Just Sew: Boy's Week

This is my son's second year participating in our local Ski Bus program.  It's a great deal providing transportation, chaperones, and buddies over a two month period where he gets to snowboard every weekend.  Last winter we bought his equipment and outerwear for Christmas and scrounged whatever we had on hand to layer underneath.  Luckily everything still works for this season, but he did have a few requests.

After seeing this hat and beard in a catalog, he asked if I could make something like this for him with a hat he already owns.  I simply measured his face and drew the beard design freehand to create a pattern.  I then cut two layers out of a thrifted brown sweater and sewed them together.  Finally, I sewed buttons into the inside of his hat to attach his new beard.  He likes that it is custom made for him and that he can easily remove the beard from his hat.

His second request was for a new pair of leggings to wear under his 

snowboarding pants.  (He may or may not have been subjected to wearing his sister's leggings last year).  I found a pair of men's sporty pants that are lined with a light fleece on the inside, but have a thicker, kind of polyester (more water resistant?) fabric on the outside.  Using his sister's leggings I traced out the pattern for his pair.  I unintentionally lined up the existing seams so they go straight down the middle of his legs from the front.  My husband likes the rockstar quality they give the pants.

While he actually already has a good thermal shirt to wear under his sweatshirt and snowboarding jacket, I did offer to make him another one since I was try to create an entire look for Project Run and Play, anyway.  Unsurprisingly, we don't give a lot of thought to name brand clothing around our house.  However, skateboarding brands are a little different, as you are often showing your allegiance to a certain skater by wearing their company or team's logo.  So far, my son takes into account a skateboarder's personality just as much as his ability.  The logo on the left is for the company Fallen, which was started by Jamie Thomas, who has proven to be a pretty good role model (married, three kids, clean living).  After sizing down a men's thermal, I used the scraps to create the Fallen logo.  Originally, I was going to use a contrasting color, but I am a lot happier with the grey on grey here.

Like most people sewing for kids, I find making something for the boy to be a lot more challenging than for his two sisters.  He will be twelve this summer and I am keenly aware of how uncool something can be if your mom made it.  Amazingly, when I asked him if he felt weird wearing something homemade, he said, no, he liked that it was made just for him.  Pretty cool kid.  Maybe he'll be someone's role model someday.