More teeny tiny clothes for teeny tiny humans

My very good friend's bub was christened this weekend, and I thought I'd make a few more bits and pieces for her in addition to a 'normal' gift (a tiny dove charm on a Liberty fabric bracelet band).

I got this amazing stylized Tui fabric from Plush Addict (the tui is a native bird to New Zealand - both myself and my friend are from NZ so I knew she'd appreciate it) and I wanted to make another Little Geranium dress with a contrast bodice. The bub in question is 6 months old now, so I graded the pattern up. I know I should have paid for the bigger size, but the difference between 3 and 6 months is about 1cm around the bodice and I just didn't feel I could justify paying for another pattern for want of 1cm. I'm sorry. I know that's bad of me, but when Bub gets to 1+, I will buy the pattern and my sewing karma will be restored. For now, I just made do.

Front of Tui Dress

Back of Tui Dress - I love these pearly poppers! 

I'd planned to make dungarees in flowery denim that was lurking in my stash but my friend said she already had a couple of pairs of dungarees, so it was back to the drawing board. I figured a wee dungaree-style dress would be a good alternative, right? I could have bought a new pattern that was more proper dungaree styles, but instead I just made another Puperita Mini Tulips dress. Totally love this pattern. I was planning to use a FQ of pink gingham as the lining, but there wasn't quite enough of it. Nothing else in my stash seemed quite right colour-wise, and I was about to dash to Hobbycraft for more FQs when I looked at my bed. My pillowcase (which was a mismatched random one that was only in use because the 'good' linen was in the wash) was the perfect shade of pink! I whipped it off the bed, and chopped it up (I should add here that it was cleaned - I'd just changed the sheets that morning. Refashioning is one thing...giving people gifts made of dirty linen is quite another!). It wasn't wide enough to get the bodice cut on the fold, so I just added a seam allowance and there's a join. But it's very neat and honestly I don't think it matters. Plus the worn pillowcase makes the softest lining which seems perfect for delicate baby skin! Yay! 

I fancied putting a bow on this (because if you can't put a bow on baby clothes, when can you use bows!?) but I didn't think about it until I'd finished the dress and I didn't want to stitch through the lining. Next time there will be bows! 

Now. A confession. I have broken my No Pattern Promise! ARGH. But it wasn't for me, so I feel like that's a grey area?! (hell, it's my pledge. I say this is an acceptable breach!). I really wanted to make some little jersey tops. I do have a pattern which I'd bought previously, but when I made it last time, I didn't like it. It's one of those lapped neckline styles that are great for babies, but the back part came too far forward in the pattern. It looked uncomfortable, frankly. Instead I decided to fork out for a Brindille and Twig lapped tee pattern. I'm really glad I did - the drafting on this is perfect! Plus it goes up to age 5 size, so there's plenty of opportunities to reuse it later. Brindille and Twig really have some lovely children's patterns for jersey fabrics. And the great thing about sewing for tiny people? Brilliant jersey scrap busting!! Check these out! 

The cuteness!!

I also had a grey one with white bands half made (thinking it would go nicely under the Tui dress), but my machine had been getting crankier and crankier (isn't it weird how you can sew jersey 100 times and it's fine, and then suddenly the machine will chuck a hiss and start skipping stitches and fraying thread and generally making an absolute nightmare of itself?!), so I abandoned that. Another time. Three cute as a button tops seems perfectly acceptable, and at least I know this pattern works. The green and white ones go really nicely under the denim dress which is great, and the pink one is just cool! I totally want a grown-up version!! 

And now I need to make myself some things. The sun has starting shining, and that's got me feeling all summer dress-y!