Baby Pants and Shoes

My friend just had a baby so I made her some newborn pants and shoes. The brown pants are made of a soft, very pliable corduroy that someone gave me a while back. The others are flannel. For both pants I used Made by Rae's Newborn Baby Pants Pattern. The pattern is made for cloth diapered babies so there is extra room in the booty but I know my friend only uses disposable diapers so for the flannel pair I flipped the pattern upside down and made the legs the booty. It ended up being a little lower in the waist than I would have liked but they fit him well.

For the shoes, I used a modified version of the Stardust baby shoes pattern (I feel like the toes of that pattern were a bit too club-footed for my taste). I used the same fabrics as on the pants - corduroy for the outside (even the bottom) and flannel on the lining. These shoes are size 0-6 months. On the bigger shoes I like to use JiffyGrip to provide traction for beginning walkers.

Cutest Dress Ever

Dress and Pinafore made from Butterick B4054. Dress is view A; Pinafore is view H but without the ruffles (I didn't have enough matching fabric for the ruffles). Both are size 1 (12 months) and loosely fit my 13-month old daughter.

The dress was made with a Kona cotton solid (100% cotton) from JoAnn. The pattern was easy to follow and went pretty quickly (I was able to sew it about 2-3 hours a day over 5 days). There were two difficult parts: getting the bias tape onto the collar because there was a lot of bulk from the collar pieces and the bias tape was pretty small AND sewing the sleeves onto the dress because the armholes were so small they wouldn't fit around the arm of my machine so I had to be very careful not to sew them closed. The dress fits loosely and the skirt is fairly long, which I like but could be difficult if she was crawling.

The pinafore was made from a white remnant, most likely 100% cotton. Easy to make and follow the pattern (it was the first time I had ever done gathers and it explained it well). It sat for a little while because there was hand sewing involved on the inside but once I sat down to do it, the hand sewing went quickly.

Fleece Jacket

This jacket is made using McCall's M5538, view C, size small. It is made with charcoal grey fleece (anti-pill). Overall the pattern was fairly easy to read and follow but there were some parts where I didn't understand what they were saying so I had to just wing it:

First, the zipper was a nightmare. I think my biggest trouble came because it was plastic so when the instructions explained how to shorten the zipper, it didn't work on the plastic teeth. I ended up just hiding it in the collar; it was only a few inches.

Second, I don't feel like there were ever instructions on what to do about sewing down the bottom of the collar so when I was finished with the jacket, I just ran my machine across the back collar, hiding the stitches in the seam between the back and collar.

Finally, I omitted the arm pocket. I sewed it like normal but without the pocket.

One note about the pattern overall is that the pockets are located at the side seams, which makes makes it more awkward because it feels a little far back from where you would naturally expect it to be (but the pocket location made it easier to sew than if they were on the front section).

Penguin Costume

Approximately size 3T

For the pants I used New Look 6861. I only needed about 1 yard total. Fleece fabric. I used 1" cotton elastic for the waist. It is important to baste down the seam allowances all around the pants before making the casing and stringing in the elastic to keep the elastic from bunching and getting stuck. I forgot about the seam where I connected the white with the black fabric so the elastic is a little funky now.

For the top I used a jacket he already has that fits well. I traced it leaving a little seam allowance. Instead of dealing with finishing the neck edge I decided to add a hood. I used #20 plastic snaps in white for the front closure.

Lederhosen

For our church talent show my husband and two of his friends preformed "So Long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music. It just wouldn't be right without lederhosen. I used this tutorial to help me know what to do. The first pair took about 2 hours start to finish and the remaining two took a little less time (about 3 hours combined). I just bought dress pants and suspenders from DI (Deseret Industries, a used clothing and other stuff store similar to Goodwill but cheaper).

Baby Shower

On Saturday I went to a friend's baby shower. She is having a boy so I made her a little baby blanket with farm animals on one side and a minty green on the other side as well as a crochet brim hat that [sort of] matches. I used my 3-month old as the hat model. I have to say she did a great job.

Finally

I have been wanting an apron for quite some time now and I finally have one! I saw some really neat looking ice milk aprons and was inspired to make one of my own. It was really easy to make with all of the fabric coming from my [newly cleaned out] fabric stash. After making the apron I tried it on up high with the empire waist look but it didn't suit me so I will wear it on my waist instead. I love that I now have an apron and I can't wait to make more!