Snippety snip

I made a baby trousers pattern!  This could be good, because I struggle to get normal trousers on over the cloth nappies.  However, after finishing the draft I realise:

• The pattern example in my helpful pattern-drafting book allows for nappies.  I also measured to allow for nappies.  Could he now have room for 2x nappies?!
• The trousers will fit baby NOW!  This does not guarantee a fit at the wedding in two months' time.

Silly me.  Nevertheless, since I got this far I decided to cut some fabric for them anyway.  I found some soft black needlecord in my fabric chest so I'm going to test out the "Gennaker trousers" with that.  They're cut out and ready to sew, but I've never made trousers with a fly before, so I'll probably have my "Great British Sewing Bee" moment.

My ambition is to have elastic in casing around the back, but a smooth waistband at the front and an opening fly so that I can get the pesky things over the nappy.  The fly is intended to close with a button at the top and potentially some concealed poppers the rest of the way down.  We'll see how that goes.

I also cut out some white cotton for the long-sleeved shirt to go with the waistcoat I made.  I got the cotton for £4/yard from the bank holiday market in St Ives, but in retrospect it wasn't such a great pick.  I totally should have gone for the polycotton.  This fabric is a little too thick, not a very fine or tight weave at all, and basically looks like a crumpled bed-sheet even after I pressed it with ooodles of steam.  It didn't look so bad on the bolt, but that was before I washed the finishing out.  Added to that, I got a yard cut diagonally from the bolt.  Disaster!  The moral is that you get what you pay for, and I should inspect the fabric quality more carefully next time.  I'll report back on the quality of the gabardine and printed polycotton from the same stall when I get to them.  Probably I've just been unlucky with this buy.

Before anyone seems impressed, I'm totally bottling out of cuffs on this shirt.  It's for a baby!  I'm just going to turn-under or use bias binding.  However, I am featuring a pocket on the trousers for him to store his chewed up toast in.

The crochet stegosaurus is doing my head in.