Ottobre kiddo

To close out the year, some Ottobre tween-boy sewing:

I bought just a couple of Ottobre magazines over five years ago and haven't sewn that much from them, but for boys this size there's almost nowhere else to turn.

This outfit is Ottobre 1/2014 patterns 36 and 37 size 158. I think I added an extra inch and a half of sleeve length but didn't need to. Still, I'm excited that his arms won't outgrow this top in a single season.

The V neck technique wasn't the way I would have chosen to do it, and I think there's more room for making a mess of it compared to my usual technique. But, with some rain needle topstitching it looks sharp enough.

The jeans are great. They're designed for stretch fabric, have some cool details and look comfy and totally legit as streetwear.

I didn't get a picture of it, but on the yoke there's a couple of tabs, about belt loop width that overlap over the centre back seam and close with two snaps. Kind of like a malpositioned hammer loop on carpenter's pants. Pointless, but cool.

It's also hard to see, but while most of the topstitching is grey, there are a few lime green highlights here and there.

The fabric is a lightweight, stretch denim that I had in the stash. It feels about the weight of a sturdy quilting cotton. Compared to heavier, rigid denim jeans that I've made him in the past these ones are getting lots of wear.

The t-shirt was also made from stash fabrics. It's a fun t-shirt pattern for using up smaller cuts or remnants.

The sleeve pocket and the chest tab were intended to be sewn in a woven cotton. Instead, I chose to fuse some lightweight interfacing to the same cotton lycra I was using for the neckband and cuffs.

The skinny jeans style freaked him out a bit at first, as he's used to the fullness of cargo pants. Still, he's wearing both garments a lot and I'm just grateful that Ottobre make these patterns right up to 170cm size.

And I'm enormously grateful that he wears what I make, and makes it look damn good!