Tees reborn

I haven't done much re-purposing in my sewing, but it's a big presence on many sewing blogs. You take a man's dress shirt and make it into a skirt, or turn a woman's tee into a child's dress, etc. Last week I plucked some of my husband's old cotton tee-shirts from the rag pile, and turned them into baby pants.

On the left, you can see one shirt being cut up into pants. I've taken to copying pattern pieces onto tracing paper so that I can preserve all the sizes that come with the original pattern.

The pattern (Butterick 5326) has just one piece (cut twice) so it takes very little fabric - a size L man's shirt was perfect. The pattern is nothing special, though I do think that ankle elastic is worthwhile for baby pants. Since babies are rarely vertical, this keeps the pants on the legs! The teal pair on the left are from the same fabric as my earlier baby tights - the orange and green pairs are from old tees. If you have stained shirts (there was something like white-out all over the green tee), just sew the wrong side of the fabric facing out. This gives a more interesting surface texture. Plus, the inside fabric may be more brightly colored than the right side.

FO x2!

I'm on a roll, friends! Another sewing project has traveled from start to finish since I last wrote. One motivational strategy that I use frequently while sewing or knitting is to immediately start a new project when I finish something. Once that "Blouwolff design" label is put in place, I head straight to the dining room table and cut out a new project. I always find it easier to dive back into sewing when I know I have something all cut out and ready to go. Then, when the urge (or baby's naptime) hits, I'm ready. In this spirit, I cut out two pairs of pants, one pair of tights, and a tunic-dress a few days ago. More on the pants later once I've restocked on stretch fabric needles for my machine.

Here's the scoop on the tights and tunic that you see above.

The tights pattern comes from my favorite blog and is a snap. Find the pattern and excellent directions here. I used some ultrastretchy rayon/lycra that I found on sale at JoAnn's a few months ago. I also bought this fabric in deep purple, so I'll make some tights in that color very soon.
The tunic is a combination of McCall's 5739's dress (mostly) and top (the long sleeves). It zips up the back, but since it's a 6-9 month size I think this will present less of a problem than it would for newborns. The pattern includes a really amazing coat and beret which I definitely want to make soon. I used some super-special stashed fabric that I bought in Panajachel, Guatemala back in 2002. There's a narrow teal stripe in the design that matches the tights perfectly. The girly aspects of the pattern are well-tempered by the stripey fabric and I think the jewel tones flatter Miss Quetsch's complexion. This whole tights n' tunic thing is new to me since my older child is a boy, but I've been watching the bigger cuties at daycare and I am enthusiastic about the possibilities.

FO (finished object)

I finished something. It took about a month, sewing a seam a day here and there - the kind of thing that drives me crazy! This retro romper (Butterick 5326) is made from ultra-lightweight cotton seersucker, with a tiny bit of silver metallic thread mixed in. I love the elastic at the legs, which I think will compliment Liora's chubby thighs, but am less keen on the back button closure (although I traded buttons for velcro in an attempt to improve it). Personally, I think all baby clothes should open in the front. The tacky pink bow is attached to the clothes hanger, so please don't worry that it's part of the garment. Hopefully Liora will fit into this soon and I can add a picture of her modeling it.

A girl to craft for!

So, to update you all on the past several weeks (and to explain my absence from the blog): we had a baby girl on March 25! I was very surprised to have a girl, and my thinking went something like this: #1 No bris (circumcision), woo-hoo! #2 I will get my friend Arianne's awesome hand-me-downs, double woo-hoo! #3 I can finally craft the full spectrum of baby clothes, triple whammy woo-hoo! For those of you who don't follow the world of crafty books and blogs, it is a very, very girl-centric world. There aren't many patterns for boys and what's out there is pretty boring (although one of my heroes, Rae, took a stab at improving this over the winter: see here). Now all the twirly skirts, sundresses and ruffled tunics are mine to try at home!

I haven't been sewing very much. At all. But at six weeks, Liora is at least starting to fit into some of the stuff I sewed her before she was born. Here's the kimono I blogged about back in January. It fits a chunky baby this age very well and I like it much better on her than I did when I finished sewing it.Even the bias tape side ties, which I found a bit bulky with this gauzy cotton, look just fine now:
Hopefully I will have a new post soon about some postpartum completed projects!