New Grandma Wants to Sew!: An outfit for a baby boy

I wrote recently about the baby girls' clothes I made for one of the two twins, my husband's great niece and nephew. Having 4 grand-daughters, I always find it easier to decide on and make girls' clothes, but this time I've a boy to make for as well. Here's what I came up with.

An dinosaur envelope neck T shirt and shorts!

You'll find out how to make these below.

T shirt

The free PDF pattern for the envelope neck T shirt comes from Small Dream Factory, This is in fact a pattern for a long sleeved T shirt, but it's easy enough to make the sleeves short. It comes in 8 sizes 0-2 years, but larger sizes are available for purchase, and there's a very good tutorial . Recommended. I used the 12 month size. However - and this is a big however for me - note than NO seam allowance is included.

I used as fabric a white adult T shirt that had never been worn (due to its owner's undue optimism as to current size at the time of purchase), and some purchased blue ribbing.

Finished result

The pattern printed off and stuck together and with seam allowance drawn on (3/8"), and shorter sleeve length marked.

You'll see how above and below I annotate patterns so I know what I've done. I do recommend this!

Pattern pieces cut out, including the added hem and seam allowances.

The sleeves were cut out of the original T shirt sleeves, using the hem of original sleeve (so the pattern was pushed beyond the sleeve edge to cut it out, as the hem was already there.)

Pattern marked on folded T shirt with washable marker - easier than sticking pins through, with this type of fabric.

I marked the shoulder overlap line, and I added a little V-shape at each end of that line when I cut the pieces out, so I could overlap them correctly. You might just be able to see that on the picture below.

Front cut out and appliqué added (before sewing together) To find out how to make your own appliqués as I have done here, see this post.

Ribbing - at about 2" wider, this is wider than will be finally needed.

Ribbing attached to outside of neck using a slight zigzag stitch (as used on all knit seams)

Ribbing folded to inside and pinned through from outside (so will be stitched on the outside, 'in the ditch')

Inside after stitching

Excess neck binding trimmed off

Back shoulders laid over front, matching the V shapes I'd made, and stitched together

Sleeve pinned right sides together to armhole, matching centre and ends, and easing in between

Inside of sewn in sleeve

Then I turned it inside out so it was right sides together, and the side seams were pinned and sewed from the hem of the sleeve, past the armhole, and down to the the bottom hem.

Done.

Shorts

The shorts were based on the free PDF pattern for Sycamore shorts from Sew Like My Mom. This has the advantage of having several sizes up to age 8, and a cute pocket detail.

These were made from a patterned cotton fabric with dinosaurs (I'd used a spare dinosaur to make the appliqué for the T shirt.) Here are all the pieces cut out, including the pocket pieces.

However, I altered the pattern a bit, The pattern author does instruct you, after cutting the main pieces out, to cut down the front waist length to create a slightly higher back waist than front, to allow for the back seam being longer:

However, for me, it's still not enough shaping. I want to bring the underneath seam (inside leg) forward, like the shorts and pants you buy.

To achieve this, I had to:

1) decide how much forward I wanted to move it - I decided 5/8", but this could be a bit more or less, depending on how roomy you want the seat to be.

2) divide this number in two (as this pattern is cut on the fold) i.e. 5/16"

3) add 5/16" to the pattern all the way along the inner leg seam (checking that the inner leg seam allowances would be the same length and adjusting the crutch curve if necessary to make sure it was.)

4) cut the fabric to this new line. The shorts were now 5/8" bigger in leg circumference. So I marked a new line to take 5/8" off the front part of the seam.

5) cut 5/8" off the front seam (and only the front). And I also marked and cut down the front waist as suggested.

You can see more about the general method for adapting a pattern for trousers / pants, which is lacking enough shaping, in this post.

I more or less followed her instructions for making up. She's right to suggest pressing all your hems including the pocket, and the waistband, before you sew anything together - I always do this as it's much easier to get a neat finish. Here are the pieces with all the hems pressed.

Apart from anything else, this also makes it easier to place the pocket pieces on what will become the hem - you open the pressed leg hem out and use the crease line to stitch the pocket. See how I've lined this up below.

The main point on which I differ (and it's a minor point) is that I prefer to sew the inner leg seams first .......

.......... then put one leg the right way out inside the other the wrong way out (so they are right sides facing). Then you can just sew the complete crutch seam from the front waist to the back waist (or vice versa).

All that then remains is to finish the waistband and add the elastic.

I wasn't sure that the suggested the elastic measurement of 15" would enough for a 12 month old baby unless you have very stretchy elastic. Difficult, as I'm making for a baby the other side of the world, so no opportunity to measure the little man.

I found this link with some useful examples of elastic waist sizes. That's suggests a waist of 16" for 12 months. But he won't be quite 12 months, and as he was premature, he may still be pretty small.

I could have used, say, 16" and made a bigger overlap, on the grounds I could unpick if it was too big or small. However, as the clothes are going to be a present, I finally cut the regular elastic down to about 14", and included a 3" strip of button hole elastic and a button at the end of the regular elastic, to increase the possiblility of a fit. So it should fit any size from about 14" to 16-5". I also put a little tab at the back waist.

And the final result:

Showing the pocket detail.

Finally, the shorts in use (In this photo, I've loosened up the waist elastic to try them on, but it can be tightened up a bit - you can see they are sliding down a bit here!) Like the pattern matching?

And the T shirt - a better fit than I hoped to dare, given that I was making it blind. A little loose now, but some room for growth - just how you want it.