KCW Day7: Preemie Onesie

On the last day of the KCW I drew and sewed a preemie onesie as a gift. I wanted to be so sure that it would not become too big, that there is a good likelihood the thing has become too small. I did not have any real measurements, only that a store bought size 44 was still too big. Ottobre 4/2007 contains some preemie cloths and those were my starting point. The whole thing is one piece of fabric ( besides the bias). This to avoid irritation as much as possible, which is why I also made bounded side seams. Lets hope it fits, it will not be an issue if the sleeves or leg parts are a bit short, but the "body" part has to be long enough.

 

I expected the whole thing to sew up very quickly due to the fact that the it was just one piece of fabric, but this was not the case. The binding of the seams took me much longer than expected and there is also a relatively big amount of "normal" binding as well. The neck turned out a bit different than I planned, but I think it does not look bad. 

The fabric is (of course) from Lillestoff, such a sensitive human being should only be dressed in organic fabrics, right? Due to the fact that the fabric print also had to "work" upside down and diagonal (the whole thing is one piece) my fabric choice was limited (still trying to sew from my stash) but I think this print is spot on (pun intended).

 

I started out with a size 40 (Ottobre is usually a bit bigger than a store bought item) but made the whole thing slightly less wide. I was doubting if I should add two or three snaps. Such a small baby does not move on its own and there has to be enough space for wires and tubes. In the end I went for three snaps because the parents can simply decide not the close the middle snap. I fastened and opened the snaps each about 20 times to make them a bit looser. I had to use the bigger snaps because the small T3 snaps would not stay on the thicker bias. I did not dare to put the small T3 snaps on the jersey directly. Does anyone have experience with this already? I worked a lot with the T5 size and those easily rip through your fabric.

With this onesie my first "official" KCW ends. It was nice to have a very explicit goal of sewing everyday, but it also made me a bit obsessed. I did not sew on Friday (Although I did drew a pattern and cut fabric) and I really felt I failed (which is not the goal of the whole KCW). For the next KCW I should either plan seven nice small projects which I cut before the week or have one big project. This way I can really enjoy my one hour sewing (and posting).