Another BOY Celebration!

Have you heard the news? Dana at Made and Rae at Made by Rae are hosting a Summer Celebrate the Boy series. This is just the kick in the pants I need to make some summer clothes for my little boy.

In fact, I am so excited about this upcoming series that I went ahead and made a pair of shorts today.

I used some gray linen I had on my shelf and traced a pair of shorts that fit my skinny boy, for the pattern. I like the overall look. The top of the shorts isn't great, but luckily it's mostly covered by his shirt. My favorite part is the bottom hem. I used my twin needle to make 2 parallel hem lines for a faux coverstitch. It's hard to see in the blurry picture above. As soon as I'm done typing, I'll be heading to my sewing room to make some more.

So, go check out the summer celebrate the boy series starting Monday, June 1. I know I can't wait for some inspiration!

New Sandbox!

Now that it finally feels like summer, my family has been spending A LOT of time outside which got me thinking about building a sandbox. Then I saw this post over at Made and felt even more motivated.

I bought 2 wood boards that were 1 inch thick, 10 inches tall and 12 feet long. I cut them into 4 pieces each 5 feet long so my finished sandbox is essentially 5X5.

We had some wood leftover from an addition we put on our house last year, so I came up with some pieces to make a bench along one side.

This was a really easy project, the kids had a ton of fun helping paint, and it all cost less than $100 (believe it or not the sand is the most expensive part). Thanks for the inspiration Dana!

Hope you had a fun and productive weekend too!

While I wait.....

The final vote for Rae's Spring Top Sewalong was on Friday and I'm patiently awaiting the results. I would love to win, but I'm also so excited to even have made it to the finals.

In any case, I got some time to sew today and I thought I would channel my anticipation into another project for myself. I'm starting to really enjoy this selfish sewing thing!


I used a this top I bought from Ann Taylor Loft as a guide. This top has a casing around the arms and neck with elastic, I shirred mine instead. Much faster, but a little less control over how much it bunches up. My sleeves ended up a little shorter too.

I really like the result and it's a top that I'll wear. And it's yellow! I love yellow, but don't end up buying much yellow. I had this fabric sitting around, one thing I love about having a large fabric stash.

Another winner in my book!