Turning Four: A Pair of Birthday Outfits

Avery and Zander just turned 4!

Their birthday outfits were 100% Mommy-made.
But, before I talk about the clothes, let's talk about the photos.  As you may know, four-year-olds can be a whirlwind of fleeting emotions.  It is staggering how quickly they can go from happy to sad to seeming possessed.

Put two of them together and stand back.

These photos are a testament to the unstable emotional states that can be seen over any given fifteen minute time frame in the course of our daily lives.  I hope you enjoy their mixed-up, fast-paced, occasionally blurry, swirl of 4 year-old temperament at it's best...(and worst, wink!)

Now, the clothes...
the shirts were inspired by this one from charlieandsarah on etsy

but I decided, instead of dealing with finishing edges around all of the letters, that I would put the woven fabric behind the knit and make the letters as cut outs.

Since the knit doesn't unravel, you don't have to finish the edges (your raw woven edges will be inside the shirt and neat knit edges will be on the shirt front).  I think "ambitious laziness" is a good term to describe my sewing habits...
Anyway, I used all of my time saved from not finishing the edges to hand embroider around all of the letters (while watching Project Runway...) before cutting them out.  A really quick and dirty way to make this shirt would be to put the woven fabric behind the knit, machine stitch the letters, and then cut out the knit inside the stitching.

I used Dana's Free Basic Tee pattern for the shirt.  The only change that I made to the pattern was to use a block of the woven cotton print on the lower portion of the back.

I was concerned that the cotton wouldn't have enough give for the shirt to fit well, but it actually still fit great.

Guess who's pattern I used for the pants?

That's right, Dana Made It!  She's amazing (have I said that before?) both for making and especially for sharing her fabulous patterns and tutorials!

These are the Kids Pants with a flat front, pockets and back pockets.

I embroidered the boys' first initials on the back pockets and ironed an irresistible little panda bear "4" patch on the front pockets.

For some reason, even though the fabrics were the same linen from the same manufacturer, the yellow was soft and the green was itchy, even after washing twice.  So, I lined the itchy green with a soft knit cotton for my little, eczematous Zander...problem solved!

And Avery's out...

Zander still has a few poses left...

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