Ahhh, it feels good to sew!

I got back to some sewing this new year's weekend. My new niece Sonia Rose now has 2 little pink lace-trimmed sleepers, a fleece jacket and a matching fleece blanket. She is 17 1/2 inches long and weighs only 4 lbs, 14 oz. I downloaded a size large (4-6 lbs) preemie sleeper pattern and made up 2 of them using a pink t-shirt weight cotton blend. They went together pretty fast, if you don't count the time I spent re-acquainting myself with my serger (I haven't sewn during the holidays, and I hadn't had my serger very long before that) and the time I spent making a practice sleeper. This pattern was great and it was free. Note however that they don't instruct you about finishing the ends of the neck ribbing before attaching it to the neckline. I can think of 2 ways to finish the ends:

1. Fold ribbing in half longways, right sides together, stitch the ends in a narrow seam, turn and press. Attach ribbing per pattern instructions; or
2. Taper each end of the ribbing into the neckline/facing. I did this on the fly, while attaching the ribbing, and it looks like this.

Also, I found that the neck and cuff ribbing seemed a little wide for a tiny baby, so I just cut off an additional 1/4 inch from each side, total 1/2 narrower than the pattern called for. I look forward to making more of these and other preemie clothes as a charity project.

I made the fleece jacket from Simplicity 9275 view G, hoodless jacket. I made the XXS (to 7lbs) , but it looked huge to me--like for a 3 month old with lots of room to grow. This was a quickie version. I eliminated the facings, cut off the hems and serged the bottom, sleeves and neck, using wooly nylon in the upper looper. I turned each front edge in and sewed down using a straight stitch. Velcro closings with button accents. On the remaining fleece I trimmed off the scrappy edges from cutting off the pattern and serged all 4 edges for a very quick blanket. But at least I serged the edges--I got a fleece scarf for Christmas that was just a strip of fleece--no finishing at all! And the edges weren't even. If it hadn't had the tag on it I wouldn't have known it came from a store. I hope my bro-in-law takes a picture of Sonnie wearing one of the sleepers. I hope they fit. I hope my sister likes them.