Kiddies Art Smock

I've started sitting the little one down to try drawing (read: scribble back and forth on anything in reach) and while it all washes out of clothing, hair and skin, I was getting tired of soaking clothes each time we had a drawing session so I needed to make a smock. I had some soft demin left over from an attempt to make a baby sling (little one hated being in it so never got around to using the rest of the material) so decided to try making the art smock out of this.

I modified a pattern that I found here. The original pattern is for a size 4-7 and my little one is still a size 1 so I got out my trusty calculator and measuring the lengths, widths, etc, I resized the pattern to 82% of the original and redrew the whole thing on greaseproof paper. I didn't bother with the applique, sewed straight to the edges of all parts and didn't bother cutting nicks in the material to join the arms to the body and in the end it made no difference, the smock still came together very well without the extra fussing. I did however zigzag the edges of each piece because as soon as I cut them out they started fraying. Oh, to have an overlocker. Sigh.

Three done, one to go.

I found the corners really tricky as my machine kept eating the fabric whenever I started the next side. Here's my solution:

I used a needle and thread to hold onto the fabric (inserted needle and pulled thread only half way through then grabbed hold of all bits of thread/needle) while I sewed to the end of the current side, spun the fabric 90 degrees and started the next side. I used the thread/needle to help pull the fabric through until it cleared the presser foot and then just pulled the needle and thread the rest of the way through the fabric to remove it. Worked like a charm and saved much frustration without having to break the thread between sides or getting the fabric gobbled.

The end result:

Tried it on the little one and it fits perfectly but I'll need to make another larger one to use in the near future. Also I'll cut the back in half lengthwise to make it easier to get on and off and make it more comfortabe to wear with the extra length I want in it, so it's less dress-like and more smock-like.

And now the best part -we can start playing with more of the messier activities, like finger painting and I can't wait!