Premature Baby Patterns - Page 3 - Ready for more clothes?

This is the third of my pages suggesting free patterns for premature babies.  All babies are different, and my splitting up of the 'stages' is somewhat arbitrary. I've just done it in order not to have one great long post with lots of ifs and buts. I'm assuming you have arrived here either from my Introduction Page 1, or Page 2, dressing a very premature baby. This post is mainly for babies who have reached 1.5 - 2.5 kg, (about 3lbs  - 5lbs) or 32-36 weeks' gestation. Or perhaps the baby was not quite so early, but was small at birth, or had a few problems resulting in a stay in the NICU.

If the baby is still in an incubator, with several tubes and wires, you may be better starting with Page 2, or even my Introduction Page 1, since these babies may not be ready for much clothing. But eventually, some of the tubes and wires will go, and the baby will be stronger, and it is so encouraging to the parents to finally see their little one in some clothing of their own. This little kimono garment is covered in Page 2, as it may be suitable for very premature babies, but it also works very well as the baby grows, so I'll cover it here as well.

In this post, I'll give you links to some further free PDF patterns and tutorials for clothing that may be suitable for a baby that is still very small, and may still not be ready to go home. 

I'll also cover some of the most important principles, so that you can decide on suitability, if you find other patterns, or even ready-to-wear clothing that is supposed to be for premature babies, but may just be small.

All clothing for premature babies should be made of very soft cotton, preferably flannel, and capable of being washed at 60 degrees centigrade. At this stage, you still want clothing that doesn't need to be wrangled over the baby's head, or their arms and legs squeezed to try and stuff them through tight sleeves or legs. And it may have to go over some tubes or wires. Ideally, the garment can be laid flat on the cot or in the incubator, the baby placed on top, and the garment wrapped around, as with the kimono above.

So for ideas for this stage in a premature baby's life, read on.
This page will be much the longest, because it is at this stage that the need for specific premature baby clothing comes into its own. Smaller, earlier babies don't need or cannot wear very much at all; as they grow, in size and strength, they can move towards ordinary baby clothing. But at this stage, with some of the tubes and wires no longer required, it is lovely to see the baby dressed, even though the clothes may still need to be specially designed. Most of the free PDFs come from charities making garments for NICUs, and so some of them come with specific requirements.

This, I think is one of my favourite pieces of clothing for a premature baby. It is from Carewear Volunteers, and comes in 4 different sizes. It opens at the shoulders, and centre front. Very easy to make, too. I used strips of sew-in Velcro for the closures.

It is a similar style to this one, a NIC-IV shirt sold by Perfectly Preemie in the States (or on-line). The Carewear pattern is a slightly different shape (though easily adaptable), but what these have in common is a sleeved garment with opening shoulders and an opening front, ideal for use with a growing premature baby.

Here is a further pattern, from Tiny Sparks, in Western Australia,  (sizes 1.2kg and 1.6 kg) which comes in a boy version and a girl version. The boy version, pictured here, is another similar style to the above, with opening shoulders, but it opens down the back.

The girl version is more similar to the second style, in the next paragraph.

This second style type, below, is also based on opening shoulders and front (or back) opening - but is sleeveless. It can be back opening or front opening, can be made with snap fasteners or Velcro, and can have curved edges or straight. In any of these versions, it's very suitable for a premature baby, though I'd say the front opening version more so than back opening as the baby can be laid on its back on top of the gown before it's fastened.With the back opening style, the baby would need to be placed face down. This is less of a problem as the baby develops.

There are a number of patterns of this style, for example, this one, from the BadSkirt web site. It uses the free PDF from the Miracle Babies Foundation in Australia.

This is intended to be back opening but would probably work as a front opening one if you cut the front neckline (of the pattern) higher, to form the back, and the back neckline of the pattern lower to form the front.

They have another pattern called crossover pinafore, which, as you might expect, crosses over at the back. This one also comes in small, medium, and large.

This one, from Fleur de Lis Quilts, opens at the front. Though its design means it won't do much to hide the nappy.

And again, there is the Tiny Sparks version in two sizes.

This third kind of shape can work well, even for a very premature baby, if he or she is ready to be dressed. First you lay out the whole piece, like this, then lay the baby on it with the head in between the two upper pieces. You can see there are two pieces of Velcro on the inside at each side.

Then you fold one of the top pieces (one of the fronts) over the baby's shoulder:

And then the other, overlapping the first (usually with some Velcro holding them together).

Finally, the two side flanges are folded in over the two fronts. I haven't shown it, but there is also Velcro on the front pieces, that the sides attach to. 

This kind of style can also be made so that there is a longer flap at the back that comes up between the legs and attaches with more Velcro strips.

The most easily found free pattern of this type comes from Everything your Mama Makes (EYMM) The free PDF pattern can be found here. And here's a version I made in the second smallest of the 4 sizes for my grand-daughter, when she was about 4-5 weeks old, and between 3 and 4 lbs (1.4 - 1.8 kg) .

This pattern gets rave reviews. Though the shape was not perfect for my grand-daughter, as she had tiny shoulders when first born (at 30 weeks), so it bagged a bit about the shoulders. And she only wore it once or twice because then she grew so fast. I knew if I started to make a larger one she would probably have outgrown it before I could finish it!

Nevertheless, it worked perfectly in other respects. It didn't interfere with any tubes or wires. It was very easy to dress her in it. And it enabled her to wear 'clothes' when none others were suitable. She started to seem much more like a real baby at that point, as opposed to a poorly and tiny patient in the NICU, wired up to machines, and it was possible to envisage that she'd soon be coming home. (Though it was several weeks more.)

A further style you may find is a completely separate front and back piece. If you prefer to buy ready made, there are several garments of this style available from Perfectly Preemie (in the USA).

In the case of this style, you lay the baby down on the wider back piece, put the front piece on his or her tummy, and then start doing up the Velcro strips. It is also possible for these to be made with one side seam joined. It can then be made either without the side flap on the joined seam; or with it, non-functioning, purely for symmetry. Alternatively, it can be joined just at one shoulder seam, as this bought example from Mothercare in the UK.

Here's another example, where the back and front are joined at one side seam, with press studs on shoulders, the crutch, and one side seam. This is from Early Baby, selling Teeny Tiny among other brands. with the side press-studs, this might be more suitable for an older premature baby. Very tiny ones have to be turned continually, and the studs might be unpleasant if they could dig into the baby's side. But this style could also be made with soft Velcro.

You'll note that most of my examples of this type are ready to wear clothes, rather than patterns for you to sew. I must say the the range (and more reasonable prices) of what is on offer as ready to wear now is infinitely better than it was when we had our first experience of prematurity in the family. So you may feel less motivated to make such garments. However, there is something in many of us that makes us want to do this, even though it may cost more than buying ready made! So here are some PDF patterns that should enable you to make something in a similar style to these.

This one from Austria, newbe-ooe , is in German (but you can put it on translate) and again comes from a charity that makes clothes for NICUs. Please note that at the time of writing, the links to the blogs (punktiert, and schnabelina) don't seem to be working, but you can still download the actual PDF patterns, in 4 different sizes: 500-800 gms, 800-1000 gms; 1000-1200 gms, and 1200- 1400 gms.

NOTE ADDED February 2019: There are now these new links I've found to the Punktiert  blog and Schnabelina blog. Of these, the most useful is probably  Schnabelina (put it on translate if you don't read German), as she has some dolls' clothes, and a 'rainbow body' that has some small sizes. That could be adapted to have opening sides or shoulders, with some extra seam allowance added. But the Klimperklein (the new Punktiert site) has some nice doll patterns that can be printed a bit larger for a premature baby, including a wrap onesie with sleeves.

In the next page of this post, I'll be looking at clothes that are getting closer to more 'normal' baby clothes, as the premature baby prepares to go home.

Back to Page 1 - Introduction
Back to Page 2 - Dressing a very pre-term baby

Forward to Page 4 - Ready to go home?