A playsuit...for playing

I often catch myself drooling over various handmade garments for girls. All those sundresses, swirly skirts and projects which appear both charming and doable. Following the links from one such post, I found this delightful site, Oliver + s and begin to look around for patterns for boys. That's when I spied the Tea Party Playsuit which claimed to be a unisex outfit and which I found intriguing in a vintagey sort of way.

I found a similar pattern on ebay for a fraction of the price: a true vintage treasure. Look how much fun those little girls are having. Wait...girls? Oh well, I figured the playsuit works for boys as well. I discovered one of the happy benefits of buying a barely-used pattern: the pieces were already cut out for me.




















I have to say I am very happy with how this came out. For the most part, my sewing ventures have been largely confined to silly little toys and useless objects. This, being an actual garment for a real live person, made me a little nervous.















Lucky for me, this pattern was fairly simple. No darts or waistband. I used some linen I've had in my stash since idealist-I will make curtains for this cell room-intern days. Perfect fabric for those hot days to come.















There were, however, buttonholes and snaps to conquer. Sadly, my machine does not have a buttonhole-making setting or even a buttonhole foot. Good ol' youtube helped me with that one, although they are a little rough. And, no, he's not hailing a taxi from our driveway:















I had some of those hammer-on snaps on hand. I'm not kidding when I say it took me hours to decipher the world's worst directions and actually get those things to work. Strangely satisfying when completed.















So there. Sewing for boys: possible and even fun.