BrambleStitches

Little G, who will henceforth be known as "McScreamy" (at least until this phase of his passes) is growing too dang fast. Sewing is, of course, a byproduct of growing, so I made him some summer pants/shorts. The pattern description calls them "three-quarter length pants." Okay, fine. I used last summer’s Ottobre 3/2006, design #12, in size 80. That’s supposed to fit about a 30" tall baby.

*Quick note: Even though McScreamy is getting big enough for toddler sizes, I always use baby sizes because they have more diaper ease. Since he’s in cloth, that extra space is really important. When drafting my own patterns, I make sure to add plenty of extra ease in both the waist/hip and the crotch depth.*

I started these last night, and here’s how I left them at around 12:45 am (yes, I’ve fallen into a terrible habit of staying up very late to sew… where’s my 12 step program?)

The fabric is 100% cotton mid-weight canvas, which I picked up for
$2/yard in February. I washed it with another more blue piece which I
got at the same time, and the other piece bled all over everything, and
stained this one up pretty good. Even so, it just came out looking a
bit distressed.

*Another quick note: If anyone has any tips on how to wash cotton
canvas and twill without getting permanent creases in it, please let me
know! There are some spots that I just can’t press flat.*

Okay, so on to the pants. Is this not the cutest little cargo pocket you’ve ever seen? It’s certainly the cutest one I’ve ever made. It’s 4 inches wide and 4.5 inches tall. Just right for pebbles, farm animals, and gold fish crackers. I haven’t put any buttons or velcro on yet, and I’m not sure I will. I’ll let him wear them a while before I decide. If the flaps flap about too much, then I’ll do something.

Look, the pocket lining matches Miss O’s outfit! This is as "matching" as my kids get.

The pattern says to stitch the pleats at the top of the pocket, but I thought it would make it too hard for me to get MY hands in there to empty out "treasures" before I did laundry. I just pressed the pleats instead. I looked at the Man’s cammies, and some of his cargo pockets have stitched pleats, some don’t, and some have them stitched on one side only. Like all other aspects of the military, I was left rather befuddled… but anyway, back to these cute pockets.

You can see here the evidence of a very important lesson I’ve learned over and over again. If you’re going to topstitch something, make sure you have enough of the same color of thread. I started off with a BRAND NEW small spool of bright yellow thread, wound my bobbin, and happily started stitching away. About half way thru construction I realized my spool was starting to look sparse, so I started switching back and forth between khaki for seams and yellow for topstitching. Then the spool ran out, so I put the bobbin, which still had some yellow, on the spool post and used khaki in the bobbin. Then the rest of the yellow ran out, so I used khaki and finally off white to finish topstitching the waist elastic and hem. Moral: always buy the biggest spool of the color you need. In fact, buy three of them.

Another view of those adorable pockets. You can see the gusset here, and how I pressed them flat, sort of like a paper grocery bag.

Front view! I used 5/8" elastic, but I really think I should have gone with 1" elastic, since this fabric is pretty stiff. It doesn’t really look like it gathered up properly, all though it is the right size in the waist. It’s a little stretched on the hanger, too.

Back view! Look, (mostly) matched stripes! There’s a back yoke, too, and plenty of topstitching.   

Verdict: Hot damn, I’m good.

*A few hours later…

McScreamy woke up from his nap, so we tried these on. Obviously, the fit in the seat area is terrible, but it looks great everywhere else. I probably sliced off too much of the top edge when I serged on the elastic. No big deal. I’ll just pick out the elastic, then attach a waistband with elastic in it instead. That should give me at least another inch and a half, which should be just about right.  I’ll call it a design detail, and nobody will ever know, unless they read it here. I may even try to hit up the quilt shop for the right color thread, which will undo the "design detail" described a few photos above.

But just so we’re clear, those pockets are still totally cute, no matter how much diaper is sticking out.

Sewing