exciting little things!

This finally arrived in the mail! And I have to admit, I squealed just a little. And clapped my hands. And I might have jumped up and down, just a little. 

All other sewing projects are being abandonded in favor of this cape.

My 5 year old requested this, in red. So then of course my 3 year old wanted one too -- in pink. Pink is his favorite color, which I fully support because it is the very best color. But I'm not sure Explorer Barbie is a good look for a little boy.

snow days coat

pattern: School Days Coat from Oliver + S
fabric: wool coating with cotton lining and insulated interlining

A while back, I had the chance to take a workshop with Liesl Gibson. Oliver + S is well known for their excellent directions, so can you imagine how great it was to have the real live version right there helping you? This workshop was held at Cloth and Bobbin in Narberth, PA just outside of Philadelphia. I can't believe it was a year ago! However, I had made the coat to be worn this year and haven't taken any pictures of it until today when I got it out for boy month.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the coat actually came together. I probably wouldn't have attempted a coat pattern had it not been for the workshop. I had long wanted to take one of Liesl's classes but the ones held nearby at Spool were always for dresses! When Cloth and Bobbin advertised this, I jumped at the chance to make something boy from Oliver + S. There are many steps and you should take your time with this, but the instructions are, as always, so wonderfully clear and helpful that it works out just fine. Before sewing it, I spent time studying the construction of some of the nice coats in my closet to see how things went together. I wouldn't recommend this for your first sewing project, but an intermediate sewer can definitely do this.

Some things I like about this pattern include the detailed explanation not only of how to construct the lining, but why. So what you get here is a lesson in garment construction, which is above and beyond what most clothing patterns offer. I also adore the toggles and snaps. When I made this, the hardware was sold in a little package. I think it's great when the store that sells the pattern also sells things to make the pattern. Another nice detail is the patch pockets on the front that look very cute, but also contribute to making this an accessible coat pattern. As you can see, his cold hands fit very nicely into the pockets. The hood was, I think, easier than a collar, and also sweeter.

 

I may have spent more time looking for boy appropriate fabric than I did actually sewing the coat. The outer fabric is a charcoal wool coating that I scored at Cloth and Bobbin just before the class started. Everyone else in this workshop was making such adorable and beautiful girl coats with linings of bright and lovely quilting cottons. And though there were plenty of things like rocket ships and cutesy blue stripes to choose from, I simply didn't see any of those things on a nearly grown up boy of five. I also don't like using your typical polyester lining fabrics and silk seemed a little over the top. So with time running out before the workshop, I had to simply get what I could. The lining you can see in this picture came from JoAnn in the homespun section. It's a small scale cotton plaid, which complements the charcoal wool nicely. Quilting cotton advocates might turn their noses up a this, but these fabrics come in a variety of stripes and plaids, perfect for boys.

I used a rather stiff interlining, because it was all I could get. If I were to do this again for a winter coat, I would order proper Thinsulate from somewhere. For a fall jacket, cordory, twill or denim with a cotton lining would be plenty. My ideal lining fabric might be something like a shirting, but I'm still not really sure. I do, however, remember thinking when the coat was finished, that it wasn't nearly as hard as I had imagined and I could do it again every year. We'll see about that, but it is a wonderful pattern.

Celebrating the Boy

I wasn’t planning to celebrate the boy this year. For five long years, I’ve done nothing but celebrate the boy! I’ve been reading Made by Rae and Made for a few years and when they launched Celebrate the Boy last year, I was so excited to finally find crafty people who were enthusiastic about their boys. But that was last year. I was newly pregnant with what I had to assume was boy number three. I was preparing to throw my whole heart into a lifetime of being a mom of boys. When we got a little princess, I planned nothing but an entire year of celebrating the girl!  After all, I had waited a very long time for this.

Yesterday, I got a rare hour to myself. The sitter stayed a little late and I got to wander to a cafe, sit with a coffee and a magazine to watch the people and the city traffic. Suddenly, a fire truck roared by with sirens blaring and I thought, “wow, that really is shiny and fast and so very, very red!” There it was. I felt - even if it was only a little - excited. About a fire engine. How differently I see the world now!

At our baby playgroup earlier that morning, we had talked about birth order and favorites. They know how happy I am to have a girl and didn't believe she isn't the favorite. Though she is undoubtedly special because she is a daughter, I find myself much better able to appreciate the boys now that I have some balance, now that I’m not as overwhelmed with the testosterone in the house. So I guess I really do still celebrate the boys in my life. 

Still, sewing for boys is not as much fun for me. They’re hard on their clothes and I don’t like to spend my time making them things they will destroy. Also, it’s very difficult to find good quality apparel fabrics. Now that mine are no longer babies, the cute or loud quilting cottons simply don’t suit them. I like boys in traditional things like stripes, plaids, tartans, herringbone, camo, shirtings, or graphic tees.  What I think comes more easily for boys is knitting. And so for Celebrate the Boy month, I would like to share my very best boy project of all time.

Knitting is a time consuming process, and one that doesn’t always work out the way you intended. Fixing mistakes is more difficult and more costly in terms of precious hours. This sweater was a special request by my oldest and to fulfill it, I had to design it nearly from scratch. Pip had asked for a Ferrari sweater. And for my dear oldest child, it couldn’t be just any Ferrari. I searched the internet for the very best of Ferraris and decided on the Ascari Ferrari 500 that won Silverstone in 1952 and considered by many to be the finest Ferrari of all time. Next, with a little help from hubby, we turned that picture into a knitting chart. Then, I learned how to do colorwork. I decided on a stylish zip neck and a flattering set-in sleeve and used Ann Budd’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns to work out the details for my gauge. 

My notes on Ravelry indicate that I started this in the spring, worked on it all summer and finally finished in late fall. But it’s a beautiful sweater, one of the finest in my eight years of knitting. If this isn’t a tribute to just how special my guys are to me, I don’t know what is.

notebook help

This morning, I attended my first board meeting at my son's school. I wanted a to be prepared and have a dedicated file for this, so last night I whipped this up.

There's a nice cover for the notebook so it looks a bit better. The fabric is from my stash, but I'm sure you can recognize Amy Butler's tumble roses and the little pockets are from Anna Maria Horner. It's a pairing I used in a little girl dress last year.

And there's space to hold  a pen and some business cards. The flaps could hold papers and there's a snap to hold the whole thing shut.

And so to work! (never mind that I ended up holding a sleeping baby through the entire meeting and found it difficult to take notes. Oh well, next time.)

Happy Valentine's Day

I went a little OTT with Valentine's Day this year. I'm not normally a Valentine's sort of girl - except for the chocolate - but something this year made me prepare three separate craft projects and a yummy treat. I think I failed to satisfy my crafting needs over the Christmas holiday. I didn't do any baking (well not really) or any crafts with the boys. I had a brand new baby, a house full of grandparents and a husband so busy he didn't even stay home when the baby was born. With its emphasis on red and baking, Valentine's Day has stepped in to fill what was missing from my Christmas.

First up was this fun little project I've wanted to make since I saw it on the Purl Bee last year. It wasn't until recently that my local fabric shop started carrying wool felt and it wasn't until I felt (sorry) it for myself that I was convinced of its superiority to the ordinary kind. I suppose I've now been bitten by the felt bug because as I made these, I realized how fun it is to do little sewing by hand without edges to finish. Then I started thinking about other things I could do with felt. I think there might be more felt projects coming. It makes such a nice break from my "serious" sewing. I made a few of these and gave them to some other little girls I know. And I have to confess I've been wearing a red one all day myself.

Here is an action shot of one of the barrettes. Do you know another three month old with enough hair to actually wear a barrette? 

The boys saw these on Martha Stewart one day and desperately wanted to make them. I'm not sure why I thought mice were appropriate for Valentine's Day, but the boys wanted to make them at Christmas and we didn't get around to it. I thought their little bodies looked like half of a heart and figured we'd make them for Valentine's instead. As a cookie, they were quite disappointing. They tasted like slightly sweet pie crust and were difficult to work with. However, they are cute and so much fun was had making them. They boys found poking holes in the rear of the mouse and inserting tails especially entertaining. There was some potty humor, I'm afraid, but much laughing, so what can you do? This mouse was made by a 5 year old, though, so it's definitely a doable project with the kids. 

The final crafty project was some little animals put together out of strategically cut heart shapes. I made these with the boys after school today, so the pictures will be available soon. I chose this project because my three year old has recently become obsessed with puzzles and I thought he would like the puzzle aspect of these critters. They were a bit tricky and perhaps the children were tired because it all got a little crazy. One 5 year old shouting "I need more googly eyes" and a 3 year old shouting "look, Mom, I cut-ted it!" and mom wondering how in the world pre-school teachers organize craft projects with 20 kids!

And finally, a little something for the husband and me to share. Because after such a hectic Christmas season, we need every excuse to spend some quality time together. Now for a non-diet romantic dinner and drinks!

Wishing you and yours a lovey Valentine's Day too.

finished!

Even though I didn't finish last weekend, once I got past the tricky French seams on those tiny little arms, the rest of it came together nicely. However, we have so little good light these days, I had a hard time getting some nice pictures. Please excuse the bad lighting. I hope to do a better job with that soon.

So here it is: the Oliver + S Playdate Dress in a chambray from Robert Kaufmann with facings in a quilting cotton  from my scrap bin. I think the chambray gives the dress a more casual feel than it would otherwise have, but the little bit of floral peeking out keeps it delicate. I was quite pleased with my fabric choices and halfway through cutting out when I saw that actually, Liesl had done exactly that already, which I must have known and copied without realizing it. Oh, well, if Liesl chose it, it must be in good taste. I took her suggestion to cut the ruffles on the bias and let them fray naturally. I also took several inches off the total length, but for different reasons. I expect baby will be wearing this while learning to crawl, so I didn't want it to be too long and interfere with her movement.





Here is a peek at the lovely hem facing.


And the matching hem facing.



  Matching bloomers and two bibs complete the ensemble. Bibs are a necessary evil. Babies drool and get wet and uncomfortable. And my princess is a champion spitter, so the bibs are definately necessary. Big box stores sell only tacky utilitarian ones and nice stores don't always sell matching bibs. A beneft of a custom wardrobe is that baby gets cute and servicable.
The bloomers are from the Tea Party Sundress pattern and go together very easily. I thought about making the Puppet Show shorts like many in the Flickr groups have done, but opted for quicker. After all, the baby doesn't really need pockets just yet. The bloomers are economical in their layout, so I was able to eek them out of scraps, though I had to finish with store bought bias. I used all French seams to finish the bloomers and it worked well.

Note that the pattern piece for the leg opening bias trim is generous. For the 6-12month size bloomer, I needed only 16" of trim for each opening.

This is the first time I've made the playdate dress, but not my first Oliver + S pattern. They are, of course, known for their attention to detail and their helpful instructions. This design is as charming as the others, though there are fewer suggestions for neat seam finishes than some Oliver + S patterns. I wasn't sure what to do with the inside yoke seam, for example. After giving the yoke itself so much attention and finishing it with the floral facing, I of course didn't want the raw edges of the dress bodice sticking out. One option might have been binding that seam.  There is some bulk in that area, though, especially if you added the optional flat piping, so you would need a very fine material for binding. In the end, I opted for a quicker fix and simply folded the raw edge under and stitched it to itself.

The many details - the yoke, the hem facing, the ruffles, the piping, the sweet pleats at the cuffs and in front - keep this from being a simple pattern. However, those details are precisely what make the dress so charming. Also, as you can see, I streamlined the design somewhat by skipping the piping and buttons and simplifying the ruffles and don't think I sacrificed on charm. I would love to do this again in a more formal fabric with all details included. I recommend a fabric with drape rather than a quilting cotton. Lawn, voile or linen would be lovely. Also, pressing this small size, with the pleats and gathered sleeves is a tricky business. A fabric that looks nice rumpled or that doesn't need much pressing would be a good idea.

Next up in my spring sewing pile is a pair of Ice Cream tunics, with either bloomers or shorts.

[edited to add: Be absolutely sure to try the yoke on your child before finishing the center back. The head opening is very tight and you may need to make adjustments.]