Five Things Having a Baby Taught Me about Sewing

Birthday DressAs Little Miss Cleaver is several weeks into her one-year-old-ness and several friends and family have had welcomed new babies in the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about those first few heady days of parenting of how quickly your life shifts to a new norm, and then I thought about how it’s changed what I make and why.

Thanks to Mr. Cleaver’s keen understanding of how making stuff is important to me, I’ve been able to do a fair amount of sewing since LMC’s birth. However, two vital things have changed about my sewing time. One, it’s in shorter spurts now and perhaps less frequent, but all the more welcome and two, the things I make are usually, though not always, for someone with wee clothing needs a bit different from own. Because of these two changes, I’ve experienced a few new things about sewing that I thought I’d share. Milk coma 1. Trying out new things is easier when the project is small

Before I started sewing baby stuff, I had never completed a project in knit fabric. I’d made a few attempts in the past, but never really finished anything. Then I decided to make some envelope tees. The fabric was fairly stable (interlock) and the seams were all of six inches long. It was a small enough project that even if I screwed it up, I was out of a quarter of a yard of fabric, maybe. I’ve probably made about ten or so since, some in interlock, some in jersey, some hacked together with the Geranium pattern into dresses.

Having worked in this small scale, I’m much more comfortable with knits and am eyeballing some larger-scale knit projects for myself. Oliver + S Birthday Party Dress 2. There’s frosting, there’s cake, and then there’s bread. And there is nothing wrong with sewing any of them.

Tasia coined the whole frosting vs. cake terminology, but sometimes, even cake is too fancy of a word for some items.

There are a lot of things that I used to think that I’d never bother making, because they were just too dull and/or readily available inexpensively. Like solid-colored t-shirts, non-fancy underwear, leggings, plain socks. But then you figure out that those ready available things are kinda cruddy. The number of onesies we bought that got holes in the fabric is astonishing, especially considering the early ones that were worn for maybe 3 months by something that didn’t move much.

Now I haven’t made any onesies, mostly because I’ve yet to have any luck with inserting snaps, despite several efforts (any suggestions welcomed!), but if I could get over that snap-inserting hump I totally would the next time I needed onesies. Because there’s a certain satisfaction to pulling something out of the drawer and wearing it on a daily basis and having the fabric be nice, and the seams finished well, even if it’s super dull. My style and sewing has become more utilitarian these days, and as much fun as it is to spend days making a fabulous dress, my current dream sewing project list is full of things those things that I never thought I’d ever bother to sew.

That’s not to say I don’t make the occasional fabulous piece of cake or frosting, like the Oliver + S Birthday Party Dress seen above or the wear-it-once Ewok costume , both of which were totally worth the extra effort in my opinion. My creation 3. Multiples are your friends.

Not every project has to be a special snowflake. When you make multiples of something you only have to cut/trace the pattern in each size once and depending on your fabric, you can cut out multiple projects at the same, getting to the actual sewing quicker. A huge plus when your sewing time is more limited.

When you do the same thing multiple times, you learn from your mistakes and get better. And generally faster at it too. This can be particularly helpful if you’re making those everyday bread pieces and need a bunch of them.

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4. When in doubt, make the longer version.

It has been my experience that babies grow taller much faster than they grow wider, which means those leggings turn to capris, those pants to shorts, and those dresses to tunics.

Little Miss Cleaver was about 6 weeks old when she first started wearing that green dress. As a one-year old she still has a lovely tunic that she wears. In that case, the knit fabric also helps, but I’ve been able to stretch the life of many a handmade baby item, simply by making the longer version.

 

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5. You’ve probably already got a fabric stash, so stock-up on notions

I’ve got enough adorable novelty prints to last me three years (at least), so if I want to do a project, I’ve probably already got some fabricI can use, but having a good supply of buttons and piping and zippers and thread in a variety of colors means I don’t have to use my sewing time on a trip to the store that inevitably takes longer than I want it to.

Since I am sadly, not someone who ever inherited mason jars full of fabulous vintage buttons, I early on bought a bunch of packs of multicolored buttons in various sizes that have been indispensable. I learned my lesson and also have a good stash of elastic in various widths and plenty of machine needles. Figure out what you use a lot of and get a ton.

Also, when it comes to matching colors, there is such a thing as good enough. When my mother first taught me to sew, we would go to the store, pick out a pattern, pick out the fabric and carefully select a thread color to match exactly. Now I have one thread storage box that holds about 40 spools, and generally there’s something there that is close enough (unless it’s orange, apparently I have no orange thread), or maybe that project will look great with contrasting thread!

I’d also like to work on having a good stash of quality solid fabrics to use for contrasting yokes and linings.

And one bonus comment, that relates to baby clothing in general: If it’s a practical button (i.e. one that you have to actually use to get an item on and off your child), anything smaller than ½” is just so not worth the trouble. Maybe 3/8.” Maybe.

 

Anything your kids have taught you about sewing? Feel free to share in the comments below.

A Bit of Cake

A few weeks ago Tasia had a great post on sewing "frosting" (fun, often patterned, not necessarily everyday items) versus sewing "cake" (basics, everyday wear). Like most sewists, I definitely fall on the side of being drawn to frosting projects over cake projects - personally, I would be happy sewing nothing but pretty dresses, even if I wear a dress maybe once a week. But recently I've been finding a bit more balance between projects like my houndstooth dress, which I enjoyed sewing, think is awesome, but only wear occasionally:

Fall Palette Challenge : Houndstooth Dress

and my slew of School House Tunics that I wear practically every time they're clean enough to wear. My creation

This weekend, I focused on some serious cake.

But that isn't to say cake can't be fun too.

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Sure it's a basic black skirt, but have you seen the inside??

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In typical Leah fashion, I took a simple project (Colette Patterns Ginger, a total of four pieces), and made it 100% more complicated by adding pockets and finishing all the seams with home-made bias binding.

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That said, I'm pretty pleased with the finished product, even if the fabric seems to spontaneously generate lint. If I had to make any changes I would have 1) used a stiffer interfacing in the waistband 2) gone a size down in the waist and 3) done the recommended hem length (I did a bit deeper hem).

(Might still do that last one).

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I'm fairly certain this basic will get heaps of wear, especially since it looks so fantastic with my saddle shoes. :)

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Oh and I should say that I'm not abandoning the pursuit of frosting, because my next project may very well prove to be the most fantastic, least practical thing I've sewn since my Halloween costume. (Still wondering where I can wear that).

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Lonsdale in Bloom

Lonsdale in Bloom Although my internet pal Tasia at Sewaholic launched her pattern line in November 2010, it wasn't until this week that I finally got around to making one of her patterns, the recently released Lonsdale Dress.

Lonsdale in Bloom

When I first saw the pattern in her newsletter I knew I had to make it, and furthermore that I had the perfect fabric for it. Except that turned out that I only had half as much of it as I needed, in a one-way large repeat pattern and there was no way that I was going to make it work.

Lonsdale in Bloom

So I did some stash diving and pulled out this purple chrysanthemum (?) print I snagged at Marden's on a field trip with Maggie almost two years ago. It was still a one-way pattern, but with a bit of shifting pieces around, I got the whole thing cut out. Which was the most difficult part of the whole project.

Shake!

I threw caution to the wind with this project and cut it out in my recommended size (all one size! thanks to her "pear-sized" grading) and just went at it  - no muslin, no tissue fitting, no nothing, and it fits great.

Lonsdale in Bloom

Tasia put together a truly lovely pattern. The whole thing is seven pattern pieces, with simple construction, which meant I could take the time to focus and finish the project really nicely. The included instructions are clear and I used the sew-along posts to do some additional details like French-seamed pockets and stay-tape on the bodice. I'm super proud of the way the inside of this dress  from seam finishes to zipper to hem.

I love the way this dress turned out, and if you're reading this Tasia, I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

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