More of Baby's Spring SWAP

Argh, if I'd known how bored I would get I never would have started this SWAP. I will be quite happy if I never sew purple or lavender again! The concept is great and when it's done Baby will have a drawer full of clothes that Hubby can dress her from and she will look reasonable co-ordinated instead of how she usually looks when he dresses her (he's of the opinion "that'll do!" when it comes to clothes and sometimes, really, it won't do at all!). So it will be worth it in the end. But I am B-O-R-E-D of it now and am going to take a break and work on something else for a while before I go insane - this is meant to be my therapy, not torture!

Here are the things I've finished up so far, I can't remember exactly where I got the unicorn embroideries from. I want to say huups but I don't think it is. They're one of my favourite sets though, love them!

I made three mix'n'match velour sets, the trousers are all the Vilkas pattern from Ottobre 04/08, #2. They're a size 74cm, my kids have all needed one size smaller on bottom than on top and despite being teeny it look like Baby is at least the same shape as her siblings.


I tried three different waistband finishes on the trousers (I mentioned I was bored, right?) just to remind myself which one I liked best. The top one is two lines of straight stitching and this one stretched out the elastic around 3/4" more than the others. It's my least favourite. The middle is a normal zigzag and the bottom is a 3-step zigzag. The 3-step is my favourite and I'll be sticking with it. It's just nice to reaffirm these things sometimes :)


I used two different patterns for the tops. The purple one is Ottobre 04/05 #5, 80cm. I'm not sold on the roses. The magazine has a row of them curving round the neckline but I really didn't like that when I laid them out so I went for three across the (more or less!) centre instead. Not hugely keen on it, I'll leave them on but I don't think I'll do it again. I found the neckline piece on this pattern to be huge, I had to shorten it by 4cm to get it to fit nicely.


The plum and lavender tops are both from Ottobre 04/07 #13, the Teapot Tunic in 80cm. The pattern calls for sweatshirt fleece but I thought velour would work OK as a substitute and it does. It's a little looser than it should be as the velour is stretchier but that's not a problem. One thing I didn't like, the pattern has the bottom hem bound instead of turned up. The lavender is the one I did first and you can see in the picture that the binding has gathered in the hemline quite a bit. When Baby's wearing it it looks like a bubble hem and I Do Not like it. Nothing against bubble hems, just not the look I was going for. When I came to do the plum one I added an extra inch to the bottom and turned up the hem instead, I greatly prefer how this one looks.


Another little pair of trousers, corduroy this time. Ottobre 01/10 #13, 74cm. I left off the pockets and the bottom ruffles on these as this SWAP is about quick and easy wardrobe basics. I love the fit of these and I will definitely make them again with the extra details, they have slightly bootcut legs and are not too high in the rise.


Here is the tunic to match them, this was a complete disaster lol! For a start, my fabric was never going to work. It's drafted for a lightweight voile and I chose a knit to co-ordinate with the above trousers but didn't think that the pattern might need some alterations to make up for the difference in fabrics. It is absolutely enormous, too big in fact for my five year old who usually wears a 122cm top! It's fixable though, I will unpick the side and underarm seams then sew the raglan seam again taking away 1.5" at the neck, tapering to 1" at the body. Yes, it really does need 6" taken out at the neckline. Enormous I said, enormous!


Here they are together, these are both PRR fabrics that have been ageing nicely in my stash for close to five years. Good to have them sewn into something! I still have some of the bows cord left, no idea what I'll do with it yet.


That's it for Baby's SWAP just now. I still have a few more pieces I need to cut and sew before it's done but I think I'm going to go sew something Boyish for a change, I need to escape from all the purpley lavender goodness!