The Winnie Shrug - Pattern Testing

Well, my little girl got a cute addition to her wardrobe! It's the Winnie Shrug, a pattern by Anneliese of the WeeMuses line. I got to pattern test it for her and I made mine out of faux fur and added a shiny vintage button.

I love it!

Anneliese is a great pattern maker. This is the second pattern I've been able to test for her and once again, the directions are clear, the pattern is full of pictures to help you along, and the sizing is right on.

My daughter wears a 5/6 in regular clothes, but because I was using a bulky fabric, I was advised to go up a size. So I cut the 7/8. The Winnie Shrug is supposed to be worn over a shirt and I found this size worked perfectly. I imagine my daughter will get good use out of this shrug for the rest of the winter and into the spring. (I'm hoping she'll get some fall use out of it too!)

Thanks for stopping by!
Other clothes in pics:
Green dress can be found HERE. (Made almost a year ago, this dress is starting to look small on my little girl. Sniff.)
Wool circle skirt can be found HERE.

Sweetheart Pajamas!

Happy Valentine's Day! Today, I'm sharing these cute pajamas I made last night in preparation for Valentine's Day AND Pajama Day at school. Talk about double-duty!

I realized this week that my kid doesn't own any RED pajamas to wear to school and I wanted him to be festive for Valentine's Day. The class was going to be delivering valentines and doing fun things for the holiday all in their pajamas! So I knew I could go buy some, but figured I could make something just as cute (or cuter) from my stash.

First came the pants. I'd just recently made some pants for the boy, so I had a good idea how to do them pretty quickly. I used some checkered flannel from Joann's and the Kindergarten pants as a guideline, and just cut around them. I kept a big hem on the bottom because I love the look.

The shirt came next. I used a roomy play shirt as the pattern piece and, again, just cut around it. What helped me draw up this shirt was all the practice I had making Flashback Skinny Tees last year for both my kids. (It's a really great pattern that taught me a lot about shirt construction.) I only own the pattern that goes up to size 5, so thought I'd be brave and cut my own pieces. And guess what? It worked! The fabric is knit from Joann's.

And those hearts? They're my favorite part of the outfit. I appliquéd them using EZ-Steam II by Pellon and didn't even bother top-stitching them. The adhesive seemed really strong.

I love how they turned out! I sent my son off to school today happy. He was truly excited about his new pajamas. 
Which made me happy.

I am sure there were so many Valentine's events going on in schools today around the world and I hope your little ones had good days too.
Have a super weekend!

Prairie Rose Blouse & Pants Pattern Tester & Promo Code

Recently, I got to pattern test the Prairie Rose Blouse and Pants for Anneliese's new line of sewing patterns, Wee Muses. I was so excited to dig into this pattern because I knew it was going to be amazing. Everything Anneliese does on her blog, Aesthetic Nest -- from sewing to cooking to decorating to crocheting -- is done beautifully and tastefully. She is uber-talented and has incredible taste. One can seriously get lost in her blog, gazing at her gorgeous creations, many of which are modeled by her three adorable girls.

Anyway, I knew my opportunity to pattern test was going to be a good experience before I even began.

For the Prairie Rose Blouse, I used a vintage sheet with little red and blue flowers. It was my parents' bed sheet so it has special meaning to me. The fabric conjures up memories from my childhood so I thought it would be fun to reuse it as a blouse for my daughter. I love the finished look and

my daughter loves the ruffles around the wrist the best.

And then there are the pants. Aren't they the coolest? I love that ankle ruffle. I used a royal blue pinwale corduroy and the fabric worked great for this project. I just love the texture both for its visual appeal and for its soft touch. 

 I sewed a 5 top for my daughter which was right-on target for size. But then I accidentally printed the pages for a size 6 pants (totally my fault). So I figured I'd just go ahead and make the 6. Low and behold, they're a touch big (as I figured), but all I had to do was shorten the waist elastic to make them stay in place. I dig the extra length and as we all know, kids grow. These pants will get good use all winter.

My little sweetie enjoyed a good romp through the leaves in her new outfit. I think she enjoyed being a little fashion model for the afternoon.

Overall, I loved working on the Prairie Rose Pattern! The directions were easy to follow with lots of pictures to guide you along the way. When it's done, you get a really professional looking garment, something I was super proud of!

Right now Anneliese is offering a Thanksgiving promotion of 20% off her patterns with the promo code THANKS20.

You can find the Prairie Rose pattern and others here:

Aesthetic Nest (link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AestheticNest )

Wee Muses (link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WeeMuses )

I know what my daughter is going to where when the grandparents come to visit this week. Do you?

Thank you again, Anneliese, for letting me test this beautiful pattern! I love it!

Angry Birds Chuck "Ham" Solo Costume ~ are you ready for this?

Costumes can be a challenge. I don't make them every year. And so far, I've only made them for my son and not my daughter. And that may be because his ideas are precise (as in he knows what he wants) must-haves (as in, he's not going to change his mind).

This year was my most creative challenge. He wanted to be an Angry Bird. Chuck Bird, in fact. But not the regular Chuck. No, my son wanted to be the Star Wars Angry Birds version of Chuck.

This guy:

"Ham" Solo

There are some helpful versions on how to make a Chuck Bird costume. As for me, I mainly used this one and this one. But the Star Wars part?

I had to think about that.

I put some "clothes" on Ham. And I gave him a Blaster (made of cereal boxes, hot glue, crayon, and glitter). And I also gave him some hair, which was fun to pick out.

If I had to do it again, I'd bring the clothes up higher on the bird. Like right under his beak.

 

In the darkness, I'm afraid these aren't really going to show up. At least that badge will shine a bit.

He digs the blaster. It's the only "weapon" we've ever had in the house. 

(But I think I need to make his sister one because battles are sorely uneven right now.)

Here's a look back at a couple other costumes I've made for my kiddo. When he was 3, he wanted to be the Very Hungry Butterfly, and to him, it only made sense that a year later he turned into a butterfly. A very cool Monarch too, I have to say.

Are you interested in any design details?

I put a tail on the back, but no clothes. Maybe I'll still add some. I've got time.

"Sometimes I amaze even myself." - Han Solo, Star Wars

 Also, I only stuffed the front panel and not the back. It was getting heavy enough for the little guy and I didn't want to weigh him down too much. Here's a glimpse at the inside. I didn't sew the clothes down to the bird. I think I'll go back and do that to give Ham a sharper bottom edge.

And even though it's not *perfect*, my son is thrilled. His dream has come true. He is one happy Angry Bird. And he just may be the only Chuck "Ham" Solo we see on Halloween. Wouldn't that be cool?? Don't underestimate the power of the Pork Side.

Yay, Ham! May the Force by with you on Halloween!

Linking up with some of these fun parties.

Emily Elizabeth Ensembles

This post originally appeared on Nap-Time Creations for the Sew Many Books series in August.

***

Well, I am super excited to be a part of this sewing/reading series! As summer winds down, and thoughts of school come to mind, I turned to what I consider the perfect little school-girl look to replicate for my daughter. Clifford's best friend, Emily Elizabeth, is adorable in her simple, classic outfits. My daughter LOVES Clifford books, so picking Emily Elizabeth as my style guide was easy. But once I started looking at her outfits, I realized she had more to choose from than I originally thought (a peter-pan collar dress was going to be my plan). I found two outfits to sew that I thought would be cute AND versatile. But this was the first outfit that caught my eye:

Cute, right? I thought a jumper would be very practical for my little girl. I already had the stripy fabric, but went to Joann's and picked up the soft, blue linen along with some piping. The white buttons I found in my stash. As for the striped leggings, I decided to skip them for two reasons: 1.) my knit fabric is on the heavier side and I'm pretty sure it would've gotten saggy pretty fast; and 2.) I didn't want my daughter to look like she was wearing a costume. Ok, one more reason: I also thought too many stripes would detract from the cute factor. 

So as most of you know, there's the old-school Emily Elizabeth, and the modern-TV-one. I chose the classic Emily. Not only are the stories and drawings better, but so are the clothes.

Emily Elizabeth is a good friend/owner to Clifford. They have fun together. I like how EE is a pretty happy gal. She also is outside a lot with her dog (there aren't too many stories of her inside, are there?). So outside we went to take pictures. Living in a condo, in the city, we make sure we get out every day. But man, sometimes going down the elevator, past the concierge, outside past the fountain, around to the grassy area behind our building in handmade clothes makes me sweat! At least the day I took these pics it was hovering around 75, so not so bad. But still. (Please don't trip and skin your knees was what I was thinking. Oh, and Tiger better not jump on your dress! I'll show you the outtake soon.)

But back to the clothes. I love the fact that Emily Elizabeth owns a blue jumper! Sure, there's also a pink stripy top, but I was more than happy to sew up something blue for my girl. I started by drawing a basic jumper pattern and then cut out my front. When I couldn't decide how to fashion the back (we never see it in the book), I turned to Pinterest and found this great tutorial. Instead of printing her back pattern piece (it'd be too small), I freehanded the back design based on the photos and then followed LiEr's tutorial fairly closely. 

But rather than sewing the panel on top of the front piece like she does, I cut mine into three pieces, adding the piping to the top and bottom of the middle piece. I did use her pattern piece for the straps, but lengthened them about an inch or more. My jumper is about a size 5 (my 3.5 year old is tall). 

As we all know, Clifford's "too big," but he's so sweet. Kind of like this big dog that crashed our photo shoot...haha

(Tiger lives on our floor and is a big softie!)

Anyway, the other thing I noticed about Emily Elizabeth is that she does a lot of running in this book. A dress isn't going to stop her! (My daughter got a kick out of running around and getting her picture taken.)

Her top, by the way, is the awesome Flashback Skinny Tee, enlarged a bit from the size 5. It's a little big on her now, but won't be this winter (see? I'm thinking ahead for the colder weather. I'm all about being practical around here.)

And that's that! Now my second dress was a lot quicker and a lot easier. But still, super cute. The inspiration came from this book:

See how tattered it is? Both my kids have loved Clifford. But my daughter is the only one who actually insists on sleeping with the books. Yes. The books. Anyway, Clifford's First School Day is another classic Clifford tale, but this one goes back to his puppyhood. (I find the puppy stories rather endearing.)

In this story, Emily Elizabeth wears a simple {knit} dress with knee socks. Perfect play dress! I knew the perfect pattern to replicate it.

The Anywhere Dress. A recent sale finally helped me get my hot little hands on this pattern that I've wanted for a while. And it certainly didn't disappoint. The instructions were very easy to follow and though I sometimes scoff when people call things a "quick sew," this one really was. I added cuffs to the sleeves and an extra band for length at the bottom. This is the size 5 (which my daughter regularly wears) and it fit perfectly. I used a basic pale pink knit from Joann's to replicate Emily Elizabeth's look.

I have to hand it to my daughter. She was real amenable about going back inside, changing from the first outfit and coming back out for more pictures. 

In fact, she relished it. Thank goodness. 

Clifford might've caused Emily some trouble at school, but our Clifford behaved rather well.

Even when smooshed.

Anyway, I had a great time sewing for this series. And my daughter certainly loved "being" Emily Elizabeth for the day.

And to the real Emily of Nap-Time Creations, thanks for asking me to join this fun series. We had a blast!
~Mary Jo at All This for Them