She Who Sews: sewing for boys

The True North Hoodie with Polar Bears

by She Who Sews - 08:36

This boy is growing like a weed. I frankly can't keep up sewing clothes for him to grow out of in literally a matter of weeks. His wardrobe is currently looking seriously light, he barely has enough clothes to last him out a week during the warmer weather, but his winter wardrobe is virtually non-existent now. And he's a tween, and wants to be hidden away under a big warm hoodie a lot.

So as this was a new to me pattern company, I checked his measurements against the size chart instead of blindly making him an age 10. I'm glad I did, because his measurements put him in age 14 😱

Now, with the best will in the world, my 10 year old boy is not an age 14 anything... but I went with it. I compared the finished length measurement to his tractor hoodie I made earlier this year (that at the time was a bit big, but fits him well now) and it was 1/2cm shorter, so yeah, perhaps he is age 14 in this pattern!

Because his sister gets the majority of clothes made in this house, he was feeling left out. He asked for this to be made, so when Caroline from Olumis sent me a message with pics of this new stock one evening, I thought he'd poo-poo it as too babyish. But to my surprise he loved it when I showed him the next morning.

The polar bears in grey and blue are a really soft, thick, warm brushed back cotton lycra, perfect for an autumn/winter sweatshirt. The ribbing is also lovely and thick and stretchy. I've had mixed results with ribbing from various places, but honestly, this is the best I've found so far.

Don't get me wrong, I do love sewing, and I love that we all wear clothes that are different to shop bought, but it's not cheap. I ordered 1/2m of each colour polar bears, 1/2m of plain grey jersey and 1/2m of grey ribbing. I can *just* make a hoodie for him from this amount of fabric, totalling £24.90 including postage. I have enough ribbing left over to make another hoodie or two, but only very small scraps of the other fabrics. So if you discount my time/thread, this hoodie I guess is similar in price to a branded one on the high street? The bonus being, he's extremely unlikely to meet someone else wearing the same thing!

We searched high and low for several days for a hoodie pattern that he agreed with. Initially he wanted a sweatshirt with round neck, no hood. But we couldn't find one that he agreed to. I found several international patterns with nice colour-blocking lines, but he refused them all. Then searching through instagram, he saw a sweatshirt with a scuba hood by heart.anda.half that he wanted, exactly the same.

Through a bit of research of hashtags I figured out the pattern, then struck up a conversation with heart.anda.half to get her insight into the patterns and others that might work for him. The sewing community is brilliant, I connected with a lady in America, talking about patterns designed in Sweden.

Anyway, I digress.

I bought the True North Hoodie by Max and Meena patterns, printed off age 14, with the scuba hood, not the cowl hood. And then set about cutting out the fabric. He chose to have front pockets which made the sewing process a bit longer. In all, it took me a little over 3 hours, but this included 5 separate attempts to get the front triangle to line up. With much unpicked, I did manage it in the end.

It's a really snuggly hoodie and he's worn it nearly everyday, preferring to put it on in the mornings instead of a dressing gown, and when it's chilly outside.

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The Kamp Shirt

by She Who Sews - 00:00

I've long had a soft spot for Eli Monster patterns, but I've never made any of the boys patterns that they sell. So this has now changed!

I was given a choice of patterns to sew up, mostly girls, with just one boy pattern, the Kamp Shirt. I figured my boy was long overdue another shirt, the one I made him earlier in the year has been outgrown.

He's super picky, and finding a fabric he likes is virtually impossible, so I tried a different tactic. His dad had cleaned out his wardrobe and had a pile of shirts that either didn't fit, or he wasn't going to wear again. So I gave my boy the choice of all the discarded shirts. He was very happy to pick a vibrant Hawaiian print (taking after his Dad in so many ways!!). Excuse his face!

As I was upcycling, I had to think about which elements of the grown up shirt I wanted to keep. I figured that the button plackets and hems were important, and placed my pattern pieces (minus placket and hem allowance) accordingly. Lining up the front piece it became clear that the pocket was in the way, so I unpicked it to re-position on the new shirt. I carefully cut the main front and back pieces first. Then I cut the existing sleeves from the shirt right at the seam line to give myself the maximum fabric possible. I lined up my pattern pieces on the big sleeves and cut them out maintaining their sleeve hem.

From the shirt fabric bits that were left, I cut one collar stand, one collar and one back yoke. I then needed to find a complimentary fabric to cut the other of each these pieces. I used some blue polycotton left over from the Alice in Wonderland outfit. It's nice and soft, and I know that is big deal for my son, to not have scratchy/itchy seams/clothes.

The shirt came together really easily and quickly (I like not having to make button plackets, button holes and hems!). The instructions were clearly illustrated with pictures, which always helps, especially for the burrito method of sewing the back yoke.

I blame tiredness for pinning my sleeves back to front, and then posting up pictures in the group saying the pattern was wrong! What I hadn't done was look at my pattern notches closely enough, and pinned the sleeves front to back and vice versa. I'm pleased to say that once I realised my mistake, the sleeves and notches lined up beautifully ;)

And now for the tricky bit. Summer seems to have left us, rather quickly. It's now a bit on the cold side, and taking photos was a chore. My boy was such a trooper though and managed to be chilly for a bit, so long as he could put back on his jacket straight afterwards!

You can get your Kamp shirt pattern from the Eli Monster website.

The fun part (shamelessly stolen from Seams Normal)

Between the 16th and 23rd of September all patterns used for this blog tour can be purchased with reduction. You only pay $7 for the following patterns* (no coupon code needed): The Speeltijd Shorts, The Kinderschürze Pinafore, The Picknick Dress, The Schatje Skirt and The Kamp Shirt..

And to finish I would like to give an overview of the other blog tour participants coming up in the following days.
15 September: Seams Normal
15 september: A random knack
16 september: Threadistry
17 september: Frullemieke and myself
18 september: Big Fly notions and Soveryjo
19 september: A siwsiw thing, Mother from girl and boy and Marieke Falderieke

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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

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The Trailblazer for kids - A fitted vest for an outdoors kid

by She Who Sews - 11:53

Well, what can I say? Only that Twig and Tale has done it again. They have made the grown-up Trailblazer pattern and shrunk it down to child size. And not only that, they have done it superbly!

Here are my lovely family sporting their Trailblazers in the woods, on a sunny autumn day. Each of them unique and using a slightly different pattern option each time. The men's one features a collar, and exposed zip. My boy has an exposed zip and no collar, whilst my girl has a collar, and full wind flap. Each member of my family chose their own options, and I'm pleasantly surprised that they could showcase the pattern so well.

When I signed up to receive fabric from Michael Miller Fabrics, I cheekily put in a request for all three of these vests. I never thought it would be agreed, and was so stoked to receive my box of loveliness. I imagined that having their dad in the photos would help them look natural, so that I could get some wonderful family photos, to showcase the options of the pattern, and the fabulous fabric prints.

What I got, was my husband leading the kids astray to do catalogue poses in the woods!

I especially like this one. The faces are very comical. But I guess they are #makingitfun

My daughter was especially pleased to wear this body warmer. She loves the soft sherpa lining. I quilted the outer Pink Starship fabric from the Sassy Cats Collection, to quilt batting. In hindsight, I should have quilted it to two layers to get a more puffy effect. But the end result is a layer of cotton, cotton/wool quilt batting, then thick cotton sherpa. Actually it's more than warm enough for Cornwall, UK.

It's hard to tell with this white fabric, but I went freehand with the quilting. I wanted to create random geometric patterns with the quilt lines. I tried to avoid the bigger stars, and ended up with large, slightly random zig-zags.

I made the windflap in the same way as the main body warmer. The outer cotton was quilted to batting, then lined in sherpa. I never considered that this would create a huge thick seam to sew, essentially doubling up all the fabrics together. It physically won't fit under my machine foot to sew it down with top-stitching. I might have to get out an embroidery needle and thread, and make a feature of some hand top-stitching in the future. You can also see that the windflap doesn't quite line up properly at the bottom. This is entirely down to user error. It doesn't look straight at all in the picture, which is accentuated by slightly misaligning the bottom snap :(

You can see the gorgeous snuggly and soft sherpa lining here. It is seriously the softest stuff I've ever sewn. I want a permanent supply of it to sew up all the trailblazer's for everyone!

It wouldn't be an autumn photoshoot without the obligatory leaf throwing shot. I need a bit more work on this, or models that jump at the same time!

The collarless version is perfect to wear with a hooded jumper underneath. My boy's version is also made with blue Starship fabric from the Sassy Cats Collection by Michael Miller Fabrics. The slight dropped curve back adds extra bottom coverage, and also can add an extra year of wear out of the body warmer.

With this boy's version, I used a bit of the Atomic Web fabric in blue for the contrast back yoke and shoulder detail. This works so well for showing off two fabrics from a collection. It adds another dimension to the pattern itself, to separate off sections with different fabrics or patterns.

Like with many Twig and Tale patterns, this is truly unisex, and you can put as much boy/girl spin on it as you want. Despite my best efforts, my two are almost total gender stereotypes. They are pink and blue all the way, but it is totally their choice, and not something pushed on them.

My kids, husband and I would like to thank Lisa at Twig and Tale for the opportunity to sew up this gorgeous new pattern. And of course, a big thank you to Michael Miller Fabrics for supplying the fabrics to make them all up. I would never have experienced the cotton sherpa without this opportunity, and now I have a great big desire to import some more in from the United States.... eek!

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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

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Sewing for my Hubby - The new Trailblazer by Twig and Tale

by She Who Sews - 20:43

Do you have a husband, or a partner, or an older son that gets left out of the home sewn items that you make? I do, a long suffering husband who always says what amazing garments I make, and feels proud of the fact that our children wear a large proportion of my own creations. But he gets seriously left out. In fact, in all the years I've been sewing, I've made him one item. Just one... So when the opportunity to sew up this new Men's Trailblazer pattern by Twig and Tale came along, I jumped at the chance!

I sewed up the women's Pathfinder pattern for myself at the end of August, so knew a little about the princess seams and the general construction of this men's pattern, but hadn't used an open ended zip in one before! My first and only (two) experiences with open ended zips was in a zip up hoody in french terry for my two kids (not yet blogged about). It wasn't a fantastic experience, and collar pieces didn't line up, and frankly, after waiting nearly nine months from purchasing the fabric, zips and pattern, to sewing it up, the kids had grown somewhat, and the zips were too short. So to say I was apprehensive about putting in this zip correctly, was an understatement! BUT, I needn't have worried. The instructions are fool-proof, and include some excellent tips that I never thought of myself before.

I used the Atomic Web from the Sassy Cat's range by Michael Miller Fabrics as the outer. When I found out that I had the opportunity to sew up any fabric I liked, I figured the ultimate choice ought to be my hubsand's as he was going to be the one wearing the final garment. I never imagined that it could take so long for a man to browse through a fabric designers website! I guess it was like saying, here's a department store, you can pick anything in here, as long as it's just one thing. In the end he picked this one. I think it works well for him, and matches his blue eyes.

The lining for this body warmer is a super soft, super warm, super snugly cotton sherpa by Michael Miller Fabrics. I have never sewn with sherpa before, and had read stories of it shedding profusely around sewing rooms and cutting tables, and getting up your nose whilst sewing. But I can honestly say, none of that happened with this sherpa. Perhaps because it was 100% cotton? Or perhaps because it's a superior product? It's so easy to sew though. It has a slight stretch to it, but I basically treated it like a woven material, used a normal universal needle in my machine, and perhaps pinned a little more than I would normally to counter the fabric growing along the seams. I found if I kept the sherpa underneath, and the outer layer on top when sewing, it didn't grow so badly at all.

The Trailblazer pattern is perfect for accenting the shoulders and back yoke with a contrast fabric. I must admit, I didn't realise this when ordering fabric, and felt a little stuck with the one fabric for the outer. So to try to emphasise the pieces, I turned the print on it's side along the back yoke and shoulder detail. You can just see the print running horizontally instead of vertically in my pictures.

As you can see, it's the perfect pattern to get almost matching daddy and son body warmers (well, they're fabric prints from the same range, with the same pattern)! Snuggly and warm for crisp autumn days, with superbly soft sherpa hidden inseam pockets! You can find the matching kid's pattern here.

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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post below are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

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The Blouson Bomber Jacket

by She Who Sews - 09:49

I was approached by Marina of Peach Patterns to ask if I would sew up a version of her new jacket pattern, the Blouson Bomber Jacket. The message made me grin, a pattern designer contacting little old me! I eagerly replied saying that assuming I had the necessary fabric and the pattern got ok'd by my boy, that yes, of course I'd sew it up.

I printed off the pattern as soon as I got the email. It's not layered, but each size is clearly labelled and coloured, this is fine by me as I have a colour printer, but I'm aware the lack of layering would put some customers off (it never even occurred to me that this might be the case, until two days ago when I read it in a thread on one of the pattern groups on Facebook). I then stuck it all together with my trusty glue stick, and then looked at it. In fact, I looked at it for days, procrastinating. I got the fabric out, checked there was enough, and then still looked at the big pattern paper! Sometimes I think I could be queen of procrastination. Basically, the issue was, do I trace out the size I need and preserve the printed and stuck together paper, or do I just cut the paper to the correct size. Honestly, I think I need to get a grip sometimes. I just cut the size I needed out of the paper when I realised I was being utterly stupid, and just got on with it!

My boy is getting a bit older, and he seems to be going through a dark coloured phase. His favourite colour is dark grey. When he picks fabric or clothes, it's either black or grey. It's seriously boring, and I'm not a fan, but as he's stopped wearing anything else I make him in nice bright, or earthy colours, then I thought I'd just roll with it. So the jacket was destined to be dark grey from the get-go. It's a reasonably thick tiny herringbone pattern suiting. I think it's a cotton/polyester blend of some sort, maybe even a bit of viscose too judging by the way the fabric frays and unravels with ease. It does have a dark blue haze to it, that I doubt will show up in pictures. My boy picked out a dark blue and gold star voile to be the contrast. It's entirely unsuitable being a very thin and lightweight cotton voile.

To make the voile work, I used a medium/stiff interfacing on the facing pieces, as well as the inside pocket piece. I didn't want the pockets to fall apart with rough little hands being shoved into them so for the outer pocket, I used a layer of voile on top of the suiting (so two layers sewn together at the edges). Ever since I read this post by this wonderful Norwegian blogger, Marie Fleurine I have wanted to have a go at using a Hong Kong finish on an unlined jacket. I haven't had the opportunity for myself, but this little bomber jacket for my son gave me the perfect excuse to try.

I once again used the tutorial by Itch to Stitch to create my own bias binding in a continuous loop. Instead of a 10" x 10" square, I chose a 16.5" x 16.5" square. Simply because I thought I might need a fair amount of bias. Once I'd marked it out, and cut it, I had 250" of bias. I thought I may have gone a little overboard! As it turned out though, I had 4" of bias left once I'd completed the jacket, so I'm glad I mistakenly overestimated.

I turned back to Itch to Stitch to read up again (I've read the tutorial several times now) to refresh myself of how to Hong Kong finish my seams. It's actually really simple, if a little time consuming. You get a beautiful result though, with either contrasting or complimenting seam allowances, looking smart and neat.

I made a straight age 8 for my son. His measurements were chest age 7, waist age 5, hips age 9 and height bang in the middle of age 8 & 9 (he's 8.5 years old). I know from experience with my daughter, that chest measurement isn't always 100% accurate for skinny kids, and that their shoulders can be the size of their age, regardless of the rest of their frame being small. So, looking at the finished measurements, I decided age 8 would give a bit of growing room, and hoped that the sleeve length was ok (I was actually going to cut the age 9 sleeve length, but I was cutting out the paper pattern whilst nattering to a friend, and idly forgot all about it until I'd already cut it out, and screwed up all the waste paper for recycling). Instead of grading out for his hips (I mean bottom) I used an age 9 length piece of elastic in the bottom cuff. This meant that is was the correct amount of gathering for his behind!

The jacket is unlined, but faced, has two circular cutout pockets, and elastic cuffs to the wrists and waist of the jacket. I chose to finish my jacket with snaps instead of buttons. I figured my son might find it easier to snap a popper together instead of fiddling with buttons (or, I'll re-phrase that. He is lazy, and I thought I'd give him the easiest time to do up a jacket!). That evening I did a bit more of my favourite thing, and procrastinated. I'm glad I did, because in the morning when I mentioned to my son that I would be putting in the snaps, he exclaimed 'No Mummy, I want proper buttons!'. So buttons and buttonholes it is! He chose the buttons, I'm not sure they're the best match, but it's what he wanted.

Here are the lovely crisp cut out pockets. I chose to topstitch around the facing and pockets to help them lay flat inside. You can omit this step, or make it extra special. I could have used a twin needle to create two lines of stitching, or used a fancy stitch on my machine (I may do this for a girly version, with a flower stitch perhaps?).

And I'll just leave this final photo with you. Did you know it's not just my daughter that has a strop when asked to be photographed. My boy has never done this before, and I think we were just having a bad day, as he's been more than happy to model ever since! And those pale jeans he's wearing, they are the Happy Pants pattern. My kids have had loads of pairs of these over the past year or so!

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Back to Forest School

by She Who Sews - 07:00

Today is my stop on the Back to School Blog tour with Made It patterns. Use the code btssws for 20% off all patterns from the Made It pattern shop until the end of August.

You might be thinking, 'err, hang on a minute, don't you home educate?'. And you'd be right. My kids are home educated, so they don't go back to school as such. However, a lot of their clubs and classes do stop for the school summer holidays, only to restart again when the schools go back. The thing my kids are most looking forward to restarting is Forest School. So I thought it only apt to create a 'back to Forest School' outfit.

The thing with Forest school down here in Cornwall, UK, is that it is regularly wet, and 9 months of the year are not only wet, but cold and windy too. My son has outgrown his trusty waterproof dungarees and coat that he's worn for the past two years straight, so now was definitely the time to make something warm and waterproof for him.

When I looked at the Made It pattern shop, I did initially wonder how I was going to pull off an outfit suitable for wet and mud. But I think I nailed it!

I chose the Bookfold trousers, and the Stevie shirt. Made in the suggested fabrics could give a formal to casual look. But I wanted to change that up a bit. For the shirt, I went with a quilting weight cotton that my son had picked a month earlier. I'd intended to make him a short sleeved shirt in a different pattern, but never got round to it. Then I wanted to use soft shell to make the trousers. I scoured the internet fabric groups trying to find something half cheap that might match the shirt fabric, and came up a dead loss. Then on a spur of the moment trip into the local fabric shop, found they sold a couple of dark coloured soft shell fabrics. The price was a touch more than the online prices I'd found, but I didn't have to add postage on top (making it cheaper in the end!), and I could actually get a feel for the fabric, and more importantly, my son chose the grey colour.

It turned out that the grey was a good match for a grey in the shirt fabric. But it wasn't easy. My son measured age 5 for waist, age 9 for hips, and age 8.5 for height. I ummed and ahhed over which size to make, and how much grading to do, but in the end, just did a straight age 9. I figured I could use less elastic in the back waistband, or cinch it in more as it's buttonhole elastic. I was worried about excess bunching, but I needn't have as they worked out just fine.

The trousers would have been an easy sew in a more appropriate fabric, but the thick softshell didn't help me. It didn't iron flat, I couldn't press seams open, or to the side, and it was really thick when the waistband attached to the fly and around the pockets. But I did it none-the-less. I really like the little hidden pockets in the back yoke. I used scraps of the shirt fabric to provide an orange peek from the slit pockets. And front pockets that are big enough to store sticks and stones in.

The fly is fully functioning. I used plastic KAM snaps hidden in the fly shield, and a large metal popper for the waist band. I wanted something with a bit of strength, and ideally would have used a button, but little boy loudly chose the metal popper. I used the same orange thread as the shirt as a contrast on the grey fabric to add a matching touch. I also used my twin needle to top stitch possibly more than I should have to help flatten out some of the seam allowances.

The shirt was a fantastic sew. I have sewn casual shirts before, but never successfully put in cuff plackets, or such a neat neckline placket! The instructions are clear, with really helpful pictures to guide you through the techniques, some of which were new to me. I love the simple bound neckline and the tab detail across the button placket down the front, it's such a nifty design feature.

The end result is a lovely little trouser and shirt set. The trousers are warm, windproof and showerproof, and the shirt is slim enough not to get in the way when a fire needs to be lit, or a stick whittled.