Hats - for me and my big boy

It's really starting to warm up here in Philadelphia so that must mean it's time for sun hats!

I kept seeing cute children's bucket hats with a really fun patchwork design. After I saw a Disney Cars version I knew I'd just have to make one for own car-obsessed boy. I already had more than enough Cars fabric and scraps for sure.

The pattern is from YouCanMakeThis.com here. One side is patchwork and it reverses to a solid lining. It's a very simple pattern really and it just works well. What more can you ask for?

My semi-willing model:



So next I wanted to make myself a hat too. Since I'm an Amy Butler junkie I went with her Blue Sky Hats pattern. This baby is big and heavy and substantial! Wowza. And a bit tricky to sew. I used the recommend 3 layers of canvas/duck for the brim and it was hard to sew those seams, even with a jeans needle and walking foot. My topstitching around the brim was not quite where I intended it to be, as the fabric has ideas of it's own.
The fabric is also from Amy Butler, the Daisy Chain line. I'd love to make a black/white version too, but I need just the right print for it...



Now I just have to decide if I'm a big hat girl! It feels a bit southern and I'm a northern gal. ;)

Finally finished my Brick Path Quilt!

So remember this? My first quilt is finally done! My mother most graciously did a lot of the hand sewing of the binding when she visited and I finally stitched up the last little 12" last night. I started this back in February but the binding was holding me up. I have too little patience for hand sewing! It's the Amy Butler Brick Path pattern and backed in a furry "cuddle-up" fabric - so snuggly!

My Little Man is 3!

Happy birthday Nate!

My big boy just turned 3 years old last week! It feels like it's all zoomed past so quickly and almost become a speeding blur once his little brother appeared and has grown in leaps and bounds. Slow down little ones!

Here's the big birthday boy:


A look back, 2 years old:


Just one year old:


Just one day old:

Birthday and Disney clothes

My little boy turns 3 this week! We're doing a Disney Cars theme party so I whipped together the birthday banner above with the Cars prints I have. This was so fun and fast to make, I can see why people make yard after yard of them! This would be a fun way to brighten up a sewing area with some favorite prints. :)
And I managed to finish all my Disney clothes for him and his little brother too. I already shared the iron-on transfer Ts I made, now here they are with shorts! I'm not normally matchy-matchy, it really just happened.



I used two different shorts pattern - my basic Kwik Sew "Sewing for Toddlers" and also the Huck Finn pants from Heather Ross's "Weekend Sewing" book. I actually made the 18-month size of the Huck Finn pants for my nephew and had my almost-3 year try them on. They were actually wide enough just a funny length. So I shorted about 3 inches and now they are board shorts!



Here's the Cars set (Kwik Sew shorts)


And one for little Ben:

Kai Shirt from Weekend Sewing

Another project from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing book, this time the Kai Shirt for my almost-3-year-old. I'm really pleased how it came out though again there were some issues with the book and I added my own mistakes too I also wish I had used a higher quality cotton, I think this is from Walmart. There is such a world of difference in the feel of it and say a Michael Miller print. It hasn't made a difference with projects like shorts, but for this shirt a crisper, sturdier cotton would be better.

This is my very first project with buttonholes! I think I did pretty good except afterwards I found out that I put the buttonholes the wrong way -- I made them side horizontally! Ah well, Nate loves everything I make, he actually said "I want to wear this always" when I had him try it on.





Some notes on the pattern:
* I'm not sure what's going on with the collar. I thought it was about a 1/2" too long so I resewed the end of it to shorten and then continued which seemed to work. But I also saw someone else's finished project where they didn't shorten so their collar has an interesting shape that doesn't look wrong either...
* I made the size 3 (plus I added about 2" in length which I shouldn't have bothered doing) and the sizing is generous. It's a bit large on my boy who wears mostly 4T tops.
* the instructions say to sew the front edges on the top and bottomin step 4, I think it should only say to sew the top.