A New Arrival

We’ve had a very happy addition to our lives recently. Mr Jane Makes became a grandad and I’m very happy to be granny Jane or whatever name we settle on!

Here he is with his adorable granddaughter on their first meeting. She is absolutely beautiful!

I knew I would be sewing for her but I didn’t want to make a start until I knew she’d arrived safely in the world, which she did on what would have been my dad’s 87th birthday. My sister and I were so pleased as it means the day will continue to be special.

I remembered that Zoe had posted earlier in the year about her favourite free children’s patterns so that was my starting point.

First up was the Ringer t-shirt by Brindille & Twig which is suitable for the age range 0M – 6Y and you can choose to just print the size you want. I decided to go for the 3 – 6 months option. The t-shirt has neck, hem and sleeve bands which avoids the need for hemming but I did view the TINY sleeve band with some trepidation! However, everything came together really well on my sewing machine and I trimmed all the seams right back to avoid anything that could irritate delicate skin. I made three t-shirts and have never taken so much care over sewing anything. Despite this I somehow managed to sew the neckband on back to front on the first one – and get the fabric upside down on the hem band so the farmyard animals are lying on their backs with their legs in the air! Hopefully she won’t notice!

Next up were dribble bibs. Zoe had also posted a tutorial for these but it involved drawing your own pattern so to save time I downloaded a free pattern from See Kate Sew. I made a bib to match each t-shirt and invested in a tool from The Eternal Maker to add plastic snaps as I’m sure I’ll be making more of these. I had a quick demonstration in the shop of how to use it but it turned out to be much easier than I expected and the snaps are very secure once they’re in. I used a soft fleece type fabric for the reverse as I couldn’t find any suitable towelling.

In my rush to wrap everything up ready for our first visit when she was a whole week old I failed to take any photographs so these were taken after they were unwrapped and are not brilliant. The farmyard fabric was from The Eternal Maker, the dinosaurs from C & H (although I can’t find the fabric online) and the cherries from Clothkits.

I was able to make a t-shirt and bib from half a metre of each and I still have some scraps left.

I had also been tempted by this fabric from The Eternal Maker. In my excitement I’d failed to notice that it was very narrow and I didn’t have enough for a t-shirt. Thankfully I found another free pattern for an incredibly cute hat.

This is a brilliant pattern – very quick to make and the brim is attached so the seam is hidden and the inside is nice and smooth against the baby’s head. Obviously there had to be a matching dribble bib. The hat is still a wee bit big for Baby J but hopefully she will soon grow into it! Mind you, my mother said that about my school raincoat and it was still too big for me when I did my O Levels!

I can definitely recommend all these patterns and thanks to their creators for making them available for free.

There will be more small sewing. I’m meeting up with Zoe and some other bloggers on the 29th and now have a very good excuse for buying more fabric!