Anchor's Aweigh!

Well, folks, it's only been like three months or something ridiculous like that... so I figure that marks the typical tardiness for a tutorial.  So how about it?


Remember this one?

You may have seen it here on the OMTWI Season 4 finale.  Or back here, where I briefly mentioned that this sewing endeavor of mine got me second place.  Yip!


Now it's time to break it all down for you.  We'll begin with little mister's outfit.  

Confession time.  I don't actually have any tutorials for you for this kid's outfit.  Why?  Because the shorts I was making him (striped, of course) with all kinds of pictures and notations and tutorial goodness DID NOT FIT.   Well, they DID, but they made him look like a girl.  So, I scrapped that last minute and whipped the checked shorts up instead - which I ended up liking better anyway because I love how it contrasts with the stripes he's wearing on top.  ANYWAY, that whole long story to tell you that I was in such a hurry I failed to take adequate (or any) pictures.  BUT, his outfit is pretty straightforward and I think you'll get the idea.


FIRST.  The checked shorts.

Extremely easy design and execution here, people.  Essentially, I just used the whole trace around an existing pair of shorts which are folded in half thing - like I did here and here.  You basically cut each leg out separately and then sew up the middle seam.  


Fold down the top TWICE and sew to create the casing, leaving a little hole.  Thread the elastic in, sew up the elastic and hole. 

 Then hem.  Wham, bam, boom.  I decided to sew a double hem along the bottom for a little more interest.  Not that you can really even tell.

Now for the bow tie.  Which should really be called the "faux tie."  So that's what I'm calling it.  The Faux Tie.  It's official, see it's in capitals.  I may actually come up with an actual tutorial for this in the future, because I think I have discovered a better way of attaching everything together, and besides bug needs about ten more I think.  Doesn't he seem like a bow tie kind of kid?  Anyway... for now this will have to suffice.


Again, very easy.  You'll need three rectangles cut from your fabric of choice.  Below you will see an illustration (in case you've forgotten exactly what rectangles look like.)  These aren't to scale, but give you an idea of the sizes in relation to each other.  Besides these three pieces of fabric you will need a bit of elastic and some velcro.

The skinnier rectangles (the bottom two) are casings - so cut the pieces double the  width and length you need and then fold them in half the long way, right sides in.  Sew all the way around - leaving one short side open.  Turn right side out (with a dowel or something) and then tuck the open end in and sew across.  Then top stitch all the way around.  For the larger rectangle, I simply folded the top and bottom to the back and ironed then sewed across to finish the edges.

Then you will take that big rectangle and fold it in half the short way with the right sides in.  Sew up the short side so you have a circle of fabric essentially.  Lay it down flat with the seam in the back and iron it down.  Then, lay your short little casing over the middle of it and pinch tightly.  You can adjust the look of the bow tie now, before you sew the little casing together.   When it looks right, just hand sew the casing together in the back, being sure to stitch it to the bow itself.


Then, as you can see here, I simply hot glued the bow to the longer casing.  That is totally cheating, by the way.  BIG reason why this is a faux tie.  But the velcro helps with that too.

Now your bow is attached to the neck piece, but there's no way to attach the ends... This is where the elastic comes in.  I wanted to make sure the bow tie had some stretch, since it's for a little kid and all.  So I took a bit of elastic and sewed it to one end of the long casing, on the back side.  Then I hot glued the velcro to the end of the elastic and the other end of the long casing.  The extra long strip of velcro on the casing allows for some adjustability as well.

And for good measure, here's a view of the back:

Pair these two handmade items with ye olde Easter Vest and short sleeved polo, and you've got yourself a nautical boy right outta J Crew.  Or something.

Perfect for fishing, bird watching, and digging.

*Be sure to check just below for all the fun parties I link to!