Adult Baby Clothing Patterns?

[little princess]

I've been trying to think of ways to make onesie, and baby dress patterns, without having to upscale baby patterns (I am no good at upscaling patterns). I have also been working on diaper covers and cloth diapers, with only success with making the diapers. So does anyone have any tips on getting/making patterns for those 3 items? I'm new to all of the pattern stuff too... Anyways, thanks ^.^

[freswith]

Take a pair of plastic pants, measure them. Transfer the measurements to a large piece of (news)paper. Add allowances for seams and elastics. Cut the pattern out, fold it in half longways and check that the two sides match, and the side seams are the same length fore and aft. You can try the fit, and then transfer the pattern to a piece of card at this point. Stitch the side seams first, then stitch the elastic "pipes" on waist and legs. Run elastic through the pipes using a safety pin. There you have a diaper cover. It takes a couple of hours if you have a machine.

To make a romper/onesie, proceed as before, but decide how you are going to make it open. Crotch snaps are easy, and best for a first attempt but a drop-front style is more convenient. Allow sufficient margin to make a "pipe" on each side of the opening (fold the cloth on the pattern to allow enough for the seams). You can use stitch-on poppers (time consuming), or the press-together types (more exprensive, need the tools!). Buy a simple T-shirt for the top, fit them together temporarily with safety pins whioe they are on you and over your diaper, straighten the whole thing out, and stitch them together. ( It looks neater if you run some elastic through the waist) Allow enough "waist" to match the Tshirt and to go over your shoulders.

General tips: work out how you are going to make each seam first and allow enough cloth. Pin the seams and iron them to get a crease. Tack them with long (1" or more) stitches, then machine it, or hand stitch (time consuming!) and then remove the tacking.

It's cheap, you get the colours and cloth that you want, and the result should be a good bespoke fit which will keep a wet diaper up, and reduce leaks.

Let us know how you get on.

[little princess]

Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely try it tonight

[freswith]

If you want to email me I can send you some pictures of the results.

[little princess]

If you want to email me I can send you some pictures of the results.

Sure ^^

[Baby Bethany]

Yep, onsies are east to make once you get the hang of it. Don't bother scaling up baby patterns, as a baby's body proportions are very different to an adults and it won't fit. For instance, if you scaled up a baby sleeper to about 5 feet long it will be about a 60" chest.

Another way to get AB style dresses cheap is to buy vintage baby doll nighties. The ones from the 50s and 60s are much cuter than the modern ones. This kind of thing:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINTAGE-1950s-KEYNOT...bayphotohosting

They are really sexy too, my wife has a couple.

Beth