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!