Ahoy!

Do you follow the "Calling All Kids" series at Alida Makes? I love this series! It's about exploring kid's clothes as it relates to gender. Alida has a great lineup of guest bloggers who create amazing clothes, ranging from pink, purple and floral shirts for boys to tuxedo inspired dresses for girls. Inspired by this series, I decided to explore a bit as well, and vary from my usual color palette by incorporating pink! 

Today's creation was for my youngest, who is not yet opinionated. Even though I don't really dislike pink, my two oldest kids (a girl and a boy) do. By making this sailor shirt for my youngest I was sure that the neon pink topstitching would not be met with opposition. 

Another reason for choosing my youngest as target that I could reuse a jumpsuit (size 6 mo) that had shrunk into crazy proportions. It had become extremely wide and was roomy enough for my 12 month old. Ready to be upcycled!

I cut off the legs, and opened up the side seams. To create a dip dye effect, I painted the bottom rows of the shirt and sleeves with fabric paint, which I diluted progressively as I moved up.

I love the effect. It's as if the shirt was dipped into the sea!

The leg parts were reused for the collar. After having sewed several shirts with very small head openings, wanted to be sure that this one was wide enough. Yes, it is! Even I can put my head through it... So I put in a drawstring, which is kept in place with two leather 'stoppers'.

I loved the combination of the blue and pink, so added some more pink topstitching around the elbow pads.

 And with that, my little boy is ready to explore...