Friday, July 17, 2015

Girlifying Clothes for Phoebe

Phoebe and Ben are my spring babies, so Phoebe has lots of cute little "boy" clothes because Genevieve was a fall baby.  "Boy" clothes are the ones that tell strangers "this is a boy."  Meaning that the boy clothes have vehicles and tools and animals, etc. all over their blue and green surfaces.

I don't want to pink-wash my baby girl, but I thought I could find a happy medium between the obnoxiously obvious boy and girl clothes.  Plus, it is far simpler to stay home with a baby than to go out shopping for new things; I will shop online, but only if it's a comparable price, shipping included, to a bricks-and-mortar store.  Plus, this was a little creative challenge for me, exactly how I like to play with my scraps.

So that's why I "girlified" four items of Ben's baby clothes for Phoebe.  Here they are in order of my-least-favorite to totally-pleased.

A little striped romper with two pieces of vintage flowered feedsack appliqued over airplanes.


A blue-striped onesie with a flower that I appliqued over an ambulance.




A pale-green sailor suit romper.  I added pink flowered ribbon to the sailor collar.


A blue romper with beautiful lace across the breast where there used to be a yellow lion.  I absolutely love how this one turned out - it really captures my vision for little girls: plain and simple with a touch of pretty.



And since Phoebe has turned out to have blue eyes, all this blue and green makes her eyes look wonderful.

16 comments:

Lana said...

Great job Mom! And wow she is growing so fast!

Hazel said...

They look lovely- I think the blue with lace is my favourite too.
By the time I had my youngest all the girls clothes were pink. I was glad I'd saved some from my eldest when lime/pistachio green and orange were all the rage.

Unknown said...

Wow! So creative I like it! The blue and lace one is my favorite too! Christina

Unknown said...

Wow! So creative I like it! The blue and lace one is my favorite too! Christina

Sarah Barry said...

Genius. I adore little girls in blue, and your touches are the perfect amount of girlishness to balance out the blue.

And so true - so much easier to stay home with a baby(and complete a small project) than to go out and shop.

Phoebe is darling.

Rozy Lass said...

Great job on all of them! I only had one girl, our first child, and dressed her in pink or purple every time we went out. I guess it was because she was bald that people inevitably said things like "Oh, he's so cute! What's his name?" To which I'd answer, "HER name is Elizabeth!" While thinking to myself "Yes, I dress my baby boy is pink and lace."

Your little Phoebe is just adorable, in anything and everything.

Alica said...

Love these! I'm a fan of blue anyway, and I like the girly touches you added. I just noticed on the picture of Phoebe and Ben...they have identical noses! :)

Unknown said...

Great job and I LOVE the lace :) What a cutie pie!

Rachel said...

So gorgeous, Margo! I love the touches of girly without being PINK. The reverse of this was my sister-in-law cutting up boy clothes for the trucks, and embroidering the trucks onto pink striped shirts for my niece, who loves both pink and trucks :) Ridiculous that we can't get mass-produced clothing that isn't so divided.

jenny_o said...

That's a smart thing to do. I would have looked at the "boy-themed" appliques, looked at my seam ripper, and then rolled everything into a wad and stuck it in the bottom of the sewing pile :)

Phoebe looks like such a thoughtful little girl already - so knowing!

Anonymous said...

Dearest! So fantastic, love it! Wonderful, wonderful A

Beth said...

She's beautiful, really getting her own look. Great work on the feminization of baby clothes!

The blue one with lace is my favorite, too.

Shauna said...

So great! What an enjoyable project to choose which little bits to go with outfit. I bet Ben likes that baby sister is using his clothes!

BLD in MT said...

They're all good! That last one is classically great though, I agree. I love the re-purposing though. She looks a sweetiepie in all of them!

Annalisa said...

Oh, such a good idea! I agree that little girls in sweet, classic, and not so much PINK clothing, is really adorable. The last really hits the mark.

Mrs. B, a very peculiar person said...

LOVE this idea ... I will tuck it away for when our grandchildren begin arriving.

Blessings,
Mrs.B