Contemporary Sewing Patterns for the Modern Maker
At last it’s time for us to show off the Mini Jarrah tester makes with you!! We’re constantly amazed and filled with joy seeing our testers sew up mini patterns for their children. There’s still time for all our northern friends to sew up a cosy layer for the last hurrah of winter, and for us here in Australia, what a perfect time to get ready for when it cools down a bit! We hope you enjoy all of our mini makes made by our ever so talented testers!
I’m so excited to finally share with you some of the Mini Jarrah‘s I made for my kiddos whilst we were working on the pattern! I LOVE that this pattern is unisex! After working on Mini Cottesloe and Mini Eucalypt and making so many things for Bunny and Birdie, it was so lovely to be able to make something Buddy could enjoy too. And gosh has he enjoyed it!!!
I used a See You At Six french terry, which i purchased from lovely Maaidesign and it’s so incredibly soft and comfy that he has tried to convince me on many occasions to let him wear this as both a sweatshirt and pajamas. Continuously hahaha. Beyond their amazing designs one of the things I love about See You At Six fabric is how many unisex designs they have. I love sewing for Buddy, but it’s often super hard to find fabrics that he wants to wear. The second I saw this print I knew it would be perfect for him and that was really affirmed when he saw it in my stash cupboard and immediately asked if it was for him. I had enough left to make him something else so i’ll make sure to share that soon!
You’ll notice that I sewed the tag on the right side of his sweatshirt. I always do that for my kids as they often need a little guidance about which is the front or the back, but they find tags to be really itchy and uncomfortable on the inside of a garment.
It has taken over his Awe-some sweatshirt as his favourite winter wear, and I can’t wait to make him more Mini Jarrah sweaters once the weather gets cooler in Perth again. He’s quite keen to have a matching sweatshirt with my favourite quilted Jarrah and I absolutely 100% feel like this NEEDS to happen.
ps. This wouldn’t be a post about Buddy if there wasn’t a jump shot in there – so here we go!
I’ve been hearing so many good things about the Mini Hudson pants sewing pattern by True Bias over the years that I knew it was high time I tried it out for my kiddos. Bunny was in desperate need of more warm clothing this past winter. She has just grown so much, and every pair of pants were too short. As she has grown I’ve tried to take her personal tastes into account more and more, and I love seeing how she chooses fabrics for her own clothing. She shoes this grey french terry I had in my stash, and we used the right side for the main track pants, and then used the wrong side (the loopy side) for the waistband, pocket edging and cuffs. I think that’s one of my favourite things about this pattern, the ability to use contrasting fabrics for details. She has loved these pants and already wants more!
At the same time as i was making these pants she asked if she could have a new top too. She wanted something a little shorter and closer fitting that the usual Mini Briar tees i make for her, so I thought that was a pretty good opportunity to try a kids pattern by Oliver and S. I chose the Schoolbus tee because it looked pretty close to what we wanted. I ended up removing quite a bit of length, shortening the sleeve, and scooping out the neckline a lot. She wasn’t a super fan of the close neckline so i kept things simple and just trimmed it back, turned in the edge and top stitched.
The fabric is another Nosh organics fabric which i purchased just before they stopped shipping to Australia (CRY). Bunny chose a KATM “YES i made it” label to add to her top, and as per usual we sewed it to the outside of the garment so it wouldn’t be scratchy. Please ignore that loose tension on the topstitch next to the label, IT’S HURTING MY EYES. I wish i could just ignore little details like that, sometimes i’m my worst enemy ha!
So there you have it my friends! Two hard working and very cute additions to Bunny’s wardrobe that she has been using constantly. If you are looking for new patterns for your kiddos I would recommend the Hudson Pants without any hesitation! The schoolbus tee is a good option for something long, close fitting and with a high neckline, but keep in mind if you’re going for a similar look to this tee you’ll need to make alterations.
My goodness this child is growing up so quickly, and every time I look at a photo of her I’m suddenly struck by it all over again.
These photos were taken earlier in the year when we went on a wonderful family holiday down south to Margaret River, and spent a lovely week at a beautiful holiday house in the bushland that was basically a kids dream spot with a natural bush yard full of swings, treehouses, a trampoline and so much to explore. I can’t count how much time Bunny spent on this tire swing.
Briar dresses + Virginia leggings are such a winter wardrobe staple for Bunny and the last set I made her last year is still going strong (though if you ask me the leggings are looking a little more cropped now hehe). This year all she wanted was another set and how I could I possibly say no to such a sweetie?
This dress is made using the Mini Briar sewing pattern with a gathered skirt added to it. If you’d like to try this super easy hack yourself, you can use this tutorial we wrote recently. I used the most beautiful organic cotton jersey from Nosh Organics which I bought back when they were still shipping fabric to Australia. I’m so sad they aren’t anymore, though I do understand. I think they might be focusing more on ready to wear now? Regardless I’m so happy I hoarded this fabric back then because there was just enough to make Bunny this dress! I left the sleeve hem and skirt hem raw as I often do, just to allow me to add on a cuff or band when she gets taller and thereby get some more use out of this dress.
The leggings are made using the Mini Virginia pattern and as you can see they are the perfect length right now, so i’m not sure how long they will last. The fabric is a cotton jersey I purchased from Morrison clothings famous warehouse sale, and it’s been well used in our family and even in some of my pattern samples. That has unfortunately justified my fabric stashing and led me to believe it’s a super great idea when i buy 5m of pink jersey with no plan haha.
I just love how this whole outfit turned out, but mostly I love how much my girl loves wearing it.
Meet Birdie’s favourite dress! Sometimes I will make my kids something and magically by complete accident I have created their dream garment. This is that dress for Birdie. She has worn this so much in the last year, we even had to layer it over long tees and leggings during winter because she just wouldn’t stop wearing it. Apparently when you wear this dress it’s very important that you only do up the very top button of your cardigan so that everyone can still see the Birds ;)
I originally made this dress for her at the very end of last year when we were working on the the Mini Eucalypt pattern and I was having a bit of fun hacking the pattern in different ways.
This is probably my favourite Mini Eucalypt (or Eucalypt) hack because it’s so ridiculously fast and easy to add a simple gathered skirt. If you’d like to create something similar you can try our tutorial here.
For this dress i used Ellie Whittaker’s gorgeous Seabirds cotton sateen. I love this print so much that I ended up making Bunny a matching dress (is there anything cuter than sisters in matching clothing?!) and Buddy a pair of pajama shorts.
I can see that I’m going to have to make a lot more of these Mini Eucalypt hacked dresses in different prints because they twirl incredibly well, and when you are five the ONLY thing that matters is twirlability ;)
