KS2911 and M5740: Go Bruins!

Anyone who has tried to find cute and interesting baby/toddler boy patterns knows that it's damn near impossible. While you can find 275948759723 adorable little dress patterns, the boys typically get a basic t-shirt, collared shirt, shorts and pants. Okay, maybe there are a few others thrown in, but the pickings are slim. So shortly after T-dogg was born, I started scouring the pattern bins, looking for gift ideas for his 1st birthday. Yeah, it was early, but I wanted to make sure I came up with something good.

T-dogg's parents, MoP and Tre, are our travel and sports buddies. We share Lakers and UCLA tickets, we've traveled to Peru, Vegas, Hawaii and Palm Springs together and we really hope that our children (theirs real, ours theoretical) are good pals. Since we had already given T-dogg some Lakers gear, I thought it was time for him to start supporting our other favorite team - The Bruins.

I picked up some UCLA argyle fleece which I thought would be fun for a sporty zip up vest. In all honesty, this print is a tad big for a toddler garment, but I liked it and really, there are only so many years in your life that you can get away with wearing a bright blue and yellow argyle fleece vest. Heh. ;)

KS 2911 features 3 unisex fleece outerwear garments for toddlers that looks pretty much identical to things I've seen from North Face. Gotta love patterns that closely mimic RTW garments. This was my first time trying to match a large repeating pattern and after getting a few tips from my local sewing shop, I think it turned out pretty well. I made sure the UCLA was centered on the back and then again on the front upper right-hand side.

For the collar, I specifically cut the inner band so that "UCLA" was in the center - I thought it made for a nice touch.

This was such an easy vest to put together and the finished result looks like something you would find in a store - with a large price tag on it. To me, the swimwear binding is what really sells it and it was remarkably easy to attach.

To complete the outfit, I made the fleece pants from M5740 (now out of print).

I used a mid-weight polar fleece that I found at Michael Levine Loft. The fabric washed up well, but I wish I would have made the front pocket bags from a very light jersey instead of the fleece. As it was, when the waist was folded over to make the elastic casing, I was sewing through up to 6 layers of fleece in some areas. Ugh, not fun. Other than that, I really like the pattern and the resulting pants are basic, but with some fun details. I did leave off the side cargo pocket because I didn't think the fabric would lay well.

Paired with a long sleeve white t-shirt (thank you Baby Gap!) and some snazzy trainers, T-dogg is all set for evening football games this fall!