Friday, September 23, 2011

Sewing for Boys--Goodnight Sweetheart PJ's

As a (possibly biased) mom to a charming, funny, and super cute boy, I'm always excited to learn about new fabric lines and patterns for boys.  Anyone who has ever looked for cute, stylish, and boy-friendly sewing supplies online or in stores knows that it can be a real challenge to find things worthwhile.  Naturally, when I found out the team behind Patterns by Figgy's, Shelly Figuora and Karen LePage were releasing a book of patterns and projects specifically for boys, I flipped out a little bit.  Okay, a lot.  Finally, the book, called Sewing for Boys, is available and I've gotten my hands on a copy.  I have been sewing like crazy!  There are so many great projects in the book and the best part is is that even though each project is full of special finishing techniques that add up to a professional and stylish finished garment, they're also all simple enough in design to allow for each sewist to create a very personalized wardrobe for her child.  And that's really what sewing clothes at home is all about.


A little about the fabric I used for these little pajamas:  Recently, my husband, son, and I moved to a new town.  The move has been nice because it's closer to Nathan's job and it got us out of Toledo and into a smaller community.  The town we're in has a little "downtown" area that has several small businesses including one called Beeker's General Store.  Beeker's is a sweet, nostalgic general store that has been in business for over 130 years.  It reminds me of the Olsen's store in Little House on the Prairie.  Anyway, they have a small selection of fabric behind one of the counters and I happened to see this cowboy print by Michael Miller among the more traditional calicos that they stock.  I think I'm the only person  who has ever purchased this particular fabric from them because the sales lady gave me a look when I said I wanted 2 yards of it.  Oh well.




These PJ's show off a perfect example of the detail within the patterns I was talking about.  I love the piping around the facing on the pajama tops and the faux fly on the bottoms.  For me, these things also helped me to learn new skills to employ when sewing other projects in the future.  I mean, how sweet does that faux fly look?  I always thought that it would be so hard to create, and fortunately I've had the opportunity to discover that it's really quite simple.


One other thing I've really been enjoying about the new place is our clothes line.  It's the perfect spot for pictures of finished projects!