Free Pattern Month Day 9 - Sewing in No Man's Land: Toddler's Bali Bliss Cami and Shorts

 I am beyond thrilled to have Kelly from Sewing in No Man's Land here today. She made the cutest little outfit pattern to share with all of you with little toddlers of your own!
(Today's featured pattern after intro)
I discovered Kelly's blog after she had been featured as a guest poster on another sewing blog I follow. And after perusing her site I immediately added her feed to my reader!
Kelly is a girl after my own heart. She makes the cutest little outfits for her little daughter (which is how Grosgrain began too!) and offers patterns for the pieces she showcases!

 She also makes dresses for herself and shares the pattern!
Did I mention these are FREE?! Yes, Free! Some of them remind me of something I'd see in Shabby Apple which I KNOW Grosgrain readers would love!

 All the images in this post are of patterns she has available on her site NOW!
I know you're clicking over to her site as I speak;)
Kelly, not only makes the most gorgeous frocks but she lives in the beautiful tropical location of East Timor (close to Bali) which is actually how her blog came to be. Timor has one fabric store and zero craft type stores. The local “fabric stores” only carry solid colors or mildly hideous floral prints.

 When her family moved she was allotted a certain amount of weight for items they wanted to bring. The few items that were undebatable were her sewing machines, camera and a heap of fabric. She ended up with a little under 15 yards of US fabric. This left her with a challenge. She decided to see how long she could make those 15 yards of cute fabric last, and what new patterns she could make up. See here for her 'rules'.

 So now that I have you drooling, let me further wet your sewing palette with Kelly's Bali Bliss Cami and Shorts pattern for toddlers. Kelly.....take it away!

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 I am positively GIDDY to be here on Grosgrain today. I have been following Kathleen for so long I don't even remember when I started! When we both took a photography workshop together I was to timid to introduce myself, I just slunk around standing next to her hoping some genius would rub off.... that sounds creepier then it actually was ha! Anyway, I have been saving this particular pattern for a long time waiting for just the right moment. I was going to save it For Sewing In No Mans Land one year anniversary but I thought Grosgrain called for my favorite! Thats what this is, my favorite outfit I have made my Evie (my 18 month old girl). Because of my location on a small island close to Bali I have been heavily influenced by Balinese fashion. Light, airy, cotton and super super comfy. When Evie wears it she looks blissfully free and cool, so I named it the Bali Bliss outfit.

The pattern can be found and printed out HERE on my Scribd account. It is for an 18 month old and will need to be enlarged using a copy shop if you would like it in a larger size (someday I'll get some pattern software ha!) I used a soft organic cotton in light purple for this particular one

But she also has the outfit in bright blue, black and white ha! Told you I love it :)

This particular one has the top velcrod together while the others have buttons down the front. I have found that with an 18 month old, the trickiness of getting buttons off is probably better ha!

So come on!
Lets make this outfit!


What you will need:
1.5 meters fabric (cotton works best)
Very thin Elastic or elastic thread
Embellishment for pant bottom and sleeves if you like
Wide elastic for pant top
Buttons or velcro
Sewing Machine
Scissors
Straight pins
Iron and ironing board
Pattern pieces all cut out


Alright lets get sewing. What I have found makes this outfit go much more smoothly and quickly is to iron the many "bands" that go along with it, you can wait and do this as you go if you prefer. You should have one long back band and two shoulder bands. You should then cut an extra back band that you can trim to fit the two front pieces later. All these bands once cut need to have their raw edges ironed over, then ironed again in half lengthwise to create a sort of bias tape like band:

I then iron my two pant legs and pant center so the seams are nice and crisp. Once you have ironed to your hearts content we can start sewing! Grab your two shirt front pieces. You are going to want to hem the armpit portions and the inside raw edges.

At this point I attached my velcro. You do NOT have to do your velcro or buttons right now. They can wait until last if you prefer.



Repeat this process with the other side. Which should be a TINY little band.

Now we are going to repeat this process on the back piece


Take your shoulder pieces and and stitch the ironed over edge so that you have a finished band. Then:

This should all be on the wrong side of the shirt....

Repeat this process on the back, again on the wrong side.

Grab your two shoulder ruffle pieces



All you need to do now is hem the bottom! If you would like to add embellishment on the shoulders or bottom of the shirt obviously feel free, it looks super cute!
Now on to the pants. I used some pictures for this part of the tutorial from the black pair and white pair of shorts I made, so please excuse the color change ;) If you haven't already cut your pant legs, then hem.

I totally forgot to take a picture of this part but it is so easy. If you have elastic thread shirr one line right above your hem. This will gather up the bottom. If you do not have elastic thread, take a very thin elastic and stretch it from one side of the pant leg all the way across to the other. You don't want to over stretch it just enough that it will bounce back after sewing. Attach the end of the elastic to the end of the wrong side of the pant leg just above the hem by doing a back and forth stitch. Now attach the thin elastic by puling it as you sew, stretching it just so. Then back and forth at the end. The black pants were the first I made and I made the mistake of adding the thin elastic after sewing up the side seam. It is much better to do it now, believe me :)




Now we are going finish the top! Gather all the way around the top of the pants.

Now we are going to attach the front and back bands. When ironing the front band you want the long raw edges and short raw edges so that the entire thing is finished. First grab your "back" band though:



(ignore the drawstring)

You are all done!!!

Unless you want to make a fun matching headband ha! Hope you hope over to No Mans Land to see some other fun patterns! Thanks so much Kathleen I am honored beyond belief!

Thank you Kelly for sharing this most adorable and sure to be well downloaded pattern with Grosgrain readers! I have been so delighted to share your talents with Grosgrain readers!

Stay tuned tomorrow for Suzannah of Adventures in Dressmaking!

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