Kid's Clothes

Over last couple years I've made so many cute baby and kids clothes. I didn't post about them at the time and I can't remember all the details for each item. But here are some pictures and any details I can remember. 

This little pinafore was made for a new-born niece as a size 000. The pink fabric was quite heavy so I made it with minimal gathers to keep the bulk to a minimum. The back fastens with pearly press studs and the tiny white lace adds such a sweet detail. I was pretty happy with how it turned out!

These cute mustard rompers were made for a friend's baby. The pattern I used (Kwik Sew K214) has some issues as I've mentioned in a previous post, but overall gives a good result. If I were to make this little romper again, I would insert elastic into the legs to gather them in. They are rather too full as they are.

These twin dresses were made for two of my nieces for Christmas. They were sisters aged 2.5 and 6 months. The little dresses have sweet inverted box pleats on both the front and back and are accented with a bright pop of fuchsia as the sleeves. I used invisible zippers in the backs of both dresses. The pattern I used was very old and had some real vintage charm to it. I altered it to avoid cutting the bodice fabric where the pleats are and therefore not have any exposed edges. The alteration was tricky from what I remember, but obviously worked out nicely.

When I finished up work before giving birth to my second baby, my employer generously gave me a gift voucher to an online fabric store. The store had lots of fun stretch prints for kids so I bought a couple of them. I made some tiny stretch pants for my baby and a matching pair for my older son too. Both of these patterns were printed free from online. These projects helped my stretch sewing skills a lot as I learned how to work with stretchy fabric on my overlocker. I love the little yellow dragon pants with the feet! 

This cute gingham romper was made for a niece of mine who was about 18 months old. I used a baggy romper pattern (not sure which one now) and then added the elastic around the waist. She looked super cute dressed in it! 

This little Christmas dress was made for another niece (I have 8 nieces!). The tulle on the skirt is glittery and sparkles in the light. Red and white is such a traditional and timeless combination for Christmas and makes for some really lovely clothing for little kids. The dress has press studs down the back and a lovely grosgrain ribbon around the waist. I think this pattern was one that I had drawn up myself.

This special dress-up dress was made for my oldest niece a couple years ago. She loved dressing up in pretty fabrics and I had about 5 metres of this purple/pink organza in my fabric box. I think it had been curtains of some description a very long time ago. I had just enough of a purple polycotton to line the dress with and a lovely old pattern with an interesting back and dropped waistline. I tried to pleat the organza skirt on in such a way that it resembled a ballet tutu. It fit her nicely and she loved it, but sadly organza doesn't really hold up to the sort of dress-up play that kids do and it tore out at the waist seam. If I use this fabric again for kids I'll have to think about how I finish seams that will receive a lot of tugging or stress to prevent the same thing from happening again.

This little sleeveless hoodie was also made for a niece. I have been saving this cute fleecy fabric for probably more than 15 years before I had the chance to use it! My brother lived down south for a while where it got properly cold, so I took the opportunity to use the fabric. I used one of the many baby patterns of this kind and really enjoyed making something rather different for once.

This last little dress-up dress was also made for the same niece as the purple dress above. The pink chiffon is leftover from my bridesmaid dresses. These wasn't enough of it to make a full dress, so I just gathered a piece onto the skirt of the dress as a very large frill or ruffle. The waistline is held in with elastic and as it is not a fitted dress, I got away without having any zip or other fastening. This dress was loved by my niece and worn until it literally fell apart. I'm glad it was such a fun dress-up for her!