How did your Kids Clothes Week sewing go? I hope you managed to make a good dent on your little ones’ sewing lists! I didn’t finished everything that was on my list, but I did get quite a bit done, and I’m excited to have some new PJs in my boys’ dressers. I’ve got one more KCW post coming later today or tomorrow morning, but first here are Jamie’s new Viking jammies!I used my Pajama Party PJs pattern for these pajamas. It’s my go-to when I’m using quilting fabric. This organic cotton fabric, by the way, is amazing. Sadly, though, there’s not much of this Timeless Treasure Vikings fabric left out there online. (I had quite few people ask me about it when I showcased it in my Legos-on-the-Go Bag a few weeks ago.) I love the soft feel of it, and I feel good about my little guy sleeping in organic cotton. This tough guy, however, just loves that the fabric is covered in Vikings! He even showed off his best Viking poses for me in our little bedtime photo shoot.

So, Charlie got his Mickey Mouse jammies, and as you can see, he’s quite happy about it! This kid knows what he wants, and he has no trouble explaining it.These retro Mickey and friends cotton sweatshirt fleece prints have been in my stash for a couple years now. I purchased them from an online friend with plans to make hoodies for a Disney trip that never happened . . . so they just sat. A few weeks ago, though, Charlie saw them and asked if I would make him Mickey Mouse jammies. I had no other plans for them, so I said, “Sure!” and promptly forgot. If you read yesterday’s post, though, you know that I was abruptly reminded about the Mickey Mouse jammies when I presented my little man with Fantastic Four pjs that I was certain he was going to love. His tearful melt-down because they weren’t the promised Mickey Mouse jammies, almost made me cry along with him! Thankfully, these were a quick sew, and now all is well in his little world.Sweatshirt fleece is a knit but it doesn’t have much stretch. It’s important to keep that in mind when choosing a pattern for it. My Lazy Days Lounge Set has this great cross-over v-neck that opens wide for pulling on, so I knew it would be perfect!I don’t know if I ever would have paired these fabrics up like this if it hadn’t been for the three-year-old who insisted that they must go together. Even as I was sewing them, I wavered back and forth between thinking that these pajamas were really adorable in their vintage-ness and wondering if the combination of fabrics might just be way over the top in its dated-ness. In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter since Charlie loves them, and they are, after all, just pajamas. I happen to think that pretty much anything would look cute on this little guy, though.I’m curious if you tend to sew what you want to sew or if you let your kids make more of the decisions about the fabrics and patterns. Not including sewing that I do specifically for business reasons, I think I’m somewhere in the middle. I tend to buy fabrics that I know my boys will like, then I let them choose which they’d like from a limited selection.

Since the first day of this season’s Kids Clothes Week happens to fall on Earth Day, I felt it was quite appropriate to recycle some old grown-up wearables into a few new little-one wearables!

I started with this pile of polos that I picked up recently at a thrift shop.  One of the things I love about upcycling thrifted clothing is that it’s already been washed and dried multiple times, so there’s no guessing about how the fabric will wear.  The fabric in these polos was all in great condition, so I don’t worry that I’m going to put time into sewing something with it, only to have it pill after being washed and dried a few times.I fell in love with the vintage look of this first polo with its vertical stripes, and I was so excited to find that they fit perfectly on the Charlie Tee pattern in Jamie’s size.  Normally, when I upcycle a cotton knit shirt, I reuse the hems to save time.  The hem on this shirt was so crooked, though, I didn’t really want to use it as is.  That was the first sign that something just wasn’t quite right with this shirt. Without the hem allowance, there wasn’t quite enough fabric below the placket on the original shirt for the new one, so I had to sit and seam rip the original hem.Once I had the pieces all cut out, including the back and the sleeves with their original hems intact, I sat down to re-hem the front of the shirt.  I noticed upon close inspection that this knit looked quite strange.  That would be because the shirt was sewn with the stretch going up and down, rather than around the body.  So weird!  But, I wanted those vertical stripes!  I’d invested enough seam ripping by that point that I felt it necessary to just move forward.  It’s a good think I was determined!  A broken serger needle and a little bit of sewing-machine-eaten fabric later, that old polo has a sweet new life as a vintage-look striped tee for my 6-year-old.  (And, it fits perfectly, even with the front of the shirt turned the wrong direction!)Charlie’s tee was so much faster and easier!  I grabbed this pique cotton polo that was formerly sold at a high end men’s store.  That means the fabric must be great, right?  I definitely didn’t have to worry with crooked hems or fabric turned the wrong direction!This tee took less than 30 minutes from cutting to done.  I was able to use the existing hem from the old polo for the front and the back of the new tee.  Rather than re-hem the sleeves, though, since the originals were trimmed with ribbing, I used the Charlie Ringer Tee sleeve option.   Voila!  A cute little ringer tee for my youngest from what started the morning as a used and tossed aside polo. (I’m going to put off sharing modeling photos of the things that I sew for KCW until we’re on our family trip in a few weeks. I’m taking advantage of KCW this week and sewing up tops so that my youngest two will have plenty of handmade shirts to take with the jeans — and possibly winter coats — that we’ll be packing!  I really hope that it warms up a bit north of here soon!)