Handmade Boy: 2019

Pajama Party

It's a pajama party hosted by Project Run & Play!

Christmas always means new pajamas for Thomas and my niece and nephews and so joining in on this pajama party was a no brainer when I was invited!

Above I state that Christmas means pajamas, but in truth, it's Thanksgiving and pajamas for our family. 8 years ago, my nephew, who's birthday is December 28, was approaching his first Christmas. That same year, my sister was due to have my niece, right around Christmas. (She was born Christmas Eve!!) At Thanksgiving that year, I gave my sister and brother handmade stockings for my nephew and niece to have for Christmas. I loved surprising them so much, that the following year, I made them each a pair of Christmas pajamas, and gifted them to my niece and nephew at Thanksgiving dinner so they would have them for Christmas morning. And like that, a tradition was born! Every year since, I have made them, along with my son, pajamas for Christmas morning and gifted them to them at Thanksgiving dinner. And each year, when they come to my house to celebrate Christmas, they wear their jammies.

This year, my niece and nephew even wore their pajamas from 2018 to Thanksgiving.

In 2018 I used Peek-a-Boo Pattern's Little Long Johns for all the kids. I've used them a couple times for this project. The kids LOVE one piece jammies still. (PS, this pack of kids grew a TON in a year!!)

Sadly, I couldn't find pictures of every year. I know they are probably on my old laptop, but I just didn't find the time to boot it up to search. So, you get just a few years down memory lane for me.

Christmas Jammies 2013 was the first time I used the Little Long Johns.

I used the butt flaps that year and they were just too cute on the little ones!!!

2015 was the year of the mix match mess. Absolutely zero rhyme or reason that year. But the kids still looked cute! I know the pattern on my nephews (far left and the baby) were Peek-a-Boo Cozy Feet. I can't remember what I used for my son and niece that year.

2107 was probably my favorite set. I loved the muted Christmas pallet I used to create their North Pole flight pajamas. The fabrics used were from the Purple Seamstress. My niece is wearing Love Notions Wrigley Raglan. My nephew has on Love Notions Samson (the raglan shirt) Thomas has on the Vanguard shirt I believe and he has Moto Maxx pants. I can't remember the patterns used for my toddler nephew or my older nephew's pants. HTV files were found on Etsy and sadly no longer available.

This year I went classic Christmas pajamas, with a fun little twist on a few of the shirts! I added some heat transfer vinyl to match each of the older three's personalities. The youngest got a fun full stripe pajama set.

Thomas is soooo NOT a morning person. But he is on Christmas! He laughed so hard and yelled "It's so true!" when he opened his pajamas at Thanksgiving.

I used New Horizon's 11th Hour Gear shirt and Peek-a-Boo's Essential Sweats for the cozy fleece bottoms.

Next up is my older nephew. He has Love Notions Vanguard Shirt and Moto Maxx bottoms for his pajama set. He love video games and this dino reminds me of a video game icon.

Making this design perfect for my gamer nephew!

And now my only niece! I used Love Notions Classic Tee and Leggin's for her pajamas. She is in full crazy cat lady mode, head over heals in love with her new kitten. Meowy Christmas was a must on her shirt!

She LOVES the fit of the Leggin's more than any other pair in her closet. Or so she tells me anyway. I size up one size because she doesn't like her clothes really tight and use the elastic size for her actual measurement. The result are her perfect Leggin's!

And last, but never least, my youngest nephew. He has a full stripe set. And truth is, I had intended on all of their pajamas looking like this set. Buuuuttt, I didn't order enough fabric, so I was forced to get creative. And like usual, I love the results of being force off my original plan!

The stripes just work for his spunky, slightly mischievous personality, so I think this is a win all around!

All fabrics this year came from Peek-a-Boo Fabrics. And while they weren't a sponsor, I am a long time, super repeat customer and highly recommend them. :) The shirt designs were created by me, inspired from searches on Pinterest.

Who loves party favors????!!!!

Hope over to Project Run + Play and sign up for their newsletter! When you sign up, you will receive a free digital pajama design!

My little nephew in the stripes is ALL about bears and NEEDS that hi"bear"nate one! And "Sleep Mode" is perfect for my older nephew!!

Which one is your favorite?

Boys Can Wear Pink Season 5

We are back for season 5 of Boys Can Wear Pink! I can hardly believe we kicked this fun even off five years ago! Thomas was so little!!!

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane.

Season 2, he still pretty much let me sew whatever I liked. He had his opinions, but they were simple requests to meet. He would wear a button down, but he wanted it to have soft sleeves and a hood is always a plus with him.

Season 3 he went more subtle with this awesome rainbow zebra print.

Season 4, he was back to bold. He fell head over heals for this screaming pink octopus print that he still wears all the time.

And that brings us to this year. Season 5

Where did his baby face go?!?!

Thomas is 8 now and he has some strong opinions on what he will wear. And what he won't.

And he loves this shirt. I took a chance and sewed it without running the idea by him first. When I showed it to him, he snatched it up and hugged it and said "If you have me try it on, you will NOT be getting it back!" Well, it still needed hemmed, so we didn't try it on just yet. ;)

Luckily it fit!! I used my pattern Driftwood that I released with Love Notions last summer. If you don't have the pattern, you should get it. ;) The men's version, Dockside is releasing today! Can you say matching father/son polos and henleys for Father's Day?

So the shirt was a hit! I really was afraid this would be handed down to my niece next week. (She's next in line for the hand me downs on shirts.) Sorry sweet girl, you can have it later.

The shorts though. He's "eh" about them.

And that's cool. I'm okay with that. Again, I took a chance on fabric. He really doesn't care for the feel of most denims and he thumbs downed this as soon as I opened it based on feel alone. However, a trip through the washer and dryer softened it up considerably and he was more open to them. They have a knit waistband, so that helps out a lot as well. I used Love Notions Vanguard pants and chopped the pattern pieces to shorts length just above the knee pleats, then rolled them because I wanted a relaxed 80's pink denim vibe. He said he would wear them, but I know he would love them more if I used a knit.

Overall, he really likes his outfit and says he will wear it. Hooray!!! Another year of success!!

For the record, my 21 year old son is really jealous about that floral shirt. I so wish I would have had more than just some scraps left of that fabric!

Thanks for joining us on the tour!! Below are the awesome bloggers who are sewing and blogging right along with me. Some have been with me since Season 1!! Please go visit them and leave some love on their blogs!