Project Run and Play - "Green" Challenge

I knew exactly what I wanted to do for this challenge.

I've already mentioned how when we were in Florida for Spring Break we saved a broken beach chair from a trash can on the beach.  Well, the cover was all that was saved.  I love the bright colors.  It looks brand new, except the rivets were rusted.  

I knew that beach chair was going to become a pair of shorts, and that's what happened.

I made a pair of flat front shorts for Delsin. 

I also put a pocket on one side of them.

Years ago I bought Daniel a green t-shirt and when he got a stain on it he didn't want it anymore, so I stashed it away in my fabric room till one day it would find it's way into a project.  That day came today.

Using one of Delsin's existing shirts I cut this one down to size and hemmed all the raw edges.  Then, out of leftover fabric that I made his shorts out of, I cut out some surf boards and appliqued them onto the shirt.  Finally, I embroidered "Surf's Up!" onto the shirt.

For the last article of clothing, his white button up shirt, I took an old fitted sheet that I used when we had a king sized bed. 

 (Here's a picture of Kai laying on the bed posing for Christmas pictures, back in 2006.)

 I bleached this shirt for 8 hours by submerging it into a bucket of bleach/water mixture.

Once I assembled the shirt I monogrammed his initials onto the pocket.

I love how this shirt can go with this outfit, or with slacks for a dressier look.

This has been one of my favorite projects to do. 

Project Run and Play Week 2 Sportswear Challenge

For spring break, last month, the kids and I went down to Florida with Grandma, Grandpa Bill, Aunt Becky, and cousins.  During this trip Delsin found this abandoned, very cool, boogie board with a picture of a shark on it.  (seen below)  He begged me to figure out a way to bring it back home for him, and I said I would.  

This boogie board, coupled with the fact that Delsin is all about "swim team" for the summer is where I got my inspiration from for this week's challenge.

I knew I wanted to do something around swimming for the sportswear challenge.  I was heavily leaning toward making swimming trunks with some fabric I took off of a broken beach chair while on that same trip, but ultimately I know that Delsin won't get a lot of use out of another pair of swim trunks.  He's got plenty of swimming trunks already and I know that he'll always choose his Batman swimming trunks over my up-cycled beach chair, so I think I'll save that fabric for next week's challenge.  But I know he's going to want something to cover up with that looks cool, when he's done with his swim meets and so I decided to make him a warm up suit that he'll love.  I hope the judges for Project Run and Play like it as much as he does.

Whenever I do Project Run and Play I like to keep two things in mind: 1. Make something I would have already planned to make and 2. Use fabric I already have on hand, if possible.

So I started trying to think of what colors Delsin would like his warm up suit to be in.  School colored outfits are always the most popular outfits in our hometown and Delsin is always asking for more than what he has, so I decided to go with purple and gold (or yellow as it really is).  I have plenty of purple knit, but no yellow knit.  I plenty of both in satin and know that the backside of this satin is the perfect feel of the type of lightweight fabric I would want to use, anyway.  This will be great for keeping the breezes off of his wet skin without making him hot on summer nights.  So I made the outfit using the back side of the purple satin.  I used the front side of the yellow satin to give a little pop.  I wanted to be sure to add Delsin's initials because we all love personalized articles of clothing around here and it adds a nice little special touch. 

I wanted to be sure the top was a pull-over with the neck opening large enough for his head to fit through, so I made it a v-neck.  I wanted to put elastic in the cuff of the sleeves and the waist of the shirt.  Adding striping to the sleeves and pants gave it a sporty look.  But our favorite feature is the unexpected shark.  First, there is a bite in his side, as to indicate that he has been bitten by a shark.  Then I made sure the shark hung around by clamping on to his rear-end.  We got a kick out of this.  And it goes perfectly with his love of sharks too.

The pants are large enough to fit comfortably over his swimming trunks without any restrictions.  

He was so happy about his outfit that he wore it to school today.  

That's a good day.

Kai's Circle Skirt Remix

Kai wanted to make a circle skirt with her new sewing machine that she got for Christmas.

Since it was made within the deadline she wants to enter it into the Project Run and Play competition as well.

So we are competing against each other.  How exciting!

When I asked her how she wanted her skirt to look she said she wanted a layer of pink and a layer of something else.  I let her go into my sewing room and pick out her own fabrics.

She used pink satin on the top layer and the red with pink flowers and green dots for the bottom layer, but when cutting the fabric she accidentally (or I should say "we") reversed the pattern pieces for each fabric.  I think it was a great mistake though.  She used pink satin to make the casing for the elastic and I hemmed the layers for her.  

She was so excited that when the next Monday came around she couldn't wait to wear it to school.
She paired it with a pink petti skirt for fullness.
She said all of her friends asked to borrow her skirt.

Project Run and Play Week 1: Circle Skirt Remix

Circle Squared:

When the theme was announced I immediately thought of remixing the pattern to be a square skirt.

Not being a fan of dresses and skirts that have a bunch of points hanging down I decided to put my square layers over a circle.  This stays true to the "circle skirt" while adding more geometry  and interest.
So I used three different colors of the same or similar prints.  I added a top made from the pink print and monogrammed it by embroidering her first initial on the front. Knowing that she'll want to wear it to school, and remembering that some sort of sleeve is required by the dress code, I took the blue circle that was a result of my cutting the waist and halved it to make the flared capped sleeve.