With kids clothes I take as many short cuts as is reasonable. For these shirts I did a quick pleat vent instead of a true placket. And to save time on the collar I just cut the stand and collar as one piece. I've always thought my boy was adorable but to see him walking around in button down shirts has got to be one of the greatest things in my life right now.

So the monkey was a hit with RJ.

He named the monkey George, rejecting my suggestions of Walter or Clive.

George hasn't left his side and went with him to the doctor's office to get kindergarten shots, the store, and he tried to sneak him into church.

Mainly at the doctor's office people asked him about his monkey and he'd proudly tell them:

"This is George!  I made him with my mom!"

and then he'd show them how the banana comes out.

The only negative criticism I have, are two typos I found in the pattern pieces.

I only made the monkey, but some of its pattern pieces were labeled with the wrong info.

If you read through the instructions before you start like you should, I would have caught them, but I cut everything out according to the pattern piece info, and cut the monkey side face from the wrong fabric and cut 2 extra head back pieces I didn't need.

So just follow the written instructions to make sure you don't waste fabric!

I appreciated all the patterns are printed in the back of the book and you just trace them right onto freezer paper without having to enlarge them. Or I also just found they offer the templates free online so you technically can print them rather than trace them out of the book.

*The last project, a dinosaur is the only one that you need to enlarge for full scale.

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So all in all, I'm glad we got to try out this book and had fun making a monkey together.

It's fun to see your kid appreciate something you make, and actually use it.

But it's even more rewarding to see him proud of his contribution and hopefully gaining self esteem in creating something he loves.