{KCWC Day 7 ~~ Jean Shorts}

Today's project was pretty simple, a great way to finish off the week.  I went though my son's shorts and realized he didn't have any jean shorts for the summer.  The thought of buying a couple of pairs ran across my mind but then I remembered a couple of pair of too short jeans with holes starting in the knees.  Perfect!

I started with two pair of jeans, thread that matched the topstitching on each pair & fabric for a hem facing.

Of course both pair of jeans are the carpenter style with the pocket on the side.  The position of the pocket and the knee holes pretty much determined how long the shorts would turn out.  The pair on the right became the more traditional frayed cut-off shorts because there wasn't much room between the bottom of the pocket and the hole.  After cutting one leg I folded the jeans in half and cut the other leg to match.  I sewed a line of stitching about 1/4 inch from the bottom and helped them to fray a bit.

For the other pair I went with a more finished look.  There was more room between the bottom of the pocket and the knee hole so I more length to work with.  I used a hem facing to add a bit of interest.  It also requires a smaller hem on the jean shorts.

I think they turned out great and I'm sure they will get tons of use this summer.  The best part is that I saved myself some $$!

{KCWC day 6 ~~Pajamas}

Today's inspiration came from a crossover tee that I had cut out last fall but never finished.  It came together very well and I decided to make a pair of pants to complete the outfit so I made the sleeping johns. I still had some of the blue knit left over so I made another pair of jammies.  This time I used the flashback skinny tee with short sleeves and I shortened the sleeping johns into shorts.  Now my son has 2 pair of mix & match pajamas.  Living in Colorado means some nights can get cool in the spring and fall so a good mix of long and short work well.

Pattern:  Top--Crossover Tee by Growing Up Sew Liberated

             Pants--Sleeping Johns by Growing Up Sew Liberated

Fabric:  Blue interlock & Chocolate brown 1x1 ribbing both from Jo-Ann's

Construction:  These both came together very quickly and I love the results.  The instructions and illustrations in the book are great.  I will definately be making more of these :0)

Pattern:  Top--Flashback Skinny Tee from made-by-rae.com

           Shorts--Sleeping Johns from Growing Up Sew Liberated

Fabric:  Blue interlock & Chocolate brown 1x1 ribbing both from Jo-Ann's

Construction:  Rae's skinny tee went together like a dream, love this pattern and all it's options.  The shorts were quite easy, I just cut off the legs of the sleeping johns pattern and added a bit of ribbing.  My son will be extra comfy in these this summer.

{Treasure Pocket Shorts}

While making a pair of treasure pocket pants I thought they would make great shorts for the summer too.  Since it's Kids Clothes Week Challange I figured now was as good a time as any to try it out.  I used fabrics I already had and the pair of dinosaur shorts turned out wonderful.

Fabric:  medium weight denim with embroidered dinosaurs from Jo-Ann

medium weight olive green denim from Jo-Ann

Dinosaur print remnant that I think was from Wal*Mart

Pattern:  Treasure Pocket Pants from the Sewing For Boys book

Adaptation:  All I really had to do was cut about 6 inches off of the bottom of the legs.  Since the pant legs are pretty straight, the hem facing piece was even the correct size so no changes had to be made to it.  I didn't have much of the print fabric so I only used it on the upper side panel and the hem facings.

  Unfortunately I didn't position my pattern pieces quite right and one of the dinosaurs was decapitated when the waistband went on, oops!

{KCWC~~half way through}

This week is Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at elsiemarley.com where hundreds of people join in pledging to sew kids clothes/accessories for at least 1 hour a day for 7 days.  I haven't finished as many projects as I had hoped but really my guy doesn't need many new summer clothes.  So far I have made a pair of red, white & blue plaid shorts and embellished a plain grey hoodie.

Patriotic Shorts:

Fabric:  red, white & blue plaid Madras style from Jo-Ann's

and powder blue knit for lining and pocket lining

Pattern:  Basic Kid Pants from MADE also used shorts, pocket & lining option

There's a Dino in my Pocket Jacket:

 

Supplies:  Light grey hoodie from Target clearance 

green interlock knit from Jo-Ann's, Heat 'n Bond Lite

blue embroidery thread & a dab of fabric paint

Technique:  I laid paper over the front of the jacket and drew the dinosaur head coming out of one pocket and the tail out of the other.  When I was satisfied with the dinosaur I cut out the pattern and traced it onto the Heat 'n Bond in mirror image.  I ironed the knit to the Heat 'n Bond and cut out the pieces.  I arranged them onto the jacket and ironed them down.  The knit won't fray but to add a little more color I stitched around the edge with blue embroidery thread and gave him a little mouth.  The eye I dabbed on with a bit of fabric paint.

Up Next:  I'm in the process of making Treasure Pocket Shorts from the pants pattern in the Sewing For Boys book.

{treasure pocket pants}

April's Sewing For Boys Sew-along pattern is the Treasure Pocket Pants.  I was so excited that this was the next pattern because as I was making the shirt last month I knew a pair of matching pants would be fun.  The pattern calls for 2 different fabrics but I ended up using 3 fabrics to match with the shirt. 

The waist band and the sides of the legs are the puppy paw print that I used on the collar and hem facings on the easy linen shirt from last month.  Above the pocket I used the main white/black fabric from the shirt.  The main part of the pants is a baby wail corduroy.  It seemed to me the weight difference between the cotton fabric and corduroy would be bothersome to my son so I lined the side panels with corduroy as well. 

As I was attempting to assemble the side panels I realized that the pattern pieces did not match up.  A quick internet search revealed the solution, the top pocket pattern piece (white and black stripey print on the pants) was printed incorrectly and the correction can be found here.  I didn't have enough fabric to re-cut the piece so I trimmed down the other part and luckily they fit my skinny kiddo perfectly. 

Dog applique on the front

Paw print applique on the bum

To embellish these pants I added an applique of a dog on the front of the leg and puppy print on the bum.  The dog is the same as the button on the shirt and paw print is the same as on the fabric.  I used a white micro-fleece for the applique so I didn't have to worry about the fabric fraying.

The whole outfit turned out as cute as can be and Milo has already worn it several times.

Since it's also Kids Clothes Week over at Elsie Marley I think a pair of treasure pocket shorts might be a good project this week.