Baby dungarees with matching hat

My brother-in-law and his partner had a baby. I thought about the usual baby gifts, but decided against them, in favour of dungarees for baby, the first girl baby in the family for 3 generations. We'll nickname her GinnyW, cause my husbands family tends to produce boys they way the Weasley's do.

I used the same pattern as for my boys dungaress, the Okey Dokey Overalls from PeekabooPatterns. In consultation with GinnyW's Mum and Dad it was decided on full length summer weight dungarees, with popper openings on the legs.

As a fabric I used linen bought from Backstreet Bargains, leftover from making my favourite Leralynn dress. I had both main fabric, with whales, and the mint contrast fabric left. I used the contrast fabric for all the pockets and the linings. I would have likes to use it for the lining of the hat as well, but I ran out, so it was reversible whales for that, using the free Reversible Bucket Hat pattern from Oliver + S

Modifications were minimal. I used regular buttons, with whales on them, instead of dungaree buckles, and added a couple of little loops to fold the straps back through, just like on the ones for my boys. To accommodate the fold back I also lengthened the straps somewhat.

 

I packaged them up and sent them off to the UK in time for her first summer. I left the buttons on the straps unsewn so that Mum or Dad could check the placement first. 

Sir Topham Hatt, The Fat Controller - Sewing a costume for Book Day

Preschool had book day a few weeks ago where kids dress up as a book character, theoretically their favorite book character. My boys missed it as they had chicken pox. Sprog was very disappointed and he was not the only one. A repeat day for the 15 kids who missed is happening this Friday. Sprog will be Paddington Bear, with an heirloom coat and a Mummy-made Hat. Widget's favourite books are the Thomas the Tank Engine series, so he's going to be Sir Topham Hatt, the Fat Controller.

I started the costume from scratch, making the Hat, a vest, the trousers, and tail coat. Since it's a one-off, or maybe two time costume I didn't want to spend too much on the fabric and bought everything from the clearance table for only a few dollars. For the patterns I used the Little Gentleman Pants and Vest, and modified the Little Gentleman Suit Jacket, from Peekaboo Patterns.

For the hat I modified the Reversible Bucket Hat from Oliver+S and made it from Black Felt. In hindsight I would probably try going from scratch as it may be less work than the modification. I cut the brim at the Small size, and the crown from the Large size. I used the side pieces of each to draw the top and bottom of the side pieces and added an inch or two between the lines and joined them up. I did the two layers to increase the stiffness, then stitched the two together around the brim.

The clothes started with the vest. The Fat Controller has a yellow vest with black buttons. I found a yellow and black striped satin. I cut both the lining of the jacket and most of the vest from the yellow satin. I ran out, so the inside fronts were made from some calico that I had leftover from something else. I finished with black snaps which blend into the stripes.

The trousers were meant to be grey, but I went with a pale blue pinstripe as it was the most suitable on the clearance table. The pants have an elastic back waistband, and a flat front. They are super quick.

The biggest challenge was the jacket for two reasons. It is a more complicated pattern, but it is also the biggest adaptation I have made to a pattern.

I started by tracing the correct sizes onto baking paper, but making sure to leave a length extending past the bottom of the back piece. I trimmed the top and sides of the back piece, and all of the front piece, then overlapped them by the seam allowance. Once overlapped I consulted my fat controller picture and shaped the front of the jacket and drew in the tails, stood back and checked, then cut them out. The last step was to extend the lining pieces as well, by superimposing the lining piece on the back piece and extending the tail.

 

Then it was sew, sew, sew. Even with the tails I pretty much just followed the instructions through.

The final product looked pretty cute.

Today was dress up day. The vest and pants stayed on all day. The hat was so tall it fell off pretty quick, and the jacket got too warm so it came off. He was the cutest little fat controller around. This costume will come out again in a few weeks for his Thomas Themed birthday. 

Little boy dungarees

I was browsing a fabric website, Backstreet Bargains, tootling about their remnant section, when I saw some licensed Caterpillar fabric. This is Caterpillar as in the company that make diggers and tractors and the real life versions of things that Tonka make as toys. Widget is loving "Digg-ah's" at the moment so I popped it in my online basket. The remnant section also included some cordoroy, in both blue and grey. I added that too. There was free shipping for orders over $75 so I kept shopping, and picked up some elephant stretch linen and a contrast linen. Those I have earmarked for a Leralynn dress for me for the summer, but the rest of it. That's for my boys.

It took me a bit of searching but I found a pattern for overalls I really liked the look of. The Okey-dokey Overalls from Peek-A-Boo Patterns. I was looking for a classic look Overalls, with enough pockets that I could make a feature of them. These overalls looked great with a bib pocket, two bum pockets and two hip pockets. I was right the pattern is great. I have always loved dungarees on little kids. My boys have a number of dungarees in their wardrobe, at least Widget does. Sprog did, but it is hard to find good-looking dungarees in sizes above 2years. Now I have the solution.

I used the grey corduroy as the main fabric for the dungarees. Corduroy is a great fabric to wear, warm and comfy. It's quite thick to double-up so for pockets and lining I used the digger fabric. I still have enough to make short summer dungarees too. I started with Widget's, since the digger fabric was what inspired the dungaree choice.

The sewing was interrupted for both boys. Widgets because I sent my sewing machine to get serviced which took just over a week, then by illness. I was having trouble with the topstitching, the back was getting all loopy. It's not a big problem most of the time, but for the bib, the loopiness was very obvious and getting worse.

Since I made them long I put in a lining for a turn ups. These are not part of the pattern, but I just cut a rectangle to size and sewed the edge to create a loop. The loop was attached to the bottom of each leg, the remaining raw edge folded, ironed, and pinned into place before attaching by topstitching.

Widget was very pleased with my efforts. He has at times carried the little dungarees about and thrown them at me "Digga" to show he wanted to wear them. 

With these done it was time to move onto big brother Sprogs. While we were waiting for my sewing machine to come back from being serviced, Sprog and I went to buy some lining fabric for him. He chose Spiderman for his linings. He also chose some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fabric for his summer shorty dungarees to come. 

The first step was to carefully pick the placement before cutting the pockets. I tried in both cases to have a good image centred on the pocket. For the diggers it was the same image three times over, but for Spiderman there were different poses that I could select. 

For the hip pockets I just took whatever fabric was left around the holes made taking the bib and bum pockets. The instructions were very clear. These were my first attempt at hip pockets and they went pretty well.

After attaching the bib to the front piece progress was interrupted so I could whip up an Ewok costume, a Han Solo vest, and to focus on the R2D2 cake for Sprog's friend's birthday.

With that birthday party over and done with I returned to the dungarees.

I had to attach the straps to the back piece twice. The first time I didn't keep the pieces in place properly while I sewed, so only one side of the strap was attached. Some unpicking and a second try later I had the back piece I could attach to the trouser bottoms.

I had trouble finishing the seam on Widget's dungarees due to having so little space in the legs. I actually tacked the inner leg seam down by hand. To avoid this for Sprog's I worked backwards doing the inner seam first. My logic was that the inner seam is more important to be comfortable than the outer seam. I flat felled the inner seam then did the outer leg seams, attached the hardware and I was done.

It was late and well past my bedtime. Sprog was long asleep so I hung them on his wardrobe where he would hopefully see it when he woke and went to bed myself.

In the morning Sprog climbed in for a cuddle having completely missed the dungarees in his room. When we got up and went back to look, his face was a open-mouthed awesomeness. His trouser legs had a double turn up. He hasn't grown in the six months since his birthday so I figure he's overdue for a growth spurt and might need the extra leg length.  Once secure I also topstitched around again through the middle. This made a more secure turn up, it seems to make it take longer for the turn-up to fall down when there's a kind of pinch point to pivot about.

And the very happy recipient modelling the final product. He just happened to have the remnants of Spiderman face paint from preschool the previous day to match.

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When little brother Widget saw them he wanted to get in on the action.

Leralynn Muslin

I decided to have another go at sewing for myself. The first time I tried it was when I was pregnant with Sprog. I didn't have any idea about doing a Full Bust Adjustment, and I need a Full Bust Adjustment. The end result was OK, but only OK and had gaping armholes and a sloppy neckline.

Since I started sewing again I have been hanging out a lot in the MellySews blog archive, and the Blank Slate Patterns Facebook group and I have been learning a lot of theory. It was time to put the theory into practice.

This was my first attempt at a full bust adjustment, so just in case, I didn't use the fabric I bought for the project. Instead I went for the cheap and ugly cotton I had bought at the hospice shop especially for use as practice fabric.

The thing I love about the Leralynn from Blank Slate Patters is the pockets and hood. I am a pockets and hood kinda gal. I carefully cut some bias strips around the laid out pattern for finishing in order to keep as much fabric for future practice as possible.

My first FBA was a success. This particular pattern was a bit short for me. I added length by putting a bias trim hem on rather than a turn up hem, but it is still too short for me to wear as anything other than a beach cover-up. Not to mention the printed pattern is not really the look I am going for. I love the little covered shoulders, as my shoulders are always the first part of me to get burnt. 

Next up: the proper Leralynn, in the intended fabrics.