Sewing for Baby Boy

Edited: Duh... forgot to mention the most important part about this post... Lil Blue Boo & Dharma Trading Co. Design Challenge entry.

I'm so excited February is "Celebrate the Boy" month because I have a ton of ideas planned for this month. Yes I realize I'm a self proclaimed starter of many, finisher of few. So I started and finished a cute outfit for the littlest monkey. 

For the raglan tee I used the Sienna Dress pattern by Lil Blue Boo. The pants are the Lil Leggings also by Lil Blue Boo. The outfit was made from a bunch of old T-shirts.  I cut two oval elbow patches and saved the pocket from an orange tee to use on the pants. 

FYI: I placed the elbow patches on the center of the sleeve. Not really a thinking move cause that is not where an elbow is.

  I added about 1 1/2" to the top for an elastic waistband (the pattern calls for a stretch fabric waist) which I'll probably try when I make the pants for Luca. I also widened the leg a bit. I was going for a wide leg with a slight bell but as you can see by the finished pant it's just a regular straight leg.

 So I construct pants a little differently than most patterns call for. Instead of stitching the crotch first I stitch the inseam of each leg.

   Here are two legs with the inseams stitched closed. To sew the crotch seam you just need to match both legs with right sides together and stitch a big "U"

    Here are the pants stitched together before elastic. 

With the elbow patches I used Wonder Under before I stitched them into place, but for the patch on the backside of the pants I was too lazy to heat up the iron so I just stitched the patch into place using a stitch on my machine that looks like a ladder.

 

                                                                                                                 I used stitch #41 (click photo to enlarge) to top stitch  the elbow and butt patch.  This stitch looks very similar to the top stitching seen on lots of childrens jersey-wear.  I had a bit of a hard time using this stitch and I probably should have practiced a bit before doing it on the real deal. So we won't be looking too closely at those photos thankyouverymuch.

   For the elastic waistband I don't sew a casing and leave an opening to fit the elastic through. Instead,  stitch elastic closed into a circle. I divide the elastic and top of pant waistband into four equal parts and pin in place. Serge elastic into place while stretching evenly.  As seen in the above photo I tend to be a sloppy sewer but I like to hurry and get the job done.

 Next fold down elastic once and top stitch. If you are planning on adding a label to the back insert now.

I made a little tag in the back of the pants using cotton twill tape. Using a permanent ink pad I stamped the twill tag with a little bird rubber stamp I have. 

 This was my very first freezer paper stencil project. I know, what rock have I been hiding under? I had ordered ink jet freezer paper quite a while back but I never tried it out. For the image I found a great web site with free fonts and the airplane is from one of the dingbats that I uploaded to my computer.

                     Overall I'm pretty pleased with the outfit. Since Vinny wears cloth diapers I need to make the next pair with a bigger seat. I love how easy freezer paper stenciling is. I can't wait to stencil more of the baby's clothes.