Waistcoats for my boys!

As a mother of 3 boys, I'll admit there have been moments when I wish I had a little girl to dress up.  Especially once I started sewing.  Now, my need for a girl begins and ends there. I rather enjoy being the only girl in the house - mainly because my small boys think I'm a princess because they've nothing to compare me to!  I'm pretty fortunate that my boys do enjoy their style.  They love accessories - hats, ties, dickie-bows, backpacks and they have a thing for shoes.  In fact, they really differ on their choice of shoes whereas they love to match in almost everything else!

Anyway - I'm a quilter.  I don't sew domestic, my husband is chief button-sew-on-person in this house so the biggest clothing undertaking I have made is to mass produce a bunch of dickie bows about a year ago!


                                      

I have wanted to try other items but I honestly felt I'd mess it up big time!  But this year, with our annual 3-day convention in Dublin coming up, I was finding it difficult to source suitable, dressy clothes.  The boys happened to be growing out of most of their decent clothes.  So on a real lastminute.com, I found a pattern a couple nights before we left and started making my first real item of clothing for the boys!

This pattern was mega.  Very easy to follow, straightforward instructions.

                                         
 
  Thank you to the talented lady who put it together.  If you fancy trying it yourself, check her out here!
It took me a few hours to put it all together, I was making two of them though!  I was also using the polyester lining for the first time.  I bought a very thin one, I would probably go for the more expensive thicker one next time but for no reason in particular, I bought the cheap one just assuming I would mess it up - but I didn't! 

                                                       


The only difficulty I had with the pattern was trying to figure out where to sew on the shoulders.  Once I thought it through though, it was straightforward - I guess I was just tired the night before when I got to that point!  And once that was done, I was at the end very swiftly and all of a sudden, ta-dahhhhhhh, I had two full size 4 year old funky waistcoats!!!!


                                      



Of course I made them matching dickie-bows too!  I just forgot to take a picture of them! These two little men wore their waistcoats with pride and told lots of people that their mammy made them!  It's sweet when they appreciate your efforts!

So who knows what's next...... after the quilts still on my to-do list, of course!

Fancy Foxes!

I spotted this pattern on Instagram a few months ago and went on the hunt for the pattern.  I love these foxes.  Full of character, especially the dude with the glasses! 

In December we had our annual "Show & Tell Evening" at The Quilt Shop.  I needed to make something quickly since I had given away almost everything that I had made in the past year and had nothing to show! I did have my Storm at Sea Quilt top but nothing completely new and finished!

I decided to make the Fancy Foxes Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman (Fransson) in lap quilt size.  It meant just 4 simple blocks. 

Today I grabbed my mini-models to take a few pictures of the finished product.  They did their best to hold up the quilt for me to take a picture but it's very difficult when the quilt is bigger than you!  Sams eyebrow though (on the right), makes me laugh everytime I look at this next picture!

Two evenings and it was done and dusted!  I handquilted it with Perlé Cotton No. 8 in a simple heart design and used my scraps for binding.  The backing is another fox print - super cute little foxes that look like their are looking for mischief (just like the new owners of this quilt)!







On the front the quilting is subtle but it shows nicely on the back and the colour works very well with my backing fabric!





 
 
 The only thing I didn't get round to doing before the Show and Tell was sewing down the glasses.  I wanted to do it by hand with a buttonhole or blanket stitch and finally almost 6 months later, I pulled it out this week to do that and the boys having been having fun with it since!  It's hard to see the details of the stitching in this picture.......  I love buttonhole stitching though - and I love doing it by hand instead of using the machine!





It started to hailstone mid-photoshoot, hence the big black dots on the quilt...........the boys loved it though!  They were dressed for the weather, unlike me - I was out in my pj's since I've been sick all week!

You can see they love it!  They were watching tv here and most possibly mid-wrestle but still, they were snug as bugs!