sewing for boys – Sew Gr8ful

Dinosaurs & Brazilian Performance

My son loves dinosaurs and shorts in French Terry. So, when So Sew English came out with a new Dino print on French Terry, it was an immediate purchase.

The last few pairs of shorts I have made for him, have all been without pockets. He loves pockets, but I don’t love the surprises those pockets leave behind in my washing machine. He really, REALLY wanted pockets in this pair, and informed me that he was now 7 and had a better memory. Even though Daddy is way older than 7 and still forgets. 🤣

He likes the fit of the Pattern Niche 11th Hour Gear Shorts and I love how quick of a sew it is. I always double check measurements before sewing and saw he had moved up a size, so I ended up needing to redo my pattern pieces. I’m glad I checked though, because he loves the shorts and we have a long summer ahead of us.

Since he heard his sister picking her shorts length, he wanted to as well, fortunately his desired length was really close to the pattern length so it was as simple as taking a smaller hem allowance. You can read about how I used this same pattern to make my daughter a pair of shorts a few weeks back, here.

Naturally our puppy, who is almost 6 months now, needed a matching scARF (a.k.a. super soft bandana). I had a two yard cut and was easily able to get both his shorts and the scARF out of it.

If you read my last few posts, you know I’ve been interested in trying new to me fabric bases, so I decided to try out the Brazilian Performance Rib from So Sew English for a matching top. The rib is listed as a horizontal rib, but upon arrival I noticed that it only had around 25% stretch horizontal and around 100% vertical, so I chose to use it as a vertical rib. Unfortunately my camera had a hard time photographing the rib, but the mint color is a perfect complement to the shorts.

On the right side of the fabric, there is a definite rib, and the wrong side is smooth. My son is a little sensitive when it comes to things being soft or having texture, so I wasn’t sure how he would like the rib as the neckband. After wearing, he said he doesn’t mind it, but it isn’t as soft as his Double Brushed Poly or other performance shirts, and that they are his favorites.

The fabric sewed up well, but I did notice that hemming was a bit odd on my machine, with all the ribbing. When compared to other performance fabrics I have used, it feels a little stiffer, again, because of the ribbing.

My husband wants a shirt in it to try too, I knew I should have gotten 2 yards instead of one.

I can’t get over how cute they look together 😍😍.

I used our normal go to t-shirt pattern, the Jalie 2918.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through that link, I may get a % back, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my sewing 💕

But first, photos!

Ever since I started sewing, I would take pictures of my makes and log the details in a notebook. It is fun to look back and see what you have made and how you have improved over the years. It’s also crazy helpful having details written out when they request the “exact same thing” a year later. Since this is my norm, my family knows, I will request photos of whatever I make for them, before they can have them. Cruel I know 😂.

I made the “mistake” of making my husband new shirts for him to wear under his work clothes, and he loved the fabric so much, he requested several others, in his favorite regular t-shirt pattern. For his work under shirts, I recreated his old store bought ones and saved a bunch of money. (You can see the full video tutorial here ). The work undershirts, are a much tighter fit, but for these new ones, he wanted a traditional, relaxed, t-shirt fit.

I pulled out our trusty t-shirt pattern, the Jalie 2918. Not only is this our most used mens t-shirt pattern, but it is also our most used t-shirt pattern for my son, yes, it has both mens and boys sizes included in one pattern! Naturally, my son wanted to have a few matching shirts with my husband, so they picked a few fabrics together. Not gonna lie, watching my guys fabric shopping together was amazing 💕

This is such a quick sew (you can see a time-lapse video of me sewing up one of these here), and with the large size range and pattern options, it really makes it cheaper than purchasing store bought.

First up was this University Red dry-fit from The Fabric Fairy. This is the same fabric base I used for my husband’s black undershirts. I purchased 2 yards and was able to get both a shirt for my husband and son. My guys love how smooth it feels and the moisture wicking properties are a major selling feature for them, especially since they are always outside doing something active and we live in the hot desert.

They also chose the Royal colorway of the same fabric. There is a slight difference in the feel between the red and blue, but nothing significant and they didn’t even notice it.

My husband wanted a few more tops and picked out two other fabrics from my So Sew English stash. First up was this Sage performance. It feels a little slicker/stiffer than the Nike dry-fit, but again, it’s so minimal, he didn’t notice it.

And the second stash pick, was this Silver Yoga performance, with added HTV. I’ve only done HTV a few times and this one was a learning experience for me. Plus all the weeding! But seeing him wash, wear, and repeat, was totally worth it.

Because of my “Photo First” rule, they were not able to wear most of them for a few weeks. It was such torture, but they finally gave me some pictures when we went camping a few weeks ago. Then proceeded to wear the shirts the entire time 😂

Since there are a couple other color ways of the Nike dry-fit in stock at the Fabric Fairy, they have requested a few more shirts. My daughter fell in love with the feel of the fabric too, so I used the pinkfire colorway for a new tank for her. Which you can read about here.

He has a list for me

A few months ago we ( meaning I), decided it was time to go through the kids drawers and closets to see what they had grown out of or had worn out. They were requesting new clothes so I told them they could clean things out and we could make a list of what they needed. Both kids returned with long lists. My daughter had hers all written out and even had fabric requests. My son, had pictures drawn. I’m talking long lists people.

I was surprised. I mean, I knew they had been growing quite a bit, but these lists seemed pretty extensive. So I had them show me their drawers and low and behold, they were pretty empty. This mystery was solved a short time later when I found the piles of clothing they hid, in order to request new clothes. It’s okay, you can laugh, I did. I also take it as pretty special when they were asking me to sew things to replace store bought things, since they like my things better.

After paring down the list to actual needs, it was time to get started, a few months later. 😂 The first up on my sons list was some shirts. He has a few favorite patterns from the past and asked if I could make new ones just like them, but bigger.

He went fabric shopping and picked out his fabrics. All these fabrics are double brushed poly and from So Sew English Fabrics.

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We used the Moto Maxx tee from Love Notions for this one. The pattern has several options and even includes a pants pattern. My son particularly loves the double sleeve look and that is what he picked for this one. He was really excited that the light blue SAM stripe matched the Navy/Aqua trucks print so well. I also did a short time lapse video sewing it up.

His next three picks are all from the same pattern. The Jalie 2918, mens and boys shirt. I love the fact that it has such a large size range. It has been made so many times for my son already, and I see many more as the years progress.

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For this long sleeve version, he picked some solid grey DBP from my stash and this deep navy MOTOMAX dbp. With the crazy growth he has been having, I decided to make his sleeves a little longer, in the hopes that it would last into winter.

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Since it is still pretty warm here, he requested one of his new shirts to be a short sleeve version. This makes it so he can wear it now and later with layers. This one is completely in the deep charcoal/neon green dinos DBP.

If you read my post about our trip to So Sew English fabrics back in April, you saw the airplane dbp and the red/navy vertical stripe dbp my son was given by Amanda. He asked for a shirt from the airplanes and wanted the stripes to be long sleeves with it. It was too hot already, so we did a short sleeve shirt from the airplanes and hung on to the stripes until now. We had enough left to make his long sleeve shirt, and hopefully enough to make his requested boxers next. The stripes are a vertical stripe, but since the stretch is so great in both directions, we flipped it to make the stripes horizontal.

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I thought that would cover most of his list, until he put on his jeans for these pictures. Whoops, I guess his list isn’t as short as I hoped. Thank goodness our weather is still good for shorts, it gives me some time to work on my daughters list first.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through that link, I may get a % back, at no additional cost to you. Let’s be honest, we all know it goes right back to adding to my fabric stash. All opinions on this blog are my own.

Camocozy – Hoodies for Two

When we went to California back in April, for our family vacation, we had the pleasure of visiting the So Sew English fabric warehouse. You can read about it here. While we were there, Amanda generously gave my kids some fabric. One of the fabrics my daughter picked was a spiral tie dye French Terry. As soon as we got home she told me she wanted it as a hoodie. Unfortunately, our weather was already too hot for hoodies, so it had to wait. A recent family camping trip to the mountains was the perfect opportunity for me to make her hoodie and she was even able to wear it a little.

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As she is getting older, she is developing her own style and I try to allow her to pick what she wants, as much as I can. It’s so fun to see how she pairs things and her personal style.

For this hoodie she picked the girls Tami Revolution from New Horizons Designs. It has several options for the hood; double hood, crossover hood, and standard hood. You can do a pullover option or have a front zip up. It has regular cuffs or thumbhole cuffs, and an optional shoulder accent zipper. You also have the option of doing no pockets, side inseam pockets, or a kangaroo pocket.

For her hoodie, she chose the pullover with a double hood, inseam pockets, and the regular cuffs.

Last year we got this pink quilted fabric from So Sew English and made her a vest with it. Fortunately we had enough left to use it as the coordinating fabric for her hoodie. The exact quilted is no longer in stock, but there are several other quilted options in stock currently. This pink was the perfect complement to the spiral tie dye and she chose to use it for the body and the inner hood.

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Since his sister was getting a new hoodie and he had another growth spurt, it was the perfect time to make my son a new hoodie too.

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He really liked the raglan sleeves on the Tami, but since it is a bit more shaped at his size, it wouldn’t have fit him quite right.

I asked the New Horizons team about the fit for him and they suggested mashing the Streamline Tee body with the Tami hood. It worked so well!!

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I simply did his size Streamline Tee and matched it with the similar size standard hood from the girls Tami Revolution. My son has a good size head and other hoodies have been snug for him to get over his head. This specific combo gave him room to get it over his head and with the overlap in the front, it keeps it from gapping and looking sloppy. The Streamline Tee is a standard raglan with both short and long sleeve options. Since it fits him so well we will definitely be making regular shirts from this pattern too.

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Just like his sister, he loves to shop for fabric in my stash and online. I have found he likes similar combos as I do, and in this case, he actually picked fabric I had been saving for myself.

This blue camo French Terry has been in my stash for several years and I am so happy I used it for him. It fits his personality to a T and he couldn’t be happier with the end result. He picked the blue brushed French Terry from last year, as the coordinate. He says they are both so soft and he is “camocozy”.

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When we were taking pictures, he kept telling me to “Take this pose Mom!” and “Here is another one!”. We had fun taking these pictures and I hope you enjoy his poses and looks as much as we did.

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The spiral tie dye French Terry is available in a bundle. The rest of the fabrics I used from So Sew English are currently out of stock, but there are several other quilted, brushed French Terry, and regular French Terry still available for you to create your own inspired combos.

Sewing for my son – Sawyer Shirt

My son loves when I sew for him. He enjoys picking out his pattern and shopping in my fabric stash. His favorite part is picking options though. I just love his reasoning behind what he picks too. This last sew was the newly released Sawyer shirt from Annelaine Patterns. I showed him the pattern and got his resounding approval. “Mom, I like that one, and I need a new shirt because I’m 5 now and I’m bigger.” It’s amazing all the things that have changed, now that he is five.

Annelaine patterns has a large size range (6 mon – kids 20) which I particularly love. Kids grow so fast and I like being able to use the same pattern repeatedly, it really makes sewing economical. The sawyer shirt is loaded with some great options too. There is the classic tee version, with sleeveless, short, standard or faux layered long sleeves. You have an optional placket, color blocking, lined or unlined hood, and pockets (inseam or circular kangaroo). You can either hem or cuff your sleeves and hem or band your bottom hem. I have no idea how many combos you can make with all of those options, I’d rather sew than do the math, but it really allows customization and talk about maximizing a patterns use even more.

The options my son picked were the classic tee, faux layered long sleeve, cuffed sleeves, and regular hem. Are you ready for his reasoning?? He likes hoods but since I just made him his Bubby and Bee hoodie, he wanted, “something different this time”. Then he said he likes two shirts on the sleeve but doesn’t like how, “the under shirt gets all twisty in my armpits and I can’t do this.” At which point he jumped up and down and waved his arms around. Ha ha ha, guys, this kid cracks me up. As for the cuffed sleeves, that was because they “hold up my sleeves when I’m eating food”, and the regular hem, he just liked the line drawing. Makes total sense to me.

Now on to his fabric choices. I will usually show him a few options when I’m ordering and allow him to pick some things for my stash. Then he has some options to choose from when we decide to make him something. He knows where most of his picks are located in my stash so it makes it quick for choosing. This time he picked the blue corey stripe double brushed poly and a solid black double brushed poly to go with. He really likes how soft double brushed poly is and I love how well it holds up. With the amount of washing his clothes get and the things that end up getting washed with his clothes (rocks, tissues, toy cars, etc), I appreciate things that stay bright and don’t get all pilly.

The best part of sewing for my son is his reaction when I finish and show it to him. He usually runs up and hugs it and asks if he can wear it. He has learned that I like to get pictures before he wears them, so he usually asks if we can do pictures, right now, so he can have it immediately.

Pictures with a 5 year old active kiddo can sometimes be a challenge and this time he asked if he could do a video instead. Who am I to say no if it helps him get his wiggles out? His video turned out so cute I just had to share, and note, no armpit twisting while he jumps around with his arms waving.

Enabler alert – the Sawyer shirt pattern is on release sale until Feb 5^th, so be sure to check it out before it ends. All fabric is from So Sew English Fabrics.

977A9E09-A105-46E5-8575-E469D0E76E5A — Love this faux sleeve detail!

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