suits to bear rings

For the past two weeks, I've been working on these suits for two handsome gentlemen.  The hub's sister was married this past weekend and both my boys were asked to be ring bearers.  Suits (and especially tuxedos) for rent are very expensive and you don't even get to keep them.  So I decided to make each boy the appropriate attire.

I started with the vests.  I used Simplicity 7030 and cut the size 4 for my 4-year-old.  I've cut size 4 pants for him and they were always too big, so I figured a size 4 vest would work well.  I was wrong.  I even added 1 inch to the length, but the vest was still too small for my liking.  Luckily I had a smaller client that could fit right into it.  So for my 4-year-old, I added a half inch total to the width and 3 or 4 inches to the length.  Nearly perfect!  The vest overlapped the top of his pants which was a perfect length . . . but I probably didn't need to add width.

The black pants were refashioned from adult-sized pants.  I used this tutorial from This Mama Makes Stuff, but I didn't do the skinny part.  Well, I didn't mean to do the skinny part.  I used a size 4 pattern for the bigger pants.  I even slimmed it down a little but they still ended up too big.  I used some 2T pants as my pattern for the little guy's pants, but I slimmed them down a little too much.  They fit, but I could I tell they looked a little "skinny."  But since that look is back (sigh), I could get away with it.  I guess I will just have to get better at using ready-made clothes as patterns.

The bow tie is my favorite.  I used this tutorial from Make It and Love It to refashion a men's necktie into a bow tie.  Only I used 1 adult tie to make two smaller kids' ties.  I love them!  I think a bow tie was the right way to go.  Fun, yet still serious.

All in all, I think it was definitely worth the two weeks of work that I put into these suits.  I don't know what I will do with the vests, but the pants and perhaps the bow ties can be used again.  And I learned quite a bit through this process, and that's what it's all about for me.  Well that, and being able to show off my two little bugs in great handmade, one(or two)-of-a-kind clothes.

I purchased the white shirts.
I apologize for the terrible photo quality.  Everything happened so quickly that I didn't have time to have the boys pose outside for blog-worthy photos.  Lesson learned.