Ottobre's New Star bodysuit

I've been taking a "music and movement" class with L, and the babies are supposed to wear a onsie, something unrestrictive. She's in cloth diapers which are more bulky than disposables, so a lot of RTW onsies leave her diaper cover exposed. I decided to make this Ottobre bodysuit with the goal of keeping her diaper cover hidden.

Ottobre 1-2011-1, New Star bodysuit

Incidentally, there is an identical bodysuit in Ottobre 6-2009, in that issue it's called the "Puolukka" bodysuit, and it's also the first pattern (6-2009-1). I compared the pattern pieces and they are shaped the same as 1-2011-1, the only difference is that the neckband and hems are finished differently.

One thing I didn't know about Ottobres until I started buying them - they give the names and ages of all the little models - how cute is that?

Fabric
The cotton knit is from a thrifted Lane Bryant t-shirt, I was even able to reuse the neckline binding for the cuffs and leg inseam/snap area. Snaps are from Snap Source.

Notes on construction/alterations
I made a size 74 several months ago, and it still fits her now at 11 months and nearly 20 pounds. The only change I made was to lengthen the strip for the neckline binding. I can't remember what measurement Ottobre used, but it seemed like it would be way too small to fit over L's head.

Conclusion
The one thing that annoys me (and is totally my fault and not a pattern drafting issue) is that the top crotch seam is longer than the botton crotch seam, so it doesn't stay closed very well between the snap fasteners (especially visible in the flat garment photo).  I'll pay more attention to that next time.  Otherwise, it's a great piece that can be worn solo or with pants.

Baby in muslin

Tap, tap, tap. Is this thing still on?

I know it's been a looooong time, but I hope you didn't delete me from your RSS reader yet.  Really, I never intended to be gone for this long.  I guess I'm not "mommy blogger" material!  The break was nice though, and I feel refreshed and ready to be back in the online sewing world.  I'm just going to pick up where I am now, and here and there I will share some of the projects that I completed during my hiatus.

The truth is, I haven't sewn much for myself recently.  Maybe part of the reason is that styles in Burda magazine no longer excite me the way they used to. And how they killed their English language website and therefore hundreds of my old links to the archives, ugh, I know it's already been hashed out in forums, blogs, etc so I won't go into it again...

I have sewing a few things for L of course - it's great once they are past 6 months and their growth rate slows down a bit so a particular garment may fit for several months!  We are approaching her first birthday next month, so I am sewing a dress for her to wear when we get some professional pictures done.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to show the pictures here, but the setting is going to be all white/beige/neutral colors, so I'm making a simple white woven dress.

This is my muslin of Burda magazine 11-2007-136, I'll post a line drawing in a future post. I've made a few Ottobre garments but the only Burda item I've made for her is a sleepsack which runs huge (review forthcoming), so I decided it would be worthwhile to check the fit on this dress.

If you know about babies, then you know they are fascinated by anything tiny; here L is inspecting each thread on the unfinished hem.