lounging in fanfare

If you haven’t seen these fuzzy little foxes yet, they’re part of Cloud9’s new Fanfare line by the fabulous Rae (of Made by Rae) – the prints are so sweet, and it’s the the softest, plushest flannel I’ve ever felt – no lie. Over the next week or so, Rae is having a little blog tour to show off some Fanfare creations, and I’m kicking it off today along with Deborah from Whipstitch!

It’s most definitely flannel season around here (lots of that non-stop pouring rain we’re famous for), and Oscar is very cozy in his foxy new Fanfare duds.

I’ve made lots of these little sets – the pants are from the Oliver + S Bedtime Story pattern, and the top is a store-bought tee with an appliquéd patch. It makes a cute little outfit, and the whole thing takes well under an hour to complete. Easiest lounge wear ever.

I chose the gold foxes and paired them with a gray crosshatch from Architextures.

And a cozy flannel crib sheet was also in order – in the gold Bunting print, to match. I’m a sucker for those triangles.

I used the super simple MADE tutorial (same as my last crib sheets) – the directions say your rectangle should be 45 inches across, and after washing the flannel it was about 41 inches wide, but the finished sheet still (snugly) fits our mattress. You could also use a crib sheet pattern with side panels (Amy Butler’s book Little Stitches for Little Ones has one, I know), if you want to add a little extra width.

And I love using organic fabric for crib sheets – I figure he spends a good 15 hours a day with his face pressed against that sheet…it’s probably a good thing. 🙂

Thanks to Cloud9 for the fabric, and to Rae for letting me in on the fun! If you’re on the hunt for Fanfare, Rae has compiled a list of retailers here. And stay tuned for the rest of her blog tour for more Fanfare projects!

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cloudypants

Oscar seems perfectly happy with those star knee patch pants I made for him (at least someone likes their new clothes!), so I decided to add another pair into the rotation. I’m a sucker for clouds and thought they might make cute little patches, so I went with that.

The crosshatch fabric is from the Architextures line, and I machine stitched around each cloud twice with silver metallic thread to give them “silver linings” – kinda cheesy and hardly noticeable, but it made me happy. Silver thread should get more use, if you ask me.

I actually made two pairs of these – the first pair came out looking like pajama bottoms to me….which, admittedly, isn’t such a big deal for a six month old, but since they take all of 45 minutes to make, I decided to try again with the black Carolina chambray. Here’s the blue pajama/hospital scrub version, which I think is destined to be given away:

The pattern for both pairs is the same as the star pants – Rae’s free Basic Newborn Pant pattern, with 1.25 inches of added length. I added a contrast cuff to these, and a fold-over cuff to the gray pair, which increased the overall length by another inch or so.

So yeah, I like adding knee patches to stuff. Boy sewing isn’t so bad after all.

I couldn’t get him to crack a smile for any of these photos, so I’m settling on this one in case anyone was hoping for a face shot. Kind of a serious, just-woke-up look, but at least he’s sitting still and not complaining that he hates his new pants. Good boy.

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spring kcwc, days 6 & 7: colored leaves skirt

Time to wrap things up for KCWC! It’s been fun. This is my final project for the week, and I’m pretty excited to take a break from sewing for awhile. And I apologize in advance for way too many photos – I somehow ended up taking 192 of them this morning, and editing down isn’t my strong suit.

Anyway, this skirt popped into my head in the middle of the night last night, and annoyingly, I couldn’t get rid of it for two hours (I could’ve had it made in that time!) – I saw a print awhile back at Land of Nod and I thought maybe I could recreate the textured leaves in shot cotton…one track mind with the shot cotton, I know.

Fall Foliage Leaf Wall Art (image source: Land of Nod)

So I’d been thinking about making something based on this print, then forgot about it, then remembered again at the inopportune hour of 1:00am.

The skirt has a simple elastic waist (a la the Oliver + S Lazy Days Skirt or the MADE Simple Skirt – both can be found for free online) and a one-inch hem.

And after a three day hiatus from chambray, I went back to it – the texture is similar to shot cotton, with two colors woven together, and it seemed like a good neutral background for the leaves.

And she likes it!

She thought hiking it up was pretty funny, too.

Anyway, making this was the easiest thing ever. After you have a few simple elastic skirts under your belt, they only take maybe 30 or 40 minutes to sew.

And the leaf shapes are cut from double stick fusible web (Steam-a-Seam 2), positioned along the stitching on the hemline of the skirt, ironed into place (the fusible web makes them stick – no pins!), and sewn around the edges. Just your basic appliqué with fusible web. The leaf edges will fray a bit in the wash, but I don’t mind that look.

My color palatte is kind of haphazard – I bought several 1/4 yards of various shot cotton colors when I was working on Lila’s birthday Ice Cream dress, not really knowing what colors I wanted to use yet. So I cut the leaves from every color I had on hand – scraps from that dress, and from the orange dress I made this week, then all the random colors that hadn’t been used for anything yet.

And of course I couldn’t resist a little leaf tag in the back:

Okay, that’s it. Just two more photos, I promise.

Pattern: Simple Skirt from MADE or Oliver + S Lazy Days Skirt (minus the ribbon hem)

Fabric: Robert Kaufman Carolina Chambray in Light Indigo Washed and various Kaffe Fasset shot cottons.

Now that I’m finished sewing I get to catch up in the Elsie Marley Flickr Pool and see what everyone else made! I love that part the best 🙂

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pajamarama

There are things I could be sewing for Christmas, but I really just want to make pajamas.

First up, Lizzy House’s ducks from Red Letter Day. I figured I’d been hoarding them long enough. The contrast fabric is a Michael Miller Garden Pindot.

The pants pattern is from the Oliver + S Bedtime Story Pajamas. The pattern was still sitting out from these, which is what spurred all this pajama making.

And another set, made from Irving Street flannel and a Moda pindot.

I found the t-shirts at Old Navy and bought a bunch last week while everything was buy one, get one 75% off. They’re sueded cotton and soft as a baby’s bum.

The flannel pants are 3Ts, same as her holiday pjs – they’re definitely too long (which is why she’s hiking them up in the photos). So I went back to 2Ts on the ducks.

Sorry for all my tag photos. But here’s another tag photo.

These pjs are a little bit addictive – suddenly I want to turn every piece of fabric I own into pajama bottoms. They’re so simple to make, and take just over 1/2 yard for the main fabric and then a few scraps for the shirt. It’s a project easily completed in one evening…especially when you’re on your third pair in a row and aren’t consulting the directions anymore.

And the houses that didn’t make the cut for the shirt ended up on the felt board. She says they’re cat garages. Obviously.

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holiday pajamas

When I was growing up there were always new pajamas under the tree to open on Christmas Eve. It’s a tradition I’d like to carry on, and when I spotted this Moda Hideaway fabric back in January, I immediately envisioned Oliver + S Bedtime Story pajamas for Christmas this year. I prefer my holiday fabric to be more winter-y than Christmas-y, and these snowy little pines on icy blue fit the bill.

I had trouble finding a contrast fabric I liked, and then I remembered seeing these pajamas in the Oliver + S Flickr pool. While I love how this pattern gives you the option to use contrast fabric, I like them in all one fabric, too (especially those Heather Ross horses!) and it gives the pattern a slightly different look. Anyway, that’s how I decided to go the no-contrast route.

For the inside closure I used a snap instead of ties (an idea I found here in the Flickr pool). Where the directions say to sew the tie inside the seam allowance, I used a piece of twill tape and attached one snap to that. The other snap is attached to the end of the neckband.

This is actually my second attempt at Christmas pjs this week. After seeing this pajama post a couple months ago at Sarah Jane Studios, I decided it would be fun to try something new and make classic button-down, collared pajamas. So I bought the New Look pattern she used, and made wood grain piping for the cuffs.

But it wasn’t meant to be. I got as far as the pants (in size 3, the smallest that pattern goes) and it was immediately clear that Lila wouldn’t be wearing them this year…or next year for that matter. They were huge. I should’ve known better than to think she’d fit into a size 3 in a commercial pattern. I looked unsuccessfully for something smaller in that style (I really wanted to use that piping!), but ended up coming back to good old Oliver + S, and I’m glad I did. Honestly, I sometimes wonder why I ever stray…

So anyway, she’s got a second pair of these pajama pants waiting in the wings for when she grows another six inches. I suppose I should make the matching top for when that time comes, but my eyes need a break from those cute little deer for awhile.

To satisfy my need to use that wood grain fabric, I made a tag for the pants:

And appliquéd a t-shirt, which I think will probably get more wear than the kimono top.

You might not think so at first glance, but it’s a great shirt for nursing:

And bottle feeding, too, for that matter.

She loves her baby dolls, this girl…

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onesies for twinsies

If you’re like me and can’t bear to part with your fabric scraps, onesie appliqué is a fun way to use them. Of course, in my case, actually using something from my disastrous scrap heap only serves to justify future hoarding, as in, “See! I knew there was a reason I didn’t throw this (or anything else, ever) away!” Be careful, this is the mentality that can land you on an episode of Hoarders.

Anyway, a good friend just shared the news that she’s expecting twins in April, so I rifled through my scraps and made a pair of congratulatory onesies.

These were as easy as following the directions on the package of Steam-a-Seam – just cut out your shapes, iron them on, and stitch around the edges by machine (I did the squirrel by hand since he was so tiny).

Everything but the faux bois tree trunks were cut from scraps of Lila’s School Days Coat lining. I saved every. little. piece. of that fabric when I made the coat – I just love that Kokka print, and I knew there had to be a future for some of those precious scraps.

I tried to be gender neutral….if there’s a boy in the mix, hopefully he’s secure enough in his masculinity to wear a couple of pink apples on his shirt.

And to package them up I made a little drawstring bag (a mini version of Dana’s Hobo Sack) out of linen.

Maybe I should take this opportunity to organize my scrap bin…any tips? By color? By size? Straight into the trash can?

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