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Ottobre

Ottobre

.Monkeys and robots for baby boy.

I’ve been on a roll with the baby boy sewing. Before I started these projects, I went through my baby clothes boxes and got rid of anything that I didn’t absolutely love or that wasn’t practical for baby-wear. That way, I had a good excuse to sew some more cute outfits!

This set was made using some lovely monkey jersey knit fabric and Hilco stripes from Crafty Mamas. The ribbing is also from Crafty Mamas. I can’t stress enough how important I think it is to use good quality knits for your sewing. I’ve used some cheap fabrics in the past, and while they look good for the first few washes, but after months of washing and wearing they just loose their shape and don’t look as nice. These clothes will be getting a lot of washing so I don’t want to skimp on quality. Plus, they feel so lovely and soft and I know they will be comfortable for baby to wear.

The bodysuit pattern comes from Ottobre Winter 6/2012. “Kisuliini Raglan-Sleeve Bodysuit.” It was very straightforward and simple, I’m becoming a pro at attaching all this binding now!

 The pants are the same as the ones I’ve made before, from Ottobre Spring 1/2012 called “Little Houses Knit Pants.”

 Once again, they have the cutest bottom and I’ve added a fold over cuff to keep little feet warm.

This little suit was made using some knit fabric from Spoonflower. The fabric is beautiful and soft and has a great stretch, but I’m still not 100% sure about the fading issue I’ve read about. It will be in for a lot of washing and wearing so I guess I’ll find out soon enough!

 

I’m loving this suit, it will look so cute on. The pattern comes from the latest issue of Ottobre – Spring 1/2013 and is called “Villikko Romper.”

Uunfortunately I couldn’t add any fold-over foot cuffs to this one because of the style, so I’ll have to invest in some good-quality, stay on socks!

I made both of these outfits in a size 56cm which I think I’ve worked out should be the equivalent of 00 or 3-6 months. Size 50cm is the smallest Ottobre size (000 or 0-3 months), but not many patterns start that small so I may be waiting a few months until he can start wearing these.

February 6, 2013
Ottobre

.For baby boy.

 
 
Truth be told, that if I could have had a choice in the gender of this baby, I would have gone for a girl. It would have evened the family up and I love having sisters and wanted Lil to be able to have a sister of her own. Plus, I’ve got soooo much girly fabric and patterns to use that it would have made for some very fun sewing! 
I’m excited to be having another boy though, and have started hunting out boy-friendly fabrics and sewing patterns with the intent to sew as much of this little man’s infant wardrobe as I can. I do have lots of boy clothes in my baby boxes, but after two sons (plus some sharing with family and friends) most of them are looking tired. And it’s always nice to have some fresh clothes for a fresh baby so I’ve got lots of sewing ahead of me!
I started going through my stash of Ottobre magazines to choose some practical newborn outfits. This one comes from the Spring 1/2012 edition. The pants are called “Little Houses Knit Pants” and I’ve sewn the smallest size – 50cm. I’m hoping that they will be small enough for a brand new baby, but it’s hard to know when you don’t know what size they are going to come out!

I used a combination of Hilco Campan knit in light blue and white stripe and Stella grey. For all of the topstitching, I used the honeycomb stitch on my sewing machine because I don’t have a coverstitch machine.

My favourite part is the contrast bottom panel – I’m going to have fun with this in the future! Cute for me to look at and comfy for baby’s big nappy bottom.

The pattern had regular cuffs on the bottom of the legs. If there is one thing I can’t stand, it’s bare-footed babies in the cold weather and it seems that the cutest baby clothes are footless. I’m yet to find a pair of socks that stay on a baby, so try and steer away from footless clothes. I do have a few baby suits that have fold over cuffs though – they are genuis! It means that you have the option of a regular cuff if you want to see the feet:

And a closed foot when you want them all snuggly:
 
To make them, I took the length measurements from one of my old baby suits and used the width measurements from the cuffs in the pattern. I started to use my brain to work how they were constructed, then did a quick online search and found a great tutorial by Things for Boys. I like the idea of using these for big kids jammies too – so nice to know their feet are snuggly on a cold night!
The bodysuite pattern is called “Bert Bodysuit with a henley placket”. Unfortunately I messed up the placket and it sitting off centre. I’ll only be making that mistake once! So annoying, but I figure that once it is on a cuddly baby it won’t be as noticeable as it is sitting flat here! 

This was another easy pattern – lots of binding to sew on though!

I was excited to break out my brand new snap machine from Snaps Australia for this project. I’ve only had it for a few weeks and have tried it out on some bibs, but nothing as thick as this and it worked brilliantly. Went through all the thicknesses without any hassles and the snaps feel really secure and sturdy.

And that, my friends, is the first of lots of baby boy sewing! I’m very excited to use some of my favourite boy print knits I’ve been collecting so stay tuned!

January 25, 2013
Ottobre

.Lil in Liberty.

The night before we left for Queensland I was feeling organised and sat down to a spot of sewing. On the sewing machine was a adorable little top for Lil made from some of my Liberty of London fabric.

The latest Ottobre magazine had just arrived in the mail, and whilst it was a Winter issue, I was drawn the sweetest little camisole top pattern in it. The pattern is from Ottobre 6/2012 – #22. “Lumikello”. I think the camisole is supposed to be worn underneath another top or lengthened to make a nightie but I really like the style and knew that it would be perfect for warmer weather, especially when made in some lightweight Liberty.

I love the fine detail of the front yoke with tiny pintucks. I was supposed to sew buttons down the middle, but didn’t get around to it. I think it looks fine without but might add some one day.

Instead of a lace trim around the yoke and hem, I used a tiny pompom trim that I had in my stash, another cute detail.

After I had finished the top, I decided to include a little sleeve to cover her shoulders, so cut a semi-circle from fabric and hemmed the edges with more pompom trim. Isn’t it adorable? It was a quick sew, although I didn’t understand the instructions to sew in the yoke so I made it up and it worked fine.

SUPPLIES:
Liberty of London, Mabelle in Blue

December 19, 2012
Ottobre

.Tops for Tommy.

Guess what?  Tommy grew!  Up, at least.  He never seems to put on weight as he gets taller and looks skinnier by the day.  Growing means that I had to take some of his long-sleeved tops out of the cupboard and replace them with some new ones.  Fun!

Here are the three latest additions:

 

All from Ottobre.  Two I have made before and liked so much that I made in the next size up.  The first is from Ottobre Spring 1/2011. #25. “Eleven & One”striped hoody.  The boys in the house love hoodies, so this one is received well and will probably be made in every size for the next few years!  I added long-sleeves under the short ones to this one again (the pattern is for a short-sleeved hoody).

 

 

This one was another favourite last time.  I really like the slim-fit of this top.  It is from Ottobre 4/2008.  #25 “Pekka T-Shirt”.  This one will also be made alot – I like the ribbing binding on the neckline and short-sleeves, especially when I can use a funky striped ribbing for extra contrast.

 
 

 

Lastly, this one was a new top that I hadn’t made before.  It’s fine, but definitley not my favourite.  It’s a little sloppy looking to me.  Which may be partly because of Tommy’s skinny frame.  Would probably look better on a fuller kid! It’s definitley still wearable and will fit him for awhile.  This one is from Ottobre 1/2009. #22 “Harava” sweatshirt.  The original pattern was for a double-sleeved top, but I decided to leave out the short-sleeves on this one.

 

 

So there you have it!  Time to get stuck into some Summer sewing I think…better go and reasses the wardrobes and see what the kiddos are in need of!  

SUPPLIES:
Lots of Hilco and Stella knits from Crafty Mamas.

October 9, 2012
Ottobre

.Little Hearts.

A little more sewing that I did for Lil before going to Queensland.  Some new tops from the Ottobre mag.
This one is from Summer 3/2012. #17 Seesaw. a cute little tee with layered, flutter sleeves. I finished the sleeve and bottom hems with a rolled edge on my overlocker. The tshirt seemed quite short when I was finished with it, so using a rolled hem meant that I didn’t have to loose any more length.  This one is made from a really light fabric I bought from Girl Charlee. The fabrics are cheap, and definitley feel it after using mostly European and Stella knits. Okay for something lightweight for Summer though.
 
 

And this long-sleeved top is from Autumn 4/2011. #15 Dreamland.  I love the shape and fit of this one.  The contrasting ribbing makes me smile and the love-heart applique was a happy afterthought.  These fabrics are all from Crafty Mamas – yellow solid is Gitte, pink solids are Stella and ribbing is Hilco Ringel.

 
 

You know what? I’m happy to say that it has been a long time since I bought the kids new tops!  I didn’t know that I would actually get to this stage in my sewing hobby, but I love not having to go shopping for them and being restricted to dress them in what the fashion industry views as “in fashion” for kids!  I will still buy them pants and can’t make as much for Oscar now that I could when he was little, but as much as I can, I am managing to fill their cupboards with clothing made by me and it is a really good feeling.  

Once you get the hang of it, tops are really quick and easy.  To make things even faster, I’ll usually get a production-line going.  First, I’ll work out who needs what (I’m also trying really hard to only sew what they need – to make the most of my sewing time and also to make sure that they are actually going to get good wear out of it!)
Next, I’ll select patterns. I do use my Basic Tees pattern a lot but like to spice things up a bit with some different styles from Ottobre magazines…I don’t want to be known as the family that always wears the same tops!
Then the production line takes place.  Usually I will sew 3-6 items at once.  I’ll do all of the cutting out first, then put it away for a few days.  Come back to it and sew each top individually.  Usually I’ll only get one top sewn per sitting and once everything is cut out and ready I only spend about 30-45 minutes of actual sewing time.  It just seems to happen faster this way, if I’m all organised and means that if I only get small pockets of sewing time in, I can be productive straight away instead of fussing about getting myself set up each time.

Anyway, it’s not rocket-science and it works for me!  I only really like to sew if it is something that is needed and going to be worth my time and seeing the kids wear their tops every day is definitley worth my while!

September 12, 2012