Cowboy Vest Tutorial

Howdy Pardner! The discovery of some long lost toys after cleaning the basement, has spurred a new interest for my son. Cowboys! We have borrowed books from the library about the rodeo, watched clips from old westerns with Daddy, learned about how cowboy hats are made, and then, we just had to have a cowboy costume of our very own.

Now we share our fairly simple vest with you here.

 You'll need,

• An old pair of  pants you don't want any more.(or any other cowboy vest like fabric)
• A t-shirt, tank top or vest, that fits the vest wearer well, to trace.
• Matching thread.
• Tracing pen or pencil.
• Fabric Scissors.

If your pants haven't been used for another project already, like mine, you should be able to use a side seam as the seam in the middle back of the vest. Use the t-shirt as a guide for the vest. Pay particular attention to the neck line and arm holes. I traced the arm holes at the seam where the sleeves are attached with a pencil first, making dots as I lifted the sleeve, then cut along the dotted line.

 You need to do this for the front and back, folding the shirt one way then the other to trace it, since the neckline for the front and back are different.

Now, sew the two back pieces together, if you weren't able to use the side seam of your pants. Then you sew the side seams of the vest from the armholes, down. Your vest is basically done here, you can try it on and make any adjustments.

To make fringes make a small zigzag around the armhole where you want the fringes to stop then snip snip snip. You can make more fringes in the same way on the bottom and around the front and neck of the vest if you want.  Or attach ribbon that is fringed like this.

The front may require some shaping since we traced it from a t-shirt meant to be closed all the way to the neck. Just trim away a nice curve from the front middle to the shoulders to make it lay flat. I had my son put the vest on then just cut away along the line that the fabric folded at. (Um, it's probably safer to mark the line then take off the vest to cut it, I don't want to be responsible for any boo boo's.)

My son wanted all fringes removed so I cut them off the arms and rolled all raw edges under then I used a decorative stitch to hem them.

And there you have it, the 6 Berries Cowboy/Cowgirl Vest (because of course little sissy will be needing one soon, maybe pink, definitely fringed.)

A quick update: My son has since moved on to dinosaurs, as I mentioned before. Wouldn't you know it, I actually invest a little time into a costume and today, I have to beg him to try it on for one last photo shoot. The mustache was all it took to convince him though. I made it out of felt and a piece of soft elastic last year and it just goes so well with this cowboy outfit. Don't you think?

A Wallet

I found that little pirate something I was looking for.

Remember the Toddler Purse? Well I thought that I would attempt to make a wallet version for my son.

 I still have lots of pirate fabric laying around so I figured I'd use some of that.

 The end result is okay, but I'm not completely satisfied. Still, the fabrics look pretty cute together and I like the black zipper, button and buckle. And how about the X marks the spot lace up.

 I need to tweak the pattern a bit, the way it folded up didn't work quite how I'd imagined it and it's a little bulky.

 My son, however, has no complaints about this one (other than it took far longer to finish than he would have liked). 

 

But, all those pockets are just perfect for hiding his oh so important tiny treasures.

Dinosaurs Have Taken Over the Garden

And story time and TV time, we're basically living and breathing everything dinosaurs right now. Thank you Netflix, we love you. The pirates, however are not completely forgotten and I have a little something I want to share, but can't find it to get a photo. And we did have a quick obsession with cowboys last week, I'm working on a little tutorial for you. Super simple nothing fancy, but my son loves it and yours might too so check back soon.

I'm Open for Business

Well I did it. My first items up for sale. The shop is officially open!

Just a few bunnies to start with, but more to come. I will have some "boy" looking ones, but a certain nephew has asked the Easter Bunny to purchase one for his Easter basket this year and I need to see which one he wants before I post them for sale.

Stop by and see if you might want to give one of these critters a good home. I think my nephew's got the right idea, they would make great Easter gifts don't you think.

My kids will be very sad to see them go, but know that some other little kid will love them as much as they do, and that makes them feel better.

It seems to be tough for them to let a hand made by mommy item leave the house, even if it's a gift for one of their friends or cousins.

It feel good to know my kids enjoy the things I make, I just have to be sure they get some hand-mades of their own.