Thursday, January 20, 2011

Fireman Pajamas - Gift Kids Can (Mostly) Make

Firecracker is old enough that she wanted to give presents from herself to others this year.  I like to give the kids each a pair of pajamas each year, partly because they're warm and snuggie and partly because flannel is always on sale before Christmas.  I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and suggested to Firecracker that she make matching pajamas for Sweet Pea and Little Brother.  I cut out and pinned the pieces for her.  (I make them pretty much the same way as my 25-minute shorts/capris/pants tutorial, but make sure to use a non-stretchly, slightly roomy pair of pants as your pattern.)  After Firecracker's first "real" sewing experience making her teachers' hand warmers, she mostly sewed the seams herself, with me sitting right next to her supervising.

 

You got a sneak peak at this project when I showed you Little Brother's Fleece Sheet, but I figured they deserved their own post.  Since we used some Fireman fabric I picked up on sale after Thanksgiving, we wanted to make shirts to match.  After making Hubbie's Pi Belt, I was itching to use some more of the super soft transfer paper on other projects, so we made name tags and firemen badges from T-shirt scraps and appliqued them on to an old t-shirt (for Little Brother) and onesie (for Sweet Pea) I had tucked away in my stash.

As you can see below, there was a bit of a learning curve to using the transfer paper, so be sure to have some extra fabric in case you need to redo it...and I'm glad I first tried it on T-shirt fabric as an applique, so I just messed up a scrap and not a whole T-shirt making it for my first time.  The two main things I learned...only iron for 20-30 seconds...no more and no less.  Remove the paper warm (even though the instructions said either would work).  Use a wooden cutting board or something similar under your fabric...the instructions are right...a regular ironing board will not work well. 
I found the picture of the Firebadge here, and altered it to be black and white in Picnik.  Then I made the tags in word.  Make sure you REVERSE your picture before you print it onto your transfer paper.

It was really sweet to see Firecracker SO excited for Little Brother and Sweet Pea to open their presents from her.  It was love at first sight for Little Brother, and he couldn't wait to wear them and wore them for opening the rest of his presents. 

For whatever reason, Sweet Pea didn't want anything to do with hers...for days.  Finally I made her wear them because I wanted a picture of her in them, and her matching Little Brother.

She was REALLY MAD for a few minutes and then got over it...and then didn't want to take them off. 

I was a little worried about how the transfers would do after they got washed...but they still look as good as new after the first couple washings.  Only time will tell how they wear over time, but I'll let you know.

2 comments:

  1. I am so impressed. I assumed you bought some patches somewhere. This is really cool. Good for Firecracker!

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