At School and Play; a Sis Boom Blog Tour

September is just a few short weeks away, and for us up here in Canada, it means the beginning of school! I'm thrilled (and a little nervous, I'll admit) to be a part of Sis Boom's At School and At Play blog tour. 

Keep reading to the end of the post, as there's a giveaway!

The Sis Boom Leighanna is one of my favourites for several reasons. First, no closures. Second, easy fit. Third, can be sewn in woven OR knit. Finally, it's a really fast sew. This one only took an hour and a half, and that is from cut until finish, plus I forgot to stop the timer when I paused to pull out my eldest's tooth. I had the timer going, because I'm horrible at estimating time. Anyone else?

One thing I did differently this time around, is add elastic to the short sleeves. It is in the pattern, but I've never done it before because both of my girls HATE exposed elastic. So, I decided to add a casing, and include a mini tutorial for you in case you'd like to do the same!

Begin by following the pattern directions until the step where you iron the hem of the sleeves on page 12. Press the sleeve hem as directed, and proceed to the step where it tells you to draw the line with disappearing marker or chalk. Here's where it changes a little.

The pattern tells you to measure up 1 inch above the hem line and draw a parallel line across the sleeve on the wrong side. Instead, measure up 1 1/4 inch, and draw the line. Next, cut two pieces of single fold bias tape the same length as the width of the sleeve. Have double fold but not single fold? No worries, just press it open with an iron, voila, single fold bias tape (that's what I did). Since I used 1/2 inch elastic, I just made sure my bias tape was just a bit wider. If using 1/4 inch elastic, you'll want bias tape that is about 1/2 an inch wide.

Line the bias tape up with the line you drew, between the hem and the line, and edge stitch along the edge of the tape all the way along. Do the same to the other side of the bias tape. Repeat on other sleeve.

Use a safety pin or bodkin to feed the elastic into the casing slowly. Once you've got the end lined up like in the picture, stop. If the end comes into the casing, just feed it all the way through, pull it out and try again. Then stitch down the end, within the seam allowance. I like to give it a couple of runs back and forth, to make sure it's tacked down good.

Then, feed the bodkin/safety pin out the other end and tack that end down the same way. It should look like this.

 

Repeat with the other sleeve, and follow the rest of the directions on the pattern and you're done!

I love how the sleeves look with the little gather, and now my little is actually happy wearing it!

You can get any of the Sis Boom patterns in their shop or their etsy shop and they're on sale RIGHT NOW for 40% off until September 4th using the code BACK2SCHOOL! They've also got a sew-along happening in their Facebook group if you want to join in. Any back to school Sis Boom sews that are sewn between August 1 and September 10 can be entered into the album here. Three winners will be chosen and awarded pattern of choice!

And now for the blog giveaway! Comment below your favourite thing to do in free time (when you aren't sewing) for a chance to win a free copy of the Leighanna pattern. Don't forget to check below for more blog posts with giveaways!

***Edit to Add: This giveaway is closed. ***

Welcome to the Sis Boom Blog tour!

We are excitied to announce that our bloggers EACH have a pattern giveaway on their posts! Everyday something new; so be sure to follow along with this tour!

August 22 Paisley Roots / August 23 Cookies n' Bees  /  August 24 Tina Sew Tiny  /  August 25 Screeching Dinosaur  /  August 26 PearBerry Lane  /  August 29 Troosp To Tots  /  August 30 A Crazy Craft Lady  /  August 31 Glitter in My Coffee  /  September 1 Sunflower Seams  /  September 2 Adventures with Bubba and Bug