My mum was always a magical seamstress. I have fond memories of choosing beautiful fabrics from her towering piles, peering at retro patterns sporting gangly, teen models and digging through boxes and boxes of mismatched buttons. She would somehow spin it all into glorious outfits for my sister and I, just like magic.
It's an amazing feeling to create for your kids and I've been itching to make terribly girly things for my baby. So this weekend I raided mum's collection and found Kwik Sew's Sewing for Baby
book.It has a stack of different items to make for your little one and includes all the master patterns for babies 0-18 months. Hells Yeah!! The book is easy to follow and has plenty of pictures as you go. The language is a little dated and kind of hilarious but the book is totally worthwhile. If you happen upon one, snap it up, you won't regret it.
I drafted the pattern from the master using size large (6-12 months) but I didn't like that the pattern had a centre front seam down the bib of the overalls. My sister, Max of Max California, made quick work of that and drafted me a new bib.
I used a gorgeous lilac broadcloth, twas leftover bridesmaid dress material from my wedding (I will definitely blog about that later), and a matching floral print cotton as lining.
Then I traced a heart pocket for the front of the bib and embellished the bottom with white ric rac.
The overalls went together without too much fuss and I finished them in about 3-4 hours all up. I used elastic to cinch in the romper at the legs and across the back for a snug fit.
Then came the buttons. There were no nice plain buttons so Max showed me how to make some using Kat from Sew Chibi's polymer clay button tutorial you can find it here.
The clay colour was the exact match to my fabric (WINNING) and I made some gorgeous buttons. But then the sewing machine packed it in and neither the automatic nor manual buttonhole would work. And stuff zigzagging your own buttonhole. Ain't noBetty got time for that! So I used some lilac snaps instead, which I think will be far more user-friendly anyway.
Max used the same pattern and made her little girl a pair of overalls. Jump on over to her blog here ^_^ to read about how she gave this pattern an entirely different look.
We had so much fun making different versions of this pattern that we thought we'd make it a regular thing. So stay tuned for future installments of SEW and TELL by Max and Betty. Catchy isn't it, the title was very nearly PIMP THIS PATTERN. Oh gosh!
And now the BABY SPAM!!
