Boys Can Wear Pink Blog Tour

Hi, and welcome to my day of the Boys Can Wear Pink Blog Tour hosted by the awesomely creative Kelly of Handmade Boy.

The whole concept behind this blog series makes me smile.  If you've seen pictures of Connor before, he wears blue and pink Frozen Sneakers that were the only shoes he would pick out after going to three different stores.  He carries his pirate sword and Minecraft toys in a purple princess lunchbox. And likes having his nails painted with blue sparkly polish.   But above all of that, he picks his own clothes and his own fabrics for when I make him stuff.

So this is our first *pink* outfit.  He picked out the My Little Ponies and the blue to go with it.  When we went to pick the piping, I suggested yellow, black, and turquoise.  He picked pink.  In retrospect, its a good thing he did, because it matches rather well.

When we went to the store, all I told him was to pick a fabric he liked that had some pink in it.  He actually picked two, but you'll have to wait for our second outfit!

For the shirt I used the Dandelions 'n' Dungarees Old Tyme Baseball Shirt.  This pattern comes in 3 size grouping, but the the bundle is the best deal.. and if you wait until tomorrow to pick it up, you'll get the newly revamped pattern pieces that are being finished up as I type.  The pattern has button instructions (and very awesomely explains male vs female buttoning), but I did the snaps for Connor so he could take it off himself.  Awesome bonus! The code boys30 gets you a discount in the Dandelions 'n' Dungarees Etsy shop through Wednesday night!

For the pants, I used my go-to woven pants pattern:  Little Kiwi's Closet Paneled Pants and Shorts.  I use this pattern for both kids when I need a pants pattern with a cool coordinating detail.  And there is cute bow or pocket options to add as well.   I think of all the patterns I own, this is the one I most often make.

You'd think that the My Little Pony watcher in the house would be Inara, but nope.  She doesn't like MLP anymore and gave her mini-figures to Connor who loves it.  So thankfully they area toy that got happily passed from one kid to the next!

I love the outfit with the pops of pink in it.  I'm also thrilled that his daddy thinks the outfit is cool (whew!), and most of all, I'm happy that he loves it, because that's what its all about... dressing him in clothes that he loves that show him that he can wear anything he wants and colors don't have genders!

Connor says to go enter the giveaway below!  With this awesome list of prizes it's totally worth it!

One yard of Stenzo Pit Stop Poplin in pink from Mabel Madison

$25 gift certificate, plus a surprise fat quarter from Phat Quarter Shop

One yard of solid cotton/lycra & one yard of coordinating fabric from Purple Seamstress

One pattern of choice from Paisley Roots

$20 store credit from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop

One pattern of choice from Patterns for Pirates

One pattern of choice from Mouse House Creations

Bottoms Up Pants Pattern from If Only They Would Nap

One Pattern of choice from Titchy Threads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by! And please check out the rest of the talent posting this month and keep tabs at the round up post.

Sewing Off some October Sews

Happy Wednesday.  Posts should go up in the morning, huh? Well I decided that I've been doing quite a bit of sewing lately, and I really just wanted to do a post to show off some of my favorites from the last month... tester and otherwise.

Inara's birthday was earlier in the month and she wanted a new dress to wear... I made these the night before (yay for mom fail procrastination moments).  The pink is the Playhouse Dress from Fishsticks Designs.  I modified the sleeves a little bit (no gather and no cuff).  The top is a yummy cotton lycra custom print knit from Sweet n' Charmed and the bottom is a cotton woven Skelanimals print.  I promise my neckline isn't wonkerdoodle... it just need to be pressed (so embarssing, but the dress was way cute).

This second one was just a simple tee pattern with the remnants of my Frozen fabric gathered and attached. But she loved it... I never know with her sometimes...

Then little man was feeling left out and asked for a Mario shirt, so I pulled out this fabric that has sat on my shelf for way too long and made him the Rockstar Raglan from Little Kiwi's Closet, with layered sleeves, so I felt like I out more effort into it lol.  He put it on as soon as he saw it and proceeded to spill his drink from dinner all over it. This resulted in a meltdown of sobbing *my mario shirt noooooo,* which was kind of funny... but it's washed and all better now.

And while showing my love for Little Kiwi's Closet... for Picture day Inara wore this Flutterby Top that I made in knit the night before pictures because we had an issue with the first picture outfit... 

Which was this... It's the Airy Ruffled A-line from Monkeysbug Patterns.  Now, the pattern itself was lovely... easy to follow. I ignored the size chart, which was dumb (it's totally accurate, you should follow it) and should have done the size the chart said, but it was easily fixed.

So here was the problem that I didn't consider and really felt like an idiot for... there is a seam at the top front where you flip the ruffle create the channel for the elastic.  For some absurd reason, once this part was gathered she found it to be insanely itchy.  Like freaking out, jumping around and crying because she picked the fabric and the pattern and was now heart broken that she couldn't wear it.

I've gotten a couple of suggestions about backing it in flannel/fleece, but i don't know if that will totally take care of it.  I was considering covering the front seam with FOE?  I don't know.. if anyone has any suggestions to save this dress for my randomly sensitive child, I will take any of them! The fit was great and it was just SO CUTE on, that I can understand why she was so sad that she  couldn't wear it. :(

And one last project, just because I want to tell people I won something... Whimsical Fabric does these cool sewalongs in their group, and I decided to jump in on the last one because it was for E+M Pants Pattern No. 2, which Inara has finally outgrown her size 5s, so she needed a new pair.  Anyways, in the sewalong group they post a daily album to upload your progress pics and you get entered for a prize each day that you keep up.  Well I won a $15 gift card to their shop and picked up some really cute fabric to use for another dress for Inara!

Here are my pants!  Aren't they cute? (Nar's top is the Elisa from Filles a Maman)

I did make Halloween costumes too, but I don't have modeled shots yet, so those will have to wait till another post!  Thanks for checking out all my pics!  ... and a funny one to end it: