Burda Style 01-2012-144 – Kid’s Jumpsuit Costume

Just look at that face! Yeah, this is one happy boy, and he’s had to wait soooo long for this almost UFO to be finished.

This costume jumpsuit is a modified Burda Style pattern, it’s actually a spacesuit pattern from way back to January 2012. But Henry wanted an army costume with large pockets on the legs and up on top, similar to a RTW police costume that he’s had for years but is now just too small to get into.

All the main pieces were cut out and ready to go, but I didn’t have anything for the pockets. And so it lingered on my sewing work table, since before last Christmas. Not good! Eventually a search through my stash of Burda magazines yielded the right stuff.

 

 

The large billows pockets and flaps on the legs are from a boy’s shorts pattern, Burda Style 04-2010-131. They have a separate piece (long strip) sewn around the sides and bottom to add volume, and were actually really easy to assemble. I’ll keep this pocket pattern for future makes. I know, it’s really hard to see it on these pics. So much camo.

 

All the pocket flaps are held down with Velcro instead of the buttons that the shorts pattern used. Speed. This had to be done.

The pockets on the top were not so easy. The flaps are the same design as for the leg pockets, but I didn’t use a pattern for the pocket itself, just copied the pocket from his existing RTW police costume. This does not have the long side strip, I just made it a box by sewing the corners. They’re not as neat, and it turned out to be harder to sew to the suit.

All in all this jumpsuit was a pretty good pattern to use as the base. I can see this one being used for other types of costumes.

So after a long weekend last month sewing it all together, I’ve made one boy really happy! And another project off my table. Win for everyone.

Pencil Case for the Boys

My sewing repertoire has been expanding now that the boys are getting older. Oliver is now 12, in grade 7 and has moved up to the middle school.  And wearing a school uniform. I love uniforms. Sure makes it easy at 6:30 in the morning!

He needed a pencil case, but not a kid one. And he wanted camo! Hard to find. So, I went to one of my favourite bag designers, Erin of dog under my desk, and decided I’d base it on the The Essential Wristlet. (I’d made one last year, unblogged, sorry, will do one day cause it’s so nice!)

The dimensions for this case are shorter, deeper, and longer than the original wristlet. Long enough for pencils. The only difference is that I used the zipper technique from another of Erin’s patterns, the Gadget Guard, as you can see in the pic below. (I’ve also made a gadget guard, last year, and also unblogged…I’m so far behind!)

 

I really like the way this zipper technique keeps the pouch wide open.

And a couple more shots…

 

There were a couple little things I did differently from the pattern. One was to sew the lining to the outer shell at the bottom corners, this is a great way to keep the lining from moving around. You do this on the inside between the layers before closing the lining up at the bottom. I wish I’d taken a photo of it. Next time. Second, the last thing I did, was to topstitch all around the top of the pouch to keep the lining flat and away from the zipper.

That inner lining is bright red ripstop PUL, so it should even keep any messes from leaking out. And I added the clasp on the end (left pic), they’re so handy! All in all, a great little pencil case, and Oliver a very happy camper.

On to the next!