The 3 Amigos!

So on the 4th, Harrison, Dev and Dad were all wearing Hawaiian shirts. These shirts all came from the same pattern. Simplicity 3852 .

The 3 Amigos....plus Tres' cause Dev wanted to be held as well. :) 

Harrison spent the night at Mom's house yesterday. It was easier...he fell asleep before the fireworks. You know he is only 9 months old, so it made sense. :-) So yesterday morning when I was picking him up I told Mom that I was going to do a review/post about that pattern. Her first comment was that the pattern instructions were flooky. Yes....FLOOKY. It's a proper word.....if you're a female in our family :) I had the same opinion. The guide sheet is written badly. It was hard to follow and the illustrations were awful.

Obviously, Mom and I got the shirts made, but not without complaint and drawing on years of experience. One of my biggest pet peeves was the side/underarm seam. It's easier, I know, but rather than sewing up the side/underarm seam and then pressing and finishing the hem on the sleeve, I feel like it would have been simpler to simpler to press up the hem on the sleeve and then press under the raw edge while the sleeve was still open. Don't stitch it, just press it. Then sew up your side/underarm seam and stitch close to the inner edge on the hem. Granted, on the onesie there is not a lot of room for maneuvering that sleeve around the sewing machine and it's going to be a pain, but at least the finishing on the sleeve would have been made slightly easier, than trying to manipulate the fabric with such a small opening.

 We have two picture here because H is  smiling in one, but Dad is talking, and the other Dad has stopped talking, but H is not smiling......Oiy. Picture taking is a tricky science.

Overall, the pattern looks nice on the guys, if not a bit billowy on H. According to his weight and length he just made it in a medium size {all the sizes are in one envelope from mens to babies} but knowing how long the kid really is...I said I'm going to cut out the length as a large and then the width as a medium. I would have been better just doing the medium. Luckily with the billowy-ness of the pattern there was plenty room for him to squirm and squat without getting tangled up in it. Oh and Harrison's onesie was supposed to have 5 buttons, but I only added 4 because I never button him all the way up to the top, so why waste the button?

I would probably not recommend this pattern to a beginner sewer, just because of how badly the guide sheet is written, but if you've got some shirts under your belt then I'm certain you could navigate your way through it. :)  Oh I almost forgot!!! H's outfit was a 1 yard wonder! Even better, I scored the challis in the remnant bin from Hancock for $1.21! The buttons are from Walmart at a whooping $.97. Can't beat a $2.18 outfit. :)

Have a wonderful day and go sew something!