The Unconventional Trashion Rain Poncho

Project Run & Play week 3 and 
Kids Clothes Week day 4
Ok, so I went totally Project Runway "Unconventional Challenge" with this one, but I couldn't resist!

Maybe it's the constant rain we seem to be having this spring...

Maybe it's the fact that 7 out of 8 soccer games and practices this season have had weather ranging from drizzle to downpour and have left my family looking like a pack of drowned rats...

Maybe it's the fact that the Target bags compel you to do something with them...

But when the "Make your own Fabric" challenge came up on Project Run and Play, I couldn't get plastic bag rain gear out of my mind.

I thought, "this is a crazy waste of time!!!" and "are you really going to let your kids wear Target bags out in public?!?!? (even if you pronounce it Tar-jay and pretend it's french couture, lol)"

But, sometimes, you can't refuse the creative drive.

It just takes over and then you find yourself obsessively sewing plastic shopping bags together.

Crazy or creative, you decide...

Here's how I made it:
I used an old receiving blanket as a lining.

I traced a hood shape (from a hooded shirt pattern) onto another old receiving blanket.

I cut a neckhole in the center of the blanket.  The neckhole didn't look big enough, so I extended it with a 2 inch slit.  Turns out it needed to be extended even more to actually fit over a 4-year-old head.

I sewed the plastic bags directly onto the blanket starting at the bottom and working upward overlapping like a tiled roof. I want the rain to roll off, not sink in at the seams!

I also covered the hood pieces with plastic bag.

I sewed the hood pieces together and then attached them to the poncho.

 Then I used "plastic bag bias tape" (ha-ha, there is no bias to a plastic bag, I just used thin scraps) to put a neat edge around the hood opening and poncho bottom.

There you have it, the Unconventional Trashion Rain Poncho!

I still can't decide if I'll let him wear it in public...

Vote for your favorite PR&P contestant here.

See all of the sew along creations here.

Kids Clothes Week - Day 1

Here's one of the great things about having twins...
You know the saying, "Practice makes perfect"?

Well, when you sew coordinating outfits for twins, you sew a pattern once, and then the second time around it comes together so much more quickly and easily...

(except when you think you know what you're doing and ignore the instructions completely...or sew your french seams inside out and have to rip them and start over with already trimmed, itty-bitty seam allowances).

But, usually, the second time through a pattern goes more smoothly than the first and you can really appreciate the clever work that went into designing the garment and the pattern.

Did you think I was going to say "Practice makes perfect" on parenting skills???
Bwaaa-haaa-haaa!  That's a funny one, silly...

Anyway, my second time through the aptly named Easy Linen Shirt from Sewing for Boys, was a breeze except for the french seam issue...and it really was only one seam, so I'll stop whining about it now.  Maybe not perfect, but pretty close.  I just have to finish up the collar and the sleeves on Kids Clothing Week day 2.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

To Grandma's House We Go!

Well, there's not really a river...
Or any woods...

It's more like "Into an airplane and through the sky, to Grandma's house in Florida we go!"

However they get there, Little A and Little Z are ready for a Spring Break weekend filled with the best that Florida has to offer...

Sun, Fun and Grandma!!!

It also happens to be the Spring Break Challenge this week at Project Run & Play, so why not play (and sew) along...

Sandy beach, playground and warm weather, here we come...

In our new outfits...

The shorts are loosely based on New Look 0153.  I used the pattern for size and shape, but I only had 2 half-yard pieces of this fabulous "Car Box" fabric by Echino, one in turquoise and one in brown and I wanted to the shorts to be a bit longer than in the pattern.  No matter how I tried, I couldn't get the lengthened pattern to fit while keeping the cars upright.

So, I cut the pattern into 2 pieces.  The first makes up a sort of yoke and then runs down the sides of the shorts.  And the second, which I used the Echino fabric for, makes up the body of the shorts.

I added little pockets on both sides, because Zander has informed me that shorts and pants shall not be made without pockets.

The best part of redesigning the shorts pattern was that I then had enough leftover fabric to make these cute bucket hats!

I used Peek-a-Boo pattern shop's "Reversible Bucket Hat" pattern with the Echino fabric, some khaki fabric harvested from pants with blown-out knees and a brown herringbone suiting on the reverse.

For the shirts also used another Pee-a-Boo pattern, the "Boardwalk Hoodie and Henley."

I've had these two cute knits lying around for a while just waiting for inspiration to strike.

Traffic signs + Cars + Cool colors = a perfect combo!

Are we ready for Spring Break???

Sunscreen...check!

Sunglasses...check!

Swimmies...check!

Sunshine state...

here we come!!!

Vote for the PR&P contestants here.
See all of the sew along creations here.

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project run and play, the crafty blog stalker, not just a housewife