Baby gifts galore- part 1

I love it when my friends have babies. 

It's so sweet and exciting. 

I loved having babies, so I love to see folks close to me going through that same exhilarating and magical experience. 

And.....I get to sew things for babies. 

I have two close friends that are becoming mothers for the first time this spring. And, shame on me, I took zero pictures of the things I made for one of them. But I did very similar things for both, so I will share what I have. 

Both ladies are going to be using cloth diapers. Which is awesome. Seeing as how most folks don't go there, however, most of the rtw baby clothes out there do not fit over those adorable hugely padded little bums. 

So that is where home made clothes and Rae's Big Butt Baby Pants pattern comes into play. 

This is the first time I used it, and it is a great pattern. Everything lines up so well and comes together so nicely. I am starting to use patterns for almost everything I sew, because it is SO worth it. I used to scoff at the idea of spending $ on a pattern instead of tracing clothes they have or winging it, but I am changing my tune. Especially if I am spending $ on fabric, which I do a little more often now. I still love to upcycle, but I just can't help myself with the adorable prints out there sometimes; especially with special gifts. 

And if it is a great pattern, it ends up getting used so much that the price per use becomes almost negligible. And even if it is only used a few times, the cost often balances out the time it saves, and prevents wasting precious fabric.  So using patterns is one of my big resolutions for this year, and I am doing well with it. Of course, modification and pattern hacking are always available!

I have made 5 pair of the big butt pants. 

Here are 3 of them:

 They are not actually lopsided as this picture seems to depict; but I took pics right before popping them in the mail, so no chance for redos. 

 I added elastic to the leg openings on this pair. 

This 3-6 m pair was a spontaneous use of the scraps I had leftover from my other 4 pairs. One of the beautiful things about baby clothes- it doesn't take much yardage! I love the mix of fabrics here too.

They are all flannel. I bought the spaceships and dogs at JoAnn's and the stars are both old baby blankets.  Baby clothes really make me smile. I also loved hearing my girls asking "mom are those more big butt baby pants?" They loved the name of the pattern as much as I did. 

Rae also has examples of / tutorials for adding ruffles across the butt piece for little girl pants. 

Keep having babies please, my friends!