I’ve dabbled at sewing off and on over the years.  I used to make some of my own clothes, but I never learned to adjust patterns to fit (I guess I never had the perfectly proportioned body) and sort of gave up.  I never enjoyed the sewing, but always loved the finished product (if it fit properly).

When I was pregnant with Nathan it had been a very long time since I had last sewn anything, but still I decided to sew a heap of fitted cloth nappies.  Once again I liked the finished product, but found the process tedious (admittedly I made a heap of them).  So it took me a bit by surprise that I really enjoyed making the mei tai recently.

Every now and again I had contemplated sewing Nathan some clothes, but I had a lot of trouble finding patterns for boys….except pajamas!  In contrast, there are a million gorgeous patterns available for girls.  It doesn’t end there either….it is also not easy to find fabric for boys either!

The Danish magazine, Ottobre Design, is produced 4 times a year and has loads of patterns for kids from babies to about 160 cm tall.  I have contemplated buying one just to see what they are like, and finally I took the plunge last month.  Nathan wanted everything in the magazine, but we finally settled on trying to sew a pair of overalls. We went to the fabric shop just down the road andNathan chose some fabrics for the overalls.

Then I had to cut out the pattern pieces.  It didn’t take long to get the hang of tracing the patterns off sheets of paper that are absolutely covered in lines and curves of differing colours (to differentiate between different garments).  Then I pinned the pattern pieces onto the fabric and then had towork out how to cut them out and add a seam allowance at the same time.  Finally I was ready to sew.

I carefully followed the instructions, had to unpick a couple of bits that didn’t seem to be described adequately, and had to wing it right at the very end when I just didn’t understand what was meant.  I had jean studs added by a man at a local buttonhole business and although I had bought a button and buckle set for the shoulder straps I decided that the clips from braces (suspenders) that were supposed to be used would look neater.  So then I set out on a mission to find somewhere to buy 2 clips that took a strap width of 35 mm.  It turned out to be impossible.  After trawling the internet, a visit to both Lincraft and Spotlight, and two St.  Vinnies shops (for second hand braces) I determined that braces with a width of 35 mm were readily available, but the clips can only be bought for 20 or 25 mm wide straps.

Mum came to the rescue when she found a $4 pair of braces at a local St. Vinnies shop and sent them to me.  They arrived today, so I finally got to finish the overalls that Nathan has been wanting to wear for the last two weeks. I’m so very happy with how they turned out, that I’m excitedly planning more projects from Ottobre.  I think Nathan just loves having 6 pockets to play with, and clips to undo.

So here is the finished product…

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Nathan's third year, Sewing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.