My brother's baby is turning one-year-old next week. One! I was never around babies that much in my life, so I am always overly fascinated whenever I witness this one reach some developmental milestone. Yesterday I was texted a video of her wobbling all the way across the kitchen floor, which is the first time I've seen her walk. Bipedal babe! She's, like, kinda doing something that resembles something that adults do! Weird.
I can't be home in KY for her big birthday party (invitation above), so I thought the least I could do was send her some clothes, handmade with love and a minimal amount of curse words.
The dress is made from the McCalls 6015 pattern. I made some changes, such as shaving off eight whole inches from the front and back skirt pieces so it wouldn't be so dang floofy once gathered. It's girly enough as it is, geez. I also shortened it a few inches, because I didn't think someone who still mostly crawls on her knees would appreciate wearing an Amish-length dress. Let that baby move and groove.
I bought the pattern because they said it was fully lined, which is the only way I was going to make a zipped dress for a baby. BUT, the pattern has you slip-stitch only the bodice lining to the zipper, and leave the rest of the zipper exposed. This is because the skirt lining is attached to the skirt first and then treated as one piece from then on. Yuck. I thus had to change the order of construction to make sure the entire lining could cover the zipper edges. I love my tangrams.
I have no idea if this will fit. They don't tell you corresponding ages/months on the pattern envelope, just height and weight. I made it XL, a size larger than her current weight indicates, but hopefully she'll get it to wear it sometime this autumn. I liked the fall-ish colors of this fabric, which is soft quilting cotton.
The only reason I made a sleeveless dress for a kid with a late September birthday was so I could also make her a cardi. This baby better grow up to share my love of cardigans or else. Or else... I'll be making her pullovers, I guess.
For this, I used the jacket from Butterick 3782, in size L. The fabric is a stable interlock knit in gray-brown with tiny white squares. It was in the "juvenile knits" section of JoAnn, and I was offended because I kinda want it for myself. I did juvie this pattern up with some flower buttons. Why not?
This pattern's pretty good, but since they assume you're using a knit, they don't have you encase or neaten up the raw edges at all when hemming. I followed along and did what they said for the neckline, which was staystitch and clip the curves. Then you're supposed to fold it down once and stitch it in place. Uhhh, you mean, my clipped curves will be exposed at the neckline? Ain't doin' THAT, but it was too late. So I serged the edges to re-attach the clipped fabric, then top-stitched with a double needle. Not ideal but it's the best I could do to make it look gift-worthy.
The twin needle was used for all hemming. Legit, right?
So there's the prezzie. I hope it's enough!
I know these pieces don't go together exceptionally well, but somehow I like the larger-scaled floral print paired with the smaller-scaled geometric print. And I think someone as cute as my niece can get away with pretty much anything.
Sorry, couldn't resist sharing another blurry iPhone pic. Happy birthday, sweet girl. See you soon!
