Hallo Baby!

As a good friend of mine is pregnant and due in approximately 4 weeks, I decided to give sewing for babies a go and sew something as a gift once her little girl has arrived. (In Germany we usually don't throw baby showers, you just visit the parents & newborn after birth and then hand over gifts.)

Initially I wanted to make a robe inspired by Liza Jane, but then decided to look through my Burda magazin stash first to see if there are any baby patterns I liked. Turns out I did. So I went with the wrap jacket and bloomer pattern as well as a plush toy made from the leftovers.

The pattern for the "friendly monster" is for free but really it's just a diagram, no real pattern, so I just freehanded it. Also instead of just tieing the bow around the neck, I sewed it down all the way around for safety reasons. It's made out of cotton jersey so lumps and bumps are showing from the filling but I figured monsterns can be lumpy and bumpy because their job is to be ugly and scary, duh!

The dotted fabric is a cotton lawn. Initially I wanted to make the wrap jacket reversible which it would be, all it is missing is a nother tie in the inside but I decided against it for comfort.

There`s a small clear button on one side and then the tie on the other, made out of bias tape that binds the neckline and extends on one side.

As you can see, I used light blue ricrac to trim the side of the pront panels and the sleeves. They can be folded up to expose a bit of the blue jersey, it looks really adorable.

The pants are very simple to make, a front and a back piece and a few elastic casings. I blocked the fabric in the waist to tie the design together. For elastic I just used lingery elastic because it's so soft against the skin but next time I'll make a casing in the waist, too, and use stronger elastic because it feels a bit stretched out to me.

Overall I enjoyed sewing for a baby a lot! Usually I'm not that sentimental when it comes to babies but after finishing the pieces I couldn't stop thinking how cute the looked. Cuuuute! It takes less fabric and time but you can get full on with decoration, prints and trim, though I decided on a more gender neutral palette because that suits both me and the expecting parents more.

Have you sewn baby clothes before? What was your experience like?