Multi use children’s patterns
One cannot stop sewing forever! Amongst other things, the results of sewing usually come about much faster than cross stitch and embroidery. Having said that, the sewing process creates a lot more mess in the house and is not portable.
Littl’un now has a little brother. Whilst boys would seem to present fewer opportunities for pretty sewing adventures, he has presented me with an opportunity to see which of the patterns that i already own can be re-used for boys as well as girls.
I bought Kwik Sew 3150 when it was on offer and made a hoodie from it. (The pattern is no longer marketed by SewDirect, and may be difficult to source now – sorry) The pattern starts at T1, so is probably too big for a 5 month old, but that’s fine. He will grow into it. Both garments are made from left over fabric from my Hebden t-shirt. The trousers aren’t finished partly because i have run out of 3/4″ elastic, despite once thinking that i had a lifetime’s supply, and also , it would be better to add the elastic nearer the time that he is going to be able to wear them. The cuffs are from tubular cuffing bought online. It’s not what i was expecting, but i have cut it up and made it work! There are 4 more years of use in this pattern, and the original ABC hoodie will work for a boy as well.
The blue jumper is also KS 3150, made from specially purchased blue jersey, and ribbing that i already had in stock (and there is plenty more left). So there will be more blue jumpers to come.
Oliver and S School bus tee has been used a few times for girl’s t-shirts, even though the pattern has a little boy on the front. I have the 6 months to T4 version, so he can benefit from 6 month versions over his first summer. The ‘vehicle’ fabric was bought specially, and will last for a couple more years. The beige version is a real scrap buster, squeezed out the the remaining fabric from my hoodie holiday top. I suspect that i will be buying the larger size version of this pattern once he reaches 5, in the same way as i now have the larger size version of the Oliver and S leggings pattern for his sister.
And finally, for this blog post, Oliver and S Sunny Day shorts, which was originally a free download, used to make scarp busting shorts for big sister. Much of my left over fabric isn’t very child friendly, in terms of colours and prints. I might have thought that about this grey fabric, used for a blouse / jacket that i haven’t worn all that much, but it works fine for a little pair of shorts for a 6 month old boy. Elastic to be added when purchased; i am hoping he’ll be able to wear the shorts in the next couple of months. They are very quick to make; nothing fiddly, except that the waistband doesn’t fit properly across the front seam, which had to be taken in by about 1.5cm. I vaguely remember the same problem when i previously used the pattern. Despite that, this pattern will be used multiple times, i am sure.
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One Week, One Pattern
Me Made May 2016
Me Made May 2015
Simplicity Competition
Sew Over it Patterns
all my own work by ann 
These are lovely, and that vehicle fabric is fantastic – my son would have absolutely loved that when he was younger!
Oliver and S patterns are great, I think. Other than theirs, boy-suitable patterns are scarcer than they should be, definitely. I can recommend Ottobre kids magazine (if you can bear tracing them off multi-pattern sheets). I bought one issue for each season almost 6 years ago and I’ve been using them over and over ever since as he goes up through the sizes – very economical, and these days he helps with the tracing himself!