It’s been a while hasn’t it? I feel like I’ve dropped off the kiddo sewing bandwagon. It’s not that I don’t love sewing for my boys anymore, but more the fact that I’m working in a fabric store, surrounded only by apparel fabric for adults. That and the thrills I get from the challenge of sewing adult clothes that, on a good day, can look not so distinguishable from store bought stuffs, may have something to do with it. Every week is selfish sewing week over here! But I do miss boy sewing, and it was totally refreshing to be back playing with thriftstore t-shirts, unlikely prints and weird iron-on transfers, testing out a new kids pattern, the Bateau Neck Top pattern by Aesthetic Nest.
I love a good neutral pattern and when I checked out all the cute girl versions of the Bateau I wondered what Anneliese thought I would do with such a cute ‘pretty’ looking pattern. Didn’t she know I come from the land of trucks and testicles? Anyway turns out she had this all in mind and lured me in with the challenge of coming up with a boy-ish Bateau. I didn’t have to try very hard to make it look ‘boyish’, the Bateau is actually cleverly drafted to be quite a gender neutral shape, much like the Oliver and S Sailboat top. There are lots of cute add-ons like ruffles and pleats and a dress extension that I didn’t think Hudson would appreciate so I just made him a straight up Bateau with the addition of a lizard king, in a size 4. He is 2, but a whopper and currently sharing some of Archie’s sized 4-5 clothes, so it made sense.
The main fabric is a Nani Iro knit, the back a thrift store knit and the sleeves cut from one of his baby sweaters. Something else I’d forgotten about sewing for kids is how much faster everything is. These days, ‘whipping’ something up equates to half a days sewing. That’s instead of a week. So the Bateau takes no time at all, probably an hour from start to finish and quicker still when you’re pinching already hemmed parts! I loved that the neckline is faced and not attaching ribbing was a pleasure. The royal lizard made an appearance with some Leslie Riley Artist transfer paper (print it out, iron it on ) except this was the second attempt because the first lizard was about six months old and didn’t take to the fabric at all. So if you’re going to use this stuff, print it fresh.
