My daughter is in the 98th percentile for height and has been growing exponentially since the day she was born. She was outgrowing her clothes faster than I could buy or make them and it was becoming quite expensive and exhausting! Then I discovered the Apple Tree Grow-with-me patterns – they are a total game-changer and can be found here.
Grow-with-me clothing is designed to fit your child through a range of sizes by rolling cuffs and waistbands. The Bunnyhug was originally designed in sizes 3m-12m, 9m-3T, and 3T-6, however, they’ve recently added big kid sizes too! Definitely check them out.
Note: 25% off the Bunnyhug pattern until April 13, 2018 with code ZIPPER!!
The only thing missing from the Apple Tree repertoire was a zip option for those crisp spring and autumn days but the Bunnyhug is very easily adapted, as you will see below. 🙂
Materials required:
- Bunnyhug pattern
- Fabric and materials outlined in the pattern
- Tape
- Paper scissors
- Straight ruler
- French curve if you have one
- Pencil
- Wondertape, the washout variety (optional but strongly recommended)
- Zipper, 14″ for the 9m-3T size.
Before you go any further, print out your pattern and tape it together following the instructions in the pattern. Make sure you leave as much paper around the front piece and waistband as possible.
(*Please note that the pattern pieces shown in the tutorial are sketched and not to scale. Please support our small businesses and purchase the pattern here.)
Note: 25% off the Bunnyhug pattern until April 13, 2018 with code ZIPPER!!
The first thing we need to do is add a 3/8″ seam allowance to the front piece and the waistband. This piece will no longer be cut on the fold as the seam allowance we’re adding is where the zipper will be attached. Take your ruler and draw a straight line down the front piece along the edge that has a fold line as shown, 3/8″ out from the fold line.
On the waistband piece, add 3/8″ to the side that does NOT have a fold line. This 3/8″ is where the zipper extends down to the bottom.
On the hood piece, we’re going to trim off the crossover part so that the hood ends right at the zipper teeth. Mark a point 3/8″ away from the small line on the center front of the hood as shown by the red mark.
Now, using your french curve if you have one, draw a curve from the new marking easing it into the existing curve. If you don’t have a french curve, simply eyeball it and make a curvy line similar to what is shown. Trim off the excess.
You are now done modifying the pattern pieces to accommodate a zipper!!
A full tutorial for assembly will be posted at a later date but for a quick and dirty method, please see below. 🙂
Quick and dirty assembly:
- Follow the pattern instructions for assembly of the hood.
- Follow the pattern assembly instructions for the main body making sure you stitch the front sides to the correct sides of the arm pieces.
- Attach the waistband by aligning the center back of the waistband with the center back of the back and the edge of the waistband with the edge of the front pieces.
- Press your seam up.
- Attach your zipper (The full assembly tutorial will include more info on this step).
- Attach the hood to the main body by aligning the center back of the hood with the center back of the back neck. Align the front edges of the hood with the top of the zipper.
- Press your seams/ top stitch if you like.
- You’re done!
