Ethan Shirt

 Ashley and Emily over at Frances Suzanne are hosting another year of "Flip this Pattern”. Today I am kicking things off for the month of August with the SisBoom Ethan shirt. I’ve got two creations for you today, both an unflipped and a flipped one. First let’s start out with the unflipped version. I sewed one up by the pattern for my tween boy.

 Over a year ago I was very inspired by this Sketchbook Shirt which was sewn by Cindy of Siestas and Sewing. I had to sew a similar one for my octopus loving son.

 First off, here is some basic info about the Ethan Shirt for boys:

• $10
• sizes 1-14 (most children's patterns go up to size 12, so what a bonus that this one goes all the way up to 14)
• 166 pages (each size is separate so that’s why there are 166 pages)

 I remember for The Great British Sewing Bee series 1, for the finale they had to sew a man’s buttons shirt which included a collar stand, but without cuffs and they had to complete it in 4 hours. Thank goodness I didn’t have the time constraint of 4 hours!

Sewing it up by the pattern, this project took me more than 4 hours. There are a ton of diagrams, but a few of them were incorrect and when you are a visual learner like me, this can become frustrating. I wonder how these mistakes get past the testers. Maybe I’m just super picky when it comes to the visuals. 

There are lots of time consuming tedious steps: front pocket, front button placket, collar stand, collar, 2 sleeve plackets, cuffs, lots of pressing and gluing, topstitching on almost every piece (are you still with me?) So this project is not for the faint of heart!

At one point there were many layers of fabric I had to sew through, this was at a corner of the collar stand, trying to sew through all those layers I broke a needle! I found attaching the sleeves to be a bit tricky, they didn’t ease in as easily as I’d hope they would. 

Once you follow this pattern and instructions you will have one very well made shirt which I think would meet the high standards of judges Patrick Grant and May Martin of the Great British Sewing Bee. 

 Another note, in my experience, most American sewing patterns use a 1/2” seam allowance and most European ones use a 3/8” seam allowance. This one it’s 1/4”.

With these instructions you have everything you need to know with the many step-by-step diagrams for a well-designed button shirt with collar stand. Having a collar stand was a huge thing for me, that’s what I was looking for in a button shirt and not all button shirt patterns out there have a collar stand.

The instructions show you how to do your very best sewing. Going through all the steps you notice the small details and I think you learn to respect the craftsmanship it entails.

During this whole project I was following the pattern with accuracy and consistency and doing my very best sewing. With the end result I have a huge sense of accomplishment.

At $10 for the pattern, it is a good value for your money. 

 Next up for my flipped version, I sewed a blue sleeveless dress with pleated skirt for C in size 6. The very full skirt makes for a very twirly dress!

 I was inspired by this pin.

 I took the shirt, made it into bodice and made it sleeveless by adding bias tape around the armholes.

 I added a skirt with a lot of fabric, it has many pleats that all go the same direction all the way around the skirt.

 And I added in-seam side pockets.

 I found this tip and tutorial helpful: sew sharp collar points.

 Last but not least, I have some more inspiration to share over at my button shirt inspiration Pinterest board.

Now go visit visit Frances Suzanne for a discount code for the Ethan Shirt, giveaways, the sew-along linky party...

Kids Clothes Week July 2014

 Kids Clothes Week is done and I finished the two pairs of shorts that I had planned to make.

 I got this Clever Charlotte Finch Shorts paper sewing pattern back in January and now I finally sewed up a pair. I love that there are buttons, but no buttonholes! Instead of the full pleats I made box pleats because I really like box pleats and liked how Jessica's turned out. These were made up in size 6 in khaki cotton twill. Khaki bottoms are required at school as part of the school uniform. Maybe she'll wear these on the first day of school...

 The other pair of shorts I made were the Oliver + S Sunny Day Shorts. They are summer pajama shorts sewn up in size 10 in octopus fabric for my octopus loving son. Summer pajama shorts were much needed.

I'm on a shorts kick right now, next I want to sew myself some shorts using this pattern.

Spring Showers Jacket Pattern Tour and Discount Code

 Hello from the land of 10,000 lakes. Mr. J is sporting his newest jacket that I sewed up for him for the Spring Showers Jacket Pattern Tour. Many thanks to Heidi of Elegance & Elephants for inviting me to participate.

Guy Cotten rain coat

 I'm going to hit the rewind button for just a moment… way back in 1999-2001 while we were living in France, our oldest son got a classic yellow rain coat. The brand name is Guy Cotten and it's from Brittany, France. All 3 of my children wore this coat (2 boys and a girl). Here's a photo of my daughter wearing the coat at age 2 in 2009.

Guy Cotten coat modeled with yellow rain boots to match

 I love it that a yellow rain coat never goes out of style. My children no longer fit into that Guy Cotten coat, so I sewed up a big kid one using the newly released Spring Showers Jacket pattern. It comes in sizes 2/3 to 12 years. It's got a sewing level of 2.5 out of 4, it's not super difficult, but it is very time consuming as it's a fully lined jacket with lots of topstitching.

 My favorite things about the pattern are that it:

• is gender neutral
• has a visor on the hood
• has a lower back hemline
• has a hanging loop

Hello octopus... hello octopus

 Project details
Pattern: Spring Showers Jacket by Heidi of Elegance & Elephants
Size: 6/7 with added length (about 1.5 inches)
Fabrics:
main: yellow twill (I quite like working with twill)
lining: Free Spirit, Salt water - Octo Garden - Aqua
Notions: 20 inch separating zipper

 This was the first time I sewed an Elegance and Elephant's pattern and I found it to be of a very high quality, with many photos for the steps, the option to print out just one size, and the option to cut out a few pattern pieces with using measurements or print out pattern pieces.

All in all I had very satisfying results.

It's raining outside today... so can you guess what jacket he's wearing?

Exciting news! There is a discount for nest full of eggs readers during the tour. To receive a dollar off the price of the pattern, use discount code: TOUR. You can go here to purchase the Spring Showers Jacket Pattern.

Sew In Tune Winter 2014

 Sew In Tune Winter 2014 is here! It's an online sewing series where you sew up an outfit inspired by a tune. The hostesses are Melissa from Melly Sews and Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy! All this week there are two Sew In Tune posts per day, so check out their blogs to see them all.

 Today it is my turn to play and the song I picked was Waterloo by ABBA.
More specifically about my inspiration:

• Waterloo battle: military inspired jacket
• Napoleon was from France: the jacket sewing pattern I used is from France
• The ABBA music group is from Sweden: Swedish flag (blue with a gold Scandinavian cross)

 For my son, Mr. J, I created 3 pieces: a pair of yellow trousers, a blue jacket, and a white long sleeve t-shirt and here are the project details...

 Yellow Trousers
Pattern: Oliver+S Art Museum Trousers with this zipper fly tutorial
Fabric: yellow cotton twill
Size: 7 with 9/10 length
Sewing notes: My first zipper fly! I have been sewing up a ton of little girl dresses these past few years, but only a handful of pants. I am so happy I tackled the zipper fly. I'm so pleased with how well it went and with the result that I hope to sew zipper flies on all pants in the future.

 Blue jacket
Pattern: Oberweiden (paper pattern in French, comes in sizes 6-12 years)
Fabrics:
Jacket: blue cotton twill
Lining: Kona cotton in blue and gold
Size: 10 years
Sewing notes: This jacket is "demi saison," so it does not close (I am really thankful I didn't have to sew all those button holes, especially because I added 6 buttons instead of the suggested 4). The sewing went pretty well as I knew enough French to get by and there are easy to follow drawings. I'm not a huge fan of putting in sleeves, but these went in extremely easily.
For the lining of this jacket I was inspired by the Swedish flag which is blue with a gold Scandinavian cross. It was really quite easy to add the gold Scandinavian cross. First I cut out the blue lining fabric. Second, I took 2 inch strips of gold fabric, folded under .5 inch on each side, then topstitched them onto the blue lining fabric.
I really like the details on this jacket and am thrilled that it is gender neutral, so hopefully I'll get more use (and therefore my money's worth) out of it.

 White long sleeve t-shirt
Pattern: Made by Rae flashback skinny tee for big kids, comes in sizes 6-14
Fabric: I bought an adult size t-shirt from the clearance rack, so I used an existing t-shirt to make a smaller one, using the original hems, cuffs, and neckline ribbing, like in this video.

 If you would like to sew along you can add your Sew In Tune creations to the flickr group.

Many thanks to Melissa and Stacey for the invitation to participate in the series.

PS I created a challenge for myself. I want to complete the following 4 sewing projects before the Great British Sewing Bee Season 2 airs in spring 2014.
These are from the Great British Sewing Bee Season 1 and they are the 'following a pattern' challenges from all 4 episodes:

1. A-line skirt with invisible zip
2. Trousers with zip fly
3. Summer dress with French seams, rows of shearing elastic, and rouleau loop straps
4. Button shirt with collar stand

So with finishing these yellow trousers I have crossed 'Trousers with zip fly' off the list and have 3 more challenges to complete in order to reach my goal.

LEGO Valentines 2014

 These will be our class Valentines for this year. We decided to put together LEGO rings and a little LEGO play set.

We got all of the LEGO bricks from the pick-a-brick wall at a LEGO store.

 I bought 50 adjustable silver ring blanks with glue pad on etsy.

It's easy to attach a flat 2X2 LEGO brick to the ring with E-6000 glue.

 A variety of unique LEGO pieces can create all different types of rings.

 And the little play set is a fence, bench and 2 red flowers ~ too cute!

I did the same packaging as last year when I made the LEGO mailbox necklaces.

A LEGO minifigure crayon was also added.

I have 50 of these to make, so I better get back to work!

LEGO Tic Tac Toe Game (with packaging)

 I made 24 of these LEGO tic tac toe games with packaging (gifts for classmates of one of my kids). The inspiration for the packaging came from this flickr photo.

The only thing I needed to buy were the LEGOs because everything else was on hand at home. I got all the LEGO pieces from the pick-a-brick wall at a LEGO store.

 What you need:

• 4 long narrow LEGO pieces (I used 1 by 16 white)
• 5 square LEGO pieces in one color (I used 2 by 2 yellow)
• 5 square LEGO pieces in another color (I used 2 by 2 red)
• White card stock (8.5 by 11 inch)
• Wax paper
• Colored paper and hole punch (if you want to add confetti)
• Sewing machine

 What you do:

• Cut the white card stock in half
• If you want to add confetti use a hole punch to punch holes out of colored paper on top of the card stock

• Place LEGO pieces on top of the card stock
• Place a piece of wax paper on top (larger than the card stock)
• At the sewing machine, using a zigzag stitch, sew all four sides along the edges

•  Cut off excess wax paper

 All done!

The approximate cost of this tic tac toe game is $2.00 each, but to cut down on cost and size, smaller and or thinner LEGOs could be used (these LEGO pieces happened to be the only ones available at the pick-a-brick wall that day that would work for this project).

PS These would make great party favors or class Valentines. In case you are looking for a LEGO Valentine, this past year we made mailbox necklaces. And sewing paper with wax paper reminded me of the heart shaped candy maze Valentines I made before.