Just A Jersey

Little Mister loves his new shirt. When he saw it, he said, "Mom, I need to wear this shirt for baseball!". He was very excited.

What does it say Mom?

Silly faces with sis

Look what I found

The pattern I used was "Just A Jersey" from Blank Slate Patterns. You can see it here. I loved this pattern. It was easy to cut out (4 pattern pieces for six pieces total, plus the two numbers). I think the most difficult part was appliquéing the numbers on. The pattern gave great directions on how to do this. I did make some felt bean bags with numbers, that gave me a bit more confidence. However, even without doing that the directions were clear enough it was easy. The shirt took just a few hours.

I love the shirt, its look and its ease of use so much. It's nice to have some fun, yet easy, options for boys. In fact, if little mister didn't already have enough shirts, I would consider making a different colored one for each day of the week. Variety is said to be the spice of life, though. I'll just have to wait until next year to make another one. And maybe make one for my friend's son in the meantime.

The Madonna Ruffle Top

Little Miss loves her new shirt. It's pink and it has a tutu! In her world, shirts don't get much better than that.

Up A Tree

Skip to My Loo

Time Out

The pattern for the shirt was "The Madonna Ruffle Top" from Shwin Designs.  You can find the link here.  The directions were good and the pattern was fairly simple. I loved all the pictures. Since I hadn't sewn on knit in years (decades), I'm glad I bought matching thread. That way when things were a bit off, it didn't show and I didn't have to unpick. Having never used a double needle before, I was a bit nervous. However, I did a couple of test runs, adjusted the tension, and went for it.

The results looked great. The ruffles were easy to cut out, but tedious. I think next time I'm going to use my curing mat, ruler, and rotary cutter to speed up the process. I'm also going to mark on the bodice where each row of ruffles' top should line up, before I start sewing any ruffles on. As mentioned above, I loved the look of the double needles. However, my machine's manual mentions using a cord when sewing it to help with the tension. Next time I'd like to try using the cord.

This was a fun pattern to sew. A little bit time consuming due to all the gathering of the ruffles, but not bad. Little Miss loves it so much and is in need of a new dress or two. I have extra of this fabric, so I'm planning on lengthening it a bit, possibly flaring the skirt out and adding a few more layers of ruffles. I think I'll make the ruffles a bit bigger and spread them out a bit more for the skirt portion. If I make another shirt, I plan on leaving it just as it is.