kids clothing week: airplanes!

i shoulda used my new machine for this shirt. the applique and the neckline are pretty horrible.

eek!!

BUT! Little man helped me design the plane, the colors, and the number of placement of the engines. He could tell you what kind of planes these "are", I forgot. :(

Purple fabric is organic ribbed cotton from fabric.com, with contrast bits and bobs from the East Bay Center for Creative Reuse. The grey is not so nice, but it came pre-hemmed! pattern essentials are from Rae's flashback skinny tee.

what's your secret for pretty applique? do you always interface? tell me more!

dance it out, little man.

Kids clothing week: puppy jacket (?!?)

I used primp fabric from Girl Charlee, which is SOOOO SOFT with some disco spandex for contrast trim. There is no such thing (i think?) as sparkly ribbed trim, so i went all the way to discoland.

I made one for her sister last year, and improved a couple of things this time.

Firstly, if you use this pattern, SHORTEN THE CUFFS. they are like 10 inches long (for a kid's 5 inch hand? whuh?)!

the thumb hole is an awesome feature, but it gets awkward with the extra length on each side. I cut 2" from the top and bottom of the pattern piece, and pinched another inch from the center (see below). that's muuuuch. better.

another change I made was to eliminate the facing. who likes facings? for kids, too?? seriously. instead I just included a ribbon trim all the way along the seam where the hood meets the body of the jacket. Of course you could also use twill tape, if you happen to have enough in a complementary or contrasting color.

Include a lil hanging hook while you're at it!

Then, all of our "store bought" hoodies seem to have fabric tabs on their zippers, so i may add that too. What do you think??
 xobex