Saturday 5 September 2015

Layette for newborn

I've bought a couple of patterns over the years for these and thought they'd come in handy. Of the three I had,  one was missing the instructions, another was missing the pattern and the third was complete.

I felt pretty good when finding out about an ex I'm still great friends with was due to give birth late September (or so I thought. She actually gave birth on the 3rd). I looked closely at the pattern: Kids clothes in the '50s were pretty impractical, and really, unless you're going to a traditional church service to baptise your newborn, I wouldn't.
So gritted my teeth and went to the local sewing shop. $17.50 later I had Butterick B5585.
Mine also has a warning sticker
The warning sticker says to disregard the suggested fabrics on the pattern and avoid chenille molleton and flanelette made with 100% cotton and acrylic. I chose jersey, which is probably polycotton but I doubt it's less prone to burning. The pattern says you must only choose jersey. I dislike this fabric: It's hard to put through the hemmer foot because it insists on curling the wrong way and generally misbehaving.
It also says "very easy", which it was. Here are the results:
Have to make the cute bonnet to go with it

Horrible t-shirt fabric. Pain to place

Dress. The embroidery is iron-on
They could both have been made in the same day, they're that simple. Another bonus is that each garment uses only 1/3 of a yard! Good thing, since the pattern cost so much.
I'd recommend this pattern if you want to whip up some clothes for a newborn, but if you can get it secondhand, even better!
Made both on my new Pfaff 360.

4 comments:

  1. I am SHOCKED at the price of this pattern!! I guess it's been a long time since I've bought one, since my nearest fabric store is more than 50 miles away. I have bought a couple online during sales. I thought only designer Vogue cost that much, and some nice independents. I am so glad sewing is getting a renaissance, but I occasionally get the nasty shock while blog surfing. Your outfits are sweet, and I hope the recipient treasures them.

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    1. Hi Barbara. You said miles so I assume you're in the U.S. We usually pay more in Australia but it wouldn't be much more.
      They are certainly priced high. I only bought this because I needed it immediately. A local sewing shop chain just had a sale on Vogue ($5 each) and I made sure I won't have to buy any more full-priced patterns :-)
      My advice to pattern tragics like myself would be to buy everything you need when there's a big sale on. I bought 27 new retro Vogues and the previous weekend 33 genuine 1950s and '60s.
      They take up as much space as a sewing machine!

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  2. The outfits are lovely. I hope the recipient loved them, too. I think I am slightly traumatised by the price tag on that pattern! I love knits and getting hooked on sewing with this lovely fabric. My daughter now asks for "tee-shirts", meaning knit dresses :)

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  3. She did! Actually her mum did, I'm not sure about the baby :-) It was expensive but I just have to make loads of them to get value.

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