Max California: March 2013

Sunny Day, Everything's A-Ok!

By ari - March 29, 2013

13 Comments

If you haven't heard about the Sun & Surf blog tour by now, then I just don't know what I'm going to do with you! Let me fill you in real quick: A blog tour is where someone who has created a pattern, or fabric, or written a book, sends a bunch of blogs their product. Those blogs promote it, and it goes on a little tour, or a blog hop! Each day, one blog has the spotlight on them to show off what they made. Today it's my day for this particular tour!

The Sun & Surf Collection is brought to you by four amazing ladies in the 'sewing-for-kiddies' blogosphere, or as I like to label them on my reader, DIY Mamas! Together, Andrea, Kate, Melly & Shauna came up with an amazing collection together. They called their gang Pattern Anthology, and I'm pretty sure we will see more of these ladies {well I hope so anyway!}. There are more details at the base of this post, but for now do you wanna see what I made? Of course you do!

Let's start with the Surfer Slacks! I am a massive fan of See Kate Sew patterns {I have sewn the Sugar Plum dress over and over}, so it was a no-brainer to choose the Surfer Slacks when I was given the choice what to make.

I used a pair of second-hand jeans I bought at the op-shop. I've been making boy pants for a long long time now, and since he's in Kindy now I try and make him clothes that are going to stand up to his high-intensity playing {yeh man, in Australia it's government-approved pre-prep. He learns stuff! He's not a little kid anymore. He told me the other day he learned that a tree fell on all the dinosaurs and that is why they are instinct...}. So the jeans I bought were soft so he would be comfortable, and the denim had a bit of stretch to it. They were an adult's pair, and I managed to use pretty much the entire things as fabric for these slacks.

For the waistband and the cuffs I use a t-shirt my dad donated to me for my cutting-things-up-to-make-other-things obsession. It's like a blue grey, and super worn so it is so soft. I really wish these pants fit me because they are probably the most comfortable thing in Vince's wardrobe!

So see the part where there are no buttons on the back pockets? Yeh I DID have these cool orange buttons on, but then the fabric that I originally chose for the pullover didn't arrive in time and so in the end the orange just didn't cut it. I pulled them off, and meant to sew some more buttons on but I forgot. Oops! The buttons were part of my winnings for Project Run & Play from Lots Of Buttons. I chose mostly black buttons, but I had to get these orange ones for fun. They remind me of little orange slices.

These Surfer Slacks came up really easy and fast. I loved the little trick to get the back pockets rounded, although I changed up the way I finished them. The pattern gets you to stitch the pockets on, stitch the tabs on, then sew on the buttons. Since I like to use my machine to stitch my buttons on, I stitched the buttons to the pockets first, then attached them to the pants and then the tabs.

Vincent is a tall almost-4 year old, and these pants fit him perfectly.. I used the 3T pattern, his waist is 21 inches, but I thought the 2T would be too short for him. The waistband has elastic threaded through it, so you can make it as small or wide as you like. The fact that the cuffs can roll up and down mean that these bad boys will be getting a lot of wear for quite some time. He's slender {we call him Skinny Vinnie} and since we are heading into winter over here, I'm pretty sure you will see more Surfer Slacks around these parts! The pattern comes in sizes 2T to 6 and are quite suitable for a beginner!

I have already made three more pairs of Surfer Slacks for Vince, they're going to be great for kindy!

I also made Vincent a Beachy Boatneck shirt. I'm quite confident making t-shirts now, but this was my first t-shirt like this. It has a facing, and I really loved the new technique! It came together so quickly, and I LOVE the fit. This is one of those patterns I will definitely be using more often. The boatneck is perfect, not too girly for Vince, and the 3/4 sleeves and the curved hem? Love it all. LOVE. IT. ALL. {You hear me Melly?}

The fabric is a rainbow gradient from Girl Charlee, I got it as part of my winnings from Project Run & Play. Unfortunately I think I must have snagged the last of it because there doesn't seem to be any of it left. It was called "Rainbow Gradient Stripe" or something with those words in it if you want to search for it another time. it's a great fabric, but even after I washed this shirt, Vincent is complaining that it's too itchy. It must just be one of those unfortunate fabrics that are amazing, but just not great. I still have some left, so if I use it for clothing {what else would I use it for? lol} I will have to line it.

Finally, I finished this look off by using the Submarine Pullover! When I started thinking of making an overall look for this tour {wow can you tell I've got some Project Run & Play hangover still?}, I wanted it to reflect the Australian beaches of summer. My favourite beaches are up at the Sunshine Coast at Maroochydore and Caloundra and all the towns around there, but mostly down in New South Wales around Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads. I love how laid back it is at those southern beaches, everything is so chilled out and you can really get into vacation mode even if you're only there for a few hours. Of course we couldn't pile the kids into the car for 3 hours to take a few pics, so we settled for the Wynnum waterfront in Brisbane :)

I bought this fabric off Etsy to make the pullover, but since I live in Australia, shipping from anywhere outside of my country takes F O R E V E R. So on Friday, when it hadn't arrived yet, I needed a plan B. I was a bit bummed, because the Indian cotton was exactly what I was imagining this hoodie up in.

So I went to my studio and looked at all my fabrics and nothing was what I wanted. Then I found this humoungous plaid collared t-shirt that my dad gave me. I had wanted to make Vince a little hoodie out of it, so I wondered if it would be enough for the Submarine Pullover.

I couldn't believe it, but it was!! I was able to cut the entire pattern in a size 4 from ONE SHIRT. One outside hood piece is piece together from scraps, but the rest fit great. The inside of the fabric was this maroon colour, so I flipped the sleeve, placket, hood lining & breast pocket patterns when cutting them out.

The GIANT buttons are apparently antique, and came from Holland with my Oma's sister. My bad. Mum flipped when she saw them, but I justified using them because they have been sitting in our button box for YEARS and YEARS not being used. She was okay with it, as long as I salvage them if this pullover ever gets chucked.

Yeh no, that won't happen. I LOVE THIS HOODIE.

Since it's made from t-shirt material, and old second-hand from my dad t-shirt material, it is so soft and worn. It just drapes so well. And this pattern is like the perfect hoodie pattern. The smallest size is a 2T, but I am definitely going to resize the hell out of this pattern because Edison needs one this winter!

Since we're the last stop of the tour, if you haven't already, head over to check out the previous blogs that have sewn stuff up for this tour too! They are listed below:

You can buy these patterns over at Pattern Anthology, today is the last day to purchase them at the discounted price as bundles. You can buy the whole collection of 8 patterns for little guys & little girls {2T-6}for $39.95, OR you can buy the boy bundle {Surf Collection} consisting of the three patterns I used here plus the Coastal Cargos OR the girl bundle {Sun Collection} consisting of the Carousel Top, the Boardwalk Skirt, the Santa Monica Cinch Jacket and the Sunshine Dress for $24.95 per collection.

So um, don't delay! Get over there you guys. Stop reading this. I'm serious. Get goin'. Shoo! Click and go!