A few weeks ago a call went out in one of my blogging groups for a Mommy & Me Holiday tour – I jumped on it. I immediately knew I wanted to include my son, I’m always afraid that he might feel left out, especially with all of the adorable girls stuff in PDF world. I’m sure there’s more mom’s out there with a potentially sewing-lonely son…
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the holiday inspiration linked below as well as the Rafflecopter from our Sponsors!
I had recently picked up some burgundy velvet and faux leather from the seasonal apparel section of Hobby Lobby and really wanted to incorporate that somehow. I landed on the M4M Noelle right away… But how to include the rest of us without feeling too… Matchy?
After looking through some Pinterest inspiration, I thought a vest could be good for my son. It knew it could easily dress up or down and after debating for a while, he ended up agreeing without hesitation! And so, the velvet vest was born. Around this time I had been testing the WWD Omega and for my first version used this really nice cream colored faille that felt so creamy and soft. I decided to use this for the lining of his vest and also used it for a layer in my daughter’s Noelle dress.
Unfortunately, life gets in the way and sometimes plans don’t work out. So we we’re able to get about 15 minutes worth of pictures, but not with my son.
For myself, I already knew I wanted to make a Wiggle top so decided to make that in the velvet. Again, to keep things from being too matchy, I didn’t want a head to toe velvet look. After some thinking and looking around, the thought of the welt pockets from the boys vest pattern kept sticking in my mind. I was also really interested in the idea of a suspender skirt but knew I wouldn’t wear them too often. After a night full of math and sketching (and tossing papers and more math and sketching and… you get the point, right?).. I had come up with my hack.
I started with the M4M Mama Cassie skirt and first made the waistband taller. I wanted a more full look there to mimic the high waist of a 50’s style. From there I measured where the suspender straps would lay on me and cut some scraps to figure out width. I went with 2″ finished width, so added seam allowance to the sides, but I didn’t add seam allowance to the length so that it would have a very small amount of negative ease. I made some pretty basic bands from all of this, adding some knit interfacing to the ends, topstitching and then adding two buttonholes to the edge of each strap end for a total of 8 buttonholes.
Remember that night I spent doing math and planning out my hack? Yeah… I forgot to take the negative ease of the waistband into account when calculating button placement. Luckily, I realized this when I was marking the waistband for buttons. So, instead I stitched the short ends together and pressed the band in half and slipped it on. Then I marked where I wanted the straps to hit, and made sure everything was even once I took it off. I handstitched the buttons to one side of the waistband so that the threads would be hidden inside and attached the waistband to the skirt with the buttons facing me. They’re totally hidden and the straps can be attached inside or left off as wanted.
I also added those welt pockets in and I am super proud of them. It was my first time doing welt pockets and all three came out really well! I thought about adding some freebie accessories, but I didn’t want to go overboard and be too busy. The patterns I would’ve used are the M4M Bow Tie and Sydney Sailor Bow. I probably will make mine at some point, I planned on a small faux leather SS Bow to put on a silver chain and use as a necklace or bracelet.
And at the end, I think my New Year’s resolution is going to be to really sew for my son. Make him pants he can wear and likes, shirts that aren’t the same as every other kid. Wish me luck!
Don’t forget to check out all of the other amazing bloggers on this tour and enter the rafflecopter giveaway below!
See you next time, until then – happy sewing!
Links/Patterns in this post
*As always, there are some affiliate links sprinkled throughout my post in an effort to one day turn my hobby into something that could be self sustainable. Using them doesn’t cost you anything, but will provide me with a small commission.*
We would like to thank our Mommy and Me Christmas Outfit Blog tour sponsors! Please enter to win wonderful prizes in our Giveaway below!
Also, please visit all of the amazing Mommy and Me Christmas Outfit Inspirations in our Mommy and Me Christmas Blog Tour hosted by Seams Sew Lo below!
- December 4th: Seams Sew Lo
- December 5th: Katewillknit
- December 6th: Tenille’s Thread
- December 7th: That’s Sew Lily
- December 8th: Stitched by Jennie
- December 9th: Petite Stitchery & Co
- December 10th: Seams Sew Lo
- December 11th: kathys kwilts and more
- December 12th: Sewing with Sarah
- December 13th: Octaves of Color
- December 14th: My Crazy Crafty Beautiful Life
- December 15th: I Have Purple Hair
- December 16th: Nu Me NuYou
- December 17th: Frullemieke
- December 18th: Sewing Blue
- December 19th: Auschick Sews
- December 20th: Violets and Jewels
- December 21st: Seams Like Style <—You are here
- December 22nd: Aurora Designs
Seams Like Style 
That velvet is a gorgeous colour, it really suits you.
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I love the velvet! So great that you compliment each other without matching exactly.
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