Merino Magic

Well, the winter is certainly on our doorstep. Despite the Indian summer we've been enjoying, the temperature has started to drop at night.

Time to think about snuggly winter pyjamas for Mitchell.
Over the last 2 winters, I've made him bodysuits out of fine merino jersey knit, using this Ottobre pattern.
He just lived in them over winter. He wore them at night inside his sleeping bag, and during the day as a base layer.
I always knew he was cosy warm with the fine soft merino next to his skin. And I had great fun mixing and matching exciting colours.

But, the pattern only goes up to size 86 cm. & he's at 92 now. What to do?

I tried looking for a similar pattern in a larger size, but no luck. They were all too lose fitting; I really wanted a bodysuit style - something that fit like thermal underwear!
Finally, I tried one of last year's bodysuits on him, and the fit wasn't too bad in the chest area -- even though his rib cage is larger, he's not as chubby. Of course, it was much too short, but that's easily fixed.
So I hacked the pattern. I added an extra seam allowance to increase the size (NB that worked for this pattern, as the increase in size is consistent across the whole pattern)
I don't really want to have the snaps at the crotch anymore, so I just cut the pattern off at the top of the hip opening, and hemmed it instead of doing a binding.

I've made the first one in a very fine rib merino (on sale at the fabulous Global Fabrics) for $10 a metre. It's a lovely olive green colour (though it's come out as grey in the photos for some reason); and the binding is black merino jersey knit.

Not the most exciting looking sewing in the world, but super practical and useful. I'll be making a whole lot more of these in a more exciting range of colours. I wanted to try the rib first, to see how different it was to jersey when made up (not much, it appears)

Next, I'll be making leggings to match!