Ottobre Shirt & Pants

Pattern: Ottobre 3/2012 Happy Madras Shirt #19 & Papa Joe Pants #20

Shirt Fabric: Joel Dewberry "Modern Meadow" JD37 Honeycomb Pink quilting cotton; buttons taken from one of my husbands old shirts

Pants: Fabric: JoAnn Fabrics, poly-cotton linen-look blend

Fabric Price: ~$8.00; $6.40 zipper $0.50

Belt: Re-purposed gift wrap ribbon from the Gap
Shoes: Driving shoes, Gap

Size: 96 cm

Child's Age: 4 (slim and small)

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I made this outfit (that sounds girly. Ensemble?) for my four-year-old's preschool graduation. He participated in a state-funded, pilot online preschool program last year. He got to go in to test and receive his diploma and treat bag.

I started making it, of course, three days before the event. I finished the night before. No surprise. Well, a little surprise that I did actually finish.

In the past, I have felt that sewing boy's clothes is not as much worth one's while compared to girl's clothes. Pants are pants. Shirts are shirts. No too exciting yet they have quite a bit of detail for what they are. And, boy's clothing is a lot less expensive to buy. I can buy flat front, brushed twill khakis at Old Navy for $10.00 when they are on sale.

However, now that I have my Ottobre magazines, I wanted to give this a try. I figured, as long as I wasn't spending any more than I would to buy them, and I could get a slightly better fit, it would be well-worth it. Because this little guy is so slim, in order to get pants that are the right length, they are too big around the waist. The hidden elastic adjusters are a big help, but I have to adjust them so much, they end up looking coarsely gathered at the waist. They make him look emaciated.

Here are some of his best QG poses. He tends to give an over-exuberant smile that sucks in his lips and shows all his gums. So we were going for a more mature look.

His measurements are not as wild as Monkey Pants' but he is ridiculously slim compared to height and still not average height for his age. Going by waist, he would be a size 92cm, by height, almost 110cm. So of course, I picked the one in the middle for both shirt and pants. I was scared to make the 92 pants and lengthen after the fail on the capri pants for Monkey Pants. They came out great! Now, they are still a bit big around the waist, thus the need for the last minute ribbon belt. And, I did lengthen them to 110 but ended up rolling up the hem and blind hemming the excess anyway. Since, they are a bit lose, they don't sit that high on the waist, and don't really need to be that long. At first, I thought I wanted them to be a bit extra long and wrinkly at the bottom, then, I decided they looked better well-fitted for length.

The linen look-a-like fabric, I found at JoAnn. I wasn't sure if it was even for apparel because it feels kind of stiff, yet a bit see-through on the bolt. But I thought I'd give it a try. I really do like it. It doesn't wrinkle like linen and has a crisper drape. I think it works well for warm weather pants.

The shirt, I will admit, had many non-believers. Boys can wear pink, dammit! Once again, I had to resort to quilting cotton for apparel fabric due to depressing choices at the local fabric store. Ok, before I put the collar in, even I was a tinsy bit worried, it looked like a medical scrub in the children's unit. But, I new it had to look like a cool shirt once the collar and front buttons where on. I didn't fold the sleeves up and omitted the the trim on on the bottom edges.