I suck at baby gifts. I am much better at mommy gifts, so normally that’s what I do when the situation arises. But I suddenly have four friends with brand-new or imminent babies, one of whom is my friend (and now Fringe Supply Co. crewmate) Allison of Shutters & Shuttles. So when I got invited to a baby shower for her — my first in a decade or so — I decided I better hurry up and get better at baby gifts. I have a little obsession with Wiksten’s new Baby Harem Pants pattern, wishing it came in my size, of course, and it dawned on me that I had THE PERFECT fabric for making Allison’s gender-unknown baby a pair of them: the fabric she dyed and wove for me during the original Slow Fashion October.
Have you ever seen anything cuter in your whole entire life? You should feel how soft they are. My sense that pajama pants or other loungewear would be an excellent use of (the rest of) the fabric is 100% confirmed.
To my other new-mom friends who might be reading this: Yes, you probably have some coming your way. I want to make a pair out of every 1/2-yard scrap of fabric I wind up with from here on out — they are so simple and satisfying to make.
The only thing I’ll do differently next time, at least when making the tinier of the sizes (this pair is the 3-6 month size), is to finish the bottom edge of the pant legs before sewing the legs together. There was absolutely no chance of my being able to turn and press a hem with the french seams and all, in this squishy fabric, nevermind getting that tiny opening under the foot of the machine. (I wound up just serging the edge. And the leg opening was the exact width of the foot on my serger, so that was not easy!) But I highly recommend this pattern, especially to new sewers looking for an easy and exciting win.
Regarding the wrapping, the little organic cotton sandwich bag is from Natural Linens, which I had learned about last month on Reading My Tea Leaves, such a beautiful and calming blog. Apparently I did not bring a single scrap of gift wrapping supplies from California, and it made a perfect little last-second reusable wrap. The “ribbon” is a piece of bias tape — also organic cotton, indigo-dyed by my friend Molly — left over from this camisole.
And yes, she loved them.
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PREVIOUSLY in FOs: My first button-up shirt