Halloween 2014

So like I said before my little man wanted to be a modern day robin hood. I know I already have shown you how to make his rocking boot covers. For the main part of his costume I have made another Zander's hoodie.

I love the Zander pattern from Everything Your Mama Made. I have made him one before that I loved in the vest version and I knew it could be awesome as a modern day robin hood.

I used a pre-quilted suede for the lining of the jacket and the sleeves and a green houndstooth suiting material for the outer fabric. They both came from JoAnn Fabrics and were pretty reasonably priced.

I decided that if I was making him a costume again it would have to be wearable after Halloween and the Zander definitely fit the bill and all the pattern pieces were already cut out from the last one so it was a breeze to sew up this version.

For the required Robin Hood accessories--I bought a toy bow and arrow set from the Toys R Us and spray painted it brown. Also used some leftover scraps from the boot covers to wrap around the handle of the bow. To make the quiver more realistic I sewed up a straight pocket to slip over the plastic one (see the original red peeking out?) attaching the strap to the top and bottom of the side seam.

Also not shown a small pouch made with the quilted suede and a leather lace draw string for keeping Robin Hood's money in. However, son like mother he spends it(meaning-lost it) faster than a blink of an eye. HaHaHaa!

New and Improved Boot Cover Tutorial

As promised I am back today

 to show you the new boot covers!

Supplies needed: 

Faux leather, eyelet grommets,

 eyelet tool and small hammer, leather lacing.

To make these boot covers for yourself you will need to take a few measurements.

You will need your measurements WEARING  the shoes you intend to cover.

You will need the height, from ankle to just below the knee.

The circumference of the leg just below the knee as well as at the ankle over the shoe.

Add 1 inch to all measurements and then cut in half the

 knee and ankle measurements so that you can cut the cover out on the fold.

Then you must decide how long you want the cuff to come down.

Add your inch to that measurement as well. 

The top of the cuff pattern piece should be identical to the top/knee

measurement. For the bottom of the cuff add an inch or two depending 

on how dramatic you want it to be.

Your two pattern pieces should look similar to the image at the right.

Cut your faux leather cutting the fabric on the fold. I have used some clearanced black upholstery fabric with a soft white backing.

Make small notches a couple of inches up from the bottom.

Fold over the raw edge above the notch and stitch.

Then hem the shortest and the longest side of the cuff.

 Then you must stitch the cuff onto the top of the boot cover. 

Next with right sides together, stitch un-hemmed ankle tabs.

For the next steps you will need 

Follow the instructions on the eyelet tool and put the eyelets on the back 

of the covers taking care to evenly space them. 

Use the leather cord and lace up the back of the boot. 

Voila! You are done!

Is this not exactly what you had in mind?

Check out my 15 minute boot covers here.

Who's ready for Halloween??

I know I am not done yet!

This year my son has decided that he would like to be Robin Hood. I think really he just wanted to carry bow and arrows of course.

 I decided to go with Russel Crow's more modern and rugged Robin Hood

 rather than the cartoon fox version of Robin Hood. 

It would have been easier to make the cartoon version with some green felt. 

However, my little guy would not have something functional to wear later.

I have the Robin Hood jacket done and the boot covers. 

I'll be sharing the new an improved faux leather boot cover tutorial tomorrow. 

until then you can check out my previous felt vesion version HERE. 

Bundle Up Boy Tour

I have been keeping a secret.

A BIG secret.

I'm on the Bundle Up Boys blog tour for 

Pattern Revolution!

I was so excited when I got that Email that my coworkers thought that I had won the lottery or something ((the sewing lottery of course ha!)) I was that excited. I saw some snippets of what the bundle was going to be all about this time around on the Pattern Revolution Facebook page and knew that I was going to buy WHATEVER the bundle could offer me. Anyone who sews for boys can tell you it can be so hard to sew for boys sometimes when the patterns all seam basically the same. I know that Pattern Revolution has some awesome designers and whatever they could come up with for this bundle would be new, fabulous, awesome and cool.

For the tour we got to pick which patterns we wanted to sew! It was a tough decision but I knew that I was on a time crunch because of a planned vacation to the beach the weekend following the notification. That wasn't going to stop me;l I had to say YES!!!! I looked at the patterns that they were offering (and they are ALL cool) and figured out how much time I had to spare and what could be sewn up in my time frame. I opted to go for the Fishsticks Honor Roll Henley and EYYM's Zander hoodie.


I picked to sew up the awesome Honor Roll Raglan Henley by Fishsticks Designs first. I love this pattern, you can do color blocking, mixing patterns, use 3 different fabrics on the front if you wanted. It is a great way to use up that small square of that favorite knit for the front bottom of the henley. This pattern also includes a short sleeve as well!


I made this top for my Nephew who is 5 and I sewed up a size 6 in the long sleeved version. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures of him in his new henley but luckily for me my 5 year old nephew and 4 year old son wear the exact same size!





For this top I used some woodland animal knit fabric from JoAnn's I had left over from last year. I hear that they have this knit back in though for this fall. It is paired with some blue knit that I got at a second hand sale for the Salvation Army. I got quite a few yards of it for just a couple of dollars!

The tip that Fishsticks gives about starch spraying your knits before sewing will seriously change your life. Why have I never done this before???






My little man is also wearing the Nowhere man pants that I blogged about here.


























For my next pattern I decided to do the EYYM (Everything Your Mama Made) Zander Hoodie and Vest.

I love, love, love this pattern and so does my son. He has worn it half a dozen times already and always gets compliments on it!  The lovely Kymy came up with a pattern that is a modern take on the classic zip hoodie featuring asymmetrical zipper and front pockets. It is fully lined pattern which will keep my little guy snug as a bug. I am already planning on a second Zander but with long sleeves; on the hunt now for some thrifted sweatshirt fleece like Olga from olga-kidapproved used! You MUST see her version, so cute!!

For my Zander vest I opted to use a fleece from JoAnns (of course) and another Salvation Army knit fabric find. I cut the pattern out all kinds of crazy to put the pattern of the fleece on the same angle as the zipper but I figured with the fleece, being off grain would not make much difference.

Kymy has also thoughtfully included detailed instructions to her pattern that shows up close how to stitch the lining/shell/band. If you have never stitched a fully lined jacket you just need to follow the instructions/images. Just know that it might look crazy in the middle but it WILL WORK! AND it will be amazeballs.







I sincerely hope that you will check out everyone else's amazing work. Some fantastic sewist's got in on this tour and put out some great pieces that I know you will fall in love with!

 20th Boy, Oh Boy, Sew Like My Mom, Sew a Straight Line

21st Made By Sara, Friends Stitched Together, Max California

22nd Just Joshin, Kid Approved, Gracious Threads

23rd Mimi's Mom, Feather's Flights, Once Upon a Sewing Machine

24th Handmade Boy, Made By Momma, Bee Quilted Beauties

25th Handcrafted By Red, The Crazy Tailor, Kelly Hogaboom

26th Mae&K, Get Your Crap Together, Lady and the Gents

27th Paisley Roots, The Berry Bunch, Knot Sew Normal, 

 BabyFish Designs, Rebekah Sews, Lady and the Gents

28th Swoodson Says, Petit a Petit, Kelly Hogaboom

29th Beaza & Llama, Shaffer Sisters, Fabulous Home Sewn

If you would like to buy these great patterns from the Pattern Revolution Bundle Up or check out the  other patterns ((which I am SO buying)) go to the Pattern Revolution Bundle Up sale site.