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. 🙂
I cut the neckline and all pieces as is, and diddled about with the lengths to get the look I wanted… as follows:
Hello! I’ve finally finished these black leather clogs; that have been on the go for nearly a whole year now…. eeeeek!!
The last time I went down to visit Mum and Dad: Dad had some pinewood he’d cut himself from a “weed” pine on their block… and he very kindly helped me to shape the blocks on his bandsaw, and have the use of his sander to do some further shaping while I was down there… I’m so lucky that Dad has all the perfect equipment for this!
Once I got home, I sanded down the soles even further, stuck some cork to the bottom and the heels, and applied five coats of satin varnish. Ohhh, wait, getting ahead of myself… before that, I’d fancied the idea of a nice deep, chocolate brown wood, I thought it would play off nicely against my chosen black leather. So I bought some walnut stain and gave them a coat. They looked um, not good, but I persisted (“maybe they just need MORE of it” famous last words) and did a few more coats. Then they looked DREADFUL. A day or so of deep depression later, and I’d regained the energy to set up the sander again and sand it all off. THEN I did the soling/ varnishing thing to my clean, new soles. *sigh* Lesson learned; wood looks better in its natural colour.
just felt vaguely frumpy in them and peeled them off straight away. I’m just not feeling this style any more, feel like it’s becoming a little bit dated. Is it just me, or are skinny jeans appearing decidedly passé right now? Anyway; OUT THEY GO!!! Well… maybe just to the time-out box for a while. I have this box you see, that I chuck doubtful clothes into, and in a few months or a year or so I’ll check them out to see if it’s easier to make a decision then. Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I even have that box since it’s a kind of hoarder-ish thing to have and really nine times out of ten the items within get the flick! but for the one item that gets a reprieve I’ve always been glad I kept it after all. Sometimes, you and your clothing just need a bit of a break from each other. A trial separation. A conscious uncoupling, with the door open to re-coupling. Yeah. *madly justifying hoarding tendencies to oneself*
Like most bloggers, when taking my pictures I usually try to pick some nice location as a backdrop to my creations, something that has the colours and the “feel” and/or just some general overall appropriateness in subject matter or whatever, that I think enhances whatever it is I’m showcasing.
The bottom layer is thin cork-covered, contact paper, cut to size, stuck on – more liquid nails, yo!! and then three layers of clear, enamel varnish to seal and strengthen.
My dear friend 
However.. modifications happened along the way. Of course they did. My dress has the same bones, but the original is actually a very boxy design, with quite a pronounced dropped shoulder. I’m sure it’s a lovely design for the right fabric; as in, something with plenty of natural “flop” that allows those shoulder seams to drop gracefully down over your upper arm.
Self-explanatory, really. #endblogpost 😉
Pattern; Vogue 1384. It’s a vintage pattern, hailing from 1984, sorry. Yeah, it’s annoying when people make things in vintage patterns that you can’t get a hold of anymore. But I’m sure this is not particularly aspirational actually, it’s a little weird in that 80’s way. That high, slightly floppy collar combined with a billowing pirate-y blousiness is giving me serious 
