simple neck warmers

Just popping in to show you a quick little project today. 

It's one that's great for Canadian winters. 

It will soon be time to bundle my little guys up and they needed some new scarves. 
I actually prefer neck warmers to scarves. They fit nice and snug inside their coats and there's no risk of them getting snagged on something. Fleece is a great choice for these, not only for the warmth, but also because it doesn't fray!

I whipped these up in no time by cutting a piece of scrap fleece into a rectangle about 10 x 20 inches long. I folded it in half and stitched up the middle to form a tube.

And that's it!

I love simplicity.

Now we're ready for winter!

Traditions

Boy it's been quiet around these parts lately. Sorry about that! I've had a lot of great changes in my life lately, particularly a career change. So my family has been adjusting to new routines and I've been pretty focused on work these past few weeks.

Despite all this, I finally managed to get back into my sewing room and start on my Christmas list of things to make.

A good friend of mine celebrates Christmas with her family by getting new pajamas for everyone. Each year they keep it fun by creating a different theme or colour of PJs to get and they spend Christmas morning opening presents and enjoying each other's company in their new PJs. 

It's a simple tradition but I've always thought it was a wonderful one, especially for families like hers that live in different cities and come together over the holidays. Then all winter when they put on those jammies, I'm certain they are reminded of their special time together. So heartwarming.

I've decided to adapt this little tradition to my own family. My children are still quite young and always need new clothes. So I hope to make them each a brand new pair of pajamas for Christmas every year. Perhaps it will be their one gift they can open on Christmas Eve night and wear them to bed for the next morning.

I've got one pair down, one more pair to go.

What's your favourite Christmas tradition?

Tis the season!

the henry shirt

By now I'm sure you've seen this book floating around blogland.

'Sewing for Boys' by Shelly Figueroa & Karen LePage

Having two boys of my own, I just had to have it. So when I recently scored some really great pillowcases at the Thrift store, I decided to use one of them to make the 'Henry Shirt' from the book. And believe it or not, the size 4 can be made using just one large pillowcase (+ 1 contrasting fabric).

The pattern said it was for the advanced sewer... but I of course I didn't read that until after I had cut all the fabric. 

There was no turning back.

And yes, I was in over my head. 

And there was a lot of seem-ripping.

One of my favourite features in this pattern is the built in pocket on each side.

All in all I'm happy that I attempted this pattern because I learned a LOT.

Now to put the snaps on!

Back 2 School Week - Day 4

My apologies for taking a short break in the back to school week. Something urgent came up and I was not able to post until now. I still have 2 more posts left in the series, so let's get started!

Parents spend so much money each year on new school supplies for the kids, and some of us try to minimize the costs by making some of the things ourselves. But the hardest part is to see your children come home without that brand new jacket or mittens. That's why I'm BIG on labels. I try to label everything my children bring to school so at least there's a chance of getting it back when it gets left behind.

I label everything from my kids' clothes, lunch bags, containers, backpacks, drink containers, shoes - everything! And I want to show you how I've labeled some of these items.

There are a few great companies that sell custom labels, and they really are the easiest way to labels your child's items. 

Labeled water bottle and bag tag

The company I used for these labels is called Mabel's Labels. I've used them for a year now and have had no complaints. Except maybe the price. They can be expensive, especially when you have to start buying for multiple children. They do offer package deals that include clothing labels, bag tags, container labels and even labels for inside of shoes! And boy do those babies ever stick! My labels have lasted (and stuck) through the laundry and even the dishwasher. They really are great and I'd say worth the expense.
  

Back of bag tag

But I also wanted to show you a few alternatives to save some money and make your own labels. 

There are many brands of fabric markers to choose from these days and they make it easy to add your child's name onto shirts. They are permanent and don't smear when you use them on tags like regular markers do. 

Sharpie washable marker

I used this brand to label my son's shoes:

They're not limited to black either. 

Fabric markers come in all sorts of colours.

And they're not just great for labels. How about using them to help your child learn their lefts from rights?!

If you want to label shirts that don't have tags on the inside, these iron-on adhesive labels work great. I bought this kit years ago and it even came with a pen and stencil!

Lastly, I like to avoid plastic bags as much as I can so I buy good quality containers for my kids' lunchboxes. But let's face it, you have to buy quite a few and they're not cheap! I always want to make sure they make it back home. I used to use a permanent marker to write my child's name on them but it eventually washes off. So this year, I used my brand new Silhouette machine with some heavy duty vinyl to create my own labels.

They've proven to be hand-washable, and I'm going to see how they fair in the dishwasher. Fingers crossed!

UPDATED: I've put these in the dishwasher a few times and they are still stuck on!

That's it for today, but come back tomorrow and I'll show you some cute - handmade - alternatives to plastic!

Back to School Week - Day 2

Welcome back to my special Back to School Week!

If you missed yesterday's post, you can find it here.

As promised, today I'm going to show you how to spruce up some plain ole t-shirts for the kids. My boys love Star Wars but I haven't been able to find any vintage Ts for them. So I decided to make my own. And it's surprisingly easy.

To start, you need an inkjet printer and some printable iron-on sheets. There are many different types of heat transfers available, and at varying prices, so shop around.
These are just a few:

The one on the right is actually really thin fabric that you can iron onto another piece of fabric. But for this project I used the Silhouette brand of Printable Heat Transfers - for dark fabrics.

My boys each chose an image that they wanted, off the internet. But you could use a picture you've taken or maybe even a picture that your child has drawn! If that's the case, you would just need to scan it before proceeding to the next step. I brought the pictures into MS Word and adjusted the sizes.

Then I print the image onto the heat transfer sheet. They come with instructions on how to do this if you need.

Note: for this brand I didn't need to make the picture a mirror-image but it's worth double checking the instructions there.

Once printed, you are ready to cut around the image and peel off the backing.
Place the image onto the shirt, with the image facing up.

Image source

The instructions for the sheets that I used recommend ironing the image on for about 15 seconds, using a piece of fabric in between. I found that this wasn't long enough to get the transfers to adhere fully. Maybe my cloth was too thick?

If you look closely at the shirt on the bottom, you'll see where I held the iron on too long and it left iron marks (where the image is brighter). Oops!

Once the image was set in place I found it best to turn the shirt inside out and place the iron directly on it, but making sure to keep it moving. It seemed to work better this way for me, and the image didn't peel on the edges. 

Image source

My boys just LOVE their new shirts. I might have to make some more just to get these ones off of them!!

I had to show you this shot because it just cracks me up.
Evan might need a couple of pointers on his tough guy pose....
Thanks for stopping by.

Handmade Back 2 School Week - Day 1

Today I'm kicking off my Handmade Back to School week!
I've been busy working on some fun stuff and I'm excited to show you!

For me, just before the kids go back to school is a great time to go through all their clothes and sort out what fits and what doesn't for the upcoming season. Often the long sleeve shirts from winter and early spring are getting a bit tight so I always check to see what the boys might need for the upcoming school year. And this year there's a bit of extra excitement here because my youngest is starting Kindergarten. He is super jazzed about going to his big brother's school. And I know that my oldest will watch out for him each day, so it's a bit easier for me this time around. He's a really great big brother that way.

So, let's get started shall we?!

My boys need some new shirts.
And I have a thing for argyle so I decided to incorporate it into my boys' wardrobes this year.

I bought some plain (cheap) cotton shirts from WalMart.

And while they were in the wash, I drew and cut out some diamond shaped stencils from freezer paper. 

Then I ironed the stencils onto the shirts.

And painted on the fabric paint. I recently bought a brush specific for stenciling and like it much better than using just a regular brush. I thought it was worth the extra money.

In the end, I added a couple extra diamonds because I felt it needed more.

Then I broke out some of the crochet yarn that my mom brought back for me from Portugal. 

I just love that turquoise colour.

If you wanted to try this at home, embroidery thread would work just as well.

I hand stitched lines through the middle of the diamond shapes, using a piece of tape as my guide.

And here's the end result:

I made another shirt, stitching it with my machine instead. I used Egyptian cotton thread because it seems to be a wee bit thicker (and I just love it). I thought it would be more visible that way. It would also be cute to use a double needle.

I wanted to give this shirt more of a skater look because it's for my older son so I stitched the lines without a guide, and at all different lengths etc. Then I used a brown fabric pastel over the paint to give it a not-so-perfect look. I ironed it using a piece of parchment paper, just to 'set' the pastel, and prevent it from washing off.

Then I finished it off by dabbing a small amount of anti-fray stuff on the ends of the stitching.

And there you have it. Two happy boys with new shirts for the first day of school.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you how I made the Star Wars shirt pictured here!