Boy Shorts

Very easy shorts. A couple of Saturdays ago we were having a family get together at the in-laws in the late afternoon. I decided that morning that I wanted the boys (the 2 little ones) to have a cute new outfit for that afternoon. So that morning I got busy and in about 1 1/2 hours I had 2 pair of shorts made. (That includes stopping and filling up sippy cups, kissing boo boos, breaking up fights, you know...all the stuff that goes with having boys.)

These shorts were made from Simplicity Pattern #5982. The shorts pattern is for boys or girls and it comes in 2 lengths (I chose the longer one). There are just 2 pieces: a front (which you cut 2 of) and a back (which you cut 2 of). Very easy.

Front...


Back...


I picked up the teal, white and brown plaid seersucker last summer (planning on making shorts and never got around to it until the other day) and after purchasing the fabric I went and purchased 2 brown T-shirts on clearance to go with the fabric.



I wait until patterns go on sale for $0.99 and then get all I am allowed (patterns generally run from $12.95 to $15.95). Then right before I use the pattern, I trace it onto tissue paper and use my tissue paper pattern to cut out the fabric. (That way, if a pattern is multi-sized, I can use it again when my boys are bigger.) Tissue paper is very inexpensive, it takes just a little more time, but not much (kids patterns are small). My cousin said she traces her patterns onto interfacing (it's sturdier than tissue paper and will last longer, but probably a little more expensive too, but I wouldn't think by much). If you were going to use a pattern over and over again, this would be a great idea.

I wish I had bought more of that fabric. I wouldn't mind having me a pair of shorts or capris made from it.

Completed Project

Here is the completed Easter outfit that I made for one of my best friend's son. I smocked the sailboat insert (more info here) and then made the long-all (fully lined). The long-all was from the pattern 'Will' by Collars, Etc. (modified). It also had a shirt with matching piping (also 'Will' by Collars, Etc.).

It was fun to make.




Here are some basket liners that I made for both of her boys. She found a cute 'bucket' type white basket, but wasn't pleased with the liner (with the eyelet lace it looked to 'girly' even though they were in blue & white and green & white gingham).

So she and her boys picked out some Easter fabric and I made the lining for the baskets and embroidered their names on their basket liners.

Before...


After...




The original basket liner tied. I decided to make the new ones to button (maybe a little less 'girly' still).

Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

...Easter's on it's way. Don't ya just love how a song gets stuck in your head?



I am working on an outfit for a friend of mine's son. It will be a long-all with this smocked insert. I will also be making a short sleeved shirt to go with it.

She picked out the Smocking Plate (Regatta by Ellen McCarn) and the fabric. I am very pleased with how the sail boats turned out. I think this would be a great outfit to wear all summer long. Her son can wear it in cooler weather with a light sweater or jacket. [You know how seldom Easter is actually warm.]

You can check out more on boy's clothes here... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Even More Boys Clothes

Still wrinkled.

The following outfit is a joint effort with a friend of mine, M. She and I couldn't find what we wanted for Easter. She wanted something with long pants (in case it was cool), but still looked springy (is that a word?). She also liked the way her son looks in light blue (he's blond haired and blue eyed). I told her we could make something. She was doubtful. Then the more we talked, we decided we wanted it reversible (you know I like that) and then we both like blue and brown together (so I just had to suggest plaid). And little by little we had designed this outfit in our heads. Now we just had to make it come to fruition. Look below and tell me what you think.........


This is what my 2 youngest boys wore last Easter (2008). I made 2 exactly the same, but I only took pictures of one. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the fabric is blue and brown and white plaid (have I mentioned that I luuuuuuuvvvvvvvvvv plaid?). I appliqued a brown bunny (to look like a chocolate bunny that might be in an Easter basket). I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but it has brown buttons on this side.


Here's the whole outfit. The trim on the collar and sleeves has matching plaid piping. I made it long enough to roll up the pant legs to see the lining (sort of - you know I had to make this reversible, I mean come on, if I'm going to line it anyway, why not?).


Here's the reversed side (blue pique'). I did an ice-cream cone for summer. I usually only applique on one side and have the other side plain, but the plaid material just screamed ice-cream cone at me (I placed it on the bias and I couldn't resist). Plus look how yummy the chocolate ice-cream looks. That makes me hungry, wait right here just a minute while I run get me some.

O.K. I'm back.


See it also brought out the plaid piping on the trim of the shirt. This side has blue buttons.


Here is the whole outfit with the cuff showing the plaid also. This pattern was 'Will' by Collars Etc. It has the regular front with the long jumpsuit.

I made the same outfit for a friend of mine's son for last Easter, but she wanted her's just a little different. (We don't go to the same church, so don't panic - no one thought we were copying each other, besides I wouldn't care if someone did think that - these are our kids and we can dress them how we want to.)


Here's the front of her's. (The ice-cream side is the same.)


She wanted carrots and grass for hers. (I used green jumbo rick-rack for the grass.)

Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll have to dig deeper to see if there is anything else (but I don't think there is). I'm too tired right now to add the links to other clothing that I have made, so until I feel like adding the link you can click on my right side bar and do a search this site for 'boys clothing.' Thanks for being such great readers. I hope you enjoyed what you saw and I hope I have inspired you to have a creative outlet.

Handmade Boy's Clothes

I hope you are not getting tired of seeing these.


This is Corey's Bubble again from Maja's Heirlooms. This time I smocked the letter "R" for Rance. I love plaid. I also love blue and yellow for boys.


This is a close-up of the smocked "R."


This is the Vogue Pattern # 7504 (only I omitted the smocking area). I made the above bubble for Rance and Anthony being 14 months older than he is was a toddler at the time, so I made this Jon-Jon for him to wear (so they would coordinate). When Anthony outgrew this outfit, Rance could wear it.



When Anthony outgrew the Jon-Jon and Rance grew into it, I wanted them to still coordinate and I had a little of the plaid fabric left so I made this outfit for Anthony. It was "John" from Basics for Boys II by Children's Corner. I liked how the shorts buttoned on the shirt and how you could personalize it.


This is the close-up of the personalized name plate. Yes, it is hand-stitched (I didn't have an embroidery machine at the time). I didn't do too bad.


Of course, while I was at it, I made a name plate for Rance because I knew eventually Anthony would outgrow it and Rance would be able to wear it. I wanted to get more use out of it (I mean if I'm going to take the time and effort to make it, I wanted to get as much use out of it as I could).


Here is an outfit I made from Vogue Pattern #7504 (but I changed the smocking plate that I used).


This is an upclose shot of the smocking. I chose the "Yellow Jacket & Hornet" smocking plate by Ellen McCarn. I liked it because our local High School's mascot is BEES (and the smocking plate is a lot like the mascot) and the colors are black and gold. The Elementary School's mascot is HORNETS (the colors are green and gold). I got a lot of compliments on it.

Some Boys Clothes that I made

Remember from the last post that the clothes are wrinkled, still so. I took all the pictures the same day, but due to the time it takes to post, I couldn't get them all posted at once.


This bubble I made for Rance's first Christmas (2006). He had on white knee socks and white shoes.


I made this Jon-Jon for Anthony to wear Christmas of 2006. I put a long sleeve, white, turtle neck under it and he wore white knee socks with cute white toddler shoes.


I made Lee and Champ ties to match the little ones' outfits. Lee and Champ wore navy slacks and white shirts. Frank already had a shirt out of the almost exact same fabric (you had to look real close to see that it wasn't the same), he wore that shirt with navy slacks.

I remember I stayed up past one o'clock in the morning that year finishing the outfits. Christmas that year was on Sunday and I wanted all my boys to coordinate Christmas morning at church services. I had plans on making me a skirt to match, but that didn't happen. At least all my men matched. I will have to dig deep to see if I can find a picture of all of them together (I'm pretty sure I have one somewhere).

To see more, click here.

Boys' Clothes

First of all let me start with an apology. These clothes are wrinkled. The boys have outgrown them and I have them put away (to hopefully hand down to my grandkids someday) and all I did was pull them out of the box, put them on a hanger and take a picture.

If I was really nice, I would have ironed them first, but I don't like to iron. No wait, I loathe ironing. I do iron on ocassion, when I absolutely have to, but very seldom. [I figure with carseats, seatbelts, wiggly boys, it's going to be wrinkled by the time we get there anyway so why bother.]


This is the very first outfit I made (if I can say I made it). I made it (putting it lightly) when I was pregnant with Lee over 10 years ago. It was to be his 'Coming Home from the Hospital' outfit. My cousin helped me make it (or should I say I helped her make it?). She did probably 75% of it because I had no idea what I was doing (I just did what she told me - when I could and when I couldn't she helped me out A LOT!). I'm proud of it non-the-less. It is made with heirloom fabric. It doesn't really have a pattern, she took the collar from one pattern she had, took the sleeves from another pattern, and the bubble (or body part) from another pattern and put them all together for me. (She is very talented.)


I love navy and white together (those were the colors of my wedding). So this is the first "hand smocking" that I did. I started out simple, with one color, a small size (I didn't want to get discouraged and quit before it was finished). This outfit was made from the pattern 'Corey's Bubble' from Maja's Heirlooms.


Here is a closeup of the hand smocking. Don't look too close (it was my first attempt). If you are good at hand smocking I'm sure that you will find lots of imperfections (but that's what makes it one of a kind and handmade). Besides, I'm sure they didn't even notice. The smocking plate was 'Weigh Anchor' by Angel Wears.

To see more click here and here.

More Boy Stuff

This outfit is brick red and ecru gingham with an apple applique out of brick red pinwale corduroy. The shirt is ecru with the brick red corduroy for piping around the collar and the sleeves.


Yes, I made it reversible. This side is the brick red pinwale corduroy. I made this outfit for my niece's wedding. Anthony was a flower boy in the wedding. One of my nephews was also a flower boy in the wedding so I made Andrew the same outfit (I lined his with the red and ecru lining, but I didn't make his reversible). They wore the solid color at the wedding. The wedding was in October of 2007.


This is Morgan (another nephew - I have 11 nieces and nephews), Anthony (in his outfit) and Lee (my oldest). Morgan and Lee were going to walk down with Anthony and Andrew because we didn't know if they (the 2 little ones) would walk down by theirselves. Anthony was willing, but Andrew wasn't.


This is Anthony holding his brand new cousin, Danika, at the wedding. (Yes, he has this huge cut, bump, bruise on his forehead.)


This is Andrew (Danika's older brother) at the wedding in the outfit that I made.


This was an outfit that I made a couple of years ago. I am a big fan of Jon-Jons, I just think they are so cute. The sail boat that is appliqued on the front is from the same green and white gingham that it is lined with (actually I made it reversible - I love reversible, you get twice the use out of one outfit). The shirt has the same green and white gingham as the applique for the piping around the collar.

Both of the above outfits are 'Will' by Collars Etc., regular front, short jumpsuit.

For more boy stuff, click here.

Boy Stuff

Amanda at How Far We've Come suggested that I show some boy things (when she commented on the pillowcase dress). [She and I both have 4 boys.]

What a great idea! Why hadn't I thought of that? To be honest that's the reason that I started sewing about 4 years ago. When I would go into the store, there would be 1 rack of boy's clothing for every 10 racks of girl's clothing. Why can't boys dress cute too (without looking sissy)? So I began to try to sew (my mother years ago had taught me the basics, but I never pursued it). A lot of what I have sewn is trial and error (teaching myself more than just the basics and trying to remember the basics because I forgot a lot over time).

The thing about boys is you can only sew for them a little while. (Once they are potty trained jon-jons are not real practical.) And they get to a point that they don't want to look cute (sissy or not).

I have looked up some pictures of things that I have made in the past for my boys (and I will be looking up more pictures) and posting on them to give you mother's of boys some ideas.

Here is one of my favorites...

Pale yellow shirts with robin's egg blue collar and blue buttons on the front (buttons down the back are yellow), and matching robin's egg blue shorts. (I used heirloom fabric for the shirt and shorts.)



Here's Rance in the outfit (it just looked like he was posing).



Here are all 4 of my boys ready for church Easter Sunday (3 years ago, Easter of 2007). I like us all to coordinate. Lee and Champ had on light blue shirts and navy shorts (Frank had on a light blue Polo shirt and Navy dress pants and I had a light blue dress on).

The pattern is Diaper Shirt and Shorts #110 by Creations by Michie'. I love her stuff. It seems even in the sewing business there are 10 times more patterns for girls than boys, but Creations by Michie' has a great selection of boys' patterns. And they are so cute and different (not so cookie cutter). Michie' Mooney's have the heirloom look (which is what I love). Her patterns are also very easy to read, follow and make. They come together nicely.

You can buy her patterns here at Creations by Michie' or at specialty stores (like The Children's Corner and others). If you have girls, she has nice patterns for girls too.

I hope that my future DIL's will allow my grandkids to wear these outfits. (I plan on passing them down.) I like the idea that I may have created an heirloom. I'm very sentimental.

For more boy stuff, click here.