Made stuff Monday 6 – Sailboats and Lullabies!

I mentioned previously that I discovered the wonderful world of indie pattern designers… Well, one name that kept coming up was Oliver+S, so I figured I would look into that, and wow. Smitten. Between the (sadly discontinued) paper doll styling on the envelopes, and the really lovely, clean lines of designs, and the awesome names and the fact that there are a decent number of boy options that aren’t just a t-shirt or a button down… I am in love. And THEN, just as I was sitting, hemming and hawing about these patterns, there’s a sale. So, that happened. I got the Sailboat, Lullaby, Book Report and Bedtime Story patterns. (And have now, 2 months later, used all but one of them (which is slated for making Christmas PJs), so it was definitely worthwhile!)

Thankfully, they are available as printable PDF files, because shipping from the States is of course, outrageous. The Sailboat Pattern has truly adorable little cropped trousers which I just had to make for Sirocco (5 is still little enough to be truly adorable, right?). So armed with my new pattern and some lovely seersucker that my wonderful Mum got me as part of my Birthday Fabric Shopping Extravaganza, I set out to make the pants. But there was going to be some fabric left, so I wondered if maybe I could get Mistral a matching skirt in there…And then it didn’t seem fair to leave out Baby Chinook, so, maybe, if I turn this, and squeeze that, and use a contrast for the side panels…. Success! Ninja cutting at it’s finest, though I do say so myself. Trousers, skirt and a sweet little shirt out of one (perhaps generous) meter.

I loved making the Sailboats, the instructions were as good as generally reported (thanks to my reading of most of the archive of both Bartacks and Singletrack and Five and counting… in a fog of newborn nursing – Ladies, if you’re reading this, thanks.)

Look at that facing!

I felt very pro making these, whereas I usually feel like I just throw things together. In fact, I wpuld say this really marked a turning point in my sewing, something just clicked. I loved learning new techniques too! I did go the lazy route on the button and used snaps… we’ll just claim it was for ease of self dressing for the kids, mmk?

Definitely kid-approved!

The Lullaby top was lovely too. I was a bit concetned about the shape, that it would be too brrezy, or ride up, or look a bit girly with the width at the bottom, but it stays down beautifully and just flows over that darling baby belly. Key element here is the sleeve length: long enough to keep little arms warm and short enough not to get slobbered on (too much). That bias bound neck and cute little placket make my heart sing. I am thinking it could be cute inserted on the outside for a bit of contrast too.

It’s styled here with some darling Wiksten bloomers made out of the last useable scraps of a large sailboat print thrifted shirt that has made 3 different kid garments. Not bad, if you ask me!

Anyway, that’s it for this edition! So many makes yet unblogged! Working on it… really hoping to get them all shared up here!

Love,

Belligerence&Chocolate