As a boy mom I find sewing and shopping for boys hard and sometimes lacking fun. Our poor boys don’t get much to choose from and finding fabrics for them can also be a difficult task as well. Don’t get me wrong, there are some really nice online fabric stores and custom groups to find some really cute boy prints. Let's all be real for a minute here not everyone can afford buying custom knits and prints especially having multiple kids. So being a boy mama of almost 7 years I have had to get creative.
I love grabbing up clearance tanks and tees from pretty much anywhere I can find a great deal. You all know what I mean, who can pass up a good clearance deal? Fabric is fabric you know. So when I'm trying to add some pieces to my boys' closet, I dig through my big tote box full of random and recycled goodies that could use another life. Using some of the awesome patterns from Ellie and Mac, I like to upcycle or reinvent these items for some much needed boy sewing.
My little guy is starting to get into wanting to wear athletic style clothing and what he prefers are comfy clothes. He has told me he no longer wears jeans, so I'm left with a slim selection for him. Some of these brands of “comfy clothes” are very expensive and boys are messy. Every day it looks like he could be a kid from the movie Holes. How can they get so dirty? Anyways my point is, I can’t very well spend a bunch of money on expensive name brand “comfy clothes”, just to end up adding it to our always growing play clothes pile. If instead, I can grab up some clearance items and make them some things, I don't feel as bad when they go to the play clothes pile days, sometimes minutes later!
Some of my go to patterns are the Boy's Fly Pants and Conner Shorts. The new High Tide Board Shorts pattern is going be a great pattern to add to my go-to pattern collection as well. I love patterns that have potential to be a lot of different things and Ellie and Mac patterns can be very versatile. The above picture is from some tees i got at old navy and Walmart that i maybe wore one time and added to the tote of to be reused because they ended up not fitting. I used the Conner Shorts but mashed the waistband from the Fly Pants, adding some elastic since the fabric didn’t have a strong stretch. The elastic is not always needed if you use a fabric with a better stretch recovery, but again this was loose, t-shirt fabric.
These gray sweat shorts I've seen all over Pinterest so i found some clearance $1, 2XL sweatpants from Walmart and used the Boys Fly Pants Pattern. I shortened and eliminated the pockets to my liking. Then I just did a rolled edge on bottom. Seriously I love the Fly Pants.
I had some $4 workout leggings that ended up not being very flattering on myself, so I made them into swim shorts using the Fly Pants pattern. These will be perfect for the splash pad this summer. I upcycled the waistband and made it a about a half inch smaller than called for so it won't slide off when he gets wet. I will also be adding some swim briefs from a $1 workout tank for under these shorts using the High Tide Shorts for the pool and lake.
I couldn’t end this blog without adding some cute tops for my little guy . I used the discoverer tee to upcycle some t-shirts I found. This pattern is perfect for taking grown out of tees or smaller panels and turning them into new creations for your little ones.
Things you need to get started upcycling or using great clearance deals .
- All the Ellie and Mac patterns
- Any clothing or fabric you like (tees, sweats, knit dresses, graphic tees, etc..)
- Creativity and an imagination
Blog written by Nikki Johnson.
