Couldn’t resist a little CTB encore today with pictures of the new Tic Tac Toe shirt in action.

Bonus points to you if you even know who Cthulhu is (it’s pronounced “ka-thoo-loo”). Our little Cthulhu enjoys current status as the most loved of all of Elliot’s “guys,” which is what he calls the entourage of stuffed animals (this includes Kermit) that inhabit his bed. It may seem like an odd choice for a stuffed animal, but Mr Rae and I thought it was completely hilarious when Elliot used to put a bowl in front of Cthulhu at the dinner table and tell us, with his slight little lisp, that Cthulhu was eating…

This round of Celebrate the BOY has been phenomenally fun! I’ve had a great time sharing this series of posts with you, and getting the chance to collaborate with the ever-talented and amazing Dana over at MADE is always a wonderful experience!!! I hope you’ve enjoyed following along and sewing for your own boys! You’ve posted your projects in our Celebrate the BOY flickr group, and that’s been really cool to watch; so many cool projects and ideas in that group. Feel free to keep adding your projects throughout the year. I love checking in to see what everyone is making!

Here’s a quick look at the clothes I made this year for Elliot:

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We’re wrapping up Celebrate the BOY this week, but I have just one more how-to post I wanted to share. Today I thought I’d talk a bit about adding kneepads to pants. You can add kneepads while you’re making pants OR after they have been worn through at the knees. All three of these kneepads have been tested by Elliot, and each one has proven to hold up over time. Kids can be rough on their clothes, and kneepads are a great way to ensure that your hard-earned sewing efforts don’t go to waste!

The first kneepad goes across the pant leg and is made of a basic rectangle.

In this tutorial I’m showing you how to add the kneepad to a four-piece…

I mentioned my love of piping yesterday, but I think it’s worth revisiting. I love the way piping instantly makes something more snazzy and profesh, like the little collared shirt for Elliot that I posted yesterday. I’ve used piping on little backpacks, pants, on my own clothing, and on purses. In fact, I think I will boldly say that I have NEVER seen a sewn item that piping did not improve. Which brings me to my fourth (and final, at least for this round of CTB) rule when it comes to sewing for boys:

Piping has been popping up a lot lately in the Celebrate the Boy Flickr group. Here are some of my favorite piping pics…

I love piping. It makes everything better. Truly.

When Elliot saw this “stitched” fabric (designed by Aneela Hoey) he said, “It looks like tic-tac-toe!” so that’s what we call this shirt now. The “tic-tac-toe” shirt. Sidenote: playing tic-tac-toe with a kindergartener is hilarious. I can beat the pants off of him every time, so most of the time I just let him win, though he’s slowly figuring out the tricks. It’s just funny to imagine a time when tic-tac-toe was still novel.

In addition to the pockets and cuffs shown above, I added piping to the collar, yoke, and front edges of the shirt to give it a fun retro look.

Just in case you’ve never made your own piping, let me briefly…

Have you noticed the mustache trend lately? It seems to me that mustaches are suddenly all over the place…and adding them to boys’ clothing seems like a fun way to ride the trend! What do you think?

Neon mustache tee from Oon, blogged here (we’ve been featuring her stuff regularly in our roundups this CTB. You absolutely must follow her if you don’t already.)

The picture at top right here totally KILLS me…so hilarious and great!!

Top Left: Striped with Moustache. Right: Vader & Zoon.

Middle Left: Snorshort. Right: applique boy bib tutorial.

Bottom Left: Strong Man. Right: Moustache Applique.

And one more from Oon :

blogged here.

The photos in this post came from the Celebrate the BOY…

I fell in love with this cityscape fabric at Dry Goods Design in Seattle last December; it was the end of the bolt, and I immediately thought of boy pants. When I realized that it matched the jersey fabric that I used for this hoodie, I was all over it.

Here’s the problem with me and fabric: I get distracted by these lighter “quilting” cottons that look awesome because of their prints. I know I should be making pants with bottomweight fabrics like twill or denim, but it’s so hard when there are so many great prints out there!

As a result, I definitely had to add kneepads to them (again). But I wanted a kneepad different from the…

A tuxedo stripe is a a great way to feature a bold print in a fun way! Take these pants I made for Elliot:

I put a little piece of the print on the patch pockets for another fun pop of print.

Shown here with a Flashback Skinny Tee-turned-henley — another easy modification on the basic tee that I hope to show you how to do at some point.

These pants also look really great with the white and orange hoodie I made last week for this tutorial!

But today let’s focus on the pants…they’re just a simple two-piece pant (so two main pieces; one for each leg) with a tuxedo stripe topstitched on the side. I also…

I’ve already shared two roundups based on my “rules” when it comes to sewing boys’ clothes (see the More Color! and Stripes Rule roundups from last week), and today I’ve got a third one for you:

I love making clothes for Elliot that feature bold prints. These items have a track record of being the most-loved and most-worn items in his wardrobe. The fox tee I posted yesterday is one example, and the radio pants I made for Elliot last fall are another. Maybe you even remember Elliot’s green medal pants? Those things were awesome. Bold prints make clothing more fun and interesting, and they add color, as well.

Here are some…

I’ve fallen hard for the fox trend, y’all. I designed this fox print last year and had some fabric printed at Spoonflower, and since then I’ve made a few garments for the kiddos with it, like this fox skirt for Clementine. I wanted a design that would work for boys without being too stereotypical (like trucks or baseballs), and, while I love all of the fabric prints that have come out in the past year or so that feature foxes, the vast majority of them really only work for girls. Which is silly, because foxes are an awesome boy motif! Maybe even my favorite right now? I’m not sure. Probably.

He wore this tee pretty much non-stop last summer, and, as…