Newborn Photographer in Baton Rouge | Adventures in Sewing Part 2

As a newborn photographer in Baton Rouge, I like to make my own props. The beauty of making my own newborn outfits is that I can find new unique materials to use. I’ve actually had to put a stop on buying fabric and get back to making outfits lately. But it’s so hard when I see a beautiful fabric that I can envision into a cute outfit. So in part one, I showed some of my first outfits. This time I thought I’d show some of my newer creations. I’ve ventured in to more complicated patterns and learned a few new things. 

Lets start with outfit number one. This was my first attempt with this pattern. I learned tons while sewing this outfit. I purposely made it with some excess fabric I had just in case I messed it all up. I ended up having to re-sew the ruffles several times. This one is also where I really learned the importance of the zig zag stitch on stretch fabrics. All in all, I think it was a good first try.

This one is attempt two with the same pattern. I was much happier with how it all turned out. I actually didn’t make the bonnet at the same time as the romper. I realized about a week later that I had just enough left over fabric for a matching romper. I can’t really remember if this was my first attempt with the hat pattern. The hat pattern is fairly simple that even a beginner could make this one.

This is my third attempt with the same pattern. On this one I found out how hard some fabrics are to work with. This particular fabric is extremely stretchy making it very hard to make sure everything matched up when sewing the seams. I use wonder tape instead of pins to pin the pattern together. This stuff really is amazing for stretchy fabrics. I’m sure we’d still be looking at disasters like in my first sewing blog post if it weren’t for the magic that is wonder tape.

This fourth romper is a first attempt at this particular pattern. I used a shirt I found at the thrift store for this one. I knew when I saw the shirt that it would look adorable as this backless romper. I found the elastic ruffle/ruching (I have no idea what the proper term is) harder to work with. I had enough fabric left over for a bonnet for this one as well.

I’m very proud of this first attempt at this pattern. I learned a few tricks to keeping the fabric from getting bulky where seams meet when I made this one. I wish I had known that for some of my earlier rompers. This pattern had several separate pieces that needed to all come together. There were some mistakes that lead to seam ripping, but I was so proud when I finished this one.

I whipped this set up fairly quickly. I’m finding the more I make these patterns, the faster I’m getting at making them. Plus it helps when I don’t have to constantly stop to look at the directions.

I made this last one just yesterday. It took much less time than my first attempt. This fabric is similar to the floral romper which is what gave my the most trouble yet again. I had to cut a whole new hood after messing up the first one. The fabric was so stretchy that it made seam ripping nearly impossible. I figured a cutting a new hood would take far less time.

So these are my latest sewing attempts. As a newborn photographer in Baton Rouge, I’m always learning more as a go and I hope to one day master sewing a mostly straight line. I’m getting much much closer with this latest outfits.

Mariko Searing specializes in newborns through first year and children. If you would like to book a session please contact me HERE.