Sharp-Dressed {little bitty} Man

Recently I have decided it is time for me to start sewing clothes for my little boy. I actually should have started sooner, but I tend to procrastinate at times. :) Fortunately for me, Project Run & Play is still going on, and it gave me the motivation I needed to make a nice Sunday outfit for my little boy. He will not be able to wear it for quite a while (since he is supposed to arrive in the middle of August), but it will be nice to have something finished and ready to wear once the time comes.

I started this sewing adventure by looking for a tutorial on how to make a nice button-down onesie, and my search ended at "Sew, Mama, Sew!" It looked pretty easy, with both a free pattern and tutorial, so I got to work. First I printed off the pattern, and cut it all out.

Then I chose a white button-down shirt of my hubby's to sacrifice. Fortunately for me, I cleaned our closet about a week ago and found this nice shirt that, although used heavily for several years, is still in pretty good shape. It just doesn't fit right any more.

I proceeded to cut out my fabric and sew it together as outlined in the tutorial. Here is one in-progress photo, and then some of the finished onesie.

I really like how it turned out. It took a lot longer to make than it probably should have, but I was trying to make it as perfectly as I could. The tutorial hinted that the onesie would be closed on the front with the existing buttons, but I was worried about issues with it gaping open. To fix this, I attached the front with Velcro I had to hand-sew into place so the stitching wouldn't show through the front of the shirt. That alone took at least two hours, and I do not not plan on hand-sewing any more Velcro for quite a while!

I knew I wanted to make some nice little pants with a matching vest to go along with this onesie, and fortunately I remembered there were about three yards of a nice grey corduroy fabric sitting in my closet that I found at Goodwill for $2 a couple of months ago. I thought it would be perfect for this project. To make the pants, I used the free pattern at Made by Rae for the Basic Newborn Pants. It was very straight-forward and simple, and I highly recommend using it if you need some baby pants! I added a little extra top-stitching to make them look a little fancier, and I am quite pleased with how they turned out.

For the vest, I did a Google search for baby boy vest patterns, but didn't find anything I absolutely loved. So I found a couple with elements I liked, and drafted my own pattern based off the size of the onesie I made.  This is how it turned out, and I like how it looks. I already had the ribbon that the vest is edged with sitting in my ribbon collection, and the navy blue buttons were snagged from a worn-out winter coat I wore during high school.

Here is a look at the back of the vest. I wanted the back to have something that was original, and made it stand out from other vests. Fortunately for my project, my pattern-drafting skills still need lots of practice, and the back of the vest came out about two inches too wide. I fitted the vest to the onesie, and sewed the vest fabric together at the center so it would actually fit and not gape open. I ironed it down, and then sewed the navy and white ribbon on top to give it more visual interest. I really like how it turned out, and I think this flaw-turned-accent gave the vest more depth and a pop of color.

To me, little boys look absolutely adorable in bow-ties, and I knew I wanted my little guy to have one to finish off his outfit. So I found a tutorial for how to make one from Dacia Ray. It needed to be navy blue to match the buttons and ribbon, and after a little digging, I found a pair of my hubby's old scrub pants in my stack of worn-out clothes destined for future projects. They were the perfect color! After I had cut out the fabric, I realized the bow-tie was going to be almost twice as big as I really needed, so I just folded the fabric for the bow in half, and continued as she instructed. It turned out to be the perfect size, and I now want to make a lot more in different colors!

I really like how the whole project turned out, and I can't wait for my little bitty man to try it on! I have several months to wait before that can happen, but I think he must already be excited for it, since he was kicking me wildly today as I was finishing it up! A fun fact I realized as I finished this project is that this new little outfit cost me almost nothing to make. Everything used to make this came from my stash of fabric and supplies, and most of the fabric was either up-cycled or thrifted. The cheapskate inside of me is quite proud right now. :)