Future Pilot Shirt

Liam wants to be a pilot when he grows up and loves playing Flight Simulator almost every day.  I've never seen a kid who loves planes more.  He's always asking to go by the airport so he can watch the planes land.

I made him this shirt using the All the Rage Raglans pattern by the Scientific Seamstress.  I am so impressed with this t-shirt pattern.  It contains so much helpful information for every detail of construction!  I even found a new way to attach the neckline so it wouldn't stretch out of shape.  It was worth buying the pattern for that tip alone.  The neckband has been frustrating to me in the past.  It's got a much larger boxier fit than the shirts for travis, but I really love both patterns because they offer very different styles of raglans.

The airplane graphic was actually from this free font which I downloaded and printed out, then traced and cut out of freezer paper.  I used silver fabric paint in the freezer paper stencil and white fabric paint for the words.  My favorite tutorial for stenciling is here on Made.

And here is one more Christmas gift I forgot to post earlier.  This is Koji which I made using a pattern from the book Wee Wonderfuls by Hillary Lang  Liam loves him!

Have a great weekend!

Celebrating The Boy - Tees For Two

I'm finally shaking off the winter blues and getting into some spring sewing.  This year Dana and Rae are hosting another Celebrate The Boy series, which happens to be my very favorite blog series of ALL TIME.  Just like last year, I can't wait to check my computer each day to see what cool boy ideas they and their guests have.  It always gets me motivated to sew more.

I made these two Tee For Two (patterns by figgy's) shirts for Travis for spring!

  This one is made from a women's shirt (Walmart clearance) and some green interlock knit.

This Oswald shirt is my favorite!  Travis is all about Oswald.  We watch that show daily.  I just wish they made more than one season!!  Henry the penguin is my favorite (his voice is actually Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley!).  Travis loves the dog Weenie.  

I really enjoyed sewing this pattern.  It was so quick to make and fun to design the appliques.  This is the before photo:

The appliques were both made with leftover t-shirt scraps.  I used Heat N Bond Lite.  I just draw my shapes on the paper side, then iron it onto my scraps.  Next I cut on the drawn line, fuse to fabric and stitch around the shapes on my project.  Very easy!  

These t-shirt scrap appliques won't fray, so no worries when stitching them on.  Just a plain straight or narrow zig zag stitch is fine.

All we need now is some spring weather.  It's about 10 degrees here in New Hampshire as I type this!

    

some cute new softies

I never get tired of making little creatures with my leftover fabric!  This is the latest crew. 

The guy in the middle is going to my very close friend Rachel's little son, Luke, for his birthday.  Luke is the same age as my Travis.  I wish we lived close enough to hang out.  I miss her!!  She has the best sense of humor of anyone I've ever met.  I know Cuthbert will be happy in her home.
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 Here are some new books I picked up recently.

I'm totally loving the Party Dress.  I can look through this book for hours.  I'm looking forward to sewing some spring/summer dresses this year and using my new dress form.  

Small Stash Sewing is a cute little book too.  I'm always a fan of projects that take smaller quantities of fabric that I hang on to.  I'll probably make a few of these projects for the kids.  The price of this book is right, less than 10 dollars on Amazon. 

Well Happy New Year!

Hi! I guess I've taken a little vacation for myself these last few weeks. I think it had to do with all the sewing leading up to Christmas that it was natural to have a little break. It also could have something to do with  the Amazon Kindle I just got.  I've been spending so much time reading by the fire and being lazy.

I did get to a few minor projects, a Kindle Cover similar to Maura's for myself, and a few new pillows to spruce up the living room.  I'd like to post photos, but I'm presently having technical issues with my memory card from my camera.  Suddenly it doesn't FIT into my computer's card reader!  So either the card GREW or the T-Bomb (2 year old Travis) has stuffed something in the card reader!  I hope to have something new to show you soon!

a couple of (11th hour) handmade gifts finished!

These were a few of the gifts I'd planned for the handmade holiday challenge, and I'm happy to report that they're done with 4 days till Christmas!  Nothing like a little pressure to get me moving!

For Travis:

A gigantic fleece blanket shaped like Nemo.  This is from Simplicity pattern 3955, and it's HUGE, like 6 feet long..  Look at how it dwarfs my couch in this photo:

And for Maura who is 14, (I hope she doesn't read my blog):

A cool cover/holder for her Amazon Kindle which she will (hopes to) get from her grandparents this year.

 Here is a shot of the inside.  It has pockets and also a reading light holder.  I wrote her name and phone number already...my kids might be a bit forgetful.

This was a great pattern to follow, very sturdy and well-thought out.  I got the pattern here on Etsy.  The fabric is Michael Miller Script which I love, and plan on using on more projects.

Next I'm hoping to make some peppermint bark to hand out to the teachers next and get to wrapping.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone!!!!

My Neighbor Totoro + Vans = the perfect gift for Maura!

So yesterday was Maura's 14th birthday.  Though we already took her to King Richard's Faire and I made her this dress and gave her spending money for her birthday, that was a few months ago and I wanted to give her something inexpensive to open on her birthday.

I found these plain gray Vans on sale for 15.00!  She's wanted some embellished sneakers for awhile and was upset that the Yo Gabba Gabba Vans didn't come in adult size.  So I let her choose what she wanted on them and she of course picked My Neighbor Totoro!!

Love these guys, you wish they lived in your woods:

The cat bus, I had no yellow/brown paint so I left him monotone:

I love the soot sprites on the toes:

Materials used: Sharpie fine point marker and Tulip Soft fabric paint. 

Back to working on Travis' gift now:

Have a great weekend!

our first craft fair

Maura and I participated in our first craft fair on Saturday. 

I wish I could say it was a huge success, but it was a learning experience for us.  There weren't many shoppers there unfortunately.  The few people who came through probably thought my table was "weird".  One little girl expressed interest in one of my hats, to which her mom said "you'd look like a freak of nature in that!"  Nice.

So I learned that a church basement might not be the best venue for my items.
Maura did very well with her dragons however, she sold 4!

On a positive note, we did make a new friend!  It turns out my table was right next to another Etsy seller, Andrea, of FabFindings.  We hit it off and it was great to have someone to talk to.  I bought some of her handmade cards and a hair pin.  Maura just about cleaned out her stash of magnets, she has some really cute gifts for her friends to decorate their lockers now.

I also got a taste for how to display my items on a table, which is a good start.  I used my Silhouette Machine to make labels and signs.

So it was a fun day even though sales were so slow.  Maura and I had a chance to hang out withOUT the T-Bomb (2 year old Travis).   And lucky for her, at the end of the day she walked away with a new messenger bag, ipod case, kitty hat, and a stuffed owl.  Her birthday is on Friday the 17th, and I know they're going to someone who appreciates them...I don't care if she looks like a 'freak of nature'.   She's a great kid!!

Now I'm going to get serious about finishing some Christmas gifts!  See you soon!