When in doubt – consult the experts

I’m a big believer that if you are looking for something, the best place to go to find it is with people who have the same problems you do, or worse problems than you do. In years past, I looked for wool tights on Canadian internet sites and had good luck there. Winter boots? Ditto. But when it came to clothing to keep little guys warm, I came up with a big ‘meh’. I think manufacturers on this side of the pond believe that all babies are brought up in tropical environments because the warmest thing you can find is fleece blanket sleepers, which kids do not wear all the time. And if you have a little kid who is now ‘going mobile’, then they are sitting or crawling on the floor, which is going to be at the least cooler than the ambient temperatures and if you keep a cool house (the way WE do here at Chez Siberia), we’re talking temperatures at ground level in the 50 degree range.

A wet diaper is going to move into ‘OMG get me changed!’ territory really fast.

I discovered a European pattern magazine this year (and I am sure many of Aunt Toby’s readers are already devotees, and if you are, bear with me), Ottobre which is produced in Finland. Not exactly a tropical paradise on the best days, and in the winter, even in Southern Finland, daytime temperatures can go as low as -4 degrees F. I’d bought several of the kids’ pattern magazines, and checked the fall/winter ones for patterns and suggestions. Every single pair of pants and overalls for the little kids was made lined with some sort of knit. Genius. Built-in long underwear (here is another beef I have about infant/toddler clothing: there is no such a thing as warm long socks for teeny guys – tights for little girls, yes; zippo for little boys. I suppose this is meant to toughen them up or something…).

I used this pattern from Simplicity, I had some acrylic tartan plaid (is that a tautology?) fabric and some red medium weight cotton knit. I washed them in the hottest water I can get out of my water heater to shrink everything up and cut the overall pattern once in the tartan and once in the knit and sewed them together, as if the knit unit was a facing, flipped it inside and attached it to the bottom of the tartan and sewed both together with the leg band at the bottom. I also installed snapper tape on the inside of the legs and I’m pretty pleased with the result. But, is this the best I can do? Perhaps these are not the most warm pair of overalls I could make.

How could I make even warmer overalls? Well, I could have used microfleece for the lining. Or perhaps I could have found some acrylic sweater knit for the lining. Or perhaps I could have found some bonded wool for the overalls. Anyone else have any ideas? Quilted lining materials? Turn the little tyke into the Michelin Man(tm)?

Inquiring minds want to know!