Alterations from the 70's

A few months back, my mother-in-law brought over some old baby clothes... old as in 1979 old. They had been my husbands and she had held on to them for all this time.

Among the clothes were three outfits that all look something like this:

Each one has one shirt and two coordinating bottoms ('cause back in the day, with cloth diapers, a baby was way more likely to need an outfit change on the lower half, or so I was told). I thought the outfits were really neat and I loved the retro colors, but when I put them on the baby, the whole shirt tucked in look really bugged me. So I thought, hey, I can sew! I can alter this outfit and make it look more modern.

(I did opt to only alter one of the three outfits so that the other two kept the full retro look.)

The first step I took was removing the buttons so that the shirt could be on the outside of the pants. Then, without the buttons, the pants needed elastic added to help them stay on.

The elastic isn't the prettiest on the inside, but it works just fine.

Here's the outfit with those two alterations. It would be okay now, but the shirt was still too short (since it was originally made to come only halfway down the belly and the pants would meet it in the middle).

So I took the hem out of the shirt and then zigzagged over the edges to keep them from unraveling. I did also have to reclose the side of the side at the hem.

Unfortunately, in zigzagging, I stretched the fabric some and now the bottom edge has a little bit of a wave to it, and in pulling out some of the original stitches, the old fabric didn't hold up well and now there are three small holes in the back.

I also added the elastic waistband to the coordinating pair of shorts.

I'm not sure if you can see the holes or not, but there they are. I'm wishing now that I had taken a before picture of the baby with the outfit on... the shirt was so short! It barely comes to his natural waist now and I let out a two inch hem.

Here's the same outfit from the front.

Overall, I was really pleased with my first alteration. Some mistakes were made, but the outfit is fully functional and, I think from a 2009 perspective, a better looking outfit for my helping it along.