When my daughter told me she was short of trousers for her almost two-month-old baby, I immediately said I would fix that. They were leaving for Turkey in a week, where the baby would meet his Turkish grandparents for the first time. Many clothes are needed 🙂
I have a trunk full of knit scraps so I knew it would be great to use those, and I also had some spare time. What a perfect time to sew some speedy makes. Now, I’m a real batch sewer. When I start a project and I like it, I can’t stop; that’s part of my learning process. So I kept on going making baby pants and hats.
But I made way too many pants for the little guy, and they were all the same size. He wouldn’t be able to wear them all before he got too big! So my daughter made a selection, and we decided to give the ones that were left to charity. But I wanted specifically to make sure that they were given directly to people who really needed them.
This was the start of Little Pants and Hats, my little charity project. Here in Belgium I donate them to a family I know who really needs them, to a refugee center, or to a Belgian organization called Moeders voor Moeders who take care of mothers in need and their babies. (There’s more info on them in English here.)
The story continues. As I tell people about this project, they want to join in. Do you want to join too?
These are the patterns I used, depending on the type of fabric I had:
- Baby Harem Pants: knit fabric (Made by Me) — purchased pattern
- Wiksten Harem Pants: woven fabric (Wiksten) — purchased pattern
- Petite Pegs: knit fabric (Patterns for Pirates) — free pattern
- Baby Knotted Knit Hat: (Sweet Red Poppy) — free pattern
- Baby hat (Knippie Magazine): purchased pattern
I usually have at least 30-40 cm of fabric left from a project. For baby harem pants, you just need under 0.5 meter; you need even less for a hat. It’s perfect for using your scraps.
If you make baby pants or hats to give away, please tag them on Instagram with the hashtag #littlepantsandhats as well as the Sewcialists’ #givesewmuch hashtag. I’d love to see your makes!
I’m Gerda and I live in a tiny, tiny town in Belgium. I have less sewing time than I used to, because I am taking a full-time course to become an Accounting Assistant. On Instagram you know me as @Three_Eight_Cake. Baby Mehmet is my first grandson.