Tag Archives: Babywear

funsies with onesies

30/07/2019 2:05 pm \ 9 Comments \

I’ve made another little onesie!  Looks a bit goth, you say??  well, there’s a story…  🙂

The sewcialists blog had this fun, little mini-challenge last weekend; you spun the wheel to get a colour and then you had the weekend to whip up something with your colour.  I spun and got:

 

I’m sorry to say I felt very uninspired at first, and just left it for a few days.  And yes, it did say you could spin again and again, in fact as many times as you like to get the colour you want! but that’s just not me… I’m a stick-with-what-you’ve-got, kind of a person, and spinning a second time would have felt like cheating.  Stubborn? oh yes, but you know, gotta own what you are!

Then it occurred to me… make something else for the new baby!!  Now if that’s not a fun motivation I don’t know what is!!  So, you know I’ve got a huge bag of the family’s old clothes that are still very good quality fabric, and I fished out this old T-shirt of Tim’s…

I had this idea he might like for his new baby to have a little something of Dad’s when he gets here… pretty cute idea, huh?  Well, I thought so.  🙂  No sooner did I post a picture on instagram, than Tim sent me this one picture of himself wearing the T-shirt.  The grim-looking persona here is all an act, honestly; he’d dressed as a rocker for a dress-up party, haha.

Pattern; I again used the pattern Tim and Kelly had given me; Burda 9434, the 1 month size, except this time I cut the front as one piece, so as to maintain the cool tree/crows motif on the front of the T-shirt; and put 3 snaps in the crotch for closure.

I also made the little ivory beanie; using part of an old dress of Cassie’s.  No picture of that one in its original condition sadly; and it’s already been cut up in the past for a heap for other things; in any case, this is totally a very recycled and eco-friendly outfit for the new bub!

Just some boring construction thoughts:  I did have to cut and piece a little bit near one shoulder, because for some reason the motif had been placed super high on the T-shirt; so close to the neckline edging that you couldn’t possibly cut out the narrow baby onesie piece AND keep the motif intact otherwise.  You’d think the manufacturer’s would consider that people might want to cut out a baby onesie when they print their T-shirts, wouldn’t you; sheesh.  So inconsiderate!  Really, in retrospect I should have pieced BOTH shoulder pieces, which would have centred the motif better, but oh well; you live and learn.  I think it’s super cute, and honestly, I can hardly wait for Tim to be holding his new baby wearing this onesie! seems like full circle, you know?  That is; the baby wearing the onesie, not Tim, obviously!

addendum; aaaaaaaaand, I’ve just finished another shortie onesie… and matching beanie. Reason number one; Kelly and Tim really did buy SO MUCH of this fabric! and reason number two; because I’ve made a salient discovery; you can never actually get tired of making baby onesies.

So, the beanie matches the very first “long-ie” onesie I made, obviously, because it’s from the same fabric; and this onesie also matches the above, ivory beanie; because I used the ivory fabric for the binding… I stitched on miniature sew-on press-studs for the closure on this one because I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the hammer-in ones, and am currently residing in the hate phase…

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a new baby in the family!!! plus something for Mummy too :)

12/07/2019 7:07 pm \ 24 Comments \

So, I have some extremely exciting news… !!  I am going to be a granny!!!!

Last week, Tim and Kelly announced they had a “souvenir” from their honeymoon to give to all of us and gave each of us a package… I unwrapped mine and what should I find, but a length of this adorable fabric and a pattern for a weeny little onesie and beanie…! everyone else had suitably themed pressies too; Sam had a T-shirt with “world’s best uncle”, Craig had a book “Grandad jokes”, and Cassie had a “World’s best auntie” Tshirt… oooh, such an incredibly lovely surprise! We were all stunned and then excited; and of course completely over the moon!  We all cannot WAIT to welcome the newest and littlest member of the family next year…!! the first one in our next generation!!  In the meantime of course I’ve made up the baby fabric immediately! Such fun to be making baby clothes again!   #itsbeenawhile

So this is the pattern they chose; Burda 9434, and the cotton jersey is from Spotlight.  I’m like, haha, first time parents; they bought a full 1.5m of fabric!  Enough for two babies, lol!   Wait, what?!!  but no no, before we all get too excited Kelly has had a scan and there is just a singleton in there  🙂

I immediately traced off the one month size and ran up a onesie.  And a beanie.  Eeeee so cute! and it was such an absolute joy to be making these!!  By the way; I had to trace the pattern in full, and will need to do so again and again, and probably even again! because obviously all sizes must stay intact since we’ll be needing those down the track too, that’s life…   babies GROW 🙂  The pieces are all so tiny though it’s not exactly an unduly cumbersome chore.

I forgot to mention, the beanie is made from navy blue merino from the Fabric Store; I bought in in Melbourne during one of our girly jaunts over there and previously made this T-shirt/sweater using it too.

Kelly also mentioned that she needed to buy maternity clothes, and daa da da daaaa!  (bugle call to arms) mum-in-law to the rescue and all that.  Well, I do love sewing and have SO MUCH time on my hands now I no longer have a wedding dress to make, haha.  I thought this a perfectly good excuse to buy the Closet Case Ebony tee pattern.  This is one of the few Closet Case patterns I hadn’t got my hands on already … I had eyed it up a number of times but not pulled the trigger.  Anyway, I finally did!  And immediately printed out two copies; one for Kelly and one for me.

I know this isn’t a maternity pattern but I also knew it could easily work as one!  I sized up from Kelly’s normal size, just in case; and you know what? it fits her perfectly!  Pregnancy boobs, you know.

now this is a nice touch!  personal.  I like.  I wonder if I can do this for our patterns?!

This is me here, modelling it for ye olde blog, before I hand it over to Kelly.  Maybe I’ll get a shot of her wearing it, one of these days, maybe not.    I’m not feeling very strict about blog photos for this one, because it’s essentially just a wearable muslin to check for size.  It’s all leftovers; the body was from the leftovers from this top (Fabulous Fabrics) and the sleeves leftover from this, old favourite dress (Spotlight).  To be honest, even though they’re both stretch fabrics, I don’t think they had enough stretch actually, but it still worked out, um; reasonable? I think?!  And it’s just a muslin, but I still had to obsessively pin each and every stripe, grrr.    This is a pretty silly thing to do, but it does result in great stripe-matching so *shrug* it’s worth it? I guess?

One thing I can guarantee; I am going to make lots more of both these patterns, and SOON!!!

Details:

Baby clothes; Burda 9434, cotton jersey and merino for the beanie
Tunic; the Ebony tee by Closet Case patterns, striped stuff, probably not enough stretch
Skirt; Vogue 1247, striped drill, details here
Tights; my own custom fit pattern, details on how to make your own here
Booties;  Officine Creative, birthday  present from Craig last year  🙂

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I made some stuff…

31/01/2018 1:27 pm \ 25 Comments \

So, what are the latest whatevers to wing their way out of the atelier, hmmm?  Well, I’ve been making LOADS of things, just nothing much to show for it, as yet.  Remember I mentioned I was making a pattern?  Well, making a pattern comes with making a truckload of muslins, of course.  I’ve actually made 13 dresses in the last month alone, albeit they’re made from old sheets and are a bit rough, but still.  Am I going to count these in my “one refashion a month” resolution? no, that wouldn’t be fair.  How’s the pattern coming along? swimmingly! which is fab… I’m almost at the testing phase, I will be incredibly happy to get there after 8 months of preparation.  8 MONTHS!

In more tangible making results, I made a little romper for Sarah’s new little boy…  Sarah LOVES stripes, so the descent into stripe-matching madness struck once again.  I used Butterick 6372, which I’ve made twice previously, and just altered it slightly to be a romper, and added that cute little pocket.  Would you believe I re-did that little pocket THREE flipping times??  First I made a curved bottom pocket, which was pretty awful, followed by a flat bottomed pocket.  Equally awful.  I do really like the pointed bottom pocket though, I think it’s super cute.  It’s my favourite part about the whole romper actually!

The striped cotton terry is from Spotlight, hopefully the last piece of fabric I will buy this year, given Project Stash Reduction is a goal this year.  The red cuffs and pockets were culled from a Wildcats Tshirt from my refashioning pile.  Thus partially fulfilling my once-a-month refashioning resolution #virtouslyRubbingFingernailsOnChest.

There was a little bit of leftover striped fabric, so I also made an adult sized beanie, using a pattern made by Andrea of fabric epiphanies.  I’m afraid though that I couldn’t for the life of me work out how to print it up so the sizing square was the correct scale… three attempts later, and eventually I settled for “pretty close”.  I estimated my beanie is actually about 7-8% bigger than the pattern, and then Sarah informed me it is too small! aaaagh!  It is a pretty cute pattern though, I will still probably give it another go one day  🙂

The stripes do match up all around though, both inside and out, a matter of personal pride for me.  I bound the beanie using a strip of blue merino, given to me by Mum.

So, after cutting the romper cuffs and pocket from the Tshirt, I still had quite a chunk of Tshirt leftover, well this wouldn’t do!  I immediately realised, as you do; that I could get two pairs of knickers and a bra from the leftovers.  Well, I’m sure that is the first thought anyone would think, hmmm?

I used the cloth habit Watson pattern, and cut out a bra plus two sets of matching knickers… yes, it was an XL Tshirt. I avoided as much of the advertising as possible and tried to stick to just the Wildcats logos as much as I could.

As I was making it, it occurred to me… is jungle January still a thing?  See, in the past few years I’ve been in the habit of making a set of underwear for jungle January, and one of the things about the basketball is that the Perth Arena is known as “the Jungle” during the Wildcats games.  Like, they’re always screaming  “WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!!!!!” and going on about “…. HERE IN THE JUNGLE…!!!!”   “Jungle” I guess because, wildcats.  Anyway, it occurred to me that I was serendipitously making a jungle-themed set of underwear again.  Without even meaning to!  Win!!!

Do you wanna hear something funny?

I’ve been in the throes of making this set for several weeks now, fitting it in as light relief in between working on my pattern, you know; and I took it along to the sewing guild meeting yesterday in the hopes of finishing it up.  And there I had the joy of seeing Emma also making a Watson bra.  Except her’s was really beautiful; super pretty, with chartreuse lace, pink and blue elastics, generally all round gorgeous and very feminine.  Just absolutely lovely in every way.  Such a contrast to my sorta … lowbrow one made from an old basketball Tshirt,  With logos, and everything.  Like something a teenager might wear.  Or more like, refuse to.  Omigawd, so embarrassing. I swear I don’t try to be like this.  It just happens.  Every now and again, I think back to an anonymous commenter who used to frequent my blog, and who couldn’t resist from pointing out my 1) immaturity and 2) unnecessary penny-pinching-ness, among other things.  Ahem, guilty as charged!

Fully lined with a lightweight stretchy stuff that I discovered during my stash clean out…  My tutorial for fully lining this pattern to enclose the seams, is here

 

I thought about not posting this next one… but wellll, here goes… I’ve also made another thing, squeezed out from the Wildcats Tshirt, I mentioned it was an XL yeah?! I also got a little cropped top, much nothing to write home about at all… I made it specifically for my new workout aspirations.  I hadn’t made any working out or losing weight resolutions on New Year’s Eve … but just lately I’ve been feeling a bit stodgy and decidedly… “matronly”, is the only word I can think of.  So I decided to do something about it, and purchased the Kayla Itsines Bikini BodyGuide.  One thing you’re supposed to do before even getting started is take a picture of yourself, preferably in a sports crop top and little shorts, and then take a new picture in the same ensemble every week as you work through the guide.  So obviously I had to make myself a little crop top, asap!  I used my customised version of the Closet Case Nettie bodysuit pattern and whipped up this super basic thing, just edged with a line of white overlocking thread around all the edges, which I think looks nice with my little white shorts.  I made those too.. they’re are the eponymous Carolyn pyjama shorts.  I rolled them up a bit, to show as much abdomen as I dared.  Hopefully, it’s going to become a more shapely one in a few weeks!  Don’t worry, I will not be posting a new picture here every week, but I’ll probably do an summary when I finished the course!

I started out with the beginner’s schedule, and practically killed myself just doing day 1!!

before… 

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couture pour bébés

14/04/2017 4:49 pm \ 17 Comments \

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.  🙂

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Stash Box, plus miniature clothing for tiny people

30/11/2015 10:33 am \ 140 Comments \

Recently I was asked by Two Blue Birdies; a Melbourne based, online fabric and haberdashery store to review their Stash Box.  What is the Stash Box, you might ask?  Well, it is like a little mystery box of  fabric and haberdashery goodies.  Once a month, the girls at Two Blue Birdies select a colour co-ordinated range of crafty things from their range of fabrics, felt, patterns and haberdashery and send it out to you.
The box I received contained the following bits and bobs;
a pattern for a stuffed toy hedgehog, 4 pieces of fabric, 2 squares of felt, two spools of thread, 4 buttons, a soluble marking pen, and a length of mini pompom trim.  This last is ultra cute; I’ve not come across this before and it is cute!

It was fun waiting for and receiving the box, and opening it to see what was inside!  I took it along to my local craft group to get their opinion and they all agreed that it is a pretty cute and fun way to get a new little range of goodies to play with.  If you do crafty things with your children/grandchildren; and/or if you yourself love crafting and fiddling about making cute little bits and bobs then this is a terrific way to get a new boost to the craft supply box each month.
The deal sounds pretty flexible; if you don’t need a box that month you can easily opt out of the subscription as long as you get in touch with Two Blue Birdies before the date of postage.  And conversely, if you don’t have or don’t want a subscription but really like the look of the stash box that month, you can buy just a box at a time, supplies permitting and with no need to lock yourself into a subscription.

What did I make with the contents of my stash box?  well, since Two Blue Birdies were so generous as to send me the box for free, and I’m all about paying it forward… I really wanted to do something good with it.  By that I mean, something unselfish, for once!  I know, we seamsters all joke about sewing selfishly, myself included! and heaven knows I sew plenty for myself.
So I hunted about for a local charity and almost immediately found Tiny Sparks WA.
Tiny Sparks is devoted to helping women experiencing a high-risk pregnancy and babies born sick or premature.  Obviously donations are welcome, and one way to get involved is to be a part of the knitting and sewing community that work to provide a gift of special clothes for the babies for when they leave hospital and go to their own homes.  You can read more about the charity and how to get involved on their website here, and the site is regularly updated to notify items that are particularly low in stock, and currently required.  Importantly, the site also has the free patterns for the particular clothing and beanies that fit the babies and their requirements.  These four little outfits here are all for size up to 1.6kg.  I know, so tiny!!!!!  This isn’t even the smallest size!

Initially I thought to make two boys’ outfits and two girls’ outfits; however the fabrics, while they were sorta unisex in colour, seemed to my eye to be quite feminine in style, so I ended up making four girls’ outfits.  However! of course I do not want the boys to miss out! so pretty soon I will be making some boys’ outfits, to make up for the imbalance.  Because I will be doing this again.  In fact, I enjoyed making these so much that I will probably make this a regular project, as long as there is a demand.
I bought baby yarn from Spotlight to knit the matching beanies.  The Tiny Sparks website outlines quite specific requirements regarding fabrics; all fabrics must be new, soft, lightweight cotton; and beanies are to be knitted from new, machine-washable yarn preferably the acrylic/wool mix OR 100% acrylic, that is specifically designed for babies’ knitwear.  I bought a ball each in white and red, so as to make each one different.  The white has a chevron design and the red one is moss stitch.  The two-colour ones are plain stocking stitch, one with a Where’s Wally like stripe and the other with a few rows of simple fair isle, of alternating one red stitch, one white stitch.

The dresses do not have closures on them yet, because they require specialised plastic snaps; I’m not familiar with it so didn’t want to risk putting the wrong thing on.  In any case, Tiny Sparks encourages you to send in the clothing sans closure so they can finish that bit themselves.
So there you have it: four teeny tiny little baby outfits!  I’ve already sent them off… and although I will probably never know, I certainly hope that a parent likes a set enough to choose it for their baby; absolutely nothing would make me happier than for that to happen!
Thank you so much to Two Blue Birdies, for giving me the impetus to get on and do something for a very worthwhile cause  🙂

 

Also! courtesy of Two Blue Birdies, I am offering up the pattern for the cute little Hollie Hedgehog for a giveaway!  If you would like this pattern, maybe to make some little Christmas pressies then please either leave a comment below stating so, OR send me an email; before this Friday, 4th December. and I will randomly select a recipient.  I’ve received lots of emails telling me that comments are for some annoying reason not going through on my blog; trust me, I’m working on it!  So, if you are unable to comment, then please do contact me by email instead and I’ll still put you in the draw.  My email address can be found by clicking on the mid blue “envelope” button, up there with my media icons, at top right  🙂
Obviously, if you don’t want to enter the draw for the pattern but still would like to comment, then by all means, do so.  Like everyone, I love comments!

LATER EDIT: Dk’s wife; the pattern is yours, could you please email me with you shipping address? thanks  🙂

Please note; as always there are no affiliate links on my blog

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