Kids Clothing Swap - My Items

After a(nother) very hectic week, I'm finally getting the chance to post some photos of the outfits I made for the EB Kids clothing swap. I will warn you though that this post is going to be very image heavy, I made three outfits and am so proud of each of them, this is my best sewing to date and I really want to show it off!

First I started on an outfit for Esther's daughter Bethan. She is similar age to Cheriese, so I was able to pick one of the patterns that I've had my eye on for ages. I used Ottobre 1/2008 design #2 "Susette" Sash pants and #4 "Maya" blouse. I fell in love with the fabric for the top first, I loved all the nice bright colours and thought that finding a nice small print to use for the pants would be easy... but I was so wrong - I tried so many different shades of green, but none were right, then tried pinks, still no. Finally with the help of a lovely Spotlight staff member, we scoured the quilting section and found a lovely peach coloured fabric with the tiniest little spots. It is totally different to the colours I would normally choose, but I really love the end result and think I should branch out of my usual colour palette more often!

Some hair clips to go with it too:
Seeing as Cheriese is almost the same size as Bethan, I cut out an extra set for her as well ;)

Next I made an outfit for Marie's daughter Jalissa. Again I chose an outfit that caught my eye awhile ago and one that is on my to-do list for Cheriese. The skirt is from Ottobre 4/2007, design #14 Pleated Skirt and the top is from Ottobre 6/2008, design #13 Raglan Sleeve Blouse.
I found the pretty floral drill first, and then the nice pink jersey for the top. The top has shirring on the sleeves with little taffeta ribbon bows and I added the floral applique with ribbon trim as well.

With some hair clips as well:

Lastly I made an outfit for Milly's son George. I took so long deciding what pattern to use, I've been eyeing off so many for Jai, I really was spoilt for choice. In the end I settled on Ottobre 1/2008 design #25 "Frog" pants and Ottobre 4/2008 design #25 "Pekka" t-shirt. I chose a chocolate brown wide wale cord for the pants and then decided they needed some contrast for a bit more pop, and found the lovely dot quilter's cotton for the pockets, waistband and also line the bottom of the pants in case they were too long and needed to be cuffed up. This was my first time making a proper zip front and I'm so glad that I took the plunge as although my attempt isn't perfect, it wasn't too bad either - so now I can't wait to make some more for both my boys! I love the car knit I used for the top, and then couldn't decide between the two stripe knits I had bought, so asked Jordan which one he thought looked better and he picked it for me!
A huge THANK YOU to Ingrid for organising this fantastic swap! I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and now have so much more confidence to tackle all the patterns that I've been wanting to do for so long now.

Natalie
xx