Book Review – Baby and Toddler Clothes

I’ve hardly reviewed any baby books on my blog as you may have realized, because I tend to review what the books I buy to sew from, and most of the time I only sew for my girls and myself. But the next few months will be exciting for both sides of our family, as there are 4 babies  who are expecting to arrive from this month till next Feb. So I thought it was time to relook at some baby sewing pattern books, and see if I have time to make any handmade gifts for my new nieces and nephews.

The title of the book is loosely translated (with the help of Google translate) as The most well recognized Baby and Small child’s clothes. I guess it means the most frequently used/seen pieces in a baby and toddler’s wardrobe. The little captions on the cover also say “Easy from foundation”, and “First time mothers can feel assured”. Which probably means Great for beginner sewing mums, since the book will cover everything you need from the basics of sewing. There are 37 pieces of clothing and accessories covered in this book, for ages 0-3. As a testament to how popular and useful this book has been, it was first published in July 2010, and had its 16th print run in May 2014!

The estimated size chart and age range is included in the beginning of the book.
Left column says Size / Hat size / Age indication / Height

As it is a book for beginners, the book begins with an introduction of tools, fabrics, sewing basics like pattern tracing, sewing notations etc.

There is even a section on sewing knits, since you know, knits are probably a lot more comfortable for baby and toddler wear.

The main section of the book  covers seven main categories of clothing.
A – Coveralls
B – Sleeveless Shirt
C – Camisole
D – Monkey Pants
E -T-shirt
F – Easy pants
G – Skirt

Each of the type of clothing will come with a basic pattern, as well as two variations.

Short gathered sleeve variation of the overalls

Long sleeve tiered blouse (modified from the overalls pattern)

For each of the clothing type, there is a full color lesson, detailed in step by step photos.

B – Sleeveless shirt

The boy version of the sleeveless shirt has a proper button placket on the front, you can learn how to make this by just following the pictures.

C – Camisole (I guess this is only for the girls 🙂

D – Monkey pants

Variation 1 of monkey pants

Variation 2 of monkey pants with a little skirt. How cute!

The classic T-shirt with snap buttons on the side for easy wearing. Very important feature for baby clothing since it is sometimes difficult to pull the shirts over their heads.

Tshirt Variation 1 – long sleeve t-shirts

T-shirt Variation 2 – Cardigan

Easy Pants

Variation 1 – Salopette pants

Skirt pants

G – Skirts

Tiered skirt

Other than clothing projects, there are also patterns for essential baby accessories.

Bibs

Bloomers

Reversible Tulip hat

Legwarmers

Quilt knit vest

Hooded Reversible Poncho

As each clothing category (A-G) comes with its own sewing lesson for the basic arrangement, the how-to-make section only includes details of the pattern variations, as well as the how-to-makes for the accessories.

One double sided pattern sheet included.

Title : いちばんよくわる　赤ちゃんと小さな子の服
ISBN : 978-4-529-04842-2
Publisher : Nihon-Vogue