Baby Love

Hello! I’m excited to share today’s post with you all! I am proud to say that I’m able to add a new notch to my “Sewing Experience” belt:

I made baby clothes!

I recently found out my very near and dear to my heart cousin is expecting her first child this year! A big deal for us because it’s been such a loooong time since a baby has graced our family’s presence. I for one, absolutely ADORE babies! Seriously, I could be around them all day. I just love how miniature and tiny and squishy and huggable they are! I think one of the cutest sounds in the entire world is baby babble. I mean all of it, from baby giggles, baby sneezes, baby yawns…newborn baby cry…I LOVE it!

As if you couldn’t already tell, I am obviously one of those women who are constantly experiencing baby fever–

–However! I am fairly certain that I do not want to have any more children. I mean, as much as I deeply love the ones I have already, I just don’t think I can handle the realities of raising another baby. So I’ll settle for living vicariously through other new mother’s experiences.

Anywhoo, so now that I found out the baby will be a girl (Yay!) I immediately thought that it would be great to try my hand at making baby clothes.

The Pattern

But of course, I made a dress! I browsed some of the cutest baby dress patterns online and really loved the Hannah Dress pattern by Easily Made Design on Etsy (click/tap on image or caption to take you to pattern link.)

Hannah Dress & Tunic sewing pattern by Easily Made Design

This pattern makes the most adorable little dress with a button front, an exposed hem ruffle, and bows that tie at the sleeve. My most favorite part of the dress is that the “keyhole sleeve” can either be in the shape of a heart or leaf. I chose the heart shape, naturally. Also great about this pattern is that the bodice and sleeves are lined. I chose to make the 6-9 month size and the pattern required a mere 1/2 yard of fabric.

Fabric

Since I was making baby clothes, I was conscious of what kind of fabric to use that will not only be durable for stains and for washing, but also non-irritating, breathable, comfortable, and soft against baby’s skin. I still had a bit left over of the gorgeous dusty lavender linen that I used to make my mini Pontoon dress. If you remember back when I made my Butterick 5605 dress and Lisette Pajamas, I used the cutest retro floral print by A Beautiful Mess. I had enough of the linen to make a tunic top and I purchased a yard of the floral print (in pink this time!) to make a dress. This cotton print in particular is organic, and feels just like a super soft bedsheet! Both cotton and linen are very natural, cool, lightweight, and breathable, so they are perfect for baby!

Sewing & Construction Notes

The pattern is a PDF, so print and assembly is required. The good thing is that since it’s baby clothing, pattern pieces are tiny and you don’t need to print too many pages off. Everything is pretty straightforward as far as printing goes.

Sewing directions are a PDF as well and are very well written.. They are accompanied with photos that clearly show the sewing process. I always appreciate this in sewing tutorials, as I am very much a visual learner. No trouble at all with construction.
The pattern is marked “Beginner”, and if you are a beginner sewer with some knowledge on basic sewing construction already under your belt, then I think you will be totally fine! There are some elements of construction (shaped keyhole sleeves, exposed ruffle hem, and buttons/buttonholes, respectively) that may be challenging if you’ve never done them before or are totally new to sewing, but don’t let it deter you! Those steps are great practice and will elevate your sewing skills for sure! For instance, I was nervous about constructing the heart keyhole, but I had fun making them. After a little fiddling with and ironing, they turned out pretty good!

I can’t say much for fit since I am obviously not fitting it to myself. I did read in many reviews on the shop’s patterns that they run true to size, so I’m hoping baby will be able to wear the clothes by the time Spring/Summer comes up, which is when she will be in the 6-9 month range. You just never know with babies as their growth rates are all over the spectrum. Crossing my fingers!

The Finished Result!

I think they turned out really good! These photos were taken in front of my window, under natural light on an overcast day. The lavender linen is more warm-hued than pictured here. The floral hues are pretty spot on IRL.

Oh my goodness, as Chandler on Friends would say: can there BE anymore CUTENESS?!

Here is a close-up of the button up bodice detail. I would have preferred smaller buttons for the tunic, but I couldn’t find any good ones searching in store, and didn’t think I would have much time if I ordered online, so I made do with what was on hand at the moment. Here you can also see the actual dusty lavender hue of the linen in this photo. It’s so pretty, isn’t it?

I had a much better time finding buttons for the dress. I love the floral shape, and the color matched exactly!

My favorite parts of the dress version are definitely the sleeves and exposed ruffle hem. So, so cute!!

Final Thoughts

At the time I was writing this, I couldn’t publish this post yet because I didn’t want to give away the surprise, but now that the baby shower has passed I can share this lovely sew with you all! I had so much fun sewing this pattern! The dress and tunic were both easy to make and took very little time to construct. I can’t wait to see the baby wearing her clothes when the warmer weather starts up again!

Hooray for babies!!