a cozy fall hoodie

September 30, 2011January 3, 20139 Comments

fall has arrived in portland. one day it’ll be pouring rain, the next it’s sunny and 75. it even changes minute by minute. right before i took these photos, there was a downpour. once it stopped, the sun came out and some major puddle splashing was in order!

i made Em a new cozy sweater using a j.crew sweater of my husband’s that had lost its shape. it’s cotton, lighter than sweatshirt material, and extreeeeemely soft. the fabric i’ve “harvested” from my husband’s clothes always seem to be higher quality than i can get at a fabric store. i love raiding his closet. 😉

the lining is scandi chirp by michael miller. i had been saving it for a hopscotch dress, but it coordinated so perfectly with the green on the outside, i just had to use it. it’s a nice, thick knit. the sweater ended up pretty much the coziest ever.

the pattern is the urban unisex hoodie by heidi & finn. i made it in a 3T but cut the width of the arms at a 4/5T, because gail told me that they fit a little snugly. that was a good idea. the pattern is great and especially fun to sew if you have a serger (i serged everything except the buttonholes and topstitching!) i would recommend fusing some interfacing to the wrong side of the main fabric where the buttonholes will be, though – i had a little trouble with stretching when i sewed those.

check out the elbow patches! i added them for an extra little detail, which i thought would be no big deal but in fact is a bit tricky. it’s hard to determine proper placement when your child is sleeping and the sleeve isn’t complete or sewn onto a garment yet (i may or may not have snuck up to her room at 10pm to lay the pattern piece on her arm to mark where the patch should go – she’s a deep sleeper).

i actually didn’t get the placement quite right on this one, but i made another super cozy sweater (for O this time) out of another of my husband’s hand-me-downs and nailed it. i’m working on a little tutorial for how to get it right, so keep your eyes open for a guest post on that elsewhere in the sewing blogosphere very soon (i’m so excited)!

hope you have a lovely weekend. i’m sure ours will be filled with plenty of sweater-wearing and puddle-jumping.

first guest post and tutorial!

September 19, 20119 Comments

the talented and inspiring candace of sparkle power! asked me to write a guest post for her while she and her family take some time to welcome a new baby boy into their lives, and my post is up on her blog TODAY!

i decided to go for it on my first ever guest post and do my first ever tutorial, too. i share some boyish appliqué templates and my go-to bib pattern, and show you how to make a simple appliqué bib like you may have seen here or here. if your little one isn’t in need of bibs, you can use the appliqué designs to liven up a boy (or girl!) item that needs a little punch.

click here to check out my appliqué bib tutorial on sparkle power!

🙂

pac-man lunch sack

September 16, 2011September 16, 201115 Comments

my dear husband doesn’t have many sewing requests, but in this case i had been on a bit of a sewing hiatus, and he had an immediate one: PLEEEEASE make the kids a new lunch bag for daycare. while the faux bois oilcloth lunch sack i made them was still functional, it was getting smelly from spilled milk and isn’t washable. i once again pulled up calico’s lunch sack tutorial but made it in canvas ikea fabric, a lot bigger since the bag needs to hold food for both kids now, and added a little something extra…

PAC-MAN AND MS. PAC-MAN APPLIQUE! i was about to applique a lower-case E and an O for their initals, but once i started cutting out the circles i suddenly thought of pac-man and thought that would be PERFECT to represent a hungry little girl and little boy. i want a lunch sack that makes me smile.

i topstitched around all edges, including the bottom, to make it stand up a little better. i should have lined it, but i was kind of lazy. it just needs to get their lunches from point A to point B anyway, which takes about 10 minutes.

happy husband, giggling mama, well-fed kids. mission accomplished.

SUPER CAPE!

August 2, 2011June 8, 201210 Comments

LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A PLANE! IT’S….SUPER EM!

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET

MORE POWERFUL THAN A LOCOMOTIVE

ABLE TO LEAP TALL BUILDINGS IN A SINGLE BOUND

IN THE SUPER CAPE SHE COMMISSIONED FROM HER CAPEMAKER IN HER POWER COLORS, SHE RESCUES ANYONE IN TROUBLE.

HER BRAVERY AND KINDNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE ADVENTURES OF SUPER EM!!

original cape inspiration here.

(hey, just out of curiosity, would anyone be interested in a tutorial for my version of a kid’s superhero cape? UPDATE: tutorial here!)

baby blanket and a bonus

July 21, 2011October 3, 20111 Comment

my friend nika asked me to make her one-year-old son a baby blanket. she asked me to do this back in early may. in late may, i bought fabric. and then it sat and sat and sat. i’m just not a big fan of sewing minky – it moves too much – but i love the cozy blankies it creates when paired with flannel. last week, i finally got it sewed. woo!

i found this great houndstooth minky at fabric depot and decided to pair it with a really nice quilter’s flannel. it actually looks like wool, but it’s much softer (and washable!). i appliquéd the little guy’s initials in my favorite joel dewberry aviary 2 woodgrain. even though it took me a while to get around to actually sewing it, it didn’t take me long to make and i’m really happy with how it turned out.

the blanket ended up larger than other ones i’ve made in this style. i usually get a yard of each fabric and have minky left over, but this time i got a yard and a half of flannel and had almost no scraps. that means it’s crib-size!

blanket done, yippee!

and then…i couldn’t resist making a bonus gift.

i mean, if little brother is getting a package in the mail, it’s only fair to include something for big brother too. that little dude is so cute. i made him a superhero cape when nika asked me to make a small blanket for G, and i’ve seen that cape pop up in a few facebook photos since (it makes me excited every time). he’s actually one year to the day older than em – birthday buddies!

so anyway, i’d seen these spongeballs on aesthetic outburst and thought they’d be super fun, and they totally are. problem is, our weather here has not been summery in the least recently, and “in the kiddie pool” photos were not happening. boo! fortunately, they make good bath toys, too. i sent three up to seattle, and made a couple extra for my kids to play with.

it makes me so happy to cross things off my to do list, and the blanket had been on there a little too long. sorry about that, nika, and i hope your boys get lots of use out of their new blankie and sponge balls! 😀