It's sew-Wednesday

 

We recently celebrated my four-year-old son's birthday (a week early but he doesn't know the difference) and of course I wanted to make him an awesome shirt and he wanted a hat.  

The idea for a vest shirt came to me the second I saw this fabric (I found it at Hobby Lobby).  There's something so delightful about argyle.  I also knew I wanted the shirt to have a matching bow tie.  My friend Megan knew it needed real buttons.   We worked on the project together.  It's a simple project that involved wonder-under on the argyle, ironing it onto the shirt and sewing around the edges.  Megan actually cut out and sewed on the bowtie.  It was a two step process - first the "wings" then the "knot" but in all it took us less than 30 minutes to make the pattern on freezer paper, cut it out and sew it all on.  I'm pretty proud that we did this from scratch and it came out exactly how I was picturing it.

The crown is also a really simple project that makes your birthday boy/ girl feel special.  There is a tutorial and pattern here.  I did not use two layers of felt.  I used one layer of felt and the cotton (argyle) for the reverse appliqué.  I hand sketched the four on top rather than use a pattern.  He *loved* this crown for his birthday. I thought it was a perfect way to have a birthday boy look dapper without being fussy.