Totally Selfless Sewing

I have never sewn much for others and paradoxically, the year I had the least time for sewing, I sewed most for others - take the serie of tango outfits for my sister, or a pyjama for her BF. At the end of the year, when X-mas preparations were in full swing and I was supposed to be sewing my New Year's wool jersey dress (you know, to have something very cosy and warm for our Norwegian trip), I came with the idea of sewing something really cute for the only baby in the family. Fortunately, it is a 10-month old girl with amazingly blue eyes, so I could not resist sewing a few gifts for her. We usually do not do gifts with them, but you know, cute little girl... :o)

The good thing is that it was a great opportunity to use up scraps. I used very little leftovers from the blue and red jersey dress I sewed for my sister this summer. I only bought the patterns (all my Burda magazines only had patterns starting at 18 months and I wanted to sew 12-months size, however, I am pretty sure I will be able to reuse them some time in the future, they just offer so many possibilities) and a fat quarter for some cute bindings.

It all started with Burda 9347 - a body with a body-dress option. The blue jersey are some scraps from this summer, the skirt fabric was bought for a summer dress for me, but not used yet. It was a great opportunity to learn how to put on press buttons, because I had to put a lot of them. The body is rather practical - it opens on the bottom, as well as on the shoulders, so hopefully it is quite easy to put it on. I was really surprised by the size of the pattern pieces, it all felt like sewing for a doll and I squeezed the body from really little pieces.

After discussing the topic with a friend, I wanted to add an accessory and she suggested a little headband, so there we go, a little web tutorial was found in no time and headband sewn. The little girl's mum said it was probably too small for her, but it can work as a bracelet, too.

And this is what happens when you ask your photograph to take a picture of the dress from the inside ;o)

The second outfit is made of a Burda 9330 for the dress and a body (the same pattern as above). The body was quite quick to make, I just added contrasting binding and again, aaaaaall the press buttons.

The dress is made from a corduroy remnant from my skirt (not yet blogged).

The corduroy is very soft but I had the violet fluffy pieces all over the place. So for the dress, I used the binding on the pockets and on all the seams inside. There was no way I would leave an open seam like that.

Originally, I wanted to do a full lining but I did not have enough of a matching fabric, so I only did a facing and lined the pocket as advised by the pattern. I think it is cute enough :o)

Ok, so this was real fun and I hope the mummy liked it. Now, I need to concentrate and get some real serious adult sewing - I have fabric for a jacket and another coat, I also need some new winter dresses, lol.

Lion pyjamas

I am not used to sewing for other people. The only person I have ever made something for is my sister, but that’s an easy one, she is my size, just little bit thinner (and with longer arms and legs).

But this year, when I asked her for x-mas gift ideas for her BF, she said, he needs a pyjama, cute, but not too much, like the little hippos I made for her.

Well, challenge accepted! 

Finding a pattern was rather easy – Burda had an exact men’s copy of the Carolyn pyjama I made for my sister. And then we started looking for a “cute, but not too much” fabric. Hippos were out very soon, as they are not at all in vogue at the moment. You can have flamingos, toucans, cats, dogs, but no hippos. His favourite animals include little dogs, lions or bears. And so we ended up finding this lions brushed cotton which has a very nice feel and was available in a few different colours, including this blue-greyish.

We tried to estimate his size by comparing the Burda size chart to his clothes (he should be a standard M), and then I just prayed for the best and cut into the fabric. Very funny story: I am used to sewing with little pieces of fabric and consume little as well, fabric tetris is my game, big time.

Not this time, though. I have ordered 3m of fabric thinking I would sew a shirt, trousers and a pair of shorts, hahahaha. 

I had barely enough to cut out the shirt and the trousers, I had to cheat and use a piece of black fabric in the end. Also, I was manipulating so.much.fabric around. And constantly thinking it would be way too big for him. At some point of time, I put it all on my BF (who is more of an L) and it reassured me since it was slightly small for him. (In the meantime, we already celebrated x-mas with them so I can definitely say that the size is pretty much ok and definitely not too big).

Apart from that nothing special, I tried to be as close as possible to the Carolyn pyjama of my sister, so I added black piping and black buttons, little breast pocket with some serious pattern matching and that was it.

Hopefully, he was not much offended by this gift, as it was his real x-mas in our family and he and my sis now have cute almost matching pyjamas :o)