Birthday wishes: "Yoda, the green one, mum"

For a few weeks P's Darth Vader stencil T-shirt had been missing. Once we found it down the side of the wardrobe I realised it was getting a bit small now. With a birthday coming up I asked what he might like on a T-shirt for his birthday...

The short answer was "Yoda". The lengthy answer involved a detailed description of what Yoda looked like.

As if that I am not knowing.

I did an online search for Yoda images and found this How to Draw Yoda tutorial. I made it easy for myself and printed the finished black and white image then traced the image to get the shape and outline of each colour block area.

From that I cut a freezer paper stencil and then ironed the stencil onto the T-shirt, putting each piece back until the jigsaw was almost complete. I left off the areas that would be green, then painted the green. Then I peeled off the centre area and painted it brown. Then peeled off the beige areas and painted them, and finally the black walking stick.

When the colour paint was dry, I painted the black lines to give detail by referencing the image by my side and freehand painting it. I had a shocking head cold, was as grumpy as a bat, but found this to be really therapeutic!

I've used Setacolour paints, which, so long as you give them a very solid ironing on high heat once they're dry, wash and wear very well. I should photograph the Darth stencil now after 18 months of washing and wearing. It's faded but at about the same rate that the t-shirt is outgrown anyway.

The T-shirt is the Oliver + S Field Trip Raglan Tee in size 6 with 6cm length added to the body and 8cm (holy crap!) added to the sleeves. Perfect fit!

For another bit of birthday sewing I followed the much loved Tron pyjamas with a similar pair in knit fabric.

I found this spider web fabric at ClearIt and noticed that the markings on the spiders backs looked to me like a number 7 (French style). Perfect for my about to be 7 year old, so I snapped it up.

For the top I've used the Titchy Threads  Rowan Tee again. Of course I forgot to add sleeve length, so I cut the cuff piece 1" wider than the pattern calls for. I wanted straight leg seams for the pants, so I used the Oliver + S Bedtime Story Pyjama pants. They're size 5 ('cause that's what I had traced) with about an inch added to the bottom and then a knit cuff added as well. Turned out to be plenty of length.

The spider man poses were getting a bit elaborate by this stage...

His birthday was on a school day, so we had grandparents around on the weekend before, presents the morning of his birthday and then a party with friends the weekend after. Way to drag out a one day celebration!

While I technically sewed these all over a week ago, it's Kid's Clothes Week starting today, so I'm going with the what gets blogged during Kid's Clothes Week counts as time spent on making kid's clothes approach. Also, cause I've cut out some things I want to make for myself next, and I may have little else to show by the end of the week!

Happy birthday P, now clean your footprints off the wall please!