Do-do-do-DO!!!

A few months ago I was trying to think of something to make for my 4-year-old nephew, Toby. At that time I still hadn't been successful at many boy clothes and since I haven't actually seen him in person since just after his 2nd birthday, I decided to go with something fun instead. I figured he'd appreciate anything more than a boring ol' pair of pants anyways. I settled on a super-hero cape because what little boy doesn't want to be a superhero?! With some input from Toby's mom, I created this awesome purple & orange (his favorite colors) Captain T-Man cape. It's reversible, and I gave him a lightning bolt as a symbol because I hear that he's got a fair bit of energy.

I'm actually looking forward to Oscar (or Irene!) getting into the superhero phase so I can make another one!

Animalwearing Revolution

My daughter loves to play "umma" ('Mommy' in Korean). Not so much to her dolls though. No, my daughter has just one special little one: her puppy...aptly named "Puppy" (we're a creative bunch here...my son's best buddy is a sheep named "Sheep") Because they saw me carry their younger brother around in my carrier everywhere we went for the first 10 months of his life, naturally carrying their "babies" was something they wanted to do. Irene was content using our discarded Baby Bjorn when Johan outgrew it, her apron, Oscar's overalls...pretty much anything that would hold that puppy to her chest, but I had another idea.
My first attempt at making an animal carrier for my kids was a semi-success. I wanted it to be simple enough that they could get in and out by themselves. I ended up with this cut-off apron style seen above. It had one strap that just went around the neck and another that could be tied behind the back (naturally I'd have to tie it but once tied it could easily be slipped on and off.) While Oscar's carriers seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, Irene's animal carrier has gotten considerable use in the past few months, but it's limitations were quickly made obvious - it doesn't work so well as a back carrier. (think noose around the neck!) So, I've finally gotten around to revising my design and created the following:

I presented it to Irene yesterday afternoon and she was thrilled. It now fits more like a backpack with an adjustable hip strap held together by velcro and two shoulder straps. I had to add the chest strap because the actual square of material was quite wide due to the awkward shape of her "baby"and as a result I was worried that the straps wouldn't stay on her shoulders. All in all, I'm quite satisfied with the carrier. She loves it, I love the material (cute little stuffed elephants), and it's got room to grow so hopefully it should last a while!

Trains to Go

I probably shouldn't even include this little project on this site. It's not one of my proudest moments but it's so darn cute (in theory) I can't resist. As I mentioned in the last post, I really want to make more things for the boys since most of what i sew is cute dresses & tops for Irene. Of course I love my children equally, but it's just so much more fun & easy to make girls' clothes! So for Oscar's 3rd birthday a few months ago, I was determined to sew him something he'd love. I came across this great tutorial at another super-awesome sewing/crafting blog, Homemade by Jill, that I enjoy. The only thing that Oscar loves more than cars is trains, so I decided to mix it up a bit and go with a train/bus/car motif. Again, I had picked up this great fabric from our time in Japan (oh, to have been in Japan with my sewing machine! *sigh*)

It didn't come out as planned in that the pockets were either too small to fit the cars/trains or else they were too big and everything fell right out. I think if I had made one less pocket, made them deeper, and then added a row of thin elastic to the top of the pockets it would have worked much better. I would also make a much sturdier velcro strap to hold it closed. I don't know what I was thinking with that one. But, in the end it turned out to be a non- issue anyways because he took one look at it and threw it in the toy pile, never to be looked at again. Maybe in a year or two he'll get it back out and think it's the greatest thing ever. Or maybe not. But at least my conscience can rest a little easier knowing that, hey, I tried!