No paint on me

I don't think I've mentioned this on the blog yet...maybe I'm in denial. My baby Elliott will be starting Kindergarten in less than three weeks! Sniff.

The whole school thing so far has been stressful and maddening, at times. But after a lot of drama (a post for another day...), we're settling in with our school choice and are getting the little man ready to go.

We bought all of his school supplies, are working on his summer reading challenge list, and I even finally got to sew something for him...a paint shirt!

The girls are usually the ones I sew for and have never done anything for Elliott or Henry. But he needed a paint shirt for school and this was the perfect project. Off to the fabric store we went...although he picked out some of the most hideous fabric known to man. Ugh!

I finally came across this tutorial and thought we'd make a similar shirt with spaceship and planet appliques...but then I found some adorable fabric and we completely changed the plan.

I went more with this style shirt and made my own pattern.

(PS - I'm the furthest thing from a sewing expert so if you want the real step by step of how to make the shirt - visit the link above) First I chose a shirt that fits Elliott well and pinned it to my fabric. I basically did this because I was too lazy to make an actual paper pattern piece...I skipped that step and went straight to cutting around the shirt itself. I left a few extra inches for length and width to make sure it would cover him well from messy paint splatters and that he can grow into it over the year. I cut one piece for the front (shown below - it's folded in half). And then I cut a right side back and a left side back using the front as my 'pattern.'

I also cut a curve at the bottom hem of the back - just because. (it would be just as easy to leave it straight - but I liked the curve)

After using some pre-made bias tape sewn all the way around (leaving two extra long strings at the neck to tie the shirt with)...voila! A finished paint shirt!

Oh yeah...the little dude wanted pockets. Fortunately, I have yards and yards of gray corduroy laying around that I've been meaning to use to upholster something. So I cut a small rectangle of that and sewed it to the bottom of the paint shirt. One stitch down the center made two separate pockets.

I think he'll be the cutest little artist in school! Although, I may be a bit biased! :)