Hello!
Lately I’ve been making some cute little baby suits!
We have two friends who have recently welcomed babies into their lives, both boys, and I decided to make some little hoodie suits for them. Aren’t these the cutest?? It was soooo haaaaard to choose which cute little jersey print to use! there were so many super sweet and adorable little prints available.
I agonised a bit, would the Mums prefer funny/cute? or would they prefer chic/cute? You can’t always predict what people are going to want for their babes, in the end I stuck with the safe option and went with the neutral coloured chic/cute… but just couldn’t resist the bear ears on the hoodies! So there is a little bit of funny/cute going on. I hope the new mothers don’t mind this… because I think the bear ears are adorable!
Pattern; Butterick 6372. For both sets I chose to make a bear eared hoodie, zip fronted with long sleeves, and separate trousers. There isn’t a pattern for the hoodie with long sleeves, but it’s pretty easy to juxtapose the onesie pattern piece with the armscye that allows for long sleeves, with the vest pattern piece that has the little pockets and a shorter, swingy silhouette. Yes, I put in the side pockets!!! Completely useless obviously, nearly every single family member who has seen them has asked “but what are they going to put in there???” but they’re so cute that just like the bear ears, I just couldn’t resist adding them.
Fabrics; cotton jersey from Spotlight. Both are bear prints, which fits in with the bear ears thing going on with the hoodie… am I putting too much thought into this, or what?! Anyway, I love both of them equally. Baby T is a bigger baby so the beige “bears camping” one is a bit bigger for him, and the smaller, ivory “bears in the woods” set is for baby J. To be honest, I’m seriously thinking of getting some of this fabric to make a Tshirt for myself… would that be weird?? I would just have to be vigilant to never wear it while visiting!
It was such fun making these, took me right back to when I used to make cute little baby clothes for my own bubs! I love fiddling about with the smaller and easy to manage pieces and everything goes together so fast and easy! the only difficulties I had was with the zips for the front opening. I don’t really like these ones all that much, they’re called “invisible separating zips” but they were the only ones I could get that were even halfway suitable, as in a) separating, b) the right colour and c) lightweight and “petite” enough to be ok for babywear. Also it is NOT FUN putting zips into flimsy, lightweight jersey fabric. I just went as slowly and as carefully as I could, being super careful not to stretch the fabric out very much, and I think they turned out ok. The zip for the smaller, ivory hoodie had to be trimmed a little in length, and you can’t cut any off the bottom, because you’d lose the separating part! So I trimmed it from the top and was careful to firmly secure the top edge into the seam so there’s no risk of the zip-pull flying off the top. I’m speaking from bitter experience there… it’s an old old old war wound, and don’t ask!! Just that my number one rule with invisible zips is usually; NEVER cut the top off!!
OH! I forgot to blog about this before, in fact I just checked and I made this back in February! bad blogger! but I also made another little work dress for Cassie, another Named patterns Inari tee dress. This is my fifth Inari made, my third for Cassie, she loves the style just as much as I do! Also it’s like a perfect little design for work, plus being easy and comfortable to wear, and quick to run one up. I incorporated the same sleeve-widening alteration I devised previously, to counteract the “raise your arms above your head and oh look! now everyone can see your knickers!” effect of this design.
Fabric: a piece of mid-blue suiting fabric from the small stash given to me by my friend L, when she cleaned out her garage. It’s got that distinctive vintage feel to it; cuts like a dream, a lovely weight, a bit heavy and with a texture almost like brushed wool. I overlocked the raw edges inside, with the exception of the hem edge which I finished with a Hong Kong seam in mid-blue linen, from my stash. Since the inside hem edge of this design is often glimpsed while you’re wearing the dress, I think it’s therefore much better to finish it with some beautiful, “meant to be seen” finish, than just roaring it through the overlocker. I stitched this down over the edge, before slip-stitching the hem invisibly in place.
Other alteration, the addition of inseam side pockets. Well, duh. 🙂
They are such cute baby outfits, and what gorgeous fabrics! Though I have to say I really don’t envy you sewing zips into thin jersey!
I love that inari tee dress. I really will need to try this sleeve adjustment as I didn’t think it was too bad on my dress but had it on hanging out the washing the other day & it really does ride up quite high!
thank you Kathryn! the sleeves on the inari aren’t really too bad, but I usually do this adjustment anyway because it really does help! 🙂
Those little baby outfits are too cute! And nothing wrong with pockets as a design detail, right? Nice work with the Inari dress, too.
thanks so much Becky! Yes, the pockets are more of a design detail than anything actually useful, but they’re fun anyway 🙂
Gorgeous baby outfits Carolyn – lucky babies. Love Cassie’s new Inari dress – great colour too.
thank you Jenny! xx
Toooooo cute!!! Can’t even begin to imagine what fun you had while making those baby outfits! Cassie is beautiful in that blue and such another lovely dress.
super cute baby outfits. And oh I love that mention of cutting off the top of the invisible zipper (well any zipper) as an old war wound. Oh yeah, I have that too! and so am very sensitive to the point of obsession about shortening zippers. it’s fraught with hazards!
I love those little baby outfits! In my humble opinion, the ears just take the ensemble to the next level of cuteness!!! When my boys were born, (they are toddlers now) we received a MOUNTAIN of baby blankets. All colors and fabrics and textures and varying degrees of warmth. And of course pleased at everyone’s thoughtfulness and kindness, still felt a little overwhelmed by what we were going to do with all of them… Until i realized that a blanket is basically FABRIC YARDAGE! And I got several tops, slippers, and kid leggings cut and stitched over the last few months–nothing earth shattering, but so much more useful than a stack of blankets collecting dust! Nothing like sewing for your kids, right? I am sure Cassie very much appreciates it!
turning baby blankets into clothes, that’s a terrific idea Kristin! cos often the fabric has such adorable prints too. I LOVE sewing baby and kiddie clothes, not so serious and a lot more frivolous than adult clothes, and you can really have fun with it 🙂
“What will they put in there?” – SAND!!! By the time my babies were 18 months I’d banned pockets from their clothes. They adored the sand pit at daycare. I’m guessing these are clothes for young babies who are too little for sand pits.
I love the print and was considering a tshirt for me in it too. It will be a much needed respite from the cutesy all pink or all blue clothes babies get nowadays.
thanks Accordian! yes these babies are still pretty immobile, the pockets are pretty useless really. I’m calling them a fun design detail, they’re so tiny and cute!
Oh, I love your baby couture! The prints and styles are just perfect, and the pockets made me laugh. You really do love pockets! Cassie’s new inari is lovely too, I know what you mean about the satisfying weight and hand of older fabric. I have some pieces and the quality is just superb.
thanks Philippa! yes, I really do love pockets! 😀 sometimes it’s a bit daunting to cut into lovely vintage fabrics but the results often make you wonder why you left it off so long! 🙂
Very cute baby outfits, and the prints are such fun. I was interested to see zips used rather than popper snaps.
I really like this version of the Inari dress, very stylish and a gorgeous colour.
thanks Michelle! I think I would prefer snaps to zips too, it would be easy to adapt the pattern, you just have to remember to add a bit of width to the front opening for an overlapping placket 🙂
The baby outfits are so cute, I hope they were well received.
Another lovey Inari dress for Cassie, the colour is so pretty and I love using Hong Kong finishes on any seam that will be seen.