Sew and Tell

A few months ago, I started hearing a phrase from Maya that made me smile. "Mama made it," she'd say, noticing an item of clothing as I helped her get dressed or pointing it out to others as we went about our day.

Handknit sweater, Oliver+S Tea Party dress, Made by Rae Big Butt Baby Pants

It's true, her Mama does love sewing for her, At this point, a good amount of her wardrobe is handmade. There are plenty of hand-me-downs and second-hands, some gifted items, a select handful of new clothes that I've chosen for their quality and practicality. But I now have enough patterns, ideas, skills, and fabric to create almost anything she might need. Time is really the limiting factor.

Farbenmix Imke shirt and LouBee Bimaa sweater mash-up

Naptimes and other precious moments when Maya is engaged elsewhere never fail to leave me feeling pulled in every direction. I think of it as the Exersaucer Effect. When Maya was much smaller, we paid some friends a visit and I experienced, at close range for the first time, the famous Exersaucer. We never had one of these giant plastic contraptions taking up half of our living room, so when I placed Maya in the seat, her eyes got big and she immediately started spinning around, batting at this, bopping that, beeping the other thing, delighted and overwhelmed simultaneously. I watched her and thought, "That's exactly how I feel!" When I have a spare moment, do I wash the dishes? Vacuum? Make food? Eat food? Sit down in front of the computer? Tackle one of the countless unappealing household projects that have been on the back burner since this little person joined us? Or, do I let myself head for my office, a.k.a. sewing studio, and try to narrow in on a single project out of the gazillion possibilities knocking around in my head or stacked precariously on every surface?

Sewing sometimes wins. And sometimes I manage to finish something. More things than I realize until I pile them up together.

I'm not sure I can explain why I feel this compulsion. There's no shortage of kids' clothing out there. Lots of it isn't pleasing to me, but that still leaves plenty that's adorable. Much of the used stuff is in good condition for very little money if one enjoys seeking it out. Which I do. Sewing, meanwhile takes hours of time, especially for a perfectionist who often feels the need to re-do seams when they don't meet my standards, or to modify patterns to get exactly what I'm after. Nice fabric is rarely cheap. And though I love both the thriftiness and the challenge of bringing home oversized garments from Goodwill and repurposing them, it still requires time, money, and a growing amount of storage space to contain all my treasures.

So while I can't quite explain it, I do know that I love the process of creating things. And I especially love the art of creating things that fit and suit my child. What follows is a little tour through some of the handmade highlights from Maya's newborn days through age 2 or so.

Tiny Maya wore this sleep gown that I made from my brother's golf-course uniform shirt while I was in the final months of pregnancy. For some reason I am amused by the fact that it still reads "STAFF" on the sleeve.

Sleep Sack (0-6m) from Growing Up Sew Liberated

Her first summer, she wore this reversible pinafore and a pair of linen bloomers, also sewn up shortly before she was born.
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Heidi + Finn Sweet Pocket Pinafore,  Sweet and Simple Bloomers

I made her this tiny blue dress a few months after she was born. It was the first item I sewed post-baby purely for fun rather than as an item we truly needed for our extra-small newborn.

Geranium Dress (0-3m) and Big Butt Baby Pants (3-6m) from Made by Rae

This little romper was another labor of love sewn in little bits of time between newborn needs. Oh, how I loved this one.

Lullaby Layette Bodysuit (0-3m, modified) from Oliver+S

I made this dress and these wool pants before I was even pregnant, because I made identical ones as gifts for friends' babies and got in the habit of making doubles. She's 11 months old here.

Geranium Dress (3-6m) and Big Butt Baby Pants (6-12m) from Made by Rae

I sewed this corduroy dress before I was pregnant, too. I cut up a super-soft, thrifted corduroy shirt to put this sweet pattern, my piping skills, and my repurposing abilities to the test. She grew into it soon after she started walking.

Tea Party Dress (6-12m) from Oliver+S

Momentous occasions are marked by handmades. Here she is on her first birthday in a dress and leggings I made especially for the day.

Straightgrain Hanami Top, Playtime Leggings from Oliver +S

And here she is just after her first successful solo steps in a sweater vest and pants that I sewed.

Self-drafted repurposed sweater vest, Big Butt Baby Pants from Made by Rae

She wore this romper, made from a thrifted button-down shirt, on her first spring break vacation.

Lullaby Layette Bodysuit (12-18m, modified) from Oliver+S

She wore this swim shirt on just about every beach excursion we took last summer.

Field Trip Raglan (6-12m) from Oliver+S

And this little outfit wasn't exactly intended as beachwear, but why not?

Tea Party Dress (12-18m, shortened) and Puppet Show Shorts (18-24m) from Oliver+S

She wore another Mama-made dress when she joined Nick and me to celebrate our second anniversary in a downpour downtown. 

Geranium Dress and Big Butt Baby Pants from Made by Rae

Here she is on a warmish day last fall, in the garden, in a dress made from a thrifted shirt that I started before she was born and finished when it finally fit her.

Ice Cream Dress (6-12m) from Oliver+S

On any given day, she's likely to be wearing at least one handmade item, and often more.

Self-drafted owl hat, sweater knit by a friend, Big Butt Baby Pants from Made by Rae

Last winter, I wanted some warm, footed jammies for her that were two pieces rather than all one. I couldn't find any. But I could make them. So I did, from an adult-size pair of fleece pants from Goodwill and a bit of red fleece from my stash.

Field Trip Raglan from Oliver+S, Sweet Feet Pants from Ottobre Designs

And she needed a bigger balaclava after she outgrew the one that she wore on every outdoor excursion during her first full winter. So I made one of those, too, from an old sweater and a pattern I drafted myself.

Self-drafted based on a smaller hand-me-down

There are many more handmades in my head than ever make it into a finished state, and even the ones I do bring to completion sometimes take a while. I started but didn't finish this sweet yellow top for Maya's second birthday. At least it was ready in time for our trip to Florida later that month. She still called it her happy birthday shirt.

Butterfly Top and Puppet Show Shorts from Oliver+S (18-24m)

The good news is that many of these items last a long time. These little striped pants, made from the sleeves of a Goodwill shirt, have been worn for three summers in a row now.

Self-drafted pattern using repurposed shirt sleeves

That flowered swim shirt lasted for two summers. The first year she just wore it with a matching cloth swim diaper, and for the second year, when she was out of diapers, I made a pair of bottoms to match. 

Field Trip Raglan from Oliver+S, Coco Cay Tankini bottom from Peekaboo Pattern Shop

And now: I knew it would happen, though I hoped it might not be so soon. My girl has developed a strong opinion about what she wears. For instance, she agreed to try on these shorts that I'd just finished making, but only over her pajamas.

Puppet Show shorts from Oliver+S in repurposed denim

She likes to pick out her own outfits more days than not. I can sometimes sway her in one direction or another, but often I can't. Any insistence on my part will lead to more resistance on hers. I appreciate that she knows her mind and is learning how to advocate for her own wishes. That's more important to me than that she be dressed in matching clothes or even seasonally appropriate ones. In theory. To be completely honest, I do love it when she wears the things I've made for her. Or at least the ones I've particularly selected as I paw through mountains of hand-me-downs and second-hands.

But she does appreciate the idea of Mama-mades. And she loves to "help" me sew. She's recently invented a new hobby: she selects a piece of polka-dotted fabric from my shelf and then, one by one, pokes every pin from my magnetic pin-holder into the dots. It keeps her busy for a few minutes, which is long enough to for me to sew a seam or two. So, you can bet I'll keep sewing!