Altering Baby Clothes
Kids have an annoying tendency to grow out of things before they wear them out. My sweet baby Nacho is no different. He had these two adorable pirate onesies:
And of course he outgrew them. But they’re so cute! So we’re going to alter one of these into a t-shirt! I opted to use the longer one for this, so there’s enough fabric to roll up and hem.
Cut the onesie as low as you can, as shown above. Retain the pieces for an upcoming mystery project! Now roll the extra fabric up as little as possible so you can hem it. You want to leave as much fabric as possible for the t-shirt, but you need to cover up that raw edge so it doesn’t unravel.
Once you have everything pinned in place, just sew the hem down. I did it by hand since my sewing machine has forsaken me, and it didn’t take much time at all.
And now your little rugrat can look awesome for another few weeks, until his next growth spurt!
Reusing Baby Clothes
A friend of ours, Sara of the Long Red Hair, hand made us this adorable baby pirate outfit. Unfortunately, I gave birth to a behemoth, and he never fit into it. We decided to use it to revamp one of baby Nacho’s stuffed animals.
Here is Hobbes, a gift from Hubby in years past, when he was still Boyfriendy, which doesn’t have a great ring to it. He agreed that Hobbes would probably enjoy the new outfit. The bow simply came untied, and a seam ripper detached the heart easily (that is a grotesque sentence).
Fortunately, Hobbes is MUCH easier to dress than Nacho:
Now we have another pirate to join Nacho’s crew! You can do this with any really special baby outfits. When I was growing up, my clothes got handed down to my sister, Beans, and then to my Cabbage Patch doll.
For the bulk of the clothes, since small kids generally outgrow things before they’re messed up, hand them down to friends and relatives kids, or donate them to thrift stores (assuming you aren’t saving them for your next kiddo).
My Attempts at Cleverness 