Schoolboy Boy’s Vest Pattern + Everyday Boy’s Necktie Pattern

We’re almost through all of my kids Christmas outfits! Rounding out my girls’ dresses (you can see Lola’s pinafore dress here and Hattie’s peplum dress here), this post is all about the little men in my life. Well, one of them is getting not-so-little, but for now I’m just going to hold on to the time until he’s taller than me! I made Weston my favorite boys vest pattern, a Schoolboy Vest, and Wyatt an Everyday Necktie (pattern by Dana from Made Everyday) for Christmas this year, and as usual, Weston made sure we didn’t have a dull moment in our photoshoot. He’s also the reason we literally got one good family photo out of hundreds, lol.

Normally I only take photos of my kids at Christmas, rather than including my husband Joel and I. With the pressure (positive stress would be more accurate, I love it!) of sewing outfits, I let my husband and I off the hook and concentrate on the kids. We used to do whole-family photos in the summertime when we’d swap with my sister’s family, but somehow it’s been over three years since we’ve done it! So as I was planning my kids’ outfits a few weeks ago, I realized that I had both recently gotten my hair highlighted and already had a matching dress (there was even some sewing involved in that dress so it was meant to be) that would coordinate with my kids perfectly, and knew we needed to just make it happen. I won’t say I enjoyed having to be in the photos this time, but I’m glad we finally have an updated photo of our whole family together. And even more glad I don’t have to do it again for awhile…

Because by the end, I was ready for a nap!

If you checked out our Christmas photo flashback that I shared in Hattie’s post, you might notice that I’ve sewn a Schoolboy Vest for at least one of my boys almost every year! I think last year might have been the only year that I didn’t, so I guess I made up for it this year ;).

I love that you take take a basic boy’s vest pattern like the Schoolboy and style it in so many different ways. I was a little nervous to sew it in white, because you don’t often see boys in white other than at weddings, but wanted something that would coordinate well with my girls’ outfits so decided to take the risk. I used a white twill from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and lined it with an inexpensive polyester white lining to ensure it would sit nicely over whatever he was wearing underneath.     

In the interest of time, I opted for faux welt pockets (the pattern has options for both real welt pockets or faux welt pockets). And it did definitely save time, without the real welt pockets this vest was super quick to sew up!

I did keep the back tie, because I feel like it adds the perfect detail to a plain vest.

I was about to glue gun (shhhh…) a bowtie to match for Weston when I remembered he already had the perfect one (and one of my favorite photo shoots ever)! It went perfectly with everything else I had planned, and I was more than happy to cross that off the list ;).

 

For Wyatt, he is wearing just a touch of handmade – I thought it would be fun for him to have a tie that matched Lola’s dress, so I used Dana’s Everyday Necktie Pattern to make him one. I made both the adult and tween sizes, because I originally thought he’d need the larger, but the tween ended up being better in the end.

They are so fast to make, I think I’m going to be addicted to making neckties now! I love that Dana doesn’t over complicate her patterns, and this tie doesn’t even require hand stitching (other than a tiny bit if you add a loop on the back). She teaches you how to sew a necktie in such a great way!

When I think about how Wyatt was a baby when I started this blog, it’s hard to believe where we are now, that I have four kids now, and that my youngest is almost 5! Wyatt’s 11 and his hands will soon be bigger than mine! But if he’s gotta grow up, I’m sure proud of the way he’s doing it. He’s an awesome oldest brother and I love that the older kids get, the more they become your buddies.

He has an infectious giggle (just like his dad), and is just a really good boy.

I’m grateful that my boys are close, and that Wyatt usually finds humor in Weston’s antics. Just like my girls, they have pretty different personalities, but they still somehow mesh together in the best way.

For a great boy’s or men’s necktie pattern, you can find Made Everyday’s Everyday Necktie here! And you can find my go-to boy’s vest pattern, the Schoolboy Vest, here! Thanks for following along, and Merry Christmas!