Sharing Saturday

This Last month has been busy!   First of all my husband, Jerome, started his Summer classes at college, we only have two more until hes done, yay! He also found a teaching job at a local high school that will start in August which I am super happy about! Things will be tight but at least we will have an income again and not be living off loans.

My oldest two boys have birthdays on the same day (crazy right?) and Preston's is just two week later so we always celebrate them together. They love it and we have a big family party so its fun for all of them! I hope they continue to love it as they get older but I know there's a good chance they will want want more individuality as they get older.

Carter was also baptized he was so proud, excited and scared, he is my sensitive boy.

Jerome took the boys camping and it snowed. Ha! I was very happy I didn't go, lol! They loved it and weren't cold since they slept in the car. My boys are true boys and get dirty so this was a dream trip for them. I'm so glad Jerome had the time off of school to be able to take them.

The last big thing is that school ls out! I am so excited to have my kids home! I love having them home and being able to have freedom for the summer!

Sew Boy May 2015

Time for Sew Boy! 

Here are my latest pins on Pinterest:

image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4, image 5, image 6

 Now for the new things I have found!

 

Are you planning a road trip this summer or visiting family and friends? Then this pillow is just what you need! Go here for the tutorial!

 My boys love to dress up in the Summer! this tutorial is for a Dragon cape check out the tutorial here!

Melissa's tutorials are great and this one for a Henley Placket is no exception. Go here for the tutorial!

 

This tutorial is for a romper fraom a regular T-shirt pattern! SO handy and will fit just like your favorite Tee, check it out here!

This is the shirt all boys need for the Summer months, am I right, lol! Go here for the tutorial!

We'll see you next month!

Mens Shirt to shorts

Happy Memorial Day!

My Dad served in the Air force During Vietnam. My Grandfathers both fought or did war efforts during World War 2. I am honored by men and women who serve our country!

In my own way I wanted to honor those who have gone before by making something new out of something old; much like the army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or another division does when they transform a regular civilian into someone ready to serve and fight for our country.

I bring you :

To go from a Mens shirt to Shorts is really easy! When you are done you will have some really cute shorts that only took 30 minutes and reused something that would've been thrown out otherwise.

Parker is in dire need of shorts (all summer clothes really) so I whipped up these shorts in about 30 minutes. I always forget how satisfying sewing a simple pair of shorts is. I used a pattern from my Free Boy Patterns page its Summer shorts from Caila Made. The pattern is made for 2T but she has printing instructions for 18 months to 3T. In her post she mentioned that her child had a 18" waist and she made the 2T; so I knew the 18 months size would be better for Parker since his waist is 16".

I cut the shirt purposefully to use the existing pocket, I love doing that whenever possible, it adds character and saves time ;-)

When I am planing on using an existing piece from a shirt I always place the pattern on top and adjust it until I know that it will fit and not run into the seam allowance (unless that is part of the look I am going for :0), then I trace it to see if it looks good (I move the pattern piece) and then cut.

Parker wanted to sit in this little chair meant for dolls so bad! He tried so hard to fit his little bum in the chair but it was just too big, lol! He was very frustrated and couldn't understand why it wouldn't work!

His face is priceless after finally getting is cute little bum to rest on the arms!!

After he gave up on trying to get his bum in the chair he naturally decided it would make a good stool get on top of my bed, lol!

Give making shorts a try! Its seriously so easy :0)

I hope you all enjoy your memorial day!

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A little bit of real life home pictures

I have a project I have been working on all week and was going to show it to you today but just as I was coming to the end I ran out of interfacing, grrr. So naturally I went to the store to buy some and guess what? they were out of all interfacing as well! I mean what the heck!? I guess it wasn't meant to be posted today! ;0)

So instead I am going to share 2 projects we are working on in our home right now.

First is our master bathroom. The shower decided to go kaput and flood our floor so we needed to rip everything out and redo it. I'm really not complaining it wasn't in the best condition as you will soon see.

The bathroom is pretty small and longish shape  but I'm hoping our chages will make it look a little better when we are through.

Now I promise, promise the shower is super clean! Its just old, cheap and old. It had a major cracks in the bottom but we couldn't buy a new shower just yet so we tried to patch it up but didn't get the right paint, so it looks really bad. The patch job didn't last (go figure) and now we get to redo the whole thing because it flooded pretty good!

I'll be sharing updates on it when we finish...if we finish, lol!

Next is the boys room. Its been bad guys, so bad! All four boys share a room and even though there is plenty of space it is constantly a mess and they cannot keep their beds made, not even keep their sheets on!

I have a few ideas to change things up a bit and hopefully give the boys a place for all their things. I also will make some changes to their bedding.

They have sucjh a nice closet but I really haven't used it to its best capacity.I'm not entirely sure how to best use this space yet, I have a couple of ideas but it all needs to be able to fit in our super tight budget, so we'll see what actually happens..

Oh and do like our cheapo curtains? Those are courtesy of my husband who got tired of the boys complaints of it being to bright in their room so he grabbed some blankets and nailed them to the window. Yes its a red neck fix and no I wasn't happy and yet I still haven't changed it. real life folks that is all I can say.

Next time you see these rooms in their full glory I hope they will look better and more blog like ;-)

oh and I've been pinning some things here and there but if you have any ideas please, please share!

9 Free patterns for boys!

This weekend I added 9 new patterns to the Free Patterns for boys page! I am seriously amazed at how many I am finding for boys there used to be to barely any any and now there are so many to choose from and in a lot of sizes too!

Shwin has released a new pattern for these adorable baby leggings in size 3 months!

 

 Here is an excellent pattern for baby leggings in a larger size range of up to 2T!

 

 Running with scissors has a great pattern for toddlers sized 18 months!

 Blooms and bugs has a whole series using her own free pattern size 3T!

 

 These baby leggings can also be made into the cutest shorts! size 6-12 months.

Need a summer tank for your boys? This is sized 6-7 perfect for the older boy ;-)

  

 A simply adorable button-up shirt for Summer wear and comes in a great size range of 2 to 6 years!

I love Melissa's patterns and this is for a free Punk vest size 5 years!

This shirt has a cowl neck s and looks totally awesome! size 5T Perfect for cool Summer nights :0)

Classic Oxford Shirt

You guys, I am so excited about this shirt! Really, really excited, like jumping up and down and squealing excited! I made this shirt and I can't believe it!

 Preston had Cowboy day at school last week. I was thrilled when I realized that I not only had a good pattern but I also (by some miracle) had fabric that was perfect for a Cowboy day!

 

  Preston wasn't too happy about the shirt that morning and was kind of difficult to deal with. Looking back I can see that he was embarrassed by all the attention I was giving him over his shirt and was nervous for the up-coming activities that day.

Sometimes I forget that being, almost, six is hard. There is a lot of uncertainty in Kindergarten with questions like, "Is there really a vampire that will grab you if you go past the fence?" "Will my word-time-machine take me away from my family...forever?" "Will my pretend Robot win the pretend Robot battle at recess?" Those are the questions of life that consume a six-year-old boys mind.

 Preston was happy that there was a pocket so he can put his treasures (meaning bugs) inside. After finding that out he was much better to deal with, lol!

 I was careful to put the singing cowboy on the pocket and did some tricky cutting to get it exactly where I wanted it ;0)

 I am so impressed with this pattern! Look at how well the inner collar turned out? After I read through the directions I went ahead and made the shirt without making a muslin first, sometimes that is risky but in this case it worked perfectly.

  I never in 100 years thought I would be capable of making a shirt this nice! It honestly is better made than my boys church shirts that are store bought. For years my standard of a good sewing job was to compare to store bought but now I realize how cheaply made most of those items are.

There is even a pleat and yoke in the back! I am seriously so pleased with the outcome of this shirt and I already have an idea of others I want to make :0)

Pattern details: I used peek-a-boo patterns Classic Oxford button-Up shirt pattern which starts at 3 months and goes up to 12 years. Preston's chest was measuring between the 4T-5T but in length he needed a 6. After looking at pictures and reading it was a slim fit shirt I went ahead and made a 6 without any changes, I think that the fit turned out perfect. I am so pleased that this shirt goes up to a 12 my two older boys have outgrown some of my favorite pattern makers and peek-a-boo patterns size range is a major bonus!

The only part I had a lot of trouble with was the way the directions have you do the pocket I could not figure it out (ok so I read it a few times and tried once) but that is really a small detail and I just did it my own way. I had to read how they did the yoke a few times but it is worth the extra time to figure it out, it really makes it look nice the way the pattern has you do it!

The fabric is from Michael Miller and here is some on amazon if you are looking for some.

*This post contains affiliate links, however all opinions are my own.*