Pinterest - Most Recent Pins - Sewing for Boys

I love sewing clothes for my little boy. I love making toys and play accessories for him the most, but comfy shorts and pants for play and childcare days are my favourite clothes to make for him.

Here are five of my most recent pins to my Pinterest board "Sewing for Boys".

1. Jaden T-Shorts

This idea is great - turn a favourite adult T-shirt into a pair of shorts! I love ideas that encourage re-using and upcycling.

2. Baby Yoga Pants

Along the same lines as the T-Shorts. Recycle an old T-shirt to make some comfy pants. So simple!

3. Toddler Tour Pants

Cute pants with a patchwork insert down the sides of the legs and a really easy to follow tutorial.

4. Men's Shirt Baby Romper

Along the themes of upcycling - turn a cotton button-through shirt into a summery romper for a little boy.

5. Free Boy Patterns

A great collection of exactly what it claims to be - free patterns for boys. Heaps of easy to follow and easy to sew clothing for little ones.

Please share any great finds that you have below in the comments - I would love to find more!

Pyramid zipper coin purse

Earlier in the year, I went to a craft fair here in Brisbane, where I bought  a little kit to make this tetrahedron zipper pouch. When I saw it, my geeky side (I used to be a high school maths teacher) loved the idea - only a long zipper and a strip of fabric to make a little purse. The fabric strip is sewn along the zipper and as you close the zipper, a purse is formed!

And then of course, my 3-year old and 5-year old spotted it, and being zipper-obsessed as most kids are, begged me to make them both one.

The fabric strip was great, but it was fiddly to deal with the lining, so I perused the internet and came up with the perfect solution for a kids version - ribbon! Follow the link to Craft Passion where you'll find some great pictures and very useful instructions.

So I bought some ribbons... how cute are they?!?!

And some very long zippers, and got to work with the colours chosen by my children.



My kids are not really into coins, but the purses are the perfect size for storing tiny little treasures, like that one favourite car, dinosaur, or hairclip, or for just zipping and unzipping for fun.

Simple Rainbow Ribbon Skirt Tutorial

Miss 5 loves rainbows. Her first drawing that resembled anything was of a rainbow. Since then, we have had rainbow beetles, rainbow birds, people wearing rainbow clothes and more feature in her drawings.

I saw a skirt somewhere online that had bias binding strips along the bottom to create a rainbow effect, but as I am always on the lookout for the most simple and effective ideas, I thought I would replace the binding with grosgrain ribbons.



To start, I measured my daughter's waist and doubled the measurement. That gives you the width of fabric needed.

I then measured the length from her waist to where I wanted the skirt to end (in her case that was just on her knee). I added around 4 - 5cm and that gave me the length of the fabric needed.

Open out the rectangle and fold over the bottom edge by about a centimetre and iron down. Pin the ribbons along the skirt. The bottom one serves as the hemline and the spacing is dependent on personal preference really and how many colors you choose to use. Sew the ribbons down by sewing along both edges as close to the edge as possible. To finish off at the ends, fold the ends under and sew down.

Fold the rectangle with right sides together and sew down the open side. Then press the top over 2cm and then another 2cm. Sew along the bottom fold as close as you can to form the elastic casing. Leave an opening of about 2 - 3 cm and feed the elastic through. Sew the ends of the elastic together and sew the casing closed.

Oh so cute!

Sewing tutorial: Kids dress up ideas - firefighter

This is all you will need to make your own firefighter dress up costume:

• a long sleeved red shirt (I bought mine from a thrift store)
• felt - bright yellow and grey/silver
• thread, pins etc.

The first step is to cut strips of felt. The strips of yellow felt should be approx 8cm/3in and the grey will need to be about 2.5cm/1in.

Pin the grey felt to the centre of the yellow felt and sew along both edges of grey felt, in a few millimetres.

Then pin your strips in place on the shirt - the top strips will be placed level with the arm pit of the shirt and then the next strips down about halfway. Sew along both edges a few millimetres into the yellow felt.

Simple, but very effective!

Sewing tutorial: Quiet book pages - Bead counter

This is one page I really like to include in my books. Both of my kids love counting and one of their favourite pages in their quiet book is the bead counter. They enjoy moving the beads across, and they also learn their colours by practicing with the beads. It is an easy and effective page.

The starting point for making the page is deciding how wide to make the counter (then cut your thin ribbon in appropriate lengths), to what number to count to (in my larger books, I have include counters that go up to ten), and finally what colours to choose. 

The ribbon I use is very narrow and I do not like to take any chances with safety with beads coming loose, so my first step is to space the ribbons on the page and sew them to the page background. My green felt is about 1.5cm wide, so I sew along the ribbons for about a length of 1cm on one side first. Then I thread my beads on and sew down on the other side to secure the ribbons down and lock the beads in. 

Place the felt lengths over the ribbon ends where you have sewn and pin down. Sew a stitch around the edges. Finally trim off the threads and ribbon ends and your bead counter is done!

Sewing Tutorial: Quiet Book Page - Tent and Sleeping Bag (zippers)

The idea for this page came from Still:Living, but has been modified over time by me.

I usually use a cotton drill or poly cotton for the blue sky backing and felt for the remainder of the page.

STEP ONE

You will need to draw on your transfer paper:

• a rectangle for the background (leaving about three cm around all sides for stitching and borders), to be ironed onto blue cotton fabric. 
• a crescent moon to be ironed onto white felt. 
• outline for the doll, to be ironed onto a skin coloured felt. 
• outline for dolls clothing - shorts, shirt to be ironed onto chosen felt colours. 
• outline for dolls hair to be ironed onto chosen felt colour. 

Iron these pieces onto the corresponding fabrics and and cut out.

STEP TWO

Peel off the paper layers. Iron on the background piece to the page fabric. Then iron on the moon shape in the top left corner. 

Iron the body felt piece onto a neutral background piece of felt and then iron on the shirt, shorts and hair.

  

STEP THREE

As you will not be ironing them on, but only sewing, you will also need a triangle for the tent, cut through the centre and a rectangle for the sleeping bag, also cut through the centre.

Sew these either side of a zipper, making sure that the bottom edge is against the bottom edge (where the zipper closes) of the zipper.

Trim the zipper along the edge of the felt and sew several times over near the top, cut off end of the zipper. 

 

STEP FOUR

Check that the sleeping bag fits under the tent and if not, trim sleeping bag down.

Sew the sleeping bag onto the background. Then sew the tent over the top. Sew a zigzag stitch around the edges of the background.

STEP FIVE

Cut out the doll and sew around the edges to fasten the felt layers together. Sew on eyes and a mouth.

FINISHED! Put your doll to bed in her/ his tent :-)

 

 

 

 

Sewing Tutorial: The easiest 10-minute stretch pants for kids

It is March here in Brisbane and the weather should soon be cooling down again after a long and very hot summer. Being such a temperate climate though, it never really gets "cold" here, especially during the day, so some light long pants are perfect for little kids who are always on the move.

Last year I made two pairs of these simple and cute little pantsfor my son and he has worn them more than any other item of clothing he owns! Perfect for active play at the park or at childcare and so comfy for daytime nap time. Best thing is that they are so easy to make.

STEP ONE

If you have used any of my other sewing tutorials, you will know that I like to keep them as simple as possible. For pants, that means they are made out of two pieces of fabric - one for each leg. So take a pair of existing pants/shorts, and your stretch fabric folded in half. Place the side of the pants along the folded edge and cut out one leg, remembering to add in seam allowances for the inner leg, centre and waistband - 1.5cm should be plenty, although for the waistband you will want to leave about 2cm depending on the width of your waist elastic.

You can see pictures on my other pants tutorials that show how this one leg is cut out. There is also a printable pattern on that page for the dinosaur pants, which will work for you if you do not have any good fitting pants to use as a guide.

STEP TWO

Take one of the legs and fold the fabric so that the right sides are together. Sew up along the inner leg to the groin and stop. Then do the same for the other leg.

STEP THREE

Keep your two legs right sides together and join the centres together - front centre and back centre - from the waist down to the groin.

STEP FOUR

The beauty of knit fabric is that it doesn't fray. This means that you're already almost finished! Unless you want a more finished look, you will not need to hem the ankle edges, and the waist band will only need to be folded over once.

So fold the waist band over about 2cm and pin along the seam edge. Sew, leaving a gap of about 2cm. 

STEP FIVE

Measure your child's waist with the elastic you plan to use, pulling it as tight as you would like it to be with the pants on. Cut it off, allowing an extra 2cm for seams and thread it through the waistband. Attach a safety pin to one end and use that to thread it through the band. Sew the two ends of the elastic together until secure, then close off the waistband by sewing the gap closed.

You are now finished! You could vary these by adding pockets or using a tie waist if you like. See my tutorial for adding pockets here.

Sewing Tutorial: Preparing to make your first Quiet Book

For my first Quiet Book was to make my daughter a special toy that would keep her occupied on the long flights from Brisbane, Australia to Frankfurt, Germany. In the end we didn't end up taking it with us, as it contained too many pages, too many small pieces and was a little overwhelming for her when she was little Miss 19 months old.

It was beautifully made with lots of love and we play with a lot now, but my biggest advice would be to keep it simple. I couldn't narrow down the pages I wanted to include, so I just kept adding page after page to the plan until it became 14 pages of activities. Stick to 6 or 8 activity pages all up. It will be enough.

Since that time, I've made dozens of them to sell and I've perfected and simplified my method. I plan to share this method with you step by step here, starting in this blog post with the first stage - the planning and preparations.

1. DECIDE ON FABRICS

I make all of my quiet books from calico cotton, cotton print and felt. I find that the calico is heavy enough to last, and felt is easy to work with because it doesn't require edging. I use a cotton print fabric for the covers.

I like to join my pages together with binder rings. It means sewing just two buttonholes in each page, looks neat, and allows you to add and exchange pages when you want to.

2. PLAN OUT A THEME, DECIDE ON ACTIVITIES

My most popular quiet book is an unthemed one, but I have also designed and made counting quiet books, alphabet ones, colour books, and shape quiet books.

I like to vary the activities on each page and have included: size matching, colour matching, counting, tying shoes or bows, buckles, zips, magnet fishing, velcro, studs, buttons, finger puppets and more.

My suggestion is to get on Pinterest and explore ideas until you have picked your top 10, then narrow it down some more.

3. BUY YOUR MATERIALS

The costs can add up quickly. Check out dollar stores for things like zippers, buttons, felt packs and other supplies. EBay is one of my favourite places to shop for buckles, buttons, velcro, magnets, snaps, ribbons and beads. Buying bulk packs of calico can also help you save.

4. CUTTING OUT

First, decide on size. I used to make my books quite large, but slowly they've become smaller. My ideal size is 18cm by 20cm.

You will need to allow for seams. I like to allow 1cm on each side, so for a finished size of 18cm by 20cm, I would need to cut out a piece 20cm by 22cm. If I am making six activity pages, I would cut out eight of these to allow for two extra, one for inside the front cover and one for inside the back cover.

Then you will cut out another two pieces of the same size for the outside of the front and back covers. Choose a vibrant cotton print fabric for these.

I sometimes choose to line each piece of fabric with a light iron on interfacing. This will depend on the weight of the fabrics that you are working with. If they are quite light, the interfacing will make it easier to sew on the felt pieces later. If the fabrics are heavier, you may be able to skip this step. If you decide to use interfacing, cut it out the same size as your ideal finished book size (in my case this would be 18cm by 20cm) and iron it on close to the centre of each fabric piece before going any further.

5. MAKING THE FELT PIECES

I've tried a few different ways to do this, but I always come back to using Heat n Bond Lite Iron on applique paper, or a similar product.

You can draw your design directly onto the paper, iron it onto the felt, cut it out, peel off the paper to leave the adhesive backing and then iron the felt piece onto your calico fabric. Once you have ironed the felt pieces onto your main fabric it is a good idea to sew around each piece to ensure it stays attached to the fabric. The adhesive applique paper can lose some of its effectiveness after a while.

In my next blog post, I'll be sharing a pattern for a colour matching page featuring a monkey holding four balloons. I'll also explain the full process for putting together the page.

Stay tuned!

 

 

Sewing Tutorial: Easy baby pants variation

We love the easy baby pants at our house. Mr 2 wore these bright dinosaur pants back when he was a baby. What a welcome change they make from the navy blue/khaki options in a lot of the stores here in the cooler months!



A year later, I made him another pair. This time I wanted to trim them with pockets and a cuff.

SEWING TUTORIAL

1. Cut out pant pieces from the original pattern (http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/sewing-tutorial-easy-baby-pants.html).

2. Decide how big you want your pockets. I wanted pockets to be about 10cm by 10cm when finished. Double the length and cut a rectangle. My rectangle was 12cm by 22cm. (adding in a little for seam allowances). I wanted two pockets (one on each leg), so I cut out two of these from contrasting robot print cotton fabric.

3. Fold the pocket fabric in half length ways, right sides together. Sew around the edges, leaving a 2cm gap to turn the pocket out the right way.

4. Turn pockets out the right way and iron flat.

5. Pin pockets in position. I put mine in the middle of the leg piece, by folding the piece in half in one direction and then in half again the other way, finding the centre point. Sew around the side and bottom edges of the pocket, close to the edges.

6. Cut out a 10cm strip of the contrasting fabric to make the cuffs.

7. Fold the fabric in half lengthways and iron flat. Fold the edges into the centre and iron flat again. Place the bottom edge of the leg piece between the folded length of contrast fabric. Sew it down along the top edge, close to the edge.

8. Now follow the instructions on the original blog post (http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/sewing-tutorial-easy-baby-pants.html) to finish the pants.

VOILA!

Sewing tutorial: Toddler Pinafore Dress Variation (Bias binding trim and pockets)

The sewing tutorial for my original pinafore dress (link here) has been my most popular blog post by far.

Cute, right?

Last year, I fell in love with this cute green and blue bird fabric and used it to make a version more suitable for winter. Miss 4 loves those pockets!

PINAFORE DRESS WITH TRIM AND POCKETS

1. Cut out the front and back pieces as per the original pattern (link above). If you are using binding on the neck and sleeves, you will not need the facing pieces. 

2. Cut out the shape you require for your pocket (I like the u-shape above). Cut it on a double thickness, along the fold. With right sides together sew together along the curved edge, leaving around 2 - 3cm for turning the pocket out. Repeat for any extra pockets.

3. Pin pockets in position and sew close to the main fabric by sewing close to the edge, along the curve.

4. Attach the front piece to the back piece.

5. Sew binding around all remaining edges. You can use a store bought binding, or make it from a matching fabric yourself. Just decide on the width you would like and cut a strip along the diagonal (fold the side edge down to the bottom edge to find the right angle) that is four times the width. Fold the strip in half length ways, with wrong sides together and iron. Then open it up and fold the edges into the centre. Close up again and iron again.

6. Finish with buttons or other trim that you require as per the original tutorial.

Sewing tutorial: Cuddly little koala softie toy!

Back in 2007 I spent six amazing months in Peru. I travelled, taught, learned Spanish, volunteered and learned how to weave. I made some really good friends too.

One of those friends is starting a project to improve the lives of some of the kids who live in local orphanages. I really wanted to help, but living so far away I was not sure what I could do.

I thought I would put together a package of handmade toys (including some of these koalas) and clothes and make some learning materials for the kids. Then I wondered if there would be something more long term that I could do to help. So I'll be selling some of these koala softies in my Etsy shop and sending on the money made from their sale to my friend's project. So if you can, buy a few for the kids you know and help other children at the same time!

KOALA SOFTIE

1. Print out the pattern. Cut out two koala shapes from grey felt. You will also need:

• two ears and a belly from a contrast colour
• one nose and two eye pupils from black felt
• two white eyes from white felt
• thread for sewing together and embroidery thread for sewing the mouth

2. Attach the ears, eyes, nose and belly to the koala front. 

You could glue these on, sew by hand or machine sew them. I machine sewed because of the quantity that I plan to make, but it is completely a personal preference.

3. Embroider on a mouth where it indicates on the pattern and then attach the back by sewing close to the edges. Leave a small opening between the legs, stuff the koala with polyfill or fabric scraps and then close up.

Cute and cuddly!

Sewing Tutorial: Easy Hooded Towel

At bath time we love hooded towels at our house. Cuddly and warm, and perfect for stopping Miss 4's long hair from dripping everywhere.

I picked up some fluffy thick towels on sale recently and thought that I would turn them into hooded towels either for my own kids, or as gifts. To brighten them up I ordered some ribbon online - colourful stripes and Hungry Caterpillar. Cute!

I used a regular sized bath towel and half a hand towel for one hooded towel. I made two at the same time though to make use of the whole hand towel. So I needed around a total of 4 metres of ribbon (measure the lengths of your two towels to be sure though - it is around 2.5cm wide, but even wider would be fine too), two bath towels and one hand towel to make two hooded towels.

First, I cut my hand towel in half, by folding short ends together.

Fold, right sides together, again short ends together. Pin along the raw edge and sew together. Finish off with a zig zag stitch.

Turn it out the right way and admire your hood! To decorate, you could pin ribbon on and sew like I did below. Tuck the ends under and sew along too.

 Pin some matching ribbon along the edges of your bath towel and sew on. I used a straight stitch, but you could experiment with others.

You will now have your two pieces - a hood and the main bath towel. Fold both in half in order to match them together.

When you have matched the centre lines of each, turn both over to the back and lay flat. Pin the hood over the top edge of the towel. Pin and then sew the two pieces together. To attach securely, sew along close to the bottom edge of the hood and then sew another line parallel, along the top of the edging.

And finished!

Just remember to clean out the lint from your sewing machine - sewing towels can leave a lot. Also beware of broken needles - sew slowly and carefully over thick seams.