Dressing Up!

The boys were invited to a good friend's fairy princess party last week and were very keen to dress up, as long as it wasn't anything fairy princessy!  My suggestion of going as Prince Charming(s) didn't go down too well either, so Superman and Batman were it.  The boys were gifted a Superman and Batman costume awhile ago and have since outgrown those, but still want to dress up as them whenever they can. 

I decided it would be pretty easy, and fairly inexpensive, to make them some capes, instead of buying a whole costume, with the thought of applique-ing a couple of t-shirts with logos to match.  The capes were made using the pattern in Meg McElwee's Growing Up Sew Liberated, I just omitted the hood on both capes and did a reverse scallop pattern on the bottom of Batman's cape.  Those points took some time to turn out, but I got there in the end!  

Of course I left the tees till the last minute and headed to the shops to buy the plain tees the afternoon before the party, but fortunately stumbled across some ready made tees for just a few dollars more than the plain tees!  I relaxed my never-buying-licenced-clothing rule this time and bought them before I could change my mind... The boys had a great time at the party and are loving dressing up whenever possible!

The Pyjama Sweatshop!

Not really but I have churned out four pair of pyjamas for the boys over the last few days and that's about all I've managed to achieve.  Of course when I went to dig out my Slumber Party Jammies pattern, I couldn't find it!  So I had a look through my other patterns and books and decided to try the Goodnight, Sweetheart pattern from  Sewing For Boys...

I really just wanted a basic long pant pattern as they've outgrown the last one I used, so I omitted the faux fly detail but kept the cuffed legs as I love that they can be let down to accomodate future growth spurts.  As it happens, I ran out of navy thread so dashed to the shops for some, taking Mr 3.5 with me, who then spotted some fabric he wanted made into pyjamas too, and I spotted a dinosaur print cotton for Mr 5, who is obessed with dinosaurs right now.  And that's how I ended up making four sets of pants and buying more fabric instead of sticking to the stash busting plan!

The only way to make these two normally very active boys sit still long enough for a photo is to turn the TV on!  An extra special treat before they're dressed for the day!!  Below is the cuff detail I'm loving, which is only sewn up at a couple of points so once they're let down you don't end up with needle holes the whole way around...  Not that I think the boys would notice, but I will appreciate it when I come to letting them down next year - or sometime before then!

And the stash busting is going surprisingly well, apart from the addition of the fabrics for the other pyjamas... so stay tuned for some more pics of the stash being reduced.  I'm also hoping that along the way I can try some of the hundreds of tutorials and ideas I have pinned and so achieve the whole 'two birds, one stone' thing!!