Chambray Cheyenne

I have been sewing, despite my lack of posting.  Eventually (maybe) I’ll get caught up…  but, to be honest, I have found that hanging out with these guys is a bit more fun that hanging out on the computer in the evening… so maybe not.

Regardless, I do have a new make to show today.  I made this back in November, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

It’s the Cheyenne Tunic by Hey June.  (Full disclosure, I tested this pattern before it was released – the only change made from this version to the final was to widen the hips 2 inches as the top was a bit too tight on most of the testers).

I made View A in the tunic length.  I widened the hips a little on my version by making the seam allowances smaller, but that has already been changed with the pattern itself, as mentioned above.

The other changes I made were very small – I used floral accent fabric on the button band, collarstand facing, and sleeve tabs, and I used pearl snaps instead of buttons (so much easier and quicker!).

The fabric used was a chambray for the main fabric and a floral cotton shirting from Pacific Fabrics.  I love the look of the fabric, but the chambray wrinkles like crazy!  This shirt would be worn a lot except for that.  I’m going to make another version of this top with a less wrinkly fabric.  I also have a vision of this as a shirtdress and can’t wait to have that item hanging in my closet!

If you’re worried about making a button up top, Adrianna recently did a sewalong on the Hey June blog to walk you through all of the steps on how to make this top.  So check it out here.

Cow says “Moo,” Sheep says “Baa”.

The boys have been so much fun lately.  They are now 11 months old, which is now my favorite age ever (as has been every month so far…).

And they’ve now experienced their first Halloween!  I’ve never been a huge fan of dressing up for Halloween, but I couldn’t wait to dress up my boys.  And for their first Halloween, I wanted them to have special, handmade costumes.

So enter the farm animals!  After much deliberation, I decided to make them a cow and a sheep.  What’s cuter than miniature farm animals?

I made the costumes using all patterns from  Max & Meena Patterns.  For the cow costume, I used the All Ears Hoodie and the Maxaloones.  I made the 18 month size for the hoodie and size 1 for the pants.  All of the fabric for the cow costume came from Joann Fabrics.

Originally, I made the Rompaloones (in black, with a white bum circle) to go under the sheep hoodie, but decided I wanted white legs instead of black, so replaced them with the white Maxaloones.

For the cow costume, I used the Rompaloones, in the 18 month size, with the hood taken from the All Ears Hoodie pattern.  I modified the pattern slightly to add in the tail and to create a wider neck opening since I didn’t use a stretch fabric.  (I also modified both the hoodie and the Rompaloones to create a cow and a sheep, since the pattern doesn’t come with those variations).

I bought the cow fleece fabric from Amazon – it’s available here.  The rest of the fabric came from Joann Fabrics.

My little farm animals didn’t seem to mind the costumes at all (though they weren’t very willing to sit still long enough to have their pictures taken).  It was so much fun to watch them crawl around in their outfits.

It was a wonderful first Halloween as a mom.

Brindille & Twig Raglan Tee (x2)

I’ve been doing a fair amount of sewing lately, so I’ve got a backlog of projects about which to blog!  First up, baby clothes!

In my August Knitfix from Girl Charlee, I received some striped blue and white cotton jersey knit fabric, which didn’t really speak to me.  But I really wanted to embrace all of the surprise fabrics I received, so, after thinking about the fabric for a while, I realized it may not be something I would wear, but it is perfect for some baby boy clothes!

Fortunately, I had just purchased the perfect pattern – the Brindille & Twig Raglan Tee.  It comes in sizes OM to 6T.  For my 9 month olds, I made the 12 month size.

It was an extremely quick and satisfying make – no fitting challenges with a knit top for a baby, and it comes together very quickly when made with a serger and a cover stitch machine.  I made the pattern exactly as written.

This is my second time making a Brindille & Twig pattern, and I have loved both patterns.  In fact, I enjoyed making this top so much, I made another one the very next day with a fabric in my stash from my May Knitfix, another striped cotton jersey knit – this one in blue and green.

Of course, with twins, I sort of feel obligated to make two of each item so both boys can have new clothes.  🙂  Both boys seemed delighted with their new tops!

I’m sure I’ll be making lots more of these tops in the future.  I’m glad this pattern goes up to size 6T.  While I didn’t love either of these fabrics when I originally received them, I’m totally in love with these shirts.  I’m glad I took the challenge this month of embracing all of the fabrics I received!

The Mommy in Me

I had great ambitions this month.  Then, work happened.  It’s been nuts lately.  One week I had three hearings in three different counties.  One of those was even my first oral argument in front of the Court of Appeals!  It was super stressful (I only found out on Friday I was handling the oral arguments on Wednesday…) but I loved it.  It was one of those things that reminds me of exactly what I had envisioned being an attorney could be. Speaking of being an attorney… This month’s Sew the Show selection was Parenthood.  Somehow I had missed this show when it was on tv, so I did some research (via Netflix) so I could participate in this month’s challenge.  While I will admit that I’m now sucked into the show (I’m on the second season now), I have a bit of a gripe.  Why do shows always seem to show female attorneys as failures as moms?  The character of Julia bugs me – she’s a successful attorney so she constantly messes up when it comes to her daughter and, in fact, her daughter prefers her dad to her mom?  Maybe it only bugs me because I’m just starting this mom/attorney dual role and I’m worried I’ll mess it all up.  I don’t know.  But, for once, I’d love a show depicting a female attorney who also has kids who adore her. Anyway, on to the sewing!  I picked the character of Kristina, the quintessential mom. So it’s only fitting I show shots of myself with the kiddos. She often wears tank tops and cardigans, so I decided to recreate that look.  I made my tank top – a Greenwood Tank by Straight Stitch Designs with a cotton spandex knit from Girl Charlee’s May Knitfix.   And I made my pants – Jalie 2908 Stretch Jeans with a corduroy from Pacific Fabrics. I had intended to whip up a cardigan, too, but that just didn’t happen this month (not that I have a shortage of cardigans in my closet, but it’d be nice to have some I have made myself).  Maybe next month!  I’ll provide a detailed description of the top and pants soon (including how I intend to modify those pants!), but I wanted to make sure I got this posted in June!

For the Boys: Onesies

I’ve been on a knits kick lately.  With only a limited amount of time for sewing, I love quick projects and knits are about as quick as it gets – especially knit projects for the babies!  I’m all about the instant gratification.

 

After making the giraffe onesie, I decided to look for a pattern for a onesie with sleeves to make a few more outfits for the boys and I found the perfect pattern from Brindille & Twig.  This bodysuit pattern can be made with short or long sleeves from Preemie to 3T sizes.  I wish I had found this pattern earlier – I could have made outfits for the boys when they were too small to fit in all of the newborn clothes we had purchased for them before they were born.

This pattern is very quick.  I purchased, printed, traced, and cut out the pattern, cut out all of the fabric for two onesies, and sewed them up all in one evening after the boys went to bed.  I made the 6-9 month size for my 5.5 month olds.  They are just a tad big, which is perfect.  The boys will be able to wear these for at least a week (I swear – they outgrow clothes by the day they are growing so quickly).

 

Construction is very easy.  I used my serger for all of the seems and attaching the binding, and then used a narrow zig zag stitch to stitch the binding down.  The grey fabric was a 1/4 yard remnant I found a while back that I’ve just been holding on to until I figured out what to do with it.  This is the perfect project to use up small quantities of knit fabric!

“It fits!”

 

The white polka dot fabric came from April’s Girl Charlee KnitFix.  KnitFix is a deal Girl Charlee offers once a month where you buy essentially a grab bag of fabrics.  For $69, you purchase 2 yards each of 6 different fabrics, but you don’t know what fabrics you will get until you receive the package in the mail.  It’s kind of a fun way to build up your stash of knits, and it ends up being only $5.75 per yard, which is a great price for knits.  Of course you run the risk of getting stuff you don’t like…  But I’m not too worried about that.  I can always use up my less desired fabrics to make gifts for others who will like those fabrics more.

“I’m working on my smizing, Mom.”

For the snaps, I used Babyville snaps and the Babyville Snap pliers.  The pattern doesn’t say to use any interfacing behind the snaps, but I really think there should be some to strengthen that area.  I worry that the fabric won’t hold up to the constant snapping and unsnapping.  But maybe It would hold up better if I used a different type of snap.  I’ll have to look into different snaps.  Babyville snaps are just so easy to use!  I think I’ll use interfacing behind the snaps next time, too, just to make sure the onesies will last for a while.

“Hey! Did you know I have feet?”

I will definitely be making more of these onesies in the future.  And I look forward to trying more of the Brindille & Twig patterns in the future.  If all of their patterns are as well written as the Bodysuit pattern, then this may become my go to pattern company for baby basics!

“Swinging is so fun in my new bodysuit!”