Mommy and Me Raglan Sew Along

With Mother's Day coming up, Ti from Sewing by Ti and I thought it would be fun to make Mommy and Me Raglan sets for us and our kids.

You are welcome to join in the fun and participate in our "Mommy and Me Raglan Sew Along" which will run in the Simply by Ti Facebook group, starting next week, Monday, May 8.

I'm here today to hopefully give you some inspiration for the sew along!

I have four kids, but I decided to just sew up a raglan set for my only son (Emmett, 3 years old) and I. I very rarely sew for him. We have been blessed with friends that have given us a huge number of hand me downs, and 99% of his clothes came from them. It's been a huge blessing, but that means he doesn't really need me to make him anything.

But he loves his clothes from his friend Thatcher, so he hasn't really been missing out. He feels so special every time he gets new clothes from his friend! In fact, I asked Emmett a few weeks ago if he wanted me to sew him anything and he said he wanted me to sew him a Thatcher shirt.

It's about time I make him his very own shirt. I hope he doesn't mind matching his mom!

When I told my husband that I was making myself and Emmett matching shirts, he exclaimed: "NOooo! Not Motherboy!"

We have a long standing joke about "Motherboy" from Arrested Development. You really have to know the show to understand, but I have been joking about Emmett and I participating in Motherboy events for years. But, seriously, how cute would Emmett and I be in these outfits?

From Arrested Development, Episode XXX

Ha! Well this isn't Motherboy. You don't even have to sew for your son. You can sew for your daughter, niece, nephew, godchild... We do want to honor Mother's Day, but we also want anyone who wants to sew with us feel free to join us!

The rules to the sew along are actually quite simple. Simply sew a raglan set for yourself and your child. Join us in the Simply by Ti facebook group, where you can post pictures of your progress and get coupons for the event! There are coupon codes in the group for Simply by Ti fabric and for the Riviera Raglan and Streamline Tee by New Horizons.

You can use any fabric or raglan patterns you want, you are not limited to either Simply by Ti fabric or New Horizons patterns. However, feel free to take advantage of the sale!

And let me tell you about the Riviera Raglan in case you don't have it already. It is such a great pattern. I have never seen a pattern with so many options. There are two different raglan cuts, sleeves ranging from long (with or without thumbhole cuts) to tank (yes, a raglan tank!), multiple hemlines (including a fun handkerchief hem) AND different necklines. There are infinite ways to mix and match the options to have a wide variety of shirts in a single pattern.

This isn't my first time to sew the Riviera Raglan, but it's my first time to blog about it. The other shirt I made from the pattern is in regular rotation in my closet. I will have to sew a few more options and blog about it more in depth sometime.

The one I made for the sew along, is the tunic length, regular cut raglan, short sleeve and crew neck. It's love! I love the length and cut with leggings.

The Streamline Tee is a child's raglan pattern, also from New Horizons. The coupon code works for it as well. There aren't nearly as many options as the women's Riviera Raglan, but it makes a great fitting raglan tee. It's really a nice basic.

If you look close enough, you might notice his nails are painted in his favorite color, yellow. He is obsessed with yellow at the moment. Having three sisters and being the only boy means he doesn't like being left out when the older girls paint their nails.

Aren't we so cute matching?

I used rayon spandex from Simply by Ti for our shirts. I think this might be the softest shirt Emmett has ever had. I'm really getting hooked on Simply by Ti's rayon spandex! It sews up beautifully, and is incredibly comfortable to wear. 

The main print can be found here, and the coordinating heather grey can be found here. I love how the turquoise print has a slightly distressed or vintage look.

For inspiration for the sew along, I hand picked several other fabrics from her store. In addition to other fun prints, Ti also has some great solids in French terry, cotton lycra, and rayon spandex. You can check out all of her fabric here.

Here's just a little bit of fabric inspiration to get the creative juices flowing.

These cotton lycra stripes would be so cute for either boys or girls. I could see a raglan dress for my daughters in this print:

Link found here

My second daughter loves animal prints. She would be thrilled if I made her a raglan tee or dress in either of the following prints:

Link found here

Link found here

There are some great florals at Simply by Ti. This next one pictured is one of my favorites. I could see myself matching my daughters in this print. Or even my son, if he liked it. Florals for boys seem to be getting more popular in the fashion world. (Not that it has to be popular for him to wear it! It's just interesting to see fashion trends.)

Link found here

Speaking of florals on boys, I saw several basic men's tees with a floral pocket on Pinterest. It's subtle and fun. You could achieve this look by doing a solid color raglan with a floral pocket. It would be interesting to see someone make a printed raglan for themselves and use the print on the pocket of their child's shirt. Or the other way around. It doesn't have to be floral, any print would be fun to use this way for subtlety matching outfits.

Source: Urban Outfitters

I searched for more raglans on Pinterest and came up with some more inspiration.

Floral raglans are definitely popular. Here's one of about a billion:

Source: Styles for Less

Raglans are also a great blank slate for graphics. It would be fun to either use graphic tees, print our own, or use vinyl. I love animal graphic tees, isn't this one cute? My oldest daughter is obsessed with bears, she would wear this every day if she had this raglan sweater:

Source: Seed Heritage

Even the simplest, solid colored raglans are fun. Using solid colors, either coordinating or matching, would make great mommy and me sets. I love the simplicity of this look:

Source: The Pulse Boutique

I hope this helps give you some inspiration for the sew along! You do not have to match exactly, just make a fun set for you and your child. Be creative! If the print of the fabric I used weren't such a large scale, I would have used the print on the sleeves on one of ours to switch it up a little, but I'm happy with how it turned out, so I wouldn't change a thing about it.

Now for the best part, we do have prizes for the sew along! Two lucky winners will each win $20 in store credit for Simply by Ti and two other lucky winners will each win $10 in store credit to Another Fischer Design. That's four winners!

Check out Another Fischer Design's Facebook page and her Etsy store. Think of all the fun raglan tees you could make with those vinyl prints. I used her vinyl to make a cute baseball shirt for my youngest, blogged about here, and it was such great quality!

This one is my favorite one of her current designs:

Link found here

Look how cute that graphic is on a raglan, even more inspiration!

I hope you will join us in the Simply by Ti Facebook group to sew with us! The sew along starts Monday, May 8. We should be completely done sewing by May 11, but we will keep it open until May 14 in case you need to catch up or take your time. That's Mother's Day, hopefully you will have something cute to wear with your little (or not so little) one on May 14!