Making Children's Clothes: 25 Stylish Step-by-step Sewing Projects for 0-5 Years [Paperback]

Emma Hardy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2009

Using just a few simple sewing techniques, discover the easy way to create fun and stylish outfits for young children (0-5 years). By combining a few easy-to-learn stitches with great fabrics and trims, expert seamstress Emma Hardy explains how to make beautiful yet practical clothes for your children. Choose from 25 different projects, including party frocks and pinafore dresses, simple shirts and elasticated trousers, sleepwear and accessories, such as hats, bibs, bootees and aprons. There are clothes for young boys and girls, toddlers and babies, plus full-size paper patterns that can easily be scaled to suit different ages. Packed with useful tips and sewing techniques, "Making Children's Clothes" provides a comprehensive guide to creating fantastic items that your child will love to wear.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Emma Hardy is a stylist and designer who has worked on various lifestyle and interiors magazines, including Country Homes and Interiors and Marie Claire. Her previous books include Sewing in No Time (ISBN 978-1-906094-25-6), Quilting in No Time (ISBN 978-1-906525-29-3), Fast, Fun Cards (ISBN 978-1-904991-30-4) and Green Crafts for Children (ISBN 978-1-904094-74-4), all published by CICO.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: CICO Books; First Edition edition (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190652579X
• ISBN-13: 978-1906525798
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 0.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #249,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 133 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring designs, vague instructions April 10, 2010

By Barbara A. Fisher

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book sight unseen on Amazon due to the high reviews it received, however, I was very disappointed when I got it and actually looked at it.

For one thing--most of the clothes do not fit the models very well in the photographs, so I am not sure why other reviewers go on about how cute they look! Lots of baggy, overly large dresses on tiny girls--the most egregious of which is the "party dress" pictured on page 71. The child is wearing an admittedly well-constructed champagne mauve satin dress trimmed with sequins and a large silk flower which would be cute if it wasn't HUGE on her! The color perfectly compliments her pale blond hair and blue eyes, but the bodice is at least four inches too big around for her with huge gaping armholes which make her slender arms look spindly! Not an attractive look.

Similarly, on page 20, we are shown the "petal top," which is a very simply put together shirt that is just this side of a T-tunic, but instead of being cut out of two t-shaped pieces of fabric, the bodice front and back and sleeves are two separate pieces of fabric sewn together at the shoulder before sewing up the sides and armholes like a t-tunic. Then a casing is added to each sleeve, which look like they are meant to be 3/4 length, but once again, the sample garment is so big on the model it is hard to tell. There is also elastic in the neckline, but again, it does little to alleviate the simple fact that the top is too large for the model. And, to top it all off, there is an overly large fabric flower trimming this baggy mess on the shoulder, overwhelming the little model in swathes of fabric and accentuating the fact that her body is lost shapeless shirt....

Look, I have nothing against comfortable, easy fitting clothing for kids--but there is a difference between easy-fitting and baggy and just plain too darned big.

And these designs are shown as just too darned big and unflattering.

As for the instructions--they are very vague. I'm lucky in that my grandmother was a professional seamstress and I learned from her, so I can usually look at the most confusing directions and parse out the exact meaning, and I have enough experience to know when a construction method is either just plain wrong or much more difficult than it needs to be. However, I can imagine that a beginner taking up this book might well toss it across the room in frustration, and I would not blame them one bit.

For example, the three tiered skirt is put together in a very confusing manner and instead of explaining the simple mathematical formula that is necessary to make a three-tiered skirt for any size child or woman, they give exact measurements for one size! Why do that? And then, instead of teaching how to gather using a basting stitch on a machine, or even mentioning the technique, they have you hand-gather with large hand-stitched running stitches. No mention is made of how to make certain the gathers are evenly spaced around the tiers.

Another design choice/construction technique I don't understand is why the author would choose to use lines of thin elastic sewn to a rectangle of fabric to make a smock top, instead of just loading the bobbin with elastic thread and shirring it--a technique that is so simple a beginner can do it. Instead, the author chooses to put the reader through the laborious process of sewing elastic on the fabric with a zigzag stitch AFTER stretching it and marking straight lines across the fabric to guide it. No mention is made that you are supposed to make sure your stitches do not pierce the elastic, but rather encase it, so a beginner would likely fail and not even know why.

Whereas shirring is perfectly simple and results in a beautifully gathered sun-short or smock top, in a matter of less than an hour. I know, because I just put one together, without any pattern, last night.

Overall, this book is a distinct disappointment and I cannot recommend it to anyone. The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because I like the fabric choices used in the samples. Lots of them are very cute, without being overly juvenile in style. Other than that, this book is a bust.

I wish I had seen this book before buying it, because I would never have gotten it otherwise. Read more ›

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas but bad instructions March 31, 2010

By JWV

Format:Paperback

When I wanted to learn how to sew I read all the books I could find. It took me a year before I got enough nerve to actually use my sewing machine. I desperately wanted to make something but could find nothing to inspire me. But this book is fortunately different! For starters, the clothes are exactly the kind I would like to see my children in. I love love love the tiered gypsy skirt that I made it anyway even though I had NO idea how to do gatherings. But the book makes it sound so simple and easy. How wrong I was. It was a struggle and I had to consult many other books on how to do this.

The next project I was desperate to do was the nightdress. Now this is indeed very simple which involves 4 pieces of fabrics BUT being a complete novice I had NO idea how the stitching should continue one I got to the armpit. Do I stitch in a curve or a right angle? The pictures are a complete waste of time - cute but hopeless as reference. The sleeve pattern is different for the 4-5years but there's nothing in the book to say why it is like that and what the heck you are suppose to do with it? The hardest bit was surely the neck. It takes a lot of patience and endurance to handle 3/8in (1cm) bit of fabric edge! Thankfully, the author says not to worry abt making it perfect as it will not show once the neck is gathered. The book could do with a bit more of this plain talking!

The toddler's dress looked simple enough but by this point I was quite frustrated and fed up with the bad instructions. I say bad because it tells you what to do but no other details. The illustrations added to the confusion. The lining bit was very frustrating because the instructions said one thing but the drawings was completely different.... On the first page of the instruction, the lining was short and I had to assume it would only line the bodice. Then in the next page, the lining has become the same length as the dress. I was so put off by the book that I have decided to abandon it!

The problem with sewing books like this is they look cute but so badly written. When it comes to craft, I know publishers want to make them as visually appealing as possible. But a great book should always be about how well it is written for it's target audience. Writing sets of instructions may seem pretty boring but when you do it badly, a sewing book like this might just end up in the bin! Read more ›

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome for any sewing level January 31, 2010

By Meredith Corwin

Format:Paperback

I absolutely love this book! I have made many projects so far: a pair of pants, baby bloomers, baby booties, a corduroy skirt and plan to make many more! I have some experience sewing, only what I have learned from my mom, and even for me these patterns were incredibly easy and fun to make. The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 was because I have found a few "problem" areas in a few of the patterns (the baby booties in particular), but even these were easy to remedy and now when I make them again I'm sure I will have no problems. I highly recommend this book, especially if you know any little girls who would love a beautiful skirt to twirl in!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars great for learning basics January 9, 2010

By B. Bungcayao

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book expecting it to be one of the many that are complicating and the instructions are hard to follow. But to my surprise it's a real good book for beginners like myself. I've already begun making dresses and pants for my daughter. Though it only has two patterns that are for boys, it isn't a bother. The patterns that come with the book are full size-patterns, so there's no need to make copies to enlarge. Makes a great gift for people who are beginning an interest in sewing, I recommend it!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Instructions need work March 21, 2010

By Chine

Format:Paperback

This book has quite a few good ideas for sewing. I would have rated it higher, if not for the instructions. As a beginner to sewing, I found some instructions were missing, too compressed, or a bit confusing to follow. For example with the button-down boys shirt, the instructions for finishing the collar seems to have been forgotten. What to do with the 1cm allowance left open at the inner collar seam? What about the raw seam edge at the top of the shirt? Leaving it like that made the shirt look unkempt. (I ended up improvising on both). Also, about the sleeves- instructions for the wrist seams (not just the armhole ones) would have been nice from the start. And the instructions for the placket were too compressed (maybe to someone with more experience, they wouldn't need to decode, but I had to read, reread, and guess.) The sketches were not much help, maybe actual pictures would have been clearer? I am glad I made a muslin first before working on the actual fabric, as my final product does not look as neat as the one in the picture.) The boys' button-down shirt having been the first one I tried because I never made one before, I am now not so keen on trying the other patterns, as I don't want to be just as confounded.