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brooke

spring

the first garment I ever made for my kids: Brooke

When Meg asked us if we wanted to write about this topic, I thought it sounded like fun but wasn’t quite sure that I would be able to find documentation of my first outfit…A quick facebook search later and voila- a picture labeled as “Oliver’s first mama-mades.” Whew! Thank goodness for Facebook over-sharing, right? 🙂 Also guess I should be glad that my eldest is only 3 so I didn’t have hoards of pictures to sort through.

My first sewing for Oliver was two pairs of Anna Maria Horner quick-change trousers. I made them when he was three months old, and I had finally recovered from the adjustment of having a baby to have energy to sew again. Those of you who know me know that I have a love of Dr. Seuss so of course I had to buy some Dr. Seuss fabric when I found out I was pregnant. I also bought two sewing for baby books- Handmade Beginnings and Simple Sewing for Baby. I wanted to sew some things for him before he was born, but I taught high school English up until the week before he was born and just didn’t have time or energy to do any sewing! These pants (shorts) started my love affair for sewing kid’s clothing. It was so fun to see my little baby in something I had made just for him!

I have a few pictures to share with you of Oliver in his pants, but please forgive the poor photo quality! These pictures were taken with my phone way before I knew anything about photography! I am not a great photographer right now by any means but it’s encouraging to see how far I’ve come! I really wanted to try to edit these pictures up for you a bit but resisted the urge so you could see them in all their original glory (If that’s even an accurate word to use to describe them-lol).

I highly recommend this pattern as a great beginner garment. There are quite a few pattern pieces and instructions, but she walks you through the construction step by step and because the pants are reversible, you don’t have to worry about finishing any seams or anything like that.

Now you probably want to know how these pants held up for future children, right? Well so far there’s only one sibling to follow Oliver and he was able to wear these pants just fine! The crotch area was a bit snug because he is a chunkier kid than Oliver was and has a big cloth diaper bum. I actually made two new pairs for Eliot during last spring’s KCW and he wore those a lot his first few months. I tried to see if I had any pics of E in the original pants but sadly I couldn’t find any…so bummed.

What about you? Do you remember the first garment you made for your child? Are you preserving it out of sentimentality or passing it on to other siblings? I’d love to see everyone else’s pictures of their first kid’s garment! That is, if they’re as terrible as mine is. Please make me feel better about the horrible photographer I used to be! Feel free to leave a link in the comments if you blogged about yours so I can go check it out.

May 6, 2014 by brook

spring

KCW plans: Brooke

Hi it’s me, Brooke, here to chat with you again. This time I’m going to talk with you about my personal plans for Spring 2014 KCW. Unlike our other two contributors this week, I don’t have any girls to sew for so my sewing will be solely focused on sewing for my boys. However, many of the things on my list could easily translate to either gender.

I will mostly be sewing for my older son, Oliver, because his younger brother has an over-abundance of summer clothes and really is in need of nothing. In reviewing O’s spring/summer wardrobe, I realized that he is severly lacking in 3T summer clothes. My goal for this week is to supplement some of his summer wardrobe. I’m going to stick with the basics for him because at almost-three, he spends a lot of time playing outside and making messes. I really want to make him a variety of t-shirts and shorts that can be assembled fairly quickly and easily, but yet will be durable.

I have three patterns in line for the tshirts: Rae’s Flashback tee (image 1), the Raglan tee from Sewing for Boys (Image 2 via my blog) and Blank Slate Patterns Vintage V Neck (image 3). Husband specifically requested some raglan tees and since we aim to please, I am including them in my list. 😉 Also I am mostly going to be upcycling these shirts from husband’s old tees. This fits perfectly into our mini-me theme. (Mini-me can mean husband, not me, right?) I also want to try freezer paper stenciling. I have actually never done that- can you believe it? I think I’m the last person in the blogging world to attempt this and can’t wait to try it out.

For the shorts, I am debating on buying Dana’s shorts pattern (left image), using Rae’s Parsley Pants (bottom image) and modifying them into shorts (tutorial here), or making some dressier shorts from the Oliver + S Sketchbook Shorts pattern (right image). If you have experience with any of these patterns, please feel free to put your two cents in to help me decide! To continue with the upcycling/mini-me theme, I will be using some old pants of mine and my husband’s for fabric. I found some RIT dye on clearance at the grocery store this past week and picked it up to try my hand at dying some of the old pants to make them a little more fun.

Last but not least, I want to make a few pairs of pajamas for both boys and will be using the Flashback Tee (left image) and Fancy Pants Leggings (right image) from Titchy Threads. Not sure yet what I’ll use for fabric, but I’d like to pull from the nautical colors I mentioned earlier. And I’d really like to coordinate the boys just for fun. (yep, gotta enjoy a little matchy-matchy while I can!)

I think these goals are a good place for me to start out my KCW prep. Who knows how much time I’ll actually have that week to finish all this, but I am going to try to have all my patterns and fabric prepped in advance so that I can get as much done as possible. My plans aren’t anything super fancy or ornate, but they’re practical. And that’s important right? I’m hoping that the freezer stenciling and fabric dying will add the fun touches needed to my simple clothes to give them that extra zaz. How are your plans coming along? Anyone sewing Easter outfits or are you going the practical route like me?

March 14, 2014 by brook

spring

spring inspiration: colors

Today’s contributor is Brooke from Oliver’s Fancy. She is the mom to two little boys and sew’s some super awesome boy clothes for them! During the winter KCW, Brooke knocked it out of the park with two amazing hoodies: one in this awesome triangle fabric and then another fantastic striped number. She’s definitely knows what she’s doing! And she’s here today to inspire your color palate for this KCW.

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Hey there! I’m Brooke from Oliver’s Fancy, and I am so excited to be guest posting during the spring season of KCW.

My goal was to find us some color inspiration to get our creative juices flowing for our next challenge week. I don’t know about y’all, but I have seen a lot of nautical-inspired colors floating around this spring, so I thought I would create some collages focused on these colors: orange-red, shades of blue, and navy blue. These colors are great because they work equally well for boys, girls, and adults- meaning they should help you as you work to incorporate the mini me theme into your KCW plans.

Orange-Red

image credits clockwise from top left: plate, chair, quilt-,(I really love this quilt as an example but cannot find original source outside of Pinterest: anyone know where it came from?) dress, filing cabinet (orange color is now out of stock), flowers

Shades of Blue

image credits clockwise from top left: bag, shoes, pants, scarf, dresser, paint chip, necklace

Navy Blue

image credits clockwise from top left: anchor print, arrow print, bag, pillow, dress

Feel free to check out my Kid’s Clothes Week Pinterest board that I’ll be adding to this season as I get more color inspiration. Orange is not a color I would normally use in my sewing, but sometimes I get the urge to shake things up a bit. Get myself out of my color rut; if you know what I mean. What about you? Do you like these nautical-inspired colors? What colors are inspiring you this spring?

March 7, 2014 by brook