Some Tips for Making Clothes to Grow with Baby

Tips for making clothes to grow with baby

I was brought up to think in terms of clothes that were designed for growth. My mother had lived through clothes rationing and shortages, and her approach to life rubbed off on me. I think it’s quite sad to make children’s and babies’ clothes, which you’ve put work and love into, only to have them outgrown in weeks.  By the time they’ve been through the wash and made their way back to the drawers or cupboards, they may only get a few wearings.

So here are some of the ways I try to extend the life of little garments. I have made dresses, dungarees, onesies (babygros), rompers, trousers - and all with the idea of allowing the baby to wear them for longer. Below, I describe many techniques which could be useful. Although some of these may be obvious if you are used to making baby clothes, one of them, the extendable dungaree bib, is my own invention, so you may not have seen it before!

  

So for some ideas about how to make clothes last longer, read on!

A New Baby Towel, and Easy Dribble Bibs

In an earlier post, I wrote about how I made the Christmas towel for baby A out of a bargain towel. I'm please to say it is still going strong. I used the second of the two bargain towels I bought to make a hooded baby towel for her cousin, baby I, for her first birthday. Baby I had a blue one:

I had some pieces of towelling left over when I made the baby towels. I made these into simple dribble bibs. Easiest things in the world to make, and they make great gifts. A new Mum can never have too many dribble bibs, and they are so easy to make.

                                       

Washable Playmat

I wanted a nice soft playmat for the visiting babies, which would be washable and easy to store. So I came up with a very easy to make mat. Tutorial below!

It's square, and has a long strap attached so it can be rolled up for storage. The baby gym  we made can stand on it, or it's big enough for the older ones to sit on with their toys (and a place of refuge for them to come back to after they have toddled off). It would also double as a spare quilt or blanket when one of them needs a rest.

Baby Gym

Baby Gym - A few ways to make your own

Our latest 'baby gym'

When our little grand-daughter was coming to stay, we wanted a baby gym to entertain her. It had to be simple, and also transportable.

When her mother and auntie, our daughters, were tiny, their Daddy had made them a very sturdy baby gym stand. Here's one of our daughters enjoying the very thing!

So we wanted to be able to provide something that wouldn't cost the earth, but would provide plenty of safe entertainment for the baby.

Below, I will write about how we made the Mark 1 version for our own daughters, other nice examples of home made baby gyms I found, and finally, how we made our latest versions for our grandchildren.

Using DIY Motifs and Appliques

Recently I wrote about how to make your own motifs and appliques - see this post 

On this post, I'll give some of using them.

For lots of ideas, read on.

Making your own Motifs and Appliqués - a Tutorial

Babies' and toddlers' clothes are so much nicer with finishing touches like motifs and appliqués. So are wrap-me-up towels, blankets, and dribble bibs. But they are expensive. 

How did I get to the point where I decided to go the DIY route? It started when I had already spent quite a bit on motifs. Hand-sewn things are fun to make, but are also good value, until you spend a fortune on motifs - and the thing you've spent money on falls off in the wash! So here's my advice: (a) use sew on ones, not iron on, and (b) make motifs yourself, as I show below

Iron-on v sew-on motifs

First, some reflections on purchased iron-on motifs. Yes, in theory, “iron-on” is so much less work – you just iron the motif on. Well, if you can get them to stick, good on you. If that’s the case, and you’re happy to pay for iron-on motifs, you probably don’t need this article.

In my own experience, they just don’t stay on. Baby’s and children’s clothes go through the wash LOTS, and get tumble-dried within an inch of their lives. Off come the motifs. And probably disappear into the plumbing. After we lost the cute little bunny on my first grand-daughter’s pink dress (see here), after just one wearing and wash, I vowed I wouldn’t use iron-on again. Well, actually, I did use some, as I had those I’d already bought to use up, but, Reader, I SEWED THEM ON. And that’s not easy, because you are sewing through the hard glue. After that, I thought I would go for sew-on motifs.

Have you seen the price of motifs to sew on (and iron on) to baby’s and children’s clothes? They can be anything from around £1 to £3 – and even more.  I had bought teddy bears  and puppies for baby blankets, rabbits for dresses, butterflies, ducks, letters, trains, balloons – you name it. Then I realised that sew-on motifs are very easy to make, and can cost you practically nothing per motif other than fabrics etc that you may have around. And they don’t take that long, either. So this is how I do it. And so can you!

My Sewing Room

I was very inspired by See Kate Sew’s blog In  on her sewing room – how neat it is! So I thought I’d do a post on mine. Of course, hers is a professional sewing room, and she is lucky to be able to have a dedicated room.

My sewing room doesn’t look much like a sewing room really. That’s because it is also:

....... A guest bedroom (with en suite bathroom)

....... A TV and entertainment room

....... My craft corner

....... Our overflow library

....... a playroom for grandchildren – or at least, storage for their toys

....... our Gym and Pilates room (and occasional dance studio)

....... An overflow for things that my daughter can’t squeeze into her flat

And the en suite bathroom is also the laundry room, so this room also functions as a drying and airing room.

So – it’s not really a Sewing Room. It’s so mutli-functional that we just call it ‘the back room’  - imaginatively, as it’s at the back of the house.

But I do do most of my sewing in here. I have to clear things away and pile them up, so I can do my cutting out on a cutting mat on the floor. I store materials and patterns and haberdashery, just like Kate does, and a corner of the room is more or less dedicated to my sewing and my two sewing machines. But my room doesn’t look like hers!!

Here you can see my cutting mat, medium size ironing board (wonder where the small one went?), my fabric storage, my drawers of haberdashery, patterns box, and one of my sewing machines. 

Like Kate, I have an old-fashioned type of metal-drawered cabinet for haberdashery - so useful, though mine was new, off the internet. Each of the 12 drawers is labelled with its contents.

Here's the coloured threads drawer:

Though having seen Kate's thread racks, I may get some myself - if I could find somewhere to hang them. Then, below, one of the Ribbons and Trims drawers .....

And motifs and appliqués ........

(In a later post, I will write about DIY motifs.)

In the picture above, you can see one of my two sewing machines. This is my small simple light-weight Janome (only about 5 or 6 kgs., so I can carry it around with me). It's the one I use most often as it stays out on the table. It was intended to replace my much-loved and ancient Frister and Rossman which weighs about 40kgs. I may be exaggerating a bit, but I can no longer pick it up without help. Even my husband struggles if his back is feeling dodgy. It's purely the weight of this machine that made me think of replacing it - it works like a dream even though it's over 45 years old. It also has all the functions I need - forwards, backwards and side to side (zig-zag), plus a really good zipper foot. Easy to thread - what more could you want, except one that can actually be lifted on to the table without causing a hernia or broken foot?

However, although you can't see it, the dear old F&R is still there, under the table behind the fabric boxes. It wasn't long before I realised that my neat little Janome, a bargain from John Lewis, is more prone to tangling in the bobbin area, and its zipper foot is inferior to the F&R. As far as I can work out you can only use it to the left of the needle, and you can't actually sew very close to the zip (or the press-studs, or cord), it is fixed. So the F&R is there for when I need it. (And can find someone with the strength to lift it.)

Thank you Kate, for inspiring me to write about my sewing room, too!

Bride and Groom Cake Topper and Pattern for Bride's Outfit

Bride and Groom cake topper - 2007

When my daughter announced her wedding to her lovely Mauritian boyfriend, I started to look for bride and groom cake decorations. However, I could only find couples who were either pink-skinned (both of them), or dark brown-skinned (ditto). What is more, the dark brown-skinned couples appeared to have been made out of the same moulds as the pale skinned couples  - so they didn't have the right sort of features at all.  Since my daughter is a brown-haired English rose, and her (now) husband has an Indian Mauritian mother and a Creole Mauritian father, I decided I would have to make the cake decoration couple myself to get something vaguely authentic. In this blog, I give enough detail for you to be able to replicate all or part of the designs!