Sew Central

 I'm not exactly sure what happened to me the last week or so, but it's like a switch went off and I started sewing up a storm. First I decided I wanted to try to make Judah an Easter outfit. Generally speaking, I find sewing from patterns to be intimidating, but I braved it and got a couple of patterns to try. First, I used butterick 5510 to make a shirt. Although there was definitely some teeth-gnashing (especially after I accidentally trimmed through the sleeve and had to redo it, and then sewed the new sleeve on backwards...) I did actually finish a pretty nice-looking shirt.

One frustration I'm having is that I have a hard time figuring out what size to make. The shirt is a little big, but overall pretty good, so I don't think I'll be doing any more adjustments.


I also made Judah a new sun hat, since the last one I made definitely no longer fits his generously-sized noggin.

Next, I tackled burda 9932 to make a vest and bowtie. The pattern actually comes with a vest, bowtie, and shorts, but after making the vest I decided to do something different for the shorts. I found the burda instructions a little terse. I think there were like three steps on the vest directions. Eventually I figured it out, but I guess I prefer instructions with more pictures and descriptions, which is why I decided the shorts might be more complicated than they are worth. Plus I found this fantastic kid's pants tutorial and decided to do that instead. I gotta say - those pants are super easy. It took me maybe an hour start to finish. I ran into more sizing problems with the vest - I think it's too big for him to wear this year. I guess I need to measure him better. I'm still debating making another smaller vest. Since I have enough fabric and some more time before Easter, we'll see....  The bowtie I'm going to attach to a piece of elastic or ribbon. (Sorry for the bad photo, but I really wanted to post a photo tonight. On the plus side, I would like to point out the clothes are on the floor of my craft room and not a scrap, thread, or piece of clutter can be seen. Yep - I also cleaned the craft room today. It's been a productive couple of days....)

Finally, I've been doing a little birthday-party sewing. I made some bunting in the colors I'm using for the party. Not pictured here is the name pillow that Judah is getting as part of his gift.(Tutorial to come!)

I also finished Judah's birthday crown, which is something I'm hoping he will wear for years to come, both at his birthday and for pretending. There is elastic in the back so it will grow with him. Here's that tutorial.


All this sewing has gotten me even more excited to try some more things - I've got an old shirt of Jeff's that would be perfect to refashion using this tutorial into a shirt for Judah. I've also been hankering to try to make Judah a tie.... We'll see how that goes...