Making a Free Baby Outfit for Summer using OTY Fabric

Time to choose which of the prints to use for which

I work with our good friend Cassie over at OTY Fabrics NZ and between us we design fabrics for the New Zealand market. These fabrics often end up in my Picklefish Products NZ Store in lots of different products. We always strive to be different, edgy and cool. Like the kids we sew for. Summer is fast approaching here in the Southern Hemisphere, so not only do I feel like making Christmas Vests (like in my previous tutorial) but I thought I should make a few gifts for the new babies who have appeared this year. Plus there is some lovely floral in the latest preorder available over at OTY Fabric so I had to turn them into something pretty.

Brindille and Twig have generously offered quite a few patterns for free over on their website including the adorable Bummies and Ringer Tee. I wanted to make a size 3-6 month Summer Set for a friends new baby ready for the summer...so these two seemed perfect. A cute floral tee, and a cute bummies to match in the new floral prints from OTY Fabric seemed a perfect match. So I will post a few pics of what I made and some tips for those new to sewing. There isn't much need for a full tutorial as the B&T Patterns including fabulous photo tutorials within their free pattern's. If you are new to sewing with knits you really should go check those patterns out.

So heres what I started with and what they looked like all finished off and ready for their little recipient.

All cut and ready to go. I chose OTY Floral in white for the Ringer Tee and Navy Floral for the Bummies. As I had it on hand I thought I would use the OTY Solid in Terracotta too.

I decided to do the Bummies pattern first following along with the photo tutorial pattern. The only curly bits were the tricky cuffs on something so small and I did my usual pull through of the elastic and overlaid to sew the ends down before pulling back through the casing and stitching down the waistband casing with a small zig-zag stitch.

I also followed the instructions to clip two small holes on the front to slot the strip of scrap terracotta knit as a drawstring. The pattern gives instructions for threading the strip of scrap along the elastic casing.

The finished Bummies with the scrap of knit as a drawstring. I tied the ends into knots to stop the drawstring pulling through.

Time to do the Ringer Tee, and the trickiest bit by far was the sleeve cuffs on something so small.

My method for doing it is always within the circle pulling the cuffing as I go and yes, I don't tend to use clips or pins on small cuffs as I have caught them in the machine foot so many times!

The other tip I use is for the waistband. Once you create the ribbing circle and have folded it in half and ironed it, clip the seam of the waistband piece to the side seam of the top. Then clip the other side to the next seam. I then fold both the top and the waistband in half matching my attached clips. This helps me find the centre of both pieces and then I clip the centres together.

Much like the armhole cuffing I stretch between the clips, stretching the waistband only not the fabric underneath. Its hard to see in this photo but If you evenly stretch the band between the clips you get a more even tidier waistband on your tops.

And there you have it, my finished Bummies and Ringer Tee using the OTY Floral prints and Terracotta Solid. Both are in size 3-6 months. How pretty are they?

After completing this project I am thinking of a few hacks from combining the Ringer Tee and Bummies together to make a romper with a snap crotch to adding ruffle sleeves to the Ringer Tee and ruffle strips to the Bummies. But I think they are for another blog entry in the future.

thanks for stopping by and reading my humble blog!

Vivien

Picklefish NZ