The Lovely Llama Print Toddler Dress and Trousers

Hey everyone! I’m back to blogging regularly by the looks of it. Here’s to keeping up with good habits once the lockdown ends and Christmas preparation goes mental…

Today I’m sharing something I made for Lauren almost a year ago, but which is now up on Minerva’s brand new site here. It’s a super cute dress and trousers made from some awesome llama panel print jersey. They definitely shouldn’t be worn at the same time, though!

Llama panel jersey toddler dress and joggers

The patterns are both from Ottobre magazine: the dress is the Sunray Jersey Dress from 3/2018 and the trousers are the First Steps Pants from 6/2019, both in a size 80 although I lengthened the dress to a 98.

Amazingly enough Lauren does still wear both of these, although the dress is getting too tight for easy dressing and the trousers are starting to look a bit short. I’m seriously considering getting the most out of my makes by finding some co-ordinating stretchy jersey (pretty sure I have some nice grey stuff somewhere) and recutting and binding the neck and armholes to get a few more months use out of the dress.

I could also extend the life of the trousers by using the same jersey to make new, longer cuffs and a deeper waistband. If I do these alterations I’ll take some new pictures for comparison and share them here. Lauren has a lot more hair these days!

I’m really liking the idea of making the most of clothing we already have. Now that charity shops are making it tough to donate I have to think of something else to do with the big pile of outgrown kids clothes (and my old maternity clothes). Maybe some more crazy patchwork clothing for the kids? It’s either that or I make one of those poufs  and stuff it full of clothing and fabric scraps…

Here’s a few more pics of the dress:

I was really proud of how I managed to get both garments out of a relatively small cut of fabric with careful planning and piecing. Here’s a couple more views of the trousers in action, showing the faux back yoke where I had to cut through two sections of the panel print to fit the legs on:

If you’re not familiar with panel prints I recommend having a look at the selection Minerva carry here. They are really fun for kids clothes and you end up with something that looks super profesh as you can use coordinating prints for different parts of the garment, like accent yokes, cuffs, pockets, binding, raglan sleeves, etc.

I’m seriously tempted to buy some of the tropical fish print fabric to make some beach clothes for Gabriel next summer. Here’s hoping all the travel restrictions caused by the virus will by then be a thing of the past. Planning our summer holiday is something that keeps hope going in the depths of January. We’re thinking it’s high time the kids got to visit Spain next year. I love the idea of sitting out eating tapas in the sunshine, then going for a dip in the Med. Ahh, bliss…

In other news, I’ve nearly finished my Jenny dungarees! In fact, all the sewing machine stuff is done bar one buttonhole. I just have a load of topstitching thread tails to tie off and hide, and one more jeans button to bang in. Then I can wear them. Maybe that could happen tomorrow… Definitely by the end of the week, methinks. I’d better get a move on as I’ve got two fabric advent calendars to finish sewing up too. God, Christmas gets busy when you have three kids to make magic for!

I’ll be back on Friday with some more casual wear for me: a pair of Monsal Lounge Pants in French terry. Woo hoo!

Happy sewing everyone,

Anna x

NB – the fabric for this make was provided by Minerva in return for a post with pictures on their site. There was no obligation to post here. I just wanted to share!

 

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