I made a few more Brindille & Twig patterns for the little guy recently, but since they are quite simple makes, I thought I’d wait and make one little post out of them. I wrote a review of the free B&T hoodie I made before, and I liked it so much I dove right into a few other patterns from Melissa of B&T.

The first one is another free pattern – the Ringer Tee. It’s a basic t-shirt pattern with a slightly roomy fit, which gives it an almost retro feel. It’s available in sizes 0-6T (a large range!) and I made Joe a size 2-3T. He’s above average height and weight for his age (just turned 2) and there is still plenty of growing room in both this and the trousers/pants below, so I’m sticking with my opinion that the B&T patterns are on the generous side, if anything. There’s a long-sleeved version as well as the one I made and you only need half a yard of fabric for up to 4T size. Great stashbuster!

I had this very cute Kokka bear interlock knit from Miss Matatabi that I’d been dying to cut into, (link goes to the pink version) so thought this would be perfect. The ribbing is a lovely soft rib knit that I got from Pacific Fabrics, a local brick and mortar store here in Seattle. The only slight error I made was to make the neckband a little big. The ribbing is sooo soft and stretchy that I actually should have cut it a little smaller than the pattern. I will probably end up ripping it out soon as it’s getting on my nerves a little. 🙂 Aside from this, the construction was very straightforward as-you-would-expect t-shirt construction, with fully illustrated instructions for those who haven’t made a t-shirt before.

The trousers are the Retro Sweats, which again have a slightly looser, more billowy feel to them. They’re definitely not harems, but nevertheless are a little more modern in shape. I’ve had loads of comments on them the few times he’s worn them, so they do stand out in a crowd. I actually made two pairs in slightly different knit fabrics. The first is in a cotton/lycra knit fabric that is almost certainly a European knit. I got it from another sewist so I can’t be sure of the brand but it’s a nice quality fabric with a medium drape for a knit. As you can see the trousers have a slightly punchy quality in this fabric and gather at the ankles, which makes them a little more contemporary, in my opinion.

The second pair I made out of a soft French terry and used a cute penguins fabric for the pockets from Charley Harper for Birch Organics. I got this from Fabricworm, which is a fantastic stockist of the organics range. The Charley Harper prints are lovely – most of them revolve around birds and/or nature, which is right up my street. This fabric produced a floppier pair that pooled around the ankles more but I like this look too – it’s slightly “neater”.

As you’ve no doubt surmised, both the waist and ankles are elasticated to give this effect and the trousers are also very fast to make. They come in sizes 0-6T as well and have an option for a little drawstring if you like that add-on. My only complaint about the construction of these is the treatment of the pockets. They are topstitched onto the main pants body and then simply trimmed to neaten. This worked okay in the grey trousers, but the fabric on the black pants looks a little raggedy and I think I’ll try to find a neater way to finish the pockets next time.

And there will be a next time. Brindille & Twig are, for my money, the best kid’s pattern company around and I can’t wait to try a couple more patterns I bought for Joe. Well, maybe it can wait until after I’ve made a couple more for myself. Right? 😀