The Geekiest Baby: Clothes for the SHB Sew-Along

High on the excitement of having finished SHB's first real costume, I was able to use that momentum to launch into cake sewing. SHB has an abundance of short-sleeved onesies, but it's still cool enough (even in California, the land of 1.5 seasons) that he needs a few long-sleeved shirts for mornings and nights. And because I can't leave well enough alone, even his utilitarian "cake" ended up geeky.

The Blue Sun logo (from Firefly/Serenity), the baby scientist in training, and the biohazard symbol were all done with fabric marker. The first two were freehand, but the biohazard symbol was done with the help of a freezer paper stencil. The Cheat was fleece applique with lots of careful hand-stitching on the spots. All of them have held up very well in the wash!

I had saved a whole bunch of old free t-shirts from college and teaching that I had originally planned on making into a t-shirt quilt, but on second thought (and with some perspective provided by the intervening years), I realized I'm not actually that sentimental about them. If I'm honest with myself, I only really saved them because I felt like they should be more meaningful than they really are. So once I got over that, I realized I had a whole bunch of free stretchy cotton in lots of colors, already pre-shrunk...perfect for making baby shirts! I tried making one with an envelope neckline but didn't like how it fit on SHB (plus he's always scooting out of them), so I went with snaps at the shoulder instead.

And because I can't leave well enough alone (and because mass-producing tiny shirts is so fast and satisfying and mindless), I even made him a Kumamon sweatshirt to celebrate my sister's birthday. She's the biggest (okay, only) Kumamon fan I know.

I love how he has the same expression as Kumamon's here!

Bonus garment: When I was testing the envelope shoulder concept, I used an old tee that had a faux tux screenprinted on it, which made for a very bizarre-looking romper...

I used this pattern, but ran out of fabric so I had to settle for three-quarter length sleeves. 

Summary:

Pattern: Traced from an existing shirt, modified to make the shoulder button closure.

Fabric: Six old cotton tee shirts, resulting in four long-sleeve shirts, one romper, and a pair of pants, plus scraps leftover.

Notions: Lots of snaps. I am so pro at sewing snaps now. 

Techniques used: Binding knit necklines? Does that even count as a technique? Setting snaps for the romper, which was a whole ordeal in and of itself. In the end, I found this tutorial to be the most helpful since that was the tool I had on hand.

Hours: Once I got going, I was at about an hour per shirt, not counting the drawing/applique-ing. So with cutting and decorating and all, this was a good ten-ish hours over the course of two weeks. 

Total cost: I paid $5 for the snap kit (I already had the pliers) and $3 for the fabric marker, and the rest of the materials were shirts/scraps I've had for so long, they're basically free. 

Final thoughts: I seriously love these little shirts! It's so fun to have him participate in fandoms that I love, even if he's too young to know about them. I find myself reaching for these shirts first before his RTW shirts, and hoping people get the reference. So far people at school have loved the biohazard and baby scientist ones, but The Cheat and Firefly are probably too obscure. 

I think I got a little carried away with the embellishments...especially considering that SHB won't be able to wear these for very long. Oh well, that's my prerogative, right? Besides, it means that I can stage silly pictures!

Best use of tiny lab equipment: posing it with a tiny scientist! 

I briefly thought about trying to get a picture of SHB in his biohazard shirt with a biohazard container at school, but then I came to my senses.

"The Cheat is grounded! We had that lightswitch installed for you so you could turn the lights on and off, not so you could throw lightswitch raves!"

"Six men came to kill me one time. And the best of 'em carried this. It's a Callahan full-bore auto-lock. Customized trigger, double cartridge thorough gauge. It is my very favorite gun."

"This the best gun made by man. It has *extreme* sentimental value...I call it Vera."

So that takes care of Category 1 of the sew-along! Next up, Category 2: Accessories.