Sewing for a Wee Guy

Nicholas is a little guy. He's eight months old, 64.5cm tall, and approximately 6kg. That makes clothing him challenging! It doesn't help that he is the wriggliest baby in the world and hates to lie still long enough for me to do up rows of buttons or snaps. Much of the available RTW is way too wide, and looks like clown clothes on him. There aren't that many patterns for slightly built babies either, so when I found that Ottobre magazine patterns were well scaled for him I was stoked! His jeans are from a legging pattern (Ottobre 04/07 #2) which I altered very simply by drawing design lines for jeans onto, then tracing each component and adding seam allowances.

His T shirt is from a bodysuit pattern with the crotch fastening left off, and the neckline altered to copy a gorgeous merino top I was given. I liked the cross over better than most envelope necks, which can be too shallow, and gape away from the neck. What I do like about envelope necks is that they're really quick to get on! The neckline on this is easy to get on, and snug around his neck.

To alter the pattern, (from Ottobre 01/06 #4) I traced the front as a complete pattern piece (right and left sides), then drew in a new neckline from shoulder to low on the armhole and cut it out. Then to work out how long to make the neckband I traced the back and front necklines, lined up at the shoulder, and drew on a neckband of the width I'd chosen (approximately 2cm). I measured the outer edge of that to get the finished length of my neckband. Easy! The front consists of two layers. The outer layer is the full length of the T shirt, and the under layer is it's mirror image, but about 7cm shorter.

To make the T shirt I first sewed the shoulder seams, then sewed on the neckband and hemmed the sleeves and front underlayer. Then I sewed on the sleeves, sewed the side seams and hemmed the finished T shirt. With no fasteners or binding it was incredibly quick and easy to sew.

It was very quick to do the alteration to the pattern, very quick to sew the T shirt, and as you can see, it fits Nicholas really well!

I am so in love with Ottobre - I love their stylish designs for my kids, and I love that they have these beautifully fitting basic patterns onto which I can put my own creative stamp.