Back to School (CKC ~ Benjamin, Brandi, and Junie)

Hi!  How has first week back to school been for all of you?  There's been loads of craziness around here and next week promises to get even crazier as my BABY boy starts preschool....ahhh, where has time gone!?!  He will be 5 at the end of November, a big Daddy's boy and MINE only when he's at work ;)  Poor fella has never really been away from us so this is going to be crazy hard!  My oldest started 3RD GRADE, they are all just growing up TOO FAST! Not to mention football practice twice a week and the fact that I signed baby girl up for dance...I think I thought I was super mom there for a minute, but I will get through it...I may need to sew myself up a cape or something!

But anyway, today Create Kids Couture is releasing their back to school patterns!  I had the privilege to test 3 of them! Benjamin's Polo Shirt for boys, Brandi's Ruffled Polo Shirt for girls, and Junie's Everyday Skort!  You can grab all of them for the next 24 hours for 30% off...today is also Half Off Friday as well as there being 4 other new patterns out on sale too!  I would definitely go and take advantage of tiered pricing while so many things are on sale ;)  How do you think I ended up with SOOOO many CKC patterns, it's kind of addicting!?!

First things first I will show you all Benjamin's on my big PRESCHOOL boy!

I found this fab dinosaur knit at Purple Seamstress Fabric, I got the white from there as well, I really didn't know what I was going to do with it when I ordered it, but when the fabulous Kristen from CKC allowed me to take part in the testing on this one I knew what I was using it for.  I also let him pick his own buttons :)  He tried to get MONKEYS, but mom had NO monkey fabric and no time to search for any so we compromised, these big guys were a little bit hard to sew button holes for especially with my crazy...I DO NOT MAKE BUTTON HOLES...Singer, but we managed.  I also made a bad thread choice!  I thought black would be cute and it was except for those crazy big button holes, lol!  We live and learn and this guy, well, this guy LOVES his shirt and that is all that matters!

One little tip I will share, the placket is NO BIG DEAL at all so don't let that scare you, but it gets SUPER thick so I would definitely recommend slowing down, and taking your time and making sure you have a heavy duty needle in hands reach to sew the last 2 little lines where you connect everything there at the bottom...I broke 3 needles, but I did it!  And now my super cute preschool man has an awesome Mommy made shirt to remind him of me when he's missing me ;) You can make the collar and placket with wovens as well which I think would definitely cut down on the bulk factor and it also comes in the short sleeve length!

Next we will talk about Brandi's and I paired it with Junie's, but if you read all the way through I have a fun modification to share with you about that one...YAY!

This pretty girl is 10 days short of being old enough to start Pre-K in the younger group...but that is OK...this mom couldn't deal with EVERYONE leave her...not yet! But that doesn't change the fact that she has lots of super new Back To School clothes to wear to the boys school things anyway ;)

Kristen designed this one as well...she does such a great job and I also got the white knit from Purple Seamstress Fabric, her solids are like $6 a yard and she has tons of colors! All the woven used on this one came from someone's stash that I purchased from our local swap page!

For this one I used the woven option for the placket and the peterpan collar as well as a folded ruffle!  Luckily she just chose normal purple buttons and I promised her a jacket with them so I got to use pretty normal pink ones here.  I honestly LOVE this outfit so so so much! I still need to make a plain one for layering.

I loved it so much I made 2!  Really I made a big boo-boo....remember to check your measurements when you are working with knits.  It seems to be something with her build or maybe just my preference of how clothes fit her, but I make her 3's in woven all the time and they are perfect, but in a knit they can be a bit big as most are designed to fit little girls snugly.  There were a few kinks worked out during testing for this one, that's what testing is for after all, and as soon as I saw others with fit issues and BUG looking all cute I realized that I forgot to adjust sizing for knits...anyway we went with 2 since she has a 20.5" chest measurement and I love the fit! 

I will also touch on the pants there...I used Olivia's and added another big ruffle as well as using the waist height from Brenna's to try and achieve more of the paper bag waist  look, I ended up just roll hemming the top of them and adding the elastic right on the inside with zigzag stitches!  I also added the pockets from Dahlia's to the back as well! Then I finished it all off with a sash with her name embroidered on it! They were a crazy mash and I'm OK with them, but I think I may stick to an original pattern next time!

As far as the placket on this one it's about the same as Benjamin's, except it gets even thicker with the ruffle, but I mean, you have to have a ruffle, right?!?  If I had used woven for Benjamin's, I don't think I would've had any issues at all as I didn't with the little lace Brandi that I have pictured a couple photos up...no broken needles and all lines sewed first try :)  But this Brandi was a complete different story for me because I folded the ruffle in half and added yet another layer of bulk...be very slow and use a heavy needle and you should be ok! This top also comes with a great deal of options, 3 sleeve lengths, peterpan or regular collar, ruffle, no ruffle, or a couple different looks for the ruffle!  It's a must have!

Now on to Junie's, I haven't even shown you a good photo yet...but you can see the little shorts peeking out there as she is sitting :)

Junie's is a skort that was designed by Nikki!  I just LOVE that the shorts are sewn straight into the waistband of the skirt, my little girl is NOT lady like so they make a world of difference for us as I hate panties showing!!!

See?!?  But isn't that a precious picture!  You also may notice if you've looked at the pattern already that you don't see a ruffled one.  She has the option for a short knife pleat and the long knife pleat and the plain skirt.  But she was kind enough to allow me experiment and fix one with a ruffle!!!  All I did was use the measurements for the short knife pleat and instead of pleating it I just used a gathering stitch and ruffled it...simple as that and you get a completely different girly girl look!  I LOVE it!  I bet it would be the same difference to use the long knife pleat and make a gathered skirt too.  Nikki has told me that she plans on doing a blog about this as well so when she does I will link it back here for all of you!

I realize since I was going over 3 different patterns that this post got a wee bit long and for that I apologize, but thanks for sticking it out and make sure to go give CKC some love and check out all the new patterns, Benjamin's, Brandi's, and Junie's.  Actually if you just use the SALE link you can see all the new ones and HOF!

Happy Sewing....I'm off to make a CHEERLEADING uniform for Cole's Creations...eek...it's all cut out and I'm super excited so be on the lookout!

Adelaide (CKC)

Hey everyone!  YESTERDAY CKC released a beautiful new dress that I was completely honored to get to test back in July!  My internet was SUPER slow yesterday and it's not much better today. but atleast it's allowing me to get on and do this...my wifi router is unplugged for now :(

Isn't it gorgeous?!?  This is CKC's Adelaide!  I just LOVE the ruffle around the neck!  The embellished waist band is actually one of her Daddy's belts that I hacked up :)  He never even knew he had it so when he found the D-Rings the kiddos had made off with he was confused when I told him what they came from! His loss was definitely Gracie's gain though! The belt started to immediately fray when I cut it into strips so to stop that I used my lighter and sealed all the raw edges, I'm almost as bad as a smoker when it comes to missing lighters..I need them for my projects!  

I'm finally able to get a few links up so use them and go grab this one while it's still 40% off, it's definitely worth it!

In the pattern they said they didn't like the look of the rolled hem for the ruffle, but I'm lazy so I did it anyway and I think it looks great on ours...it even adds a little bit of extra interest.  I also elected to finish the arm openings with a rolled hem as well. 

The fabric is another Wal-Mart find :) I've been showing you all a lot of those, but I promise, if you could see my stash most of it did not come from there, this however did and I love it!  I actually bought it to make the CKC Sage's with!  They are one of my all time favorite pair of pants and the modeled photos included in the pattern use anchor print...I was in such a rush to make them that I ran and bought this from the first store I went to but it wasn't the same so I never did and I'm glad because this was the perfect use for it! 

A lot of the photos that I saw shared yesterday while we were hiding from the heat in my car at football practice had a long sleeve top underneath them..the designer, Morgan, says this is the perfect dress for all seasons, and I agree, there is nothing odd about it with a top under!  I'd show you too, BUT, the darn internet, I wouldn't be able to edit so I'm just going to send you all over to the CKC Pattern group so you can take a look yourself.  If your not a member you will have to ask to join and then you can do a search for Adelaide and see what I'm referring to!

I think everytime I get to test a new dress for CKC it instantly becomes my favorite, this one is no exception to that...it's sooooo beautiful!  She has worn it out a few times now and the compliments are never ending!

One of the great things about it is that it comes with 3 options for length, top, dress, or maxi like I have shown you!  It also has the option for a ruffle or a band, I did ruffle because we are just ruffle kind of girls :)  I'd really love to see this dress in my size I think! HINT HINT :)

But today I have a crazy dress that only lives in my head RIGHT NOW to create...we have to get it out of there!  Its a mash of about 4 different CKC dresses and I am beyond excited to see if it works the way I want it to!  I will definitely be sharing it with you ASAP...no model, but she's not even here yet and it's a gift for her baby shower, so no model will have to do!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my version of CKC Adelaide and don't forget to get it before this evening...the sale only lasts for 24 hours! 

AND now to share my FAVORITE photos with you...

I only wish I was half as beautiful as my daughter!

Now here's a couple more for good measure :)

Happy Sewing!

Pretty little horse!!! (CKC Olivia's & Applique Junkie)

Hello!!!  I don't have time to do a super long post but anyway I did this little outfit around about midnight the other night for a birthday gift and I just thought it was the cutest thing EVER!

Even though I only bothered to take super BAD cell photos, I still wanted to share....I will do another top later for Miss Gracie as well, then you can see it better!!!

 

The pants are Olivia's Ruffle Butt Capris from CKC, only instead of adding all the fun ruffles I just did the one big ruffle on the bottom of the pants!  I chose this pattern to be my staple ruffle pant pattern...you see, I can add a couple more ruffles or attach them differently and get all sorts of different looks from just this one pattern. They are supposed to have one teeny tiny little ruffle right around the top of the big one as well as three on the back end but since this outfit was made for a little girl who likes things rather simple I didn't do all that and they are still lovely!  

I got the denim from Wal-Mart as well as the little top, it was on clearance for $2.50....but extremely hard to find as they have already sorted out all of the short sleeves for long sleeves and it's still gonna be a while before we need long sleeves here in Texas, who knows what they are thinking.  I had to change my color scheme just a bit and go with a white horse with pink hair (although it looks yellow because of poor photo quality...sorry) instead of the other way like I planned because I couldn't find a white shirt, but that's ok, because I LOVE it this way! 

The applique came from Applique Junkie, I believe she is called Holly the Happy Heart Horse.  She stitched out just fine for me aside from a little bit of user error!  I searched and searched for a freebie for this little horse...appliques are becoming another part of my super huge sewing addiction, but I saw this one and I just couldn't resist so I paid for her...it's gorgeous..but hey, she was only $4 and the way Gracie loves horses I think this will be used plenty!  

Anyway ladies, thanks for taking the time to visit with me today.  I have an awesome mash-up pair of denim pants cut out waiting to be sewn for Miss Gracie from this same pattern Olivia's...I think I may even make her Holly shirt to match them as well!

Happy Sewing!

Lumberjack Shirt (Patterns for Pirates)

Hi, everyone, how have you been?  I've been being a little bit lazy as far as my sewing machine goes, but I have been anxiously awaiting to share this with you all since I was chosen to be part of the test!

This is the (Lumberjack shirt) by Patterns For Pirates.  The pattern won't be released until August 22nd as part of Pattern Revolution's boys bundle which will run from August 22nd-29th.  I will try and keep these links updated with current information as it all comes out, but I just could not wait any longer to share this!

My last post was Aiden's new pencil pouch and I told you all that he loved camo so once again I used it, I actually think I made this first though :)

This shirt is actually designed to be made with flannel, but as I didn't have any on hand I kinda borrowed the idea about the camouflage from another tester.  She used a white and blue camo and immediately upon seeing it I knew what our shirt was going to be made from!

Miss Judy needed some testers to do the lined, hooded version so I decided to go for it and make ours into a jacket.  I had just received some orange jersey that I ordered from Purple Seamstress Fabric for baseball shirts that ended up being the perfect compliment to the Max 4 camouflage that I already had on hand, I think it was purchased from Ebay a while back...I need to stock up again...it's pretty popular in this house.

Here he is with the hood on.  You have to keep in mind it was probably close to 100 degrees the day we took these photos...poor kid!  I wanted to actually have him go into the deer stand BUT wasps/bees/snakes/spiders....it's summer time here in Texas so we just chose to stand in front of it for safety sake!  I think this will be an awesome jacket for him to wear hunting though...he has the bright orange hood and sleeves that can show while he is walking to and from the stand with Dad.  I honestly cant wait for it to get cold enough for him to wear it!

The plackets and cuffs on this shirt were incredibly easy for me.  I plan on doing this jacket again in a smaller size as is as well as making a couple flannel shirts for the boys this winter. I KNOW that this pattern will be used over and over and over again! 

I was a little bit uncertain about my choice of buttons, but in the end I love the orange, it just gives it a little bit more POP!  For the pocket I used the orange jersey as well, but I put interfacing on the back of it and lined it with the camouflage too so that it would have some strength to it.  One of the really fun things about the (lumberjack shirt) is that it is so customizable, you can do 1 pocket, 2 pockets, no pocket, hood, lined hood, collar, snaps, buttons, lined or not lined...the list goes on as I'm sure I probably left something out.  I simply love it, and better yet Aiden does too.  We are all about Ducks around here so I decided to applique the Ducks Unlimited logo on it for him, while I was looking for it I found one mingled into Texas.  That was absolutely perfect.  The way I do that when I just want to use my regular machine is to print the photo in the scale I will need, cut it and then use it on the fabric for my pattern.  I decided it would be ok to just leave these edges raw so that they will rag so I just stitched right along the center of the design.

Now my big boy is all set to go hunting with Dad, in style, and be warm and SEEN too.  He will probably just end up wearing it to school mostly, in truth, but I bet no other little boy has a jacket like this, made by mom to top it off!

Thanks for taking time to share this awesome new shirt with me and be sure to take the time to check out Patterns for Pirates and let her know how much you love the (lumberjack shirt) and don't forget to keep up with  Pattern Revolution too! They have already had 2 pretty awesome bundles this year and now they are doing the Boys Bundle, which from what I have seen so far is something to look forward to, I know there are a couple patterns there that are must haves for us.  They also have a blog about the (lumberjack shirt) as well!

 

Happy Sewing!

A little camouflage Back To School sewing (Pencil Pouch)

Today I have something rather fun and different then my usual sewn garment to show you! I have loads of things that I promised my boys for back to school as well as a little girl's birthday to follow right after school starts, so I figured I better take a free moment and jump on one of those projects and it is definitely worth sharing with you all.

My oldest son, Aiden, is really into camouflage, he's 8 years old and going into the 3rd grade, why in the world would he like that!?!  :)  The first thing I am going to show you is something a lot of you may call me crazy for purchasing or allowing to be purchased for him, but you have to spoil them a little bit if your able right? And it ended up being the inspiration for our new pencil pouch.

They are always so darn picky about what brands they can have and if you try and buy them a notebook or folder that has a picture on it to show a little bit of personality it ends up getting covered up.  I guess I can understand it in a way...as far as the folders they prefer plastic with brads and those generally don't have pictures, so it was heart breaking when he didn't get to buy those in camouflage, for him atleast, and last year after we spent twice as much buying notebooks with sports cars and footballs on them, he had to put big huge stickers on them to label.  SO, this year I made him stick to the basics as far as those things go.  One thing on the list was a zippered trapper keeper, and we found this beautiful Mossy Oak camouflage binder at Wal-Mart for ONLY $19.99.  I gave in and told him he could have it but we were done with school supply shopping for the day if he chose that one, his NayNay was with us and bought it for him so I went ahead and finished up at Office Depot with the rest of the actual supplies.  That only put me back around about $44, but we still need to get a backpack/lunchkit and all the cleaning supplies they require.  What will I ever do when all 3 of them are in school?

They also need, instead of a pencil box, a pencil pouch to fit inside of the binder.  THAT I told him I could SEW!  And that my friends is exactly what I did today. 

My boys you see have been getting incredibly jealous and wanting me to SEW them things since Miss Gracie gets so much made by me so I am trying to figure out things that will be Daddy and boy approved as well as won't get them made fun of.

The pencil pouch was a perfect opportunity for me to show a little special love and sew my big boy something for school.  

I used a tutorial I found on Pinterest (My DIY Sewing Board) by Abernathy Crafts.  I tweaked it a little bit and made a super huge mistake as far as interfacing goes hence the rounded corners, but he LOVES it.  

When I was doing the search for pencil pouches that fit into a binder I found quiet a few tutorials, one of them had a clear vinyl piece for a window, which gave me the inspiration to make an orange window for his name.

If you look close you will see that it is inset, I used the zipper hole instructions from the tutorial to insert the name ( I realize this could have just been a patch sewn on, and I made it difficult, but he thought it was really neat watching me assemble it that way) I guess if you wanted to do the vinyl insert it would work the same way.  Then ofcourse I have all these crazy stiches on my machine so I decided to play with them.  

Nothing about this is perfect, but my son thinks it is, so that's all that matters.

When attaching the lining to the zipper they recommended using a special product to glue it down and prevent fraying...ofcourse I didn't have any so I just used the same step to cut a hole in my liner and then stitched it around the zipper as well.

I mentioned that I had an interfacing issue.  I went to Joann's and I felt and rubbed all the interfacing...it was either paper thin or THICK, I asked at the cutting counter if what I had chosen was too thick, but she was a wee bit inexperienced I think so she was just told me it would work and I went with it.  Actually, the camouflage is twill weight and the lining is duck cloth so I may have gotten away with no interfacing, but alas I used the THICK and I think it was a little bit too thick for this project.

Lesson learned though right!?!

I also elected to add a pencil holder on the back for him. I basically just folded a piece of fabric that looked to be around the correct size in half and pressed the top edges down.  Then I stitched down the open side and the bottom and turned it and stitched straight across the top.  After that I sewed it down to the back on the sides and bottom and made 2 lines of stitches down the center and we have a perfect pencil holder.  I did that before assembling the pouch though.

You can see the fray there around my grommets but once again I am going to blame too much interfacing.  I had a really hard time getting the holes cut out big enough to insert them, but this is for us so it will be just fine.  I bought the grommets as well as the little tool from Wal-Mart and then I just followed the instructions on the back and used my hammer and it was easy as pie.  

And there we have it, a brand new personalized pencil pouch that fits inside a trapper keeper.

Next time I will definitely use a much thinner interfacing but other then that this was a super easy and rewarding project.

Tutorial from Abernathy Crafts.

Happy sewing!  Until next time!