Stitch Magazine comfy sleep set

During a recent gathering with my local BurdaStyle sewing group, I learned of a website called Sew Daily from the Interweave group that publishes Stitch magazine.  The site has quite a few free pattern downloads available, the caveat being that the download only contains the pattern pieces and the instructions are found in a corresponding issue of Stitch magazine. I found a pattern for some fun kids pajamas that appeared in the Spring 2011 issue, the Comfy Sleep Set. I don't have the issue but decided to give them a try anyway.

Photo from Stitch/Interweave

Description by Stitch Magazine: "Inspired by the traditional kimono, this sleep set is perfect for active toddlers. The ribbed-knit cuffs on the sleeves and legs fold up and down for extra growing room, and the comfortable elastic-free waistband gets its stretch from a little spandex in the knit." Designed by Bonnie Ferguson

The pdf download includes the pattern pieces for the shirt and the pants, and it provides the dimensions for the various bands of ribbing.  In this post from the pattern designer's blog, you can see that there is ribbing around the waist as well.  The only thing I wasn't sure about was the size of the seam allowance (which I assumed was included in the pattern), so I just went with 1/2" and that worked well for me.

I used a mix of fabrics from the stash - the striped fabric came from a thrifted t-shirt, the solid in the bodice is leftover from when I made these leggings, and the rib knit is from Joann, purchased in anticipation of one day needing it for toddler-wear.

L is currently nearly 20 pounds and 30 inches tall - I made the 12 month size and there is plenty of room for growing, which is a plus.

Stitch Magazine offers the pattern in sizes newborn - 12 months, and Bonnie Ferguson added sizes 18 months - 5T on her blog - how cool is that? I definitely see more of these in my future, and they are a fun way to use scraps and repurpose old tees.

First birthday dress

We celebrated L's first birthday recently and so of course the occasion called for a new dress. Well, two dresses - one for her professional pictures and another for her birthday party.  I had an idea in mind of a dress with a crossover bodice, but I couldn't find an existing pattern for one in my stash, so I did a little bit of redrafting.

I started with Burda Magazine 11-2007-136, which I chose because the fitted bodice and full skirt were a good starting point, then muslined it to check the fit, omitting the collar and shortening the sleeves and skirt.  After that I altered the pattern again to remove the puff sleeve gathers, raise the waistline, and make a crossover front bodice.  It sounds like a lot of work, but things go very fast when you're working with tiny pattern pieces.

This is the birthday party dress.  The fabric is a girly sweet cotton lawn from Denver Fabrics (also available in another colorway, if you're interested).

The leggings are Ottobre 1-2011-9, I'm going to make another pair of them and I'll talk about them more after that.

I made the same dress in white swiss dot for her professional photos.  The bloomers are Burda Magazine 7-2008-134 (also made them a while ago for my niece).

And I made the fabric flower belt and hair clip in a few different colors since I wasn't sure which color would look best with the photo backdrop.  That was a busy week.  But I love how the photos turned out.

Here are a few more photos from L's birthday party.  The party was totally for me, not for her.

One of L's friends gave her a set of butterfly wings, they were adorable but she kept taking them off.

Oma flew in for the party too.  We made fringe streamers using the tutorial from Oh Happy Day.  They were gorgeous and so easy.

Initially, she wouldn't dig into her cake, I had to give her a slice and she ate it as daintily as a one-year-old could.  It wasn't long before it was all over everything though.

We hung a fabric bunting in the entry way.  I found the fabrics at The Quilting Loft in Seattle and priority mailed them to my mom the week prior to her arrival because I knew I wouldn't have time to make it. I'm so lucky to have a mom that sews, too!  It made such a difference, too - really added to the fun party vibe.

We also hung a collage of pictures of L's first year (on the TV, which was the only good place for it); I totally swiped that idea from a birthday party we were at a few weeks ago.

Coming up - women's apparel! Yes, I actually sewed something for myself. I promise this blog hasn't gone totally baby.  I made a Tracy Reese/Vogue dress, I love it.

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.

The new normal

Well it has been a while, hasn't it? When I look at the pictures in my previous posts, I can't believe how tiny LM was. Now we're just around the corner from her 5 month birthday, and now she is a real, cuddly, babbling, honest-to-goodness baby.

1 week

For the first couple months of her life, LM was The Baby That Wanted To Be Held All The Time. Seriously. There were days when Tim would get home from work in the evening, and I had literally done nothing all day except hold her, with the exception of a couple of bathroom breaks (during which she screamed). When that is your life, you are just living in the moment and it's hard to imagine things will ever be different. You just think, "Okay, this is my life now, I hold my baby all day, it's my new purpose." And slowly, as you come to accept your new role in life as a baby nest, she changes. For us, it was when LM hit 3 months.

3 months

Suddenly she was so much easier to take care of! She would be entertained by staring at toys near her while I set her down to make lunch. She could go longer than 2 hours between nursings. Her babbling vocabulary increased. She's definitely a morning girl, full of smiles and stories when she first wakes - makes it a little less painful to have to be up before 7am.  Every. Single. Day.

3 months

I've been back at work for a little over a month, I'm working 3 days per week which is working out well (although I'm envious of all the mothers in pretty much every country besides the US that get a year of maternity leave while still having their job guaranteed at the end!). We have a nanny who watches baby while I'm at work. I'm getting used to being a baby mama...

The old me would make spontaneous trips to Nordstrom Rack or H&M after work to check out the latest fashion bargains...the new me makes a beeline for the bus stop after work, and fumes when the bus is 5 minutes late.

The old me would stop by the grocery store on the way home from work in the evening, then spend the next couple hours preparing dinner, surfing the web, and flipping through magazines...the new me gets home after work as quickly as possible and cuddles baby, goes for a walk with baby, bathes baby, nurses baby, reads to baby, rocks baby to sleep, then heats up Trader Joe's frozen breaded chicken cutlets for dinner, and promptly collapses in bed.

The old me would stay up late into the wee hours in the evening sewing because I wanted to wear something new to a party or event...the new me is in bed early (LM wakes to nurse between 1am and 3am and then is up for the day between 6am and 7am) and no longer cares if I repeat an outfit several times within a week.

4.5 months

So this is my new normal, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Thanks so much for your congratulations and well wishes, I truly appreciate each note from you guys!

My first Mothers Day

Three generations at the Olympic Sculpture Park on Mothers Day

My mom is here for a month to spend some time with her first grandchild and to help me navigate this foreign world of caring for a newborn. We go for walks in the neighborhood and we've had a few outings by car, but for the most part we are spending our days bouncing, shushing, changing diapers, and oohing & aahing over baby. It's amazing how time flies doing 'nothing' all day!

Baby LM (I'll use her initials for now here on the blog) is nearly 4 weeks old now and it's amazing how much she has changed already. Every day she's a little more alert and interested in her surroundings. 

Vicki and Belinda, yes, you were right, I didn't have much time off to rest and relax before LM arrived! My due date was Wednesday April 14 and my maternity leave started on Saturday April 10. I had a feeling that she would come late and I could enjoy a week at home to nest. Well, I was admitted to the hospital on the evening on Monday April 12 and she was born the next day, in what was the first episode of probably many where this girl shows me that I am not entirely in control of her...

Allison asked about the search on iTunes for white noise that I mentioned in my previous post. We purchased a few different "Hawaiian ocean waves" tracks, one of them is an hour long, and often we play that on repeat through the night. I'm not sure if it really has an effect on LM but at least it's relaxing for me and Tim. Once we get her to sleep, she's good about sleeping most of the night - from midnight to 8am or so - save for waking every 2 to 3 hours when she wants to be nursed or needs a diaper change... So I spend a fair amount of time each night lying in bed while nursing the baby and scrolling through new posts in Google Reader on my mobile phone - I haven't been commenting much but I'm keeping up with everyone!

Mary mentioned the Rockabye Baby albums, we have both Coldplay and U2 and they are awesome! Who would have though that delicate lullaby renditions of rock songs would be so enjoyable.

So I'm ready to emerge from the fog of being a new parent and start sharing some new sewing projects with you!

The Assorted Notions baby has arrived!

She's here!  Our new family member was born on April 13, weighing 7 lbs 4 oz and measuring 19" long. 

We've been enjoying getting to know each other - at all hours of the day.  Her first night home, Tim and I were up at 4am searching iTunes for "white noise for babies"...

Can you believe this girl slept through her own birthday party?  I ate an extra slice of cake on her behalf.

More love for Jalie 2804

See my previous version of this top in a chartreuse jersey here.

It seems many people who sew maternity wear find success with Jalie patterns.  Once I had a good fit with Jalie 2804, the empire crossover top, I bought a couple more Jalie top patterns, but never got around to making them up! Oh well, I'm sure they'll serve me well during my postpartum years.

38 weeks

Using the same pregnancy alterations I made before, I stitched up this grass green version about 2 months ago. The fabric is a cotton/lycra knit purchased from Fabric.com last spring.

The only thing I don't like, and seems to have become more of a problem as I've grown larger, is that the front hem doesn't hug the body as close as I'd like. When doing the full tummy alteration, I think it wouldn't hurt to curve the side seams at the hem in a little bit.

I've been wearing this hot pink sleeveless version to my prenatal yoga class. It's made of the same rayon jersey that I used for the Hot Patterns Cosmopolitan dress nearly 3 years ago! (This fabric was part of my first ever order from Gorgeous Fabrics.) My sleeveless top does include the ties at the shoulder seams, but they seem to have fallen behind my shoulders in my picture. This top doesn't gape at the hem quite as much, I think because the fabric is much stretchier and has better recovery.

I'm hoping to be able to wear these tops for breastfeeding also, or maybe making more with a modesty panel altered for nursing as Morzel did.