezer paper to the back side!  It provides a perfect stage on which to sew. 

 

I have some mixed feelings about this romper pattern.  The pattern itself does not call for the correct amount of material, and the cutting layout is also incorrect.  The pattern says to do everything on the bias, but the material amount and cutting layout is for doing so NOT on the bias.  So I had to return to the store and purchase more material, which irks me a bit.  Thankfully, I found the exact material I had already purchased, so it wasn't so bad.  Past that, the pattern was fine.  I found it to be a bit wide for  my little guy, so if I make this again, I will try to make it a bit more narrow.  He is in the low side of the weight scale for kids his age, so most things are a bit too wide for him. 

I made my own piping and I think it adds a nice touch, though I find sewing with piping to be a challenge!  Such a big bump in the seams!  I just need to practice more! 

Overall, I am thrilled as to how this outfit turned out.  The giraffe really makes it, in my opinion.  It was fun to finally sew something for my little man! 

I have already made another romper/shortall/jon-jon from another pattern, and will post that one soon! 

A knitted baby sweater

The clever girl in 2009 and the clever baby in 2014!

Many years ago, when I was pregnant with the clever girl, I knit this sweater.  It is the Placket Neck Pullover from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  I intentionally made it a gender neutral color, as I just couldn't get behind everything being all pink and frilly for the clever girl.  Brilliant!  When the clever baby came along, he could wear it, too!  The older he gets, the fewer hand-me-downs he can get from the clever girl, but I am always thrilled to put him in something I made!  And the clever girl loves when he wears her old clothes.  What will I do when he doesn't fit it anymore?  So sad...

I knit this little sweater with a 50% cotton, 50% acrylic yarn from GGH.  I don't recall the name of the yarn but it might have been Bali...  It makes for a really cozy, smooshy sweater.  A few things I love about this pattern:  The edging is all done in a seed stitch, which is not binding or snug but gives a nice visual and textural detail.  And the "buttons" on the placket are beads, not actually buttons.  I used a red, green, and orange bead.  A fun way to spice up the sweater.  Finally, the entire thing is knit from the bottom up with very little seaming!  Just sewing the underarms together from where the sleeves meet the body.  I love a pattern like this. 

From Ballerina to Cinderella - A Costume Transformation!

The clever girl was in a dance recital this summer, and had THREE, yes THREE different costumes.  I decided then and there that one of those costumes would have to be re-purposed for Halloween in some way!  So, when the clever girl said she wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween, I thought, "PERFECT"!  I knew that her blue ballerina costume would be just right.

So I lugged that tutu to the fabric store to pick out some matching fabric, and found a satin and some sort of shimmery organza-ish fabric for an overlay.  I also picked up some white satin with some silver sparkles for those weird hip things Cinderella has on her dresses.  What are those things, anyway?  What woman in their right mind wants some sort of accent to their hips??

I was so intent on getting this costume created that I neglected to take any photos along the way.  However, hopefully I can explain what I did in case anyone else out there wants to create a Cinderella costume someday! 

For the skirt, I knew I would put it on elastic and it would be worn OVER the tutu part of the ballerina costume.  The tutu would give it the ball-gown body.  And the skirt had to be very twirly, of course.  The clever girl is 25 inches from waist to foot.  I needed enough length to hem the bottom and to encase a 1 inch elastic for her waist.  I used about 1 1/2 yards of the blue fabrics for the skirt, and cut those fabrics into two pieces of 3/4 yard each.  Thus, there were two pieces of the blue satin that were 3/4 yard and two pieces of the blue sparkly fabric that were 3/4 yard.  I sewed the selvages together to make a gigantic tube of each, separately. 

For the bizarre hip things, I used 1 yard of the white fabric, and cut it in half to make two pieces, 1/2 yard each.  I rounded the corners of those rectangles so they looked like two big half moons.  I did an overlock (serge type stitch) over the curved edge, turned it under, and sewed it flat.  Hem done!

Then I stacked up my blue skirt fabrics:  blue satin on the bottom and blue sparkly on top.  I pinned the white pieces on top of the skirt, so that the middle of each moon met the seam of the blue pieces.  This way, the seams would be on the sides, not on the front and back.  Get it?  And I did an overlock stitch all the way around, catching all those crazy wisps of these fabrics.  I folded this edge down 1 1/4 inches and sewed near the edge, leaving an opening for the elastic.  String in the elastic, close the opening, done!  The blue skirts got a simple "sort-of" 1/4 inch rolled hem.  I say "sort-of" because I didn't measure one darned thing, I just folded the fabric over twice as I sewed it all the way around.  It is probably terribly uneven, but hey, it is a Halloween costume!  Skirt, done.

Now for the accessories:  In my online perusal of Cinderella costumes, I saw that Ashley of Make It & Love It made gloves, a choker, and a headband for her little Cinderella.  I would have probably forgotten these very crucial elements if not for her!  I didn't actually look at her blog when I made the accessories, but we pretty much did them the same way.

For the gloves, I measured the clever girl's arms in three places:  length from bottom of middle finger to upper arm, circumference of upper arm, circumference of wrist.  Then I just made a pattern that took those measurements into consideration - I knew I would cut the fabric on the fold and one end should have a point to attach to her middle finger.  Thus the length of the pattern was the same as the length of her arm from finger to upper arm, and the widths were about an inch (total) bigger than her wrist/upper arm measurements.  It looked something like this: 

I cut two each from both blue fabrics, placing the longest side (with the finger point) on the fold.  I overlocked the point end and the upper arm end, sewing a blue satin fabric to the blue sparkly fabric.  Then I folded the glove right sides together and overlocked the edges together.  I sewed a small loop of elastic at the point to go around the clever girl's finger.  Done.

The choker is a rectangle of both blue fabrics made into a tube that is a couple inches longer than the clever girl's neck circumference.  I sewed velcro to the ends to put it on/take it off.

Finally, the headband is another tube, though this one is angled down at the ends a little bit. 

Something like that.  I attached a piece of elastic to each end to keep it snug on the clever girl's head. 

And, her costume was done.

And, she LOVED it!

She spent lots of time looking in the mirror!  

 And then she turned right into a princess!

 But pretty much, she couldn't stop TWIRLING!

 and DANCING!

 and SPINNING!

 She loves her Halloween costume!

Oh, and in case your are wondering, of course the clever baby had to get in on the action as well.  You can't have a Cinderella without a Prince Charming, can you?  And who (in my world anyway) is more charming than the clever baby? 

 Yes, indeed, I did do that to my little guy. 

But seriously, is he handsome, or what?

His easy, peasy costume consists of some red knit pants and a grey/silver jacket that I found at a consignment shop.  I bought some gold braid, some gold fringe, and some gold rope and went to town.  I sewed the gold braid down each side of his pants.  Then I made little epaulettes with dark red felt and glued the fringe around three sides underneath and the gold braid around the four sides on top.  I sewed these to the shoulders of his little jacket, looping a piece of gold rope from one shoulder to the other, and another loop around his arm.  You can't see that too well on the photos, but it is under the arm closest to Cinderella. 

And here you go, Cinderella and Prince Charming.

So cute, I could eat them up!

Happy Halloween!

A Pool Robe!

 

In the midst of taking care of my infant, preparing for the clever girl's birthday and packing our house up to move, I decided the clever girl needed a pool robe!  It is crazy, but that is how I roll!  Anyway, I used this awesome pattern from Dana Made It, using 2 thin beach towels from Target.  Had I not picked a towel with stripes that I wanted to match, I could potentially have used only one towel, but I like to do things the hard way. 

I actually already owned the pattern, as I want to make a bathrobe for the clever girl as well.  I have the fabric for that already too... just not the time yet!  So when Dana made her most recent post about her beach robes, it got my sewing juices flowing and out came this robe!

It is super comfy.  I made the long sleeved version just because I thought that would be nice and comfy after getting out of the pool.  Plus it is fun to hide your hands in long sleeves!

Mr. Clever Mom thinks it is a "Rocky" robe.  Hum the music with me...

Dum DUM da da dum da da DUM da da dum...

Happily, this versatile robe works for boxers AND ballerinas!

I made my daughter the largest size on Dana's pattern, which is a size 4.  I have a skinny but getting-taller-every-day 5 year old, for reference. I intend to keep using this pattern as she grows older - I'll just keep making it bigger and bigger!

She loves it!  It is cheerful and comfortable and way more fun than just a beach towel!  And really, the pool robes you see in stores are no where as cute as you can make these with Dana's pattern.