Sewing For Summer, Preppy Boy Shorts

After going through the boy’s clothes, I realized they need a few summer staples. Taking a quick mental inventory, I decided to try and supply their wardrobe for free. My goal is to sew their essentials using clothes from my refashion tote, and fabric and notions from my stash.
First up, Preppy Shorts:

I started with a woman’s short-sleeved jacket.

I was in love with the pockets and stitching detail on the front.

I (loosely) used this pattern and tutorial. Fabric was a little short, so I pulled out my seam ripper. Ripping the seams yielded me enough extra fabric for the width.
*(I even pulled the elastic from a pair of my step-daughter’s well-loved leggings.)

I had a hard time trying to decide how to work around the bottom pockets. I cut right above them. Then I had ripped the sleeve cuffs, and attach them to the bottom by encasing inside the cuffs (like binding).

These are the Preppy Mullet Shorts, Business in The Front:

Party In The Back:

I love Dana’s flat front pants tutorial. It is so easy to follow, and has a nice fit. Perfect for beginners.
These shorts were quick to sew, besides ripping the seams apart for extra fabric.
Have you taken inventory of your summer clothes? Are you planning on DIYing a couple of staples? As always, I love to hear your thoughts!
*Stop back tomorrow for another preppy short refashion.

Participating here:

Celebrating Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!
I had a little time to sew this weekend. Knowing that the week started with Earth Day, I decided to sew for the boys. Yup, another t-shirt refashion.
The first shirt was a youth XL Earth Day shirt from a few years ago. This shirt was donated by their older brother.

I really wanted to keep the design, so that meant I wasn’t able to keep the original hem. I added 3/4 inch to the bottom to account for this.

The second shirt was an adult medium I picked up from Goodwill (in our favorite color). This shirt has been sitting in my refashion bin for quite some time.

*I had already picked the colors before pictures. (Sometimes I cannot wait to start a project.)

I used t-shirt scraps left over from a different refashion for the earth applique. (See, I am not crazy for saving those t-shirt bits.)
This was my first time freezer paper stenciling. This was so easy, and produces a very professional result. (Hubby thought I cut the earth from a screen printed t-shirt.) I searched ‘earth coloring printable’ for the image. If you are new to freezer paper stenciling, this is a good tutorial.
After the paint was dry, I ironed Heat’n’Bond to the applique. Then ironed the earth to the middle shirt front. Next I sewed around the circumference with a straight stitch.
I used Melissa’s pattern again.
A Few Tips:

• After making a few shirts for the boys, I prefer picking off the collar vs. cutting it off. I find that having that little extra fabric makes for a more finished looking product. It truly doesn’t take very long to take off either.
• It took a little fudging with the Youth shirt. It was doable, but took a little finagling. So try to use bigger shirts.
• I used that newly discovered lever again. I turned the speed down a little to sew the applique. In the past my machine used to eat my t-shirts when I was trying to applique. Not anymore!
• Save your t-shirt scraps. You can see from the earth shirt, dinosaur shirts, and long-sleeved refashion that scraps come in handy.
• Measure the ribbing (neckband) to be sure it will fit over heads. I made the mistake of skipping this step with the baseball shirts, had to seam rip it out, and scrounge around for more red ribbing.

How are you celebrating Earth Day?

Participating in these parties:

Mama’s Cutting Up Daddy’s Shirts, Again!

Do you remember this shirt? I made that shirt over four months ago, and the boys hadn’t worn it until last weekend.
Reason #1, I had only made one shirt. Reason #2, that upside-down decal was quirky, but annoyed the crap out of this perfectionist.
This is one downside to being a crafty mama of twins (and the reason I temporarily traded my knitting needles for crochet hooks). You have to corral your crafting ADD, and make two of everything. This is also why I do not knit socks, can you imagine having to make four!
Here’s the first refashion, refashioned:

I covered up the upside down decal with a Triceratops applique. The design was copied from a coloring book, cut out from t-shirt material, and fused on with Wonder-Under (doing a little experiment).

The second shirt was also one of hubby’s donations. I used the same method and pattern. T-Rex came from the same coloring book and was applied in the same manner.
I am in love with making these shirts for my boys. Absolutely free (always a good price in my book), simple and straight forward, and minimal time investment required. Not to mention how handsome my boys look.
Now that I have two under my belt, I am trying a couple of different methods to save a little finishing time. I’ll keep you updated.
I am thinking that we may need some pants. Do you have any favorite pants patterns? If so, leave a link in the comments, I would love to give it a whirl!
Thanks for stopping by!
Participating here:

Bring On Baseball; Little Man Refashion

The melting snow signifies one thing around here. Not the end of the school year, or tulips and daffodils, not even hot dogs and campfires. What else is there, you ask?

Baseball season! My stepson keeps us busy from spring through summer with baseball. Hubby plays men’s softball through summer. Needless to say, we are a busy baseball-loving family.

The boys were in need of team apparel. I had an image in my head, and boy was I excited. I actually jumped up and ran to the basement in search for a red t-shirt I could cut up. No such luck. Then after tearing my own closet apart, I begged every family member to search their closets, while I may or may not have been looking over their shoulder “in case they missed something.” Still, no red t-shirts.

What’s a mama to do? I patiently (or not so much) waited for the little guys to take their nap, then told hubby I was headed to Goodwill. “You better come home with a red shirt.” I guess he may have been a tad bit annoyed with my sudden urgent t-shirt need.

I found the perfect shirt, for half off; .99! The blue shirt was in our donate pile. An hour after washing the tees and .99 later, I had 2 shirts for the boys to sport their school spirit.

These shirts came together easily. I drafted a pattern based on the one I used here.

Can you believe that I used to be afraid of t-shirt fabric?

Want to know how I did it? Stay tuned, hopefully I have a tutorial to share in the next week or so.

Do you share our baseball love? Want proof of our love? The boys had been to six ball tournaments before they turned eight weeks old! (Talk about starting them young)

T-Shirt Refashion for Toddlers

Hubby has earned/collected a ton of t-shirts in his lifetime. He plays softball, bowls, and used to shoot darts. Every team needs a t-shirt right? What about if they win the championship? You guessed it, another t-shirt. (Hey, I guess it’s better than a trophy, how on earth would I upcycle all the trophies? )
My step-son is also involved in sports, so more t-shirts. We have hand-me-downs from my baseball/football/basketball playing nephew. Needless to say, we have a lot of t-shirts.
One of my 30 by 30 goals is to craft through my stash. Somehow these t-shirts ended up in my stash.
The twins need t-shirts. Specifically long-sleeved shirts. (Have you ever tried to buy long-sleeved shirts in February?)
Last week Melissa from Melly Sews posted a how to sew a t-shirt tutorial (and pattern). She made it look achievable, so I decided to tackle our t-shirt pile. Here’s the outcome:

The gray shirt was the first one I tackled. The project was a quick one, about half an hour. I used an XL men’s gray t-shirt for the body. The neck and decal came from a men’s large softball t-shirt.

This one was my problem tee. I was working at night, and that seems to be when I make stupid mistakes (like forgetting to not cut the fold, that’s why we have the layered sleeves). The quality is lacking compared to the gray shirt.
Melissa’s tutorial and pattern are wonderful! The hubby was so impressed, he mentioned going through his closet so I have more t-shirts. Thanks for supporting my stash busting hubby. Here’s a few tips:

• Use the biggest shirt possible. The orange shirt was small, causing a little frustration and creativity.
• To save time, and have a finished-looking project- use existing hems. This is why the sleeves are a little long, I didn’t subtract the extra seam allowance. Oh well, it works (and they grow, fast).
• Use the neckband from the old t-shirt. Just cut it off right above the serging. I unpicked the red collar during a car ride, too much work. The blue collar I just cut. They had the same effect.
• Want a cute ‘boy’ applique? Look in your coloring books. I traced the animals from a coloring book. Then I traced it onto fusible stuff. Ironed it onto scrap t-shirt. Cut it out, and ironed it onto the finished project. I didn’t sew them down, too many small details. (I’ll let you know how they hold up.)
• If existing t-shirt has details you like, use them. (For example, the name on the sleeve.)
• Toddlers are awesome to practice your skills. The project is usually small and quick. Also, they rarely stay still, so any imperfections that you are hung up on are not noticeable to the general public.

Have you done any boy refashions? If so, share them in the comments, I am always looking for more things to sew for my boys.
Here’s to a wonderful week!

Partied here.

Daddy Saved a Box

Hubby brought home a box. A big box.

He came home from work with excitement on his face, a roll of duct tape on his wrist, a utility knife in his back pocket, and a box.

We got to cutting; cut out a door and window. Then we taped the flap down, and taped the door and window edges (don’t want any boo-boos). Remember all that leftover green felt I have? I grabbed enough to cover the door, cut strips most of the way up, and taped it down. (We thought about giving the boys markers to color the walls, but mommy had instant visions of the whole house being colored, maybe next time.)

This playhouse has survived a month of rough and tough boy play. The boys play in it upright. They flip it on its side. Their favorite is turning it upside down, climbing through the window, running out, around, and doing it over and over. We have story time in the box. The boys flip it over, grab a stack of books and their milk, then coerce mama to get in and read.

Sadly, this box has been beaten up (it did last over a month). But, don’t worry, daddy brought home another box.

I married the best dad ever!

Its amazing the joy they get from trash. What items have your kids saved from the trash?

Why Journaling Is On My To-Do List

If you have been reading for a while you may have noticed that journaling for my husband and kids is always on my to-do list. I still haven’t done it.

If it is something that is continually put off, why is it on my list?

Because of a gift I was left. The night before my wedding I was given this:

It’s from my dad. He left one for each one of us, my mom (actually she had several), my brother, and I. We had no idea they even existed, mom found them by accident. They are not anything fancy. Just a notebook in the color that represented us in my father’s eyes, emblazoned with his art/handwriting (to me his handwriting will always be art). They weren’t even wrote in regularly.

But WOW!

What a gift to get on the eve of your wedding. I literally walked around with cold spoons over my eyes the morning of our big day.

So why have I been dragging my feet on starting them for my husband and children?

Honestly, I’m not sure. Sometimes I think I’ll just remember everything and tell them. Stupid, I know. Sometimes I feel like it is a ‘death sentence.’ If I write down my thoughts, feelings, and dreams to my family; I might die too. I know this is irrational thinking, my journal was started at least ten years before dad’s accident (just a guess- he didn’t date it). Sometimes I feel that those feelings are mine, not to be shared. This is purely selfish, something I need to work on- breaking down my wall. Other times I get paralyzed, my perfectionist takes over and tells me, “You know you’re not going to be regular about journaling, so why bother?”

Enough excuses! This is very important to me. It is important that even after I am gone (hopefully a very, very long time from now) that my family knows my love for them. It is important that they know my feelings, dreams, insecurities, proud moments, and everything in between.

I may forget to tell them. I may tell them, and they may forget.

I want to have a gift to share with my family, just like the gift left for me.

So I start. I start a journal for each one of my men. Just like mine, theirs’ get emblazoned with my art, and written with my hand.

I am not going to beat myself up about regularity. I am not going to guard my heart. I AM going to be deliberate about recording our memories.

What gift had the most impact on your life?

Deliberate Reading

Note to self: Schedule haircuts…

Reading is important to me. As a child I was taught that reading is the best superpower one can possess. If you can read, you can do anything; fix a car, bake a cake, build a house, time travel, exotic travel, dream, deepen your relationship with God, anything is possible with a book.

Needless to say, our whole family enjoys reading. My boys even love books. All day long they are bringing a book to mama, and sitting down to listen to a story. The only problem is that they don’t stick around past once upon a time. They are up and on to something else.

This is frustrating for a mama like me (I tend to be a little too structured). One of my 30 by 30 goals is to read to the boys everyday. For the past year I have tried many different ways to read to my boys, with no success. Until I started being deliberate with our reading.

Inspired by Money Saving Mom, I decided to try something different- reading while they eat.

We love it! The boys are getting read to. They tend to eat better. The biggest bonus? They have been throwing less food. We usually get about 4 books read before their attention diverts to something else.

We (translation: mama) is getting a little tired of the same books. What are your favorite children’s books to read aloud?

Little Man Refashion

While I was pregnant, I had dreams of making a room in the basement my craft room. I plugged away as best as I could, but never fully finished. (One of the downsides to being pregnant with twins, I was huge, so nesting was about impossible.) Needless to say, that room became a catchall, and my craft stuff is still spread out (or hidden…) throughout the house.

This past week, I decided to devote at least twenty minutes a day to cleaning up this space. Twenty minutes flew by, turned into an hour or so, and the room is much improved. I was so inspired, I spent Saturday’s naptime sewing in there!

First up, daddy shirt to toddler shirt:

I have a bit of a hoarding issue. A craft hoarding issue. I hate to see something go that could be turned into something we could use. After our garage sale this summer, I snagged hubby’s button-up shirts that did not sell. I have been holding on to them since… you may be wondering why...

Enter Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I am not much of a ‘pattern follower.’ And, I shy away from sewing clothing. So, I have to admit, this shirt took some time. The instructions were not as clear as I needed them to be. But the result was worth it! This shirt looks professional (almost, I’ll explain later). I am predicting that it won’t take as long for the next one either, because now I am more positive about what I am doing, and I have more of an idea of were I can use existing hems.

Speaking of which, do you notice anything? Look closely:

Remember that I am trying to use up my stash? Well, I have quite a few iron-ons. I figured I would use one of them to spruce up the shirt. The whole project went great, no unpicking. Then I ironed. I ironed that dang thing upside down! I was going to put a patch over it, but hubby insisted I leave it. We’ll see…

If you’re looking for a boy sewing pattern, this one looks nice- just give yourself time to read and re-read the pattern through the first time.

Do you have any favorite boy sewing patterns/tutorials?