Grow Fonder

I really love pattern testing for companies where I already know and love their products. You already know that you are likely to love the end result. This time I was testing an update to an already established pattern, the Grow Fonder cowl by Appletree Sewing.

I had already been stashing away fabric for a capsule for Lottie and I’ve suddenly realised that if some of the key pieces are grow with me then I get to enjoy it for so much longer. This mustard zebra and grey stripe are key parts of my plan. I just love how the stripe mirrors the stripes of the zebra.

The cowl is perfectly proportioned. I think I like the idea of cowl jumpers on kids. They never seem to keep hoods on, and the cowl is less bulky under a coat too. This is the 3-12 month size on Lottie at almost 8 months and she definitely has some spare room in the length and the sleeves but it doesn’t look to oversized.

I did find the tabs at the end of the drawstrings pretty fiddly and bulky, but that may have been my own fault for wanting to match the colour perfectly and using a bulky knit fabric instead of the recommended woven. I’m pretty sure I would do it neater next time though and I’m not so worried about how these ones turned out to feel the need to do it again.

I fancied making a bit of an outfit to kick-start her capsule so I made a simple pair of leggings to coordinate. These are the free lightning leggings from Made By Jacks Mum, but in the spirit of getting them to last as long as possible I gave them double height ankle cuffs too which can be unrolled as she grows. The pattern has several fit options so these are the looser relaxed fit with space for a cloth nappy. They are surprisingly not actually too big for her given that they are the 6-12 month size. I think if I make more I might need to increase the rise height a bit to give a bit more room for her bum!

I’ve always been a bit scared of pairing different prints together because I don’t think I’m very good at getting the balance of colours and scales right. This outfit however has turned out even better than I expected.

I feel like I’m fan-girling a bit but I really do love the revamped Grow Fonder pattern and already I have plans for two more in the next 12 months to 3 year size! I believe it is being released imminently so it is definitely one that I would wholeheartedly recommend.

Advertisement

Shorty shorts

Another pattern test! I’m feeling fairly prolific, though I have only been accepting ones with quick outcomes and sewn in jersey! This one has been for Appletree patterns, and I’ve sewn a couple of their grow with me patterns before so I was really excited about being involved in this test. I actually managed to sew up two different options, one each for Toby and Lottie.

These little shorties are super cute. They remind me of the bike shorts and cut off leggings that I wore when I was about 10! The pattern has two lengths, two skirt options and a relaxed or snugger fit cuffs. I think I might try the double height waistband too soon. A bit of extra height is always useful with cloth nappies!

I would also have loved a skirt with the little shorts sewn in too for doing handstands and cartwheels! I dont think Lottie is up to that right yet, but she is very sweet in her skort. She has the shorter version of the shorts, and a half circle skirt attached. There is a full circle skirt option too.

I made the longer shorts for Toby. We had a really active morning in these and they were perfect. Its a bit different to the shorts I have put him in in the past, but I really like them! I tried these shorts on Lottie too, and with her big cloth nappy they fit surprisingly well, so at the moment they can both fight it out to wear them!

As in many pattern tests, small tweaks are made to the pattern pieces throughout so I ended up sewing two different versions. In the final pattern though they have ended up giving both options so that there is a closser and more relaxed fit for the waistband and cuffs.

I made Lotties skirt with a rainbow rolled hem on the overlocker, which actually meant that this was a no sewing machine required make. Definately something to consider, and does make the process very fast. I always feel proud of myself when I manage to use some of the other settings on the overlocker.

As Lottie grows up I can definitely see myself making her dozens of these to wear under school uniforms and dresses for a bit of modesty and freedom of movement. They are such a quick and practical sew. I know I’ve said it before about her grow with me rompers, but I really love the concept of grow with me clothing. It makes so much sense with children who grow so fast!

Baby Feathers

One of the things that I really enjoy about pattern testing is trying out different designers and getting a chance to see their instructions and how they interact with their customers. I recently did a little pattern test for a really new company- Wildflower Patterns.

I don’t have loads of time to sew at the moment, and pattern testing is usually done with a fairly tight deadline so I only volunteer to test patterns if I know that I’m going to have time to do it properly. This ‘Fat Baby Slims‘ pattern is a really quick sew, so I actually had time to sew a quick first test fit and a second ‘pretty’ pair with a few tweaks.

One of the tings that I am discovering is that I would definitely class myself as an intermediate dressmaker now, so I felt like I was actually able to give some useful and constructive commentary on the pattern based on my personal preferences and experience. This pattern is aimed at much less experienced sewists so I could see why the construction had been instructed the way that it had, but I tweaked the construction of the waistband so that it was easier to sew on an overlocker. My method also traps the elastic in the seam line instead of in a casing, so there is no chance of it twisting or bunching up. Amy the pattern creator was really gracious in letting me experiment with her pattern during the test, and I’m really pleased with how this pair have turned out. She even switched the method to mine in the final instructions.

I like that the trousers are roomy around the bottom so that there is plenty of space for a big cloth nappy, but still nice and slim at the ankle so that they aren’t always slipping off over Lottie’s feet. She is pretty much perfect for the recommended measurements for the smallest size so she is probably quite a useful reference as to how they should fit on a little baby.

This fabric is cut from some of the offcuts from one of my t-shirts, so perhaps at some point we will have to do some mummy and daughter matching! It always amazes me how little fabric is needed for baby clothes.

While I like these, I think my favourite trouser pattern for Lottie at the moment is still the Made By Jacks Mum Harems. They just seem a bit easier to get on and off having slightly longer elastic measurements, and being UK rather than Australian sizing I just find it a bit easier to get my head around. It is nice to have some variety though so I’m sure I will make other pairs of these too.

Planning a toddler capsule wardrobe

I’ve been thinking about sewing smarter rather than sewing more. Part of that has been to plan and cut in batches. The next phase is to plan stratecigally about what I sew, so I’ve decided to plan Toby clothing as a whole capsule for the next year or so. It’s a bit like the planning I did for Lottie before she was born, and the yellow bananas set, but on a bigger scale.

First, I wanted to think about the fabrics that I have ready to sew for Toby and how they might fit together. I came up with a bit of a colour scheme based on fabrics that I definitely wanted to use, and then looked for a colour palette that included them.

Now that I had a collection of colours, I went back to my fabric and pulled out any others that would fit in, including a few prints and lots of solids. I also looked out for some extras to fill in the gaps in a few fabric shops, because it seemed like a great excuse for a little fabric shopping!

This is what I came up with. The fabrics are mostly knits of a mixture of different weights from t-shirt jersey to sweatshirting. Most of the clothes that I make Toby are stretchy because he wants to be able to move freely, though I think I might also pull in a few cotton or linen type fabrics too. I’m hoping that this capsule will be sufficient for approximately a year, so I’m planning to make things with a bit of growing room and to suit a range of weather too. I’m hoping to be able to include a few quirky and unique touches like some of the animal inspired outfits I made in the past, but keep everything as interchangeable as possible.

Once the fabrics are finalised, it was time to think about patterns and quantities. I’m not sure yet if I will end up making everything or if I will supplement what I make with hand me downs, charity shop finds or even a few ready to wear pieces. The clothes will all get a lot more wear by keeping the number of items low, so they all need to be able to withstand lots of wearing and washing.

I decided that Toby probably needs:

• 5 short sleeved t-shirts
• 5 long sleeved t-shirts / lightweight jumpers
• 2/3 warmer jumpers / hoodies
• 5 pairs of trousers- 3 warmer, 2 lighter
• 2/3 pairs of shorts

This should be enough to avoid washing every few days, but few enough that they should all be able to coordinate and also get worn regularly. To make it as simple as possible to get him dressed I’m going to keep the prints to the top half, so they can be layered up but should match with any of the shorts or trousers.

I already have a great selection of patterns to choose from, so I don’t think I’m going to look for any new ones particularly, unless I come across a real gap. Some of the ones that I’m already planning for are a zip hoodie, some joggers, ringer tees, and a yet to be blogged grow with me pattern. I’ve also bought a few other patterns recently so I’m looking forward to incorporating those too.

I’m really excited now about the prospect of creating a structured and cohesive set of clothing. Now I need to start pairing fabric to patterns and get started. A few of the items are already underway or completed so they will be appearing here shortly. I’ve also been planning something similar for Lottie (and got sucked down a fabric rabbit hole) so I’m quite excited about that too!

Grow with me two

I’ve been making a couple more grow with me rompers– one for Lottie, and another as a gift for a friend who has recently had a little boy. When you have a baby you seem to end up with so many clothes for the first few months so it’s always nice to have clothes which will last a little longer.

I put a little handmade label in the gifted romper, and included a little card showing how the romper adjusts to different sizes. I hope they enjoy it!

This time I used a bit of a hack that is talked about in the Appletree sewing patterns Facebook group to simplify and speed up the sewing of the side seams and the drawstring channel. I extended that part of the pattern by about 1cm to give it a seam allowance and sewed the channel down before the side seam so that it could all be done in one pass without needing to switch machines part way down.

On the left- drawstring channel sewn as in the pattern instructions.
On the right- hacked to overlock the seam in one go.

I think it is quicker to sew and looks fairly neat, but it is a little bulkier than the way that the pattern is drafted. If you were sewing lots, then it might be a good time saver, but I think I might go back to the original method in future.

I also made a couple more pick n’mix bodysuits, one for Lottie, and one to gift. It was great to use some of the offcuts as fox appliqués on the bodysuits.

The bodysuits each match the lining of the romper. Lottie’s fits her proportions so well at the moment. She is fairly slim, but with a big cloth nappy so it’s quite impressive to find a pattern that works so well straight off. I’m happier with the binding on these than the banana one too, and I think it might be even better next time if I use my walking foot.

I went with lovely bright snaps on the crotch, though I did have a few issues with them falling apart to begin with. I think it might be that these smaller snaps don’t have a long enough shank for the four layers of fabric at the binding.

I can see Lottie wearing this new romper loads now that the weather is warming up. It’s great to be able to just lenghen the legs a little when we are going out on our daily walk to keep her out of the sun.

Baby mini capsule Part 3- all the legs

This is the final part of my mini series on Lottie’s capsule wardrobe. Find her t-shirts and bodysuits in the previous posts. This time I have tried out two new trouser patterns to finish of the capsule.

First up is the free Petite Pegs by Patterns for Pirates. This is a pretty simple legging pattern with a yoga waistband so it came together so easily! If you want a quick win this is definitely it because there are only two pattern pieces.

Like on the kimono bodysuit, I chose yellow thread to hem to tie in with all the other yellow. It’s a lovely subtle detail though, and Lottie wears these with lots of other colours too.

The second pair of trousers are a bit brighter! These are the High Kick Harems from Made By Jacks Mum, which I bought a while ago as a bundle with the Double Trouble Joggers. I actually made the joggers first, and will share them soon, but I totally love these harems over Lottie’s cloth nappies!

Like the petite pegs, there are only a couple of pattern pieces, and I think these might be even quicker to put together with an overlocker because there are cuffs instead of hems. I will definitely be making more of these both for Lottie and Toby. They just fit that baby nappy proportion so well!

I’m really pleased with how this mini capsule turned out. Perhaps the yellow isn’t the best for coordinating with other things in her wardrobe, but it is so bright and sunny! It’s inspired me to come up with a more detailed capsule wardrobe for Toby next year or so which is already well underway and I’m really looking forward to sharing the planning and the execution. It’s probably the biggest sewing project that I have ever embarked on, though it does get broken down into lots of little parts.

In other news, we’ve been so appreciating our garden at the moment (and knowing how fortunate we are to have an outside space to use while we aren’t so able to get out and about).

There have been lots of changes in the garden as we spend more time in it making it more toddler friendly and tidy. Who knew that being confined to home was going to be so good for organising!

Baby mini capsule part 2- Kimono bodysuit hack

For part two of Lottie’s new wardrobe I went with the Kimono Bodysuit from Brindille and Twig. (See part 1 here.) I’ve been eying it up for ages and finally decided to just go for it! I have a few ready to wear bodysuits in this style and really like that they are super easy to put on and off.

For this one, I did make a few changes to the pattern. I wanted to keep the kimono style wrap front, but omitted the snaps to keep it closed by sewing the overlap into the side seams. This did require a few drafting changes. I needed to make sure there was a little extra at each side to take in to the seam allowance.

I also added a hem allowance to the underlayer. I went for 1cm, and used yellow thread in my twin needle to tie in with the yellow binding.

Finally, I needed to create a new binding piece for the neckline and the crotch edge. These I just approximated by measuring the length of the area to bind and sewed them on stretching slightly. I think next time I could do with stretching the binding around the neck a little more to help it lie flat.

I really like the bright yellow binding contrasting with the blue. It feels very fresh and vibrant. I also found this narrow binding much easier to sew than the wider binding on the Made By Jacks Mum Pick n’mix.

A little trick that I learned recently to help loosen up new snaps is to put a little vaseline on them before closing and opening for the first few times. It definitely seems to have worked here because they open beautifully and don’t feel like they are going to pull out of the fabric.

I really like the crossover front. It feels a bit unusual and is a nice change from all the envelope neck bodysuits. I might use the pattern to make a cardigan at some point too by sizing up, removing the bottom half and tweaking the binding again.

This does fit really nicely at the moment, but I’m not sure I would get it on over some of her bigger cloth nappies. It is definitely not going to last as long as the Pick n’mix, so if I made it again I think I would borrow the bottom half of the roomier fit on that bodysuit instead.

The final part of the capsule will be revealed next week. I think she could do with some trousers next!

Baby mini capsule Part 1- Going Bananas

I’ve had a little bit of a splurge on a few new patterns because a couple of pattern companies have had release sales lately! It means I’ve done another batch cut and sew to create another little capsule wardrobe for Lottie and matching t-shirts for Toby too.

The whole outfit was inspired by these two banana prints that I bought a while ago in a sale at Fabric Godmother. Toby loves bananas, and it’s one the words that he uses often so he was very pleased to see this print.

Toby’s t-shirts are Brindille and Twig ringer tees. I’ve made him the next size up- 18-24 months. It’s a staple that I keep going back to! The fit is quite roomy which is useful when you know that. Toby is a chunky 22 months and still has plenty of growing room.

I made Lottie ringer tees to match, but with my snap neck hack. To go with them I’ve been testing out new patterns. First up is the Made By Jacks Mum pick n’mix bodysuit.

The pick n’mix has loads of options, including a t-shirt cut line and both ‘regular’ and ‘cloth bottom’ fit bodysuits. I’ve gone for the cloth fit, and the snap neckline. There is also an envelope or crew neck option.

I’ve always liked the idea of making bodysuits to go with handmade baby outfits, but I find it hard to justify spending time making something so basic and that can be bought so cheaply. This was a slightly fiddly make. I’m not 100% happy with the binding so I am wondering about doing it as a band in future instead.

On these bodysuits the side seam is sewn after the binding, so I’ve stitched the side seam allowance down with a few little stitches. It’s quite a common feature of shop bought bodysuits too.

The little offcuts from were great for creating a couple of little appliqués. I used bondaweb to fix them in place, and a fusible wash away stabiliser to stop anything from stretching as I sewed. This has been through the wash a couple of times and the stabiliser still hasn’t washed out completely, but it did make the sewing really easy.

I’m looking forward to showing you the next parts of this mini capsule. I have 3 more new to me patterns to share, some of which are about to become firm favourites!

Growing like weeds

Why is it that babies keep growing? While I love to see Lottie getting bigger and chubbier it seems a shame when she starts growing out of her handmades. This romper is perhaps the solution… it’s intended to grow too!

This is a free sample pattern from Apple Tree Sewing and is available by signing up to their newsletter. It is a sample 3-12 month size of a pattern which can be purchased in a bigger size range.

Lottie is 3 months in these pictures, and isn’t going to fit it on the smallest settings for long, though I think she is quite a long and skinny baby! It is fitting nicely over her big cloth nappy bottom though.

I love the concept of grow with me clothing, but this is my first attempt at sewing some. The idea is that there is lots of adjustment built in in the form of long cuffs, snap settings and in this pattern a set of drawstrings to shorten the body.

I had a bit of this fabric left from the baby outfit I made a while ago. Lottie has grown out of those now so it’s fun to have this print back in her wardrobe.

I wanted to have used and washed this romper a couple of times before I wrote this post so that I could report on how easy it is to use in practice. There isn’t much spare time for constant readjusting when putting away the washing so getting the cuffs to sit right is a little bit of a faff. It will only get easier as she gets bigger though.

It is amazing to see how much scope there is for growth as the straps are lengthened, the ruching on the sides is let out and the cuffs are rolled down. Lottie is hopefully going to fit in this for ages!

I didn’t have quite the right size range label, but this one is fairly close.

I think I may have to make another couple of these because it was such a quick and easy sew, but one which will last for ages. It seems like a good ‘value’ way to use my time and fabric. I can definitely see it as a good way to get the most use out of a special fabric.

I think I might look into a few more grow with me patterns. I like the idea of making Toby some jumpers which will do him for a couple of years. I’m also a little tempted to start sewing a few of these to sell. I’ve always wanted to see if I could begin to transition into sewing as a business and I can see that it might be easier to charge the actual value of the work and materials for an item which will last a long time. Something to look into perhaps.

Fox Coat- Getting Organised

Last year Toby’s Bunny coat was one of my favorite makes both for the process and the finished garment, so I decided it would be a shame not to make him another animal coat in the next size up. This time I’m going to make the fox coat from ‘The Fox, the Bear and the Bunny’ in the age 2-3 size.

For a more involved project like this I don’t really have the right fabric and notions at home in my stash or available locally so it takes a bit of planning and preparation. I’ve been ordering samples of corduroy and wool for the main outer body of the coat, trying to find one that has the right foxy rusty shade of orange! I’m still not sure any of these is quite the right thing. Though I like the colour for some of them, they are a bit ‘soft’ and lightweight so the search continues.

I’m going to use the same faux fur as on the bunny coat for the foxes ear and tail appliques, and probably for the front accent too. I haven’t yet decided if I will line it in the fur again, or whether I will choose a fun coordinating cotton for the lining. The bunny coat is so soft and fluffy inside that I am leaning towards using the fur. I have seen some cute fox print cotton’s though too so that is also an option, perhaps with a flannel or thinsulate underlining to help keep it cosy.

The other big task before I can commence cutting and sewing has been tracing off all the pattern pieces. I am not always a tracer- on PDF patterns for me I usually just cut them to the right size, but for children’s patterns where I’m planning to use multiple sizes and pattern books I always trace. I did find the patterns in this book a little odd the first few times I used them and I took a while to find the tiny grainline arrow, but now that I know what I’m looking for it is much simpler!

I know lots of people swear by different methods of tracing. Personally I always choose this squared dressmakers tracing paper from Amazon. I like having the squares to help me align things to grain, it is a nice weight- not to thin and flimsy, and it can arrive next day with prime if you are halfway through something and run out!

I still have a few more decisions to make and notions to order but i’m pretty exited to see this coming together.