I’ll show you some things I’ve made recently.
First things first, I’ve got a baby’s butt to keep covered, so I did the mundane, cheapskate thing and made a bunch of diapers. Using this pattern:
I made two dozen diapers. Most of them are just boring, plain white:
with blue topstitching, but some of them I splashed out a bit and cut a decorative outer layer in this “Wild West” themed craft fabric:
With the Wild West fabric, I switched to red topstitching, as I thought that would look nice with the brown print.
I modified this pattern a bit. The original design was for all-in-one diapers which are quite a convenience in theory, but in practice, take for ages and ages to dry. So, I took inspiration from some hand-me-down pocket diapers a friend had passed along to us, and left an opening between the lining and the waterproof shell in the back and made removable absorbent pads. That way, I can line dry the shells outside and sun-bleach away the poo-stains and run the absorbent pads through the dryer on hot to dry them quickly. I don’t think the dryer would be at all good for either the waterproof shell or the velcro anyway, so this ends up working out very well.
I’ve also made a pair of footiepants which are comically large:
And a sleeper which is just about right – big enough to allow for growth, but not so large as to lose the baby within:
This is the result of another of the Sunrise Designs patterns, and I must say, I have had nothing but good results with these old trace-and-sew patterns. They may date back to 1981 and may be from an obscure publisher, but they are reliable and make some cute, cute things. I’ve become a big fan of trace-and-sew patterns because they are so economical. I have a roll of parchment paper, such as you’d use for baking, if (unlike me) you bake anything at all delicate. I use it for tracing patterns as it is semi-transparent and won’t let ink soak through. I have used it to copy my diaper patterns, and also to copy all the sizes of a cute sailor suit and romper pattern that I’m planning on using extensively.
I think the romper suit (with the suspenders) will be part of Joseph’s first Tweed Ride outfit next spring. I feel that he should be exposed to dapper dressing upon occasion from an early age. He may grow up and prefer to be a total scruff, but I want him to at least have the opportunity to enjoy smart clothing!
You are always the practical one. Have you ever thought of writing a book?