Saturday, February 25, 2012

Mr. Two Face Pants

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And, here it is! I've finished my version of 'Mr. Two Face Pants' from the Sewing For Boys book for the Sew-Along at Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy.

My two older boys absolutely love tractors, so I thought it would be a perfect thing to add to these pants for my third son, even though he's too young to care! I found a cute clip art online here.

Front

My son is not quite big enough for these pants yet, so I had to take the pictures on my lovely, scratched up coffee table--the only dark background with relatively enough lighting in the house.

Back
 I love how the back pockets look like Owl eyes.
The top stitching I tried to find a 'John Deere' green thread--it matches pretty good with the embroidery thread I used.
Because I used a woven fabric, a twill thrifted from the local second hand store, and a quilting cotton from Fabric.com both of which I've had in my stash for well over a year, the pockets will fray on the edges once I wash it. I thought that'd be a neat accent, and kept myself from using anything like fray check or a zig-zag stitch. We'll see if I like it as much as I picture it in my head once I wash it...


And, I had to add my lovely 'signature' tag to the inside back:


The older boys were quite eager to 'help' embroider the tractor on the front--the oldest was looking at my husband on the tractor outside, and telling me exactly which color I had to make each piece to make it look like Daddy's John Deere.


My first attempt at hand embroidery, and you can tell: it's a tad crooked, but from a distance it looks pretty good. I'm still debating whether I should add a 'trail' where the tractor drove onto the pants, but I'm not sure. I think it may make it look messy with my lack of experience in hand embroidering...

And...since I've done some stash busting, I'm linking up :)











Thursday, February 23, 2012

Sewing for Boys Sew Along

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I'm pretty excited--I plan on joining along in this sew along from Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy Crafts. I missed out on the January sew along, but I still have some time for the February one and am looking forward to the rest!
Now, to go sew some pants and have fun embellishing them!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Been busy again!

So...I have scratched some projects off my list!


I wanted to add some pockets to make them a little less plain and the pockets needed something, so some fancy stitches on the top were just the thing--I love having those on my sewing machine!  


And, to differentiate the back from the front, I added a 'tag' in the back.


Here they are in action, well not real action as the 'wearer' isn't very active. I added about an inch or so to the pattern in the hopes that he can wear them longer so they look a little big on him here.
The fabric is some sort of soft (think super soft) yet looks kind of like a dressy denim that I found in the ends bin at Fabricland.

Another project off my list is a set of boy's clothes:


The shirt is from the book, Sewing For Boys. The Short Sleeve Raglan Tee. I love how it turned out! The fabric is a very light jersey knit--perfect for summer when it should fit that little boy! And, the applique is a very light linen fabric. 
The pants are from the Scientific Seamstress --the Easy Fit Pants. After totally skimming over the instructions--there's well over a 100 pages in the pattern! I forgot a step and ended up having to cut the legs in half and adding another strip of fabric to make the waistband wide enough for a 1 year old--15" just doesn't quite cut it. (ha, if you have the pattern try figure out what I messed up on--a totally blonde mistake ;) )  But, I love how they turned out--the contrasting strip I used add a lot more than some pockets would have! Plus it's the same fabric that I used for the applique on the shirt. The pants are linen--the first time I actually worked with linen and I found out linen needs ironing! Sorry to the mom of the boy that these are for!    


And, finally, the last project I was able to scratch off my list is a little dress for a sweet girl. I used Leila and Ben's Pleated Dress pattern. I was actually a tester for this pattern and I loved it! I did make one modification: I wanted the lining to peak out from the bottom of the outer fabric, so I cut the lining as if it were the outside fabric, and cut the outer fabric on the next size down line so it'd have a nice chunk peaking out. Next, I had to cut the lining pieces in half along the chest/back and resew them together the opposite way so that the right side of the fabric would peak out of the bottom. I've made three of these this way now, and I love it! This fabric is from Fabric.com--I forget the name, but it's a quilting cotton. Another perfect summertime outfit!


It feels so good to be back at my sewing desk!  

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Facebook Shop

With all the sewing I do, I have a little shop set up on Facebook: FABulous Home Sewn Products. Check out the items I have for sale there!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Absent.....

So, my sewing machine has had quite the break--at least 2 weeks of no sewing on there, CRAZY! And, the reason for this is that we've been blessed with the birth of a son, and it's been pretty busy without turning to my sewing to make things even more busy! I'm slowly regaining some energy, and have a long list of projects in my mind that I really want to get going on--pants for our newest addition, shirts for myself and my daughter, skirts for myself, and the list can continue....these are the ones I have on my 'do-as-soon-as-I-can list.' I'm sure as I sew more projects will come up, especially since I'm still waiting for one of my books that I won, and I'm waiting for some new Jalie patterns--one of which is a swimsuit pattern that I want to try on my little girl--I already have the fabric, just needed to find 'the' pattern. Hopefully this one'll be it! Anyway, sorry for my rambling post, but that explains my absence for a couple of weeks!