Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Tiny Cuteness :)


Back in the early 80's besides rockin' the spikey short hair and HUGE earrings (yes...I really thought I looked WAY cool at the time), I was sewing baby clothes while my kidlets were napping, to sell at the local swap meet on Saturdays. I was a stay at home mommy of 2 and it brought some extra cash into our household. Back then, I could sew an entire outfit for my daughter for about 85 cents for the fabric.


 Butterick #3088 was my "go to" pattern of choice for my little side business. I bought it in every size. Back in those days you had to buy multiple patterns if you wanted multiple sizes. It's a perfectly adorable basic jumper for boys and girls. Totally cute and totally FTS (fun to sew). I can remember cutting out 4 or 5 at a time in different fabrics and then sewing them up in no time. I even took custom orders and made matching outfits for siblings. There are patterns that are just classic and don't go out of style. And when they are simple in design, you have lots of room for embellishing or adding your own "flair". Even using these old patterns with the new fun designer fabrics makes some totally adorable little outfits! For this little jumper and hat for Evie I used Riley Blake's Quite Contrary and mixed it with some Robert Kaufmann fuchsia polka dots and some pink gingham. You could add ruffles at the bottom, or giant rick rack, the possibilities are endless!  What old patterns do you have stashed away that you could breathe some new life into?

9 comments:

  1. absolutely adorable! I love the colors of the fabrics! I don't have any older sewing patterns, but pulled out my older cross-stitch patterns and some of them are totally outdated, but others could be "re-vamped." Thanks for the idea!

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  2. Thanks Denise! I've done that will cross stitch patterns too. I just switched out the dusty rose and grey blue for bolder colors. But there are some patterns that need to stay in the past :)

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  3. you don't even want to see my pattern stash. LOL
    Old, new, used and the 'what was I thinking?'
    I am using a very similar pattern for a baby outfit....that style never goes out of style.

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  4. Beautiful! I love how you can take a basic pattern and make it look up to date just with fabrics and embellishments! Now that I know we are having two granddaughters (and two more grandchildren on the way, but we don't know the sex yet), I can't wait to do stuff like this! We have five grandsons and there are no really neat patterns out there for them!

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  5. So cute! Evie is going to look super adorable in this outfit! This is definitely a classic pattern.

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  6. This is just too cute! Too bad I don't have a small kid! I used to make my son's clothes when he was little, but gave away all the patterns. :(

    LaDonna

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  7. So cute! LOVE your fabric choices too :)

    Sew Ray Me

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  8. No old patterns lurking around here :( But I bet I could raid my moms sewing closet and find a boat load!

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  9. Love this outfit but really love that you used an old pattern for it. I don't have any old patterns, or new ones really. I've just started getting into sewing clothes for my kids but it is so much fun.

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