Mermaid baby dress and leggings set

What little girl doesn't need a mermaid dress? Especially at the moment, is it just me or are mermaids definitely the on trend print right now? Not that I mind, Ariel always was my favorite Disney princess anyway.

This amazing fabric was from LLFab who design custom digital print jersey fabrics. Most of their stuff is done in 'runs' for pre-order so is only available for a limited period. To be honest I find that a little annoying, but I can understand from a home business owner thats the practical way to do things as you don't have the means to store endless runs of custom printed fabrics. This does however mean that sadly there isn't any more of this fabric to buy, though they have been known to do re-runs so do join the facebook group if you are interested.

The pattern is another one from Ottobre issue 4/2016. It is a lovely jersey tunic length dress with an integrated vest top underneath. I also made the matching leggings to go with it to make it a complete outfit. I really like tunic style dresses for babies as I never really liked the idea of babies in dresses (despite having sewn a few) as I always think by the time they get to crawling a dress must really get in the way under their knees.

My hope is that this dress will fit Miss Fox once the weather starts to get a bit cooler, though to be honest I'm finding it really hard to sew for her at the moment as I have no idea how big she is going to be. Having said that though I know I won't have any time to sew once she arrives so I am just trying to make the most of it and wing it a bit.

My binding went a lot better on this make as opposed to the kitty romper I last made. I made a couple of adjustments to the way I attached them this time. The first thing was to make sure I didn't stretch the fabric when overlocking and the second was to release the tension in my sewing machine when doing the top stitching, I think this made the biggest difference. Its very nice to have found the biggest cause of the problem though as it will vastly improve future projects. the neck isn't ideal but its ok. I definitely prefer adding a neck band as opposed to binding a neck, something to bear in mind.

I am not 100% sold on the mauve colour of the vest and leggings, It was an online purchase and I was hoping for more of a cadbury purple like the binding. The vest is less of an issue as once its on with some trousers you won't see it. I am hoping though that the colour grows on me more once its actually being worn by a tiny human. I'm sure she will be plenty cute enough to pull it off.

Have you ever bought any fabric from a custom designer? I would love to hear about them and how you found the fabric/service. Its definitely a perk of the digital age, especially in the UK where nice prints have historically been much harder to come by.

Exciting Announcement: Magic Little Monsters

I am so excited to share this post with you as it's something I have been working on for a little while now and I have finally got to a point where I feel I can legitimately spill the beans.

As you know I've become a become a bit obsessed with clothes sewing, especially for Master Fox so I have been working on a self designed pair of baby/toddler trousers... Yes, you got it, Fox trousers!

These adorable little joggers are made from cotton sweat shirt fabric so are really comfy and warm. They are a lovely relaxed fit to make sure the nappy fits in there and there is a good ease of movement. Finally they are finished off with an elasticated waist so they are easy to get on an off that wriggly toddler (especially at bottom changing time!).

My favourite thing about these trousers though is that the fox face is on the back. This might seem weird when you look at these on a hanger but when those little ones start to crawl and roll around that little bottom in the air makes these the cutest item of clothing ever. Look at little Master Fox demonstrating this perfectly :)

The even more exciting news is that I have launched a new Etsy shop: Magic Little Monsters where you can get your very own pair of Foxy baby pants. The plan is that these will be made to order, but I will from time to time put listings up there for ready made items and hope to be able to launch exiting new designs in the future. I hope you go and check it out, and recommend it to all your friends!

I really hope you love these trousers as much as I do, I can't wait to get started on drafting up my next design. Please feel free to leave me a lovely comment, and if you have any inspiring ideas from seeing this and want to leave a comment to make suggestions of what I can look to designing please do so.

xxx

Jersey Baby Trousers

Introducing... Master Fox. This handsome little man really has changed my whole world but he is totally worth it. So to celebrate his arrival my first make of 2015 is this dapper little pair of Jersey trousers which I made from an old tshirt.

Baby's end up with lots of legless body baby grows, which are great, but in winter you need to keep those chubby little legs warm. However you don't get multipacks of trousers like you do babygrows and as any parent knows you need a million pairs of everything due to the amount of washing a baby generates!

To get the pattern for these trousers I just drew round a folded pair he already owned and added a seem allowance. I then cut the pieces from an old tshirt and whipped them together on the overlocker. They really were incredibly easy to make. I mad these as a prototype before cutting up some nicer fabric so I will do a quick tutorial for you when I make up the next pair. 

I hope you like this quick little make, and the picture of our new little cutie. He was a little bit jaundice at birth so he looks super tanned in this piccie. He is all fine now though :) I can't wait to think up all the other little things to make for the monkey. Watch this space!