I'm at that stage in life when everybody around me seems to be having babies or already have children and I have noticed that with a lot of people, their time and money all tends to be spent on the children as they are the most important thing in their life. One of the fun things to spend your money on when you have children, especially girls, is cute outfits for them to wear. If you are creatively minded then you may like to try a little bit of Dressmaking and hand make some clothes for your little ones. This can be a cost effective way of dressing your child or children and making them look unique. Here at Calico Laine we stock a number of Dressmaking patterns from companies Butterick, Vogue and McCalls which range from patterns for dressmakers who are just beginning to sew up to more advanced sewing patterns for those with experience. Each season brings a new set of patterns so that you can create outfits all year round for the kids. You'll find that throughout the year, the patterns are put on offer with many being half price, which is a great time to stock up, making your Dressmaking even cheaper. Patterns can be used more than once (if you are careful to look after your pattern and trace your patterns rather than cut them to size) so when you find a style you like, you can often make it for years in different fabric as your child grows up and needs bigger sizes. Children's clothing can be made in a number of different Dressmaking fabrics but our most popular choices are our polycotton prints and Rose and Hubble cotton prints. These fabrics are easy to work with, come in a variety of different colourful prints and most importantly are washable. For little girls, the Rose and Hubble cottons are ideal as there are a number of small floral patterns which would suit summer dresses, skirts and tops. These can then be adorned with lace trims, broderie anglaise or ribbon to finish them off. For the boys, we have light denim fabrics which can be used to make shorts or jeans and these can be embellished with an iron on motif design to add some colour. As well as these Dressmaking fabrics we have cotton jersey fabrics to create t-shirts, gingham for school clothes, fleece for pyjamas and dressing gowns and light denim chambrays for pinafore dresses. With a little imagination, you could create a new wardrobe for your kids; you just have to find the time to do it!