Another go at "Lullaby" pattern

It always surprises me that new ways to use a pattern keep evolving. 
 

I had a “Lullaby”, my infant sleep sacque pattern, all cut out before I went to visit little Sweet Pea last month. It was in a rather stretchy t-shirt type knit fabric and I had intended to interface the yokes for stability. It was meant as a test of a finer stretchy knit rather than a woven fabric – just to see if I liked it or ran into any problems.
 

Well of course, Sweet Pea just keeps on growing and now she is in her own bed – a huge empty space compared to her bassinet.  The knit fabric although very soft and comfy felt cool to the touch and with it being late fall, I just felt the sleep sacque should be warm and cozy.  In my stash I found a lovely soft flannel that coordinated beautifully.

 

 

So I cut a new set of yokes, a sacque and base from the flannel to make a full lining. Since flannel is woven, it works perfectly as a stabilizer for the knit. Then I chose a pretty pink satin to make a bias binding to finish the neckline/armhole edges.

I tacked the bases of the two fabrics together. (We shall see what happens when the sacque gets washed – will they cooperate or become a tangled mess.) Then I slip stitched the lining to the zipper tape.  This made the whole thing nearly reversible.

 

The double layer of fabric was not that thick but I still cut the bias strips 1.25” wide as they stretch and grow narrower and every bit is needed to encase the cut edges. 

(Did you know that 12” of fabric will yield almost 18” of true bias.)

So this time I hand basted (Yes, hand-basted – it isn’t a dirty word. It didn’t take that long and I was sure that all the little potential tucks were smoothed out before the machine touched it.) This time I stretched the bias slightly in the armhole areas and eased in a little extra fullness over the shoulder tabs. When I turned the bias it was a perfect fit! I went back and stitched an accurate quarter inch seam with the machine. The rest was a snap.

Inside - the binding is hand stitched with tiny little stitches

 



Smocked in pink with Surface Honeycomb stitch - 2 rows full space high, 3rd row half space high, all stacked.



 Just to be on the safe side, I’m going to make an extender lest in case the armholes be a bit tight. This will also give a bit of extra length as well. To do this I will cut a new double ended tab for each shoulder with a set of snaps for fastening to the original snaps.  I will have to blog about this later once I see if it works.

This Lullaby was smocked with a pink floss to match the satin binding. One last touch – a concertina ribbon rose completes the picture! 

You can find the pattern at www.amberlane.ca under Atelier/Patterns. Then go to Children's Patterns. Click on the pattern cover for more photos of Lullaby!

 

So till next time, keep stitching…..