Although I’ve been interested in sewing blogs for a long time (especially those with kids clothing), I never really thought about making day to day clothing for Squirm. Crocheting jumpers and adding embellishments seemed like enough, especially when baby clothes were so cheap to buy.

Alas, those clothes are cheap for a reason. I’ve noticed that seams unravel really quickly, that fabrics wear thin – especially if they’re being washed a lot. Plus someone’s being short changed to produce clothing that cheap and I’m pretty sure it’s not the big shops here in Australia.

The other problem with cheap clothes is that everyone had them. I bought Squirm a collection of leggings to wear over the winter. Two of my friends babies have exactly the same leggings as well as the other boy in his swimming class. My friend works at a child care centre and said that she sees the same clothes all the time – that there’s not a lot of originality in the clothing!

Of course, I could buy more expensive and ethical clothing – which would also be less likely to be the same as everyone elses. but I’ve noticed that clothing for small kids and babies tends to jump from extremely cheap ($4 – $10) to extremely expensive ($50-$60) – where’s the middle ground?! And clothing for boys tends to get very bland every quickly – not to mention all the truck and robot prints!

In the end, sewing becomes a really simple and easy solution. Material can be sourced at many places, from fabric shops, to my own wardrobe to op shops. I have a good sewing machine which is loving the work out. Wonderful bloggers post brilliant, detailed tutorials (they are amazing!) and there are even pattern makers who are selling good quality patterns for boys – something which you can’t find in the shop patterns (and you can print them again and again!)

So far I’ve made Squirm half a dozen t-shirts, some shorts (I’ve had to play with patterns to get over his cloth nappy bottom!) and several pairs of pajama pants. I’m having so much fun making things, learning so much about sewing and getting the satisfaction that Squirm is wearing truly original clothing.