the one with no models: toddler underpants free pattern and tutorial

sharing a post i did back in january for house of estrela's Refashion Month! enjoy!

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

 it’s been my m.o. since i started sewing: just the fun stuff. fancy dresses and princess costumes and bowties. occasionally a bag or a stuffed animal.

i’d gloss over those tutorials and patterns for things like basic t-shirts and stretchy pants and jeans and gasp! underwear! who? why? why spend my time on making something i can buy at walmart when i can spend it making fluffy fluffy skirts???

and then i had a moment of clarity, as i prepared to drop yet another $7 pack of  3 pairs of “princess undies” in my cart. i was annoyed—the two little girls basically share clothes, gigi being a peanut and elliot being our typical thick toddler googie—and with potty training in full swing we were going through panties faster than…than i don’t know what. but just way too fast. and $7 every few weeks starts to add up.

meanwhile, back at the ranch…i had an ever increasing backlog of “upcyclable” items—shirts and dresses piling up in drawers and baskets that i figured i’d be able to reuse for a sewing project eventually.

::record scrattttcccchh:: duh.

i pulled that pack o’ panties outta my cart quick as a wink and set off home to make my own.
shockingly, i learned it wasn’t hard at all. (i can hear you experienced sewists rolling your eyes). once i drafted myself a basic pattern and tweaked it a bit, i had four pairs cut and sewn assembly line style in about an hour.

for freeeeeeeee.
which is my favorite number.

also shockingly—those homemade panties are dang cute. and watching their little bums run around in my handmade underpants was rather satisfying, even if it doesn’t get quite the same amount of attention from others that a handmade dress would. (hopefully. truth be told, i have rather exhibitionist daughters. :/  )
i also learned that sewing is sometimes useful for more than just sparkly dresses. it can actually save my family money, instead of being an expensive hobby. lol. i kid. really i’ve always tried to spend very little on my sewing, so it is a cost saving measure for our family. but this opened my eyes to the fact that taking the time to make some of the, ahem, “boring” stuff can really make a dent in our bottom line.

and i’m finally putting some of those knit t’s i’ve been hoarding to good use! upcycling/recycling either your own castoffs or thrifted/gifted items just makes good sense!
so, who’s ready to make their own panties? well too bad, you’re on your own for that. but if you’d like to make a pair that will fit a child between 2-5 depending on their size than i’ve got a free tutorial + pattern for you!

your only supplies are:

+ a pile of knits. somewhere in there try to have a thicker white cotton. i had a rib knit white tank, and this
was perfect as a liner for the crotch. (i just said crotch. on the internet)

+ elastic. i used both F.O.E. (fold over elastic) and regular 1/2” elastic that i have on a big spool. the F.O.E. does look nice and professional, but i found the regular stuff much easier to work with.

+ scissors, thread, machine, pins. what you don’t need is a serger. it’s nice if you have one, but you can do these perfectly well without one.

+ this pattern + this tutorial, over on my blog!

boom. crazy cute panties in multiples.

with cute little bums.

there you have it! go forth and sew more than just the pretties, and save dollah dollah bills ya’ll, and cover nekkid bottoms! (the world will thank you)



how dare i try and take pictures without letting them be a part? :)

PR+P week one: put me in the zoo

you guys. this is it. today’s the day. i’ve been sewing and sewing and sweating and worrying and experimenting and DESTROYING MY ENTIRE HOUSE and it’s finally here.

project run + play starts today, and it was a toughie: put me in the zoo—animal inspired, not costume.

and here’s what i ended up with:

flamingos. but it took me a long time to get there. i sketched and googled (seriously—have you ever done a google image search for “animal inspired fashion”? cue scared face) and as much as the armadillo shoes looked awesome, and the animal shaped hair really got my wheels turning, it was the flamingo that really got to me. i considered a few other birds too (they’re about the only things i enjoy seeing at the zoo), but i knew the pink would be a hit with the girls.

here’s the thing—at first i was completely determined that these dresses needed REAL feathers on them. i researched…well, i can’t even tell you how long i spent looking at various options. i even bought and tried a few. nope. in the end the look i had in mind would have cost a small fortune and been washable, uhh…never. not the best option for little girls.

generally people think of flamingos (at least i did) as being that hot pinky/coraly/salmony color. and they are—but there’s a lot of that lighter color on them. so i ended up with 3 yards of this pale peachy pink knit, and 3 yards of the brighter taffeta-ish material. i say taffeta-ish because i bought them at a discount fabric store for $2/yard and what you save in price you lose in knowledge.

via

so then i started cutting. and cutting. in the end i cut about 350 “feathers” from the knit. yikes. i did it over the course of a few nights in front of some t.v.
 

so on to the nitty-gritty. i hope you’re in this for the long haul because you’re about to get word and photo overload. everything i couldn’t squeeze into the three photos and couple of paragraphs on the pr+p site.

elliot
the self drafted top is made of the knit, completely lined with the taffeta. it has a full skirt in the taffeta, covered with a metric ton of knit feathers. i love that when she spins and moves the darker color peeks out—another little nod to the flamingo. it also has a self slip with a tulle layer for puffiness, and seriously is this weird? but i just love the way her dress sounds. it’s got that ruffley crinkley sound i can’t get enough of. i’m also in love with the back—it has a contrasting button placket with big pinkish rhinestone buttons running from top to bottom.

they were shaking their tail feathers ;)

gigi
gigi’s dress is made from the taffeta in a simple tank style with piping made from the lighter knit running down the front. the back is where i got spicey though—i was playing with the idea of the flamingo’s smoothly feathered body and fluffy backend feathers. so i did a peekaboo cutout and a cutaway skirt, both lined with more feathers. she’s got a separate slip for fluffiness, and then i added a little jacket with a big ruffle around the neck. everything on gigi was self-drafted also.

mid-spin :)

then to wrap it all up—i was determined to get my feathers in somehow, and what better way then little fascinator/hat thingys? i made these from wool felt, stiffened with a water/glue mixture. then they’re covered with more felt to smooth the edges, and a layer of the dark pink tafffeta. i added puffy feathers, a knit flower and some tulle. they’re remarkably light, and with a haircomb glued to the underside they stay in perfectly. even through all the twirling ;)

and in one of my (many, many) runs to joann’s i stumbled across these two little flamingo purses, on clearance. talk about random. they had a dolphin, a cheetah head, and two flamingos. SOLD.

altogether i couldn’t be happier with my look for week one! the only thing i would have changed is the hour we spent driving around looking for a spot to take pictures!!! it was supposed to be 60 degrees that day, and we got primped and ready only to get there and find it was windy and FREEZING! this spot was a little more sheltered and the wind had calmed down somewhat, but it took us an hour of driving to find it. i was running in to just any building/store/hotel/office complex we passed that looked like it potentially had good lighting and open space. (pretty sure the people in the local harley-davidson place thought i was crazy).

so i’ll wrap this up with a link—head on over to project run and play and check out the other ladies entries! i know we’ve all worked so hard and sweated over these outfits, so i’d love you to check them out!

the land of make-believe

join me, won’t you? we’re going to pretend the sun is shining, bees are buzzing, and it’s a balmy 77 degrees outside. you know what? make that 81. yeah, that should work.

we’ll ignore the dirty snow mounds that will probably not be gone until june. we’ll ignore the hum of the oil heater as it burns away our almost-$4-a-gallon oil O.o and we’ll most certainly ignore the velour pants and oversized sweatshirts we’ve been living in for the last few months.

let’s wear something a little more like this…

these dresses were photographed back in our giant photo shoot, and the pics have just been waiting patiently on my computer for the blog post to accompany them. and i’m actually kind of glad that i’m such a lazy procrastinator, because now we get to have a little sunshine-y summer type post instead of the winter dress i was going to write about. yay for delaying things!

so these dresses were based around that bottom layer of fabric—the french city scene. if you know me at all then it should come as no surprise that  it had me at hello, but it’s pretty busy and pretty pricey and i limited myself to just a little bit of it.

by pairing it with the polka dot and the solid pinks i could make two SUPER FLUFFY and SUPER TWIRLY dresses that coordinate for my littlest girlies.
because we can all agree that it’s all about the fluff and the twirl, right?

the front bodice is simple—i sewed a little pleat in the center, then added that strap to the middle. it goes around the back and down the front, sewn in to the bodice and skirt seam on front and back. so the pleat is doing some of the work of shaping the bodice into a sweetheart, and the little strap is doing the rest. and of course i gave these dresses my beloved spaghetti straps.

come to think of it, this dress is really just an amalgamation (word of the day) of things i love: fluffy, twirly dresses on little girls, with sweetheart necklines and spaghetti straps, a nod to paris, invisible zippers and piped hems. swoon. oh, and not ironing, as obvious from the above shot.

the dresses are completely lined with a separate, equally fluffy and full layer with a piped hem. and between the two layers and piping that’s enough to give the dresses their fluffy factor without any itchy tulle or slips. which makes them super easy to wear.

so that’s it. two little summer dresses to maybe get us through our dreary winter day. think of me as the punksatawny phil of the sewing world—i definitely see my shadow, so 6 more weeks to spring dresses. better get crackin’.

i can just see us now…the skies will be blue, and you guys’ll be there too. when we finally do what frozen things do in SUMMERRRRR!

more words i don’t know how to say.

well. it’s been quite a couple of weeks. it’s been quiet here on the blog, and for good reason. i talked about the stomach bug that went through—3 of the 5 succumbed in the end. that was tag-teamed with the googiedaddy coming down with a massive flu and possible infection on top of it. dude, he was so sick. dude, i just said dude.

it was not a pleasant week. i lost track of how many times i changed sheets, how many loads of laundry i did, how many cups of tea and ginger ale i poured.

and then you think I AM SO OVER THIS and your dad texts you and says mom is really sick not sure if should go to hospital. so i drove over to find my poor momma curled in a ball on the bathroom floor with waves of pain. dad and i got her in bed, and after conferencing for a few minutes decided it was off to the hospital.

eventually i instagrammed a pic of my #DAREcember challenge from the room we were in…when we thought it was just a nasty stomach bug and she’d be home after some fluids. HA.

that was last sunday, she just got out of the hospital yesterday. it wasn’t a nasty stomach bug. actually they’re not really definitive on what it was, all the tests came back negative and ruled out e-coli and other bacterial nasties. but she was—and is—really sick.

so then you’re basically like I HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE AND SO HELP ME I WILL CRY IF YOU LOOK AT ME CROSS-EYED. you know, your basic threat level orange or whatever.
and you know, in the best foreshadowing fashion, that this is where it really gets fun.

wednesday morning i jumped into the shower and called for gigi to come in with me. she’d been congested and i wanted her to try and clear out in a steamy shower. as soon as she took off her clothes and jumped in with me i noticed three dark bruises—two on her arms, one on her right hipbone.

here’s the thing: i can’t tell you why i knew they weren’t right. i have five children. i’ve probably seen 6.4 billion bruises in my mothering career so far. these were…off. they weren’t very large, but they were dark purple and in very odd places.

she doesn’t attend preschool and is rarely not with me, but i still looked in her eyes and asked if anyone hit her. she said no.

so we got out of the shower and i lotioned her up, taking that time to give her a good lookover. i noticed that she had little red dots on her neck, as if she had scratched it and broken tiny blood vessels. she also had a severely chapped lip—her bottom lip looked like she had chewed the snot out of it and was scabby and bloody. she had woken up with that a few days prior.

fortunately i have that honorary doctorate from google, which comes in super handy at times like this. i was simultaneously googling “dark bruises + chapped lips” while texting jeremy “please tell me i’m crazy right now, mmkay?”
he’s a good guy, so he complied.
”you’re crazy, calm down, she’s fine. she’s klutzy.”
but he wasn’t quite fast enough because i’d already found my answer: ITP. Immune or Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura.
winner winner chicken dinner.

ITP is basically your immune system going haywire. it begins attacking your platelets—the cells in your blood that are “sticky”—the ones responsible for clotting. when your immune system attacks your platelets they die off faster than new ones can be made in your bone marrow and your numbers plummet. normal platelet count is 150,000-350,000.
symptoms: bruises, bleeding of the mucosal membranes (i.e. lips), petechiae (the little red dots all over her skin).

it was too close. the symptoms fit too well. i was most definitely edging toward threat level red.

jeremy texted me back. i read about that thing. i think you should call the doctor.
so i did.
we were there by 11:40. the PA we saw (who i will never, ever see again) initially downplayed.
well kids get bruises.
eyeroll from me. okay thanks i guess i’m an idiot. listen to me: these are different.
then i showed her the neck dots. that got a response.
we headed off for bloodwork—which means wrapping my legs and arms around my baby while she screams and begs for this NOT to happen. ever done it? it’s not pleasant.

you know that feeling when you just KNOW? every fiber of your being just knows? i spent thursday alternately eating all my fingernails off and trying not to cry or puke and calling the doctor’s office to pressure them a little more. they finally called back at 11:30.
everything came back normal. RBC, WBC, all perfectly normal. oh—but her platelets clumped so we didn’t get a count on them. so we’ll put in an order for more labs.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? the one number we needed was the one number we didn’t have. and now i have to go through the holding my baby down process again.

by thursday night she had a lot more bruises.

friday morning. i said to jeremy “do you think they check all the labs that come in and see if anything is really bad and they call them right away?”
our phone rang at 8:50.

gigi’s platelet levels were 23,000.

the PA was completely nonchalant about it. i’m going to have you make an appointment with a hematologist for followup.

i was like uhhh…wait. what? because i don’t know about you but i’ve googled this and i’m thinking 23,000 is a little more serious than “call a hemotologist for an appointment”. so she said if i wanted she could call too.
then i punched her in the neck.
okay no i didn’t but i said thanks but no thanks i’ll make my own phone calls.

we called a few different resources and hospitals. the PA called back.
uhhh…i spoke with the hematology department at CHOP and they’re working on an appointment for gisele but if they can’t get you in today you’ll probably have to take her to the ER.

NO KIDDING.

we packed for an overnight stay. we dressed. we were waiting for a last call back from a hospital in NJ. a nurse from the ped’s office called again: umm, **** (the PA) heard back from CHOP and they said you need to take Gisele to the ER right now. are you going?

saying that i was angry is a little bit of an understatement.

we got in the car and drove to the ER. we’re fortunate to be a 1/2 hour drive from some of the best hospitals in the U.S., but that doesn’t help at all when you’re taking one of your babies there.

gigi was cool with the hospital idea. we told her that her blood was sick, and she needed to go to the big hospital so they could help her. yes, she’s going to have to have more bloodwork. we explained an IV as best we could. she was less cool with that.

and from that point it basically went as expected: our nurse was awesome. like really, really awesome. she placed an IV, then took more blood for labs. we waited.
her platelets were up to 43,000.
the hematologist came down and talked with us. at that point it was basically confirmed for us: gisele has ITP.
her platelets had gone up and that was a good sign, but it didn’t change things too much. her risk of bleeding remained basically the same. what’s the treatment? well there’s a few different things they can try. but the bottom line is her body has to do this on it’s own. the treatments are just temporary stopgap measures, and with a level of 43,000 we can wait and watch and see if her body can figure it out on it’s own. there are children walking around with much lower numbers.
meanwhile: no wrestling, no jumping off things. if she bangs her head, immediately back to the ER. if she has a nosebleed or bleeding from anywhere that’s excessive or we can’t control after 1/2 hr, back to the ER. car accident or any major trauma, back to the ER.

ITP in children has a very good chance of spontaneous remission—it will go away and that’s it. it can take up to 9 months, it can happen in a couple of weeks. there is a chance it could become chronic. but we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. 

gigi goes in monday morning to the hematology clinic. she’ll have bloodwork again to check her levels. driving 95 with her…ugh. i asked jeremy if it was insane to make her wear a helmet in the car? honestly, it’s not—the hematologist offered to send us home with one if it made us more comfortable.

so this is our new normal. i’m going to be 34 this month, and i didn’t really have any grey hairs. but everyone knows—these little rugrats will give ‘em to ya. a 5 year old with a platelet count of 43,000 who is trying to ride her new scooter through the house? i could feel them sprouting in my head.

in truth though, this, right now—knowing what we’re dealing with--is 1000x better than the not knowing of wednesday and thursday. it’s another thing to roll in to our life and keep on going.

as soon as we can remember how to say it.

practically impractical: pattern anthology winter wonderland collection

so a couple of months ago i got an email, basically saying hey wanna be a part of the PATTERN ANTHOLOGY WINTER WONDERLAND COLLECTION BLOG TOUR? to which i promptly said YES. der. srsly. i’m no dummy.

and then they sent photos of the patterns and asked which we’d like to do and i was all that one, and that one, and that one and ALL OF THEM.

no, really. i wanted to make all of them. but i decided to be a good girl. a Practical Momma who would a)evaluate what my girls actually needed, and b) sew from my stash instead of buying more fabric. so it was a pair of Tree Climber Trousers for Elliot,who desperately needs more pants, refashioned from a pair of my stretch jeans with a busted zipper, and an Amaryllis dress for Gigi, who—shockingly—needs more dresses.

this was absolutely my intention. even as i drove to the fabric store…just to look, it was still my intention. but when $2/yard lovely drapey navy cottons, and the PERFECT wintery lining—also $2/yard!—just JUMP right out at you…well. what’s a girl to do?

what’s a girl to do? i’ll tell you what a girl’s to do: she starts with the practical. the necessary. the reasonable.

the upcycled Tree Climber Trousers, and the sturdy navy Amaryllis Dress.

cute, right? and then i packed up my sewing machine thankyouandgoodnight.

yeah, that was a good one. i mean, you’ve seen the winter wonderland collection, haven’t you?

behold: the golden mocha brown taffeta matching AMARYLLIS DRESSES and matching fuzzy JULIET CAPELETS.

reasonable and practical can go lay an egg.

let’s talk about these, shall we?

elliot and gigi both have an amaryllis dress, which—get this—is reversible! one side is done in the navy cotton, one side in this taffeta i had in the stash (actually an upholstery remnant my baby daddy brought home for me. he’s good like that. i put them through the washer and dryer before using. that’s my litmus test on whether it will work as kid’s clothes).
this pattern is from melissa of BLANK SLATE PATTERNS, and it’s AWESOME. seriously. it is based it off a vintage pattern, the fit is adorable, the design is adorable, really i can’t say enough about this dress. 

and i 150% wish i had better photos of just the dress—but it was so cold there was no cape removal, and so overcast that my inside shots are a blur. but trust me—these dresses are crazy cute.

the dress is made to be one piece that goes over the head. the front goes around to the  back and snaps, and the back comes around the front and ties in a bow.

one side practical, one side party so you’re ready for anything. it’s like the mullet of dresses.

except, no.

moving on: the capelets. THE CAPELETS. i think even edna mode would change her mind if she saw these.

the JULIET CAPELET (ha! prize for best name to kate) is from SEE KATE SEW patterns. its a super quick sew with two hood options—rounded or pixie.

obviously i did one of each ;) i also cut elliot’s size 3 to the length of the size 5, and gigi’s size 5 got an extra inch of length. and e’s got a yarn poof on the hood, because OH MY WORD THE CUTE.

they’re made from this fuzzy fluffy stuff from joann’s, which you must cut with scissors in one hand and a vacuum in the other. particularly if you’re cutting on your dining room table like i was. fuzzy food is never fun.

it’s lined with this winter wonderland/ski resort themed lining fabric i got for $2/yard!!! woohoo! i know nothing about it, save that it looks vintage and i love it. and based on some of the other fabrics in the shop, there’s probably a better than good chance that it is real vintage. ha.

this lining fabric is what dictated the color scheme for the entire outfit. i love it that much.

so i put them in their matching twirly dresses and fluffy capes and they look like the most adorable little squishy elf pixie fuzzy wuzzy things i ate them both for breakfast the end.

okay, i didn’t eat them really. but when i got them all dressed there may have been teenage fangirl level squealing accompanied by excited clapping of hands. ::cough cough jeremy cough cough::

obviously not from gigi, who was clearly less than thrilled about being outside for photos. elliot, on the other hand, was pleased as punch and super cooperative. (note to self: bribery with donuts works wonders on e)

together this capelet and dress set make one ridiculously adorable outfit, no? but i have an entire second set of outfits to discuss…

and this time gigi was much more cooperative—due partly to being dressed a little warmer, and partly (mainly) due to the fact that we told her she looked like a little french girl. she practiced saying “bonjour. je m’appelle gigi” the entire way across the street.

so yes, this is the same AMARYLLIS DRESS as in the above photos, simply flipped around so the navy cotton side is showing. cool, right? it looks adorable as a little jumper for the cooler weather, and with a matching beret your little gal will be tres magnifique. vraiment. ;)

and for ms. e we have a lovely pair of TREE CLIMBER TROUSERS.

these bad boys are the brain child of andrea, who designs and curates GoTo PATTERNS, and also looks a scarily large amount like my own mother. so i can never be mean to her.

elliot is in desperate need of pants, and these fit the bill perfectly—and not just because they cost all of $0.the fit is great—and that’s even with my alterations to the pattern.

some were NBD. exhibit A: the lines of decorative stitching i added to the back pockets…

and the front pockets, which i also cut into a more curved shape than what the pattern has.

but i reused the waistband and button from my pants—never even took the button off, just lined it up and stitched it on. and i eliminated the reinforced knee pads, just cutting the front legs in one piece rather than the three of the pattern.

and i love them.  wanna hear something crazy? besides stretch pants and jammie pants, which don’t really count as sewing pants IMO, as best as i can recall this is the 2nd pair of pants i’ve ever made. harrison’s suit pants being the first.

crazy, i know.

now let’s talk about the nuts in the photos. together these two are quite the pair.

a new development: elliot is turning into gigi’s mini-me. whatever gigi does, elliots watches…

and copies…

oh man are we in for some serious trouble.

and there you have it, folks! there are even more patterns in the PATTERN ANTHOLOGY WINTER WONDERLAND COLLECTION, which you can buy complete here:

or you can buy just the BOY’S collection and GIRL’S collections separately!

enjoy!

disclaimer: none of the links in this post are affiliate links, i just put them there because i love you and the pattern designers. i wasn’t compensated in any way for this post, but i did receive copies of the patterns for review purposes. all opinions are my own, cause i have enough of my own and i don’t need anyone else’s. pffft.