made by rae patterns | skirt as top

Archive | made by rae patterns RSS feed for this section

kcw spring 2013 :: chambray parsley pants

aaaaand it’s kid’s clothes week time again! woohoo! and you may have already seen that KCWC founder meg has teamed up with dorie to build a whole new dedicated KCW site. KCW will now be FOUR times a year and from what it sounds like, they’re working to turn it into a really great year-round resource for those of us sewing for kids, with all sorts of helpful features we can’t even imagine yet! can’t wait to see what it all evolves into.

but now i’m rambling, and if i’m going to post almost every day this week, i can’t do that! especially since i’m a little behind in my preparations. i usually have everything cut out by the Sunday before KCW starts, and currently it’s just all in a pile – fabrics are chosen, but not cut out. i did tape/cut out some PDF patterns, but not as much as i’d like. okay. stop talking. show the pants and get back to sewing.

these fellas are Rae’s Parsley Pants pattern, now for sale! i’m telling ya, this pattern is a must-have. it’s basic with tons of options, is one of the quickest sews ever (like 30 minutes from first cut to final thread snip for the most basic version) but doesn’t look like pajamas – it’s just a great basic pant for boys and girls. this is actually the third pair of Parsleys i’ve made for O, i just haven’t blogged the second pair yet (the first was orange).

the fabric is a lightweight stretch chambray from the mill end annex, with hemp knee patches (same fabric used here and here and here). super comfy for him.

i’m not buying any new fabric (or patterns) for this KCW, i’m just trying to cross things off my mental “to make” list. and this kid needed pants.

he grows fast.

see that belly?

how could you miss it?

About these ads

Comments 22 Comments
Categories kcwc, made by rae patterns, sewing for boys

film petit: back to the future

18 Apr

where we’re going for film petit this month, we don’t need roads…

and we’re back with more ’80s movie goodness for you today! it’s every 30-something’s introduction to the perils of time travel – 1985′s Back to the Future!

written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, BTTF is the story of Marty McFly, played by a teenage Michael J. Fox, who is accidentally sent back in time to 1955 in his friend Doc Brown’s souped up DeLorean. he must find a way back home while also ensuring his parents (also teens at the time) get together. if he fails in his mission, they will never get married and have him, and he will cease to exist…! and then his mom decides she thinks he’s cute and wants to go to prom with him! also, biff! ohhhhh dear. it’s a super fun movie and a must-watch for an entire generation.

so as far as i’m concerned, there are three true “main characters” in BTTF: Marty, Doc, and The DeLorean.

i decided to go more conceptual than i have in film petits past…yep, I totally sewed an outfit inspired by a time traveling car.

Screen Shot 2013-04-18 at 1.37.30 AM

i actually put an insane amount of thought into trying to bring the vague idea i had in my mind to an outfit that would make sense to everyone, so let’s see if you’re with me, starting with the hair.

i actually just wanted to point out that i totally spiked up my 2 year old’s hair with pomade so he looked more 80s. okay moving on.

DeLorean jacket! i knew i wanted to make a jacket, i wanted it to look a bit ’80s, a bit driving jacket-esque, and be lightweight and in DeLorean gray. i thought i’d add more detail to it, but the sewing got tricky and so i added detail elsewhere. oh oh! funny side note i remembered while writing this post – when we were choosing a grout color for our bathroom tile, one of the options was actually called “DeLorean Gray.”

we chose it.

if he lifts his arms, it’s even got gull-wing doors!

i used Rae’s Flashback Skinny Tee as a base for the jacket, adding room to the neckline, armholes, and chopping off many inches to accommodate the rib knit band at the bottom and the length of the zipper. this is my first time sewing a separating zipper, and the first time sewing taffeta (!) which was the best color gray they had at JoAnn to give me the look I wanted (despite being really impractical for a 2 year old).

the final jacket reminds me of Jess’s Drive-inspired jacket, the creation that sparked this whole film petit idea in the first place, so i thought that was cool too!

under the jacket is another Flashback Skinny Tee in 3T, which I freezer paper stenciled to look like the OUTATIME license plate on the car! i had a heckuva time figuring out what to put on a shirt, but as soon as I watched the movie again and saw that plate, i pretty much ran to my sewing room to make it. i added stripes to look like the California plate at the top, and i get a feeling he’ll wear this one a lot.

on the bottom, another Rae pattern! this one is the fab new Parsley Pants pattern (I was a tester). i dyed a pair of my husband’s old khakis ORANGE to look like flame trails the DeLorean leaves behind as it rockets into the past in the parking lot of JCPenny (it was my husband’s idea to do that!). then with a stroke of late night inspiration, i drew tire treads onto the knee patches to nail home the car idea a little more.

oh and his neon green-tread shoes represent plutonium fuel. hehe.

now, you didn’t think i’d make a delorean outfit without a flux capacitor, did you?!

of course not. you would never.

and there you have it! my little guy says it’s time to go visit our two fellow time travelers and see some amazing and wonderful things.

off he goes! won’t you follow him?

first, i can’t believe that we lured the Queen of All Sewing Bloggers, Dana of MADE, into joining us for film petit! Jess and I were so excited to have her sew with us, and we realized she’s just as much of a procrastinator as we are (score!). Dana made a super awesome Mary McFly outfit for her son Owen, AND a bonus ’50s girl outfit for her little Clara – both are perfection. GO CHECK IT OUT! thanks for playing, Dana!!

aaaaaand my partner-in-crime Jess sewed Doc Brown’s white jumpsuit for her daughter Elsie. yes, daughter. it’s freakin’ hilarious, Jess always gets the silliness just right. GO SEE, GO SEE!

***

here are the guidelines for film petit:

every month or so, Jess and i (plus a guest blogger) sew an outfit (or outfits) for our kid (or kids) inspired by a movie we love. our next guest will be Delia from Delia Creates!
please add your movie-inspired kid sewing to the film petit flickr group. there’s some really amazing stuff in there – we love it when you play along!
this is a pretty relaxed series, really the only rule is to make outfits for kids based on films you love. if you have any questions, please let either of us know.
film petit archives: the life aquatic with steve zissou, amélie, fantastic mr. fox, psycho, moonrise kingdom, ferris bueller’s day off, the big lebowski. you can see all of Jessica’s film petit posts right here.

Comments 35 Comments
Categories film petit, made by rae patterns, sewing, sewing for boys

deer for days geranium dress

14 Mar

bringing home a post i did for StraightGrain’s weekly “Kids Clothes – Belgian Style” series. i kicked off the series a few weeks ago, and since my post, there have been three super fantastic guest posts you should check out – Suburbia Soup, Crafterhours, and Groovybaby…and mama! i’ve loved every one and can’t wait to see what the next guests have in store.

anyway, i just had to have this deer geranium dress living on my own blog – it still cracks me up every time i see it. Made by Rae Patterns is a sponsor now too, which i’m totally psyched out of my mind about, since i sew her patterns all the time and love them to bits! she’s a huge role model and i’m so happy to have her. welcome, Rae!

***

Hello StraightGrain readers! I’m especially excited that An invited me to be a guest in this series – why? Because I had actually made this dress a couple days before she even emailed me, inspired by An herself! I laughed out loud when I got her invitation to participate, it was so perfectly-timed. Talk about serendipity.

When I saw An’s deer dress, I thought it was pretty much genius. And then she made her cow dress and it was immediately elevated to “must make” status for me. I LOVED it.

Honestly, this type of pastoral/photographic print is in the section of the fabric store I tended to give a wide berth, assuming it was for hunters and people looking to make curtains for their cabins in the woods. Never in a million years would I have had the foresight to gravitate toward a print with deer all over it to make a dress for my little gal, but BEHOLD! An had me doing just that. It’s not the type of look you see in America too often, but I’m hoping we can change that because it’s fantastic.

I have the same philosophy as An where I think a loud print pairs best with a simple silhouette, so I used the Made by Rae Geranium Dress pattern, which is really well-written and versatile. I made it in a 3T with a 4T skirt – options are scoop neck, faux cap sleeve, pleated skirt. My daughter loves it.

As I browsed An’s Kid’s Clothes Belgian Style Pinterest board, I noticed a few trends in styling – colorful belts, rain boots, brightly colored tights, white backgrounds. I had no idea that Belgians had such a specific style, but it’s so inspirational to me – I love the playfulness and lighthearted attitude of the outfits, which have very classic silhouettes. I want to make more!

Living in a pretty gray and rainy place (Portland, Oregon, USA), people tend to layer up around here a lot, so it’s especially fun to add bright pops of color to the mix. I made the belt in golden shot cotton, left over from my daughter’s Sunshine Dress. It has sunshiny buttons, too.

I got my fabric locally, and the selvedge says “Sanctuary by Wade Butler for Wilmington Prints.”

To play with the forest-y theme even more, I lined it with a woodgrain print (Tina Givens for Free Spirit). I think kid’s clothes should have an element of fun to them, which is why I’m falling so hard for Belgian style.

Thanks so much for having me, An!

Comments 15 Comments
Categories guest posts, made by rae patterns, sewing, sewing for girls

film petit: the big lebowski

27 Feb

film petit february! as i re-watched our chosen film this month, i realized something – apparently my husband and i quote it constantly, maybe sometimes without even realizing it. it’s everyone’s favorite highly quotable quirky bowling movie – it’s….The Big Lebowski!

if my husband remembers to get something at the store that i forgot to put on the list? i tell him “he’s a good man, and thorough.” someone’s carrying a drink and a kid bumps into them? ”there’s a beverage here, man!” something gets spilled on/damaged? it “really tied the room together.” and just at random times… “8 year olds, dude.”

am i wrong?

anyway, before i fall down the rabbit hole of movie quotes (in the parlance of our times – GAH), i suppose i should talk about the movie plot.

ummmmm wellllll it’s kind of hard to explain. let me give it my best shot. 1998′s The Big Lebowski was directed by the Coen Brothers. it tells the story of the mellow and lazy Jeffrey Lebowski (aka “The Dude,” or “Duder,” or “El Duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing”) perfectly played by Jeff Bridges. The Dude is mistaken for a rich man also named Jeffrey Lebowski, and is suddenly drawn into a crazy kidnapping caper, when all he really wants to do is drink white russians and bowl with his buddies. it’s a pretty weird but beloved movie, and one i’ve seen about a million times.

typically we all pick different movie characters for film petit, but we felt that we should each make tiny Dudes this month to sort of swamp the internet with them – a mini Lebowskifest! mine is “pre-opening credit Dude,” the two scene intro that sets the stage for the rest of the movie. the Dude goes to the grocery store to grab some half and half for his white russian…

but comes home only to find himself getting dunked in his own toilet and his rug micturated upon by a couple hooligans attempting to shake him down for money he clearly doesn’t have.

film petit: the big lebowski

i sewed for O again, figuring the smaller the Dude was, the funnier it would be. and actually it was pretty hilarious – this is the MOST recognized character during one of my film petit photoshoots. people at the more-crowded-than-i-expected-it-to-be-at-that-hour grocery store were giggling and saying “haha, is that The Dude?” left and right. i started out a little self-conscious about it, but then ran with it. i think O liked the attention.

his bathrobe is made of wide wale corduroy from JoAnn, and the pattern is the Just Like Dad Flannel Robe from Sewing for Boys. i made it in a 2-3T for the length but chopped 3″ off the sleeves (and they’re still roll up-worthy!) so he’ll definitely wear it a while. the shorts are the Oliver + S Sketchbook Shorts made out of daddy’s old ones.

the undershirt, which i didn’t get a great photo of, is Made by Rae’s Flashback Skinny Tee, made out of daddy’s old t-shirt, short sleeved, with a v-neck!

i’m actually pretty excited about the non-overlapping v-neck and might share a mini tutorial for it a little later; i’ve always wanted to know how to do that and it wasn’t hard once i figured it out.

my little Dude got the munchies at the store and picked out a couple snacks. figured that was probably pretty true to character (the Dude likes to “smoke Js”).

while my little dude is snacking on chili cheese fritos and abiding, you can head over to see the other little lebowski urban achievers that my partners sewed up!

our guest this month, Sabra from sew a straight line, sewed both “bowling alley Dude” AND a mini walter sobchak! both are absolute perfection. she even gets us a toe – you don’t want to know how, but there are ways. thanks so much for joining us, Sabra!

and my partner Jessica, not to be outdone, sewed “playoff/funeral Dude” with some awesome details, AND took photos at a very special locale! go check it out!

proud we are of all of them!

***

here are the guidelines for film petit:

every month or so, Jessica and i (plus a guest blogger) sew an outfit (or outfits) for our kid (or kids) inspired by a movie we love. our next guest will be Dana from MADE!
please add any of your movie-inspired kid sewing to the film petit flickr group. if you sew along with our film petit choices, we’d love to see that too!
this is a pretty relaxed series, really the only rule is to make outfits for kids based on films you love. if you have any questions, please let either of us know.
film petit archives: the life aquatic with steve zissou, amélie, fantastic mr. fox, psycho, moonrise kingdom, ferris bueller’s day off

P.S. this is not ‘nam, this is bowling. there are rules.

P.P.S. do you see what happens, larry?!

P.P.P.S. i am the walrus.

Comments 57 Comments
Categories film petit, kids clothes, made by rae patterns, oliver + s, sewing, sewing for boys

super mario bros. shirt

25 Feb

as Celebrate the Boy kicks off over at MADE and Made by Rae, i thought it’d be fun to bring home a post i did for I’m Feelin’ Crafty’s “Sew Ready to Play” series a few months back. O is actually wearing this shirt today, though it’s starting to look even tighter on his growing toddler belly!

***

growing up, i was the kid who didn’t have any sort of video game system at home and was constantly trying to talk the neighbor kids into playing nintendo. if you were the kid with a nintendo, you probably had an annoying friend like me, right? i was pretty persuasive in getting the neighbor kids to play (not too hard), and i especially loved super mario bros. i’m talking about the original one here…super mario 2 was fine, 3 was better (remember how you could drop behind the background?) but the original was the best. it’s still fun…have you played it lately? do you remember how to turtle top? i could never quite get the hang of it.

so anyway, it was almost a no brainer that i needed to make my toddler son a super mario t-shirt for this series!

i used my favorite basic pattern, made by rae’s flashback skinny tee, and knit fabric from two sale rack men’s shirts (my tips for sewing with sale rack t-shirts here). i appliquéd a mario scene right onto the front! the scene appliqué idea came from my friend cherie, and what exactly to put on there came from a quick google search of super mario bros images. want to make one?

gather scraps together in the appropriate colors along with some steam-a-seam lite fusible web…

draw a grid of 1/2″ squares for the stairs then cut them out, and a strip of woodgrain fabric at 1/2″ for a base. sketch and cut out clouds, a pipe, a hill, and bricks. i then added a little stamped mushroom left over from one of my project run & play creations! i just played around with the scraps until i had the shapes i wanted.

add the fusible web to each piece and arrange the scene on the front piece of the shirt, not yet sewn together. once you have everything where you want it, fuse it down with an iron and then stitch around each item with black thread, for a sketchy outline look. if you’re good with a free motion foot i’d recommend that here for the little curves, but i used my regular foot and just lifted it up a lot as i sewed around.

super mario bros flashback tee

finish the shirt as instructed per the pattern, slap it on your little guy, and he’ll be looking like a child of the ’80s!

i love how this skinny tee clings to his toddler belly…

and he likes how soft and comfy it is!

ready to play! thanks so much for having me, Louise!!

PS – i didn’t even realize when i was making this how close the colors and theme were to narelle’s post from the other day! who doesn’t like old school video games, eh?