Raccoon Baby Shirt and Knit Pants

My sweet sister-in-law had a baby boy in July! I had seen this post a few months prior to that and knew immediately what I wanted to make when I was invited to her baby shower. However, when I went back to re-read the post, it turned out that my memory had changed the raccoon significantly from the original, and I ended up preferring the version in my imagination, so I came up with my own template for it. I cut out layers of freezer paper to stencil it on, and used acrylic paint mixed with textile medium to paint it.

  And of course, I made sure to include the tail in the back! I only cut one piece of freezer paper for that, and free-handed the stripes for a furry effect. I love how it turned out!

  I stenciled these on some navy blue knit from Girl Charlee, and used Jalie 3133, version A in size 3 months, to make the bodysuit. I haven't been entirely happy with any of the onesie patterns I've tried, but this is the least offensive of the bunch so far.

 The only change I made was to only partially sew the bindings on the sleeves until after the side seams were sewn up (mostly because I'm a perfectionist, but also because my machines don't like sewing over a big lump of binding like that).

  I like how this pattern has a separate rectangular piece for the snaps, although sewing it to enclose the front was a bit more difficult than a regular binding would have been. I used KAM snaps for the closure.

  I want to try stretching the binding even more around the curve at the bottom next time, as it doesn't lie perfectly flat.

  The way the binding is sewn doesn't leave a good spot for a tag, so I cut the size from a scrap of white vinyl and ironed it on in the back neck area. Of course, it didn't occur to me that I'd have to do that until after the shirt was finished, so it's a tad crooked. Fortunately it's not visible from the outside!

  I'm delighted with how this little shirt turned out!

  To go with it, I made a pair of knit pants using a heavily modified overall pattern.

I used some grey and black checked fabric, from Girl Charlee but no longer available, for the cuffs:

  As well as slipping a bit in at the pockets:

  The waistband is just plain black knit, and the main fabric is solid grey. I was really happy with how the fabrics worked together.

  Next time I'll see if I can find a knit pant pattern instead of modifying an overall pattern, but I think they worked. I never actually got to see them on the baby, so I can't be sure!

  I wrapped this all up with some more of that plaid- it makes a darling bow!

Thanks for stopping by,