Samuel's Dedication Outfit

My baby boy got dedicated at church on Father's Day weekend. We would have liked to have him dedicated at a younger age, but circumstances didn't work out for that. (Long story, with the meat of it being that we wanted to find a new home church and get him dedicated after we were members).

I love how sweet he looked--just what I was going for

Samuel was a bit of a handful during the ceremony, wanting to talk and make noises and jump off the steps at the front of the church, but that's what you get with a 2 year old!

 

You can see that he was done before Pastor was

There was no dress code for the dedication, but we wanted to dress up and I couldn't pass up a chance to make a special outfit! I ended up sewing 3 pieces for him--a button-up shirt, a pair of basic, elastic-waist pants, and a little tone-on-tone tie. I skipped the vest I was going to sew after trying on the shirt and pants, because I thought a simpler outfit would be more appropriate for the occasion, and seemed more innocent. At least he looked the part.

He looks like he's being good, but my embarrassed
face shows the real story!

I made the shirt using the Sketchbook Shirt pattern from Oliver + S. This was the pattern I used to make his Mater shirt (still no modeled pics, sorry), and I used it because it was already traced, even though I wanted a much different fit since it was intended to be worn tucked in and under a vest. I took width out of both the front and back pieces (and thus the yoke and the collar), so that it fit slimmer through the body. In the interest of time, I extended the center fronts so I could just fold them over for the placket, instead of cutting and sewing the placket on separately. I miscalculated the amount to add and had to use interfacing, but I still saved time. I removed some of the ease in the sleeve cap as I think the pattern has too much for my tastes. And I lengthened and re-shaped the hem a bit. It ended up looking really cute and fit exactly the way I wanted it. And they say kids clothes don't require fit!

The tie was a super quick, super cute sew from a free tutorial I found online. I made it using a tone-on-tone white seersucker that had a gold thread running through it. I think it was subtle and classy :)

The pants were special: though they were basic, elastic-waisted pants, I sewed them from one of my husband's old uniforms. Because he was being a stinker I didn't get a very good picture of the outfit on him, but he looked like a little angel and people were surprised that I made the outfit (I always take that as a great compliment).

This was him saying
"No more pictures"
Seriously.

All that effort and I didn't buy white shoes! I have to admit, I thought the light-up Cars shoes fit his age and personality and were a cute touch.

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