Singlets for Summer

In Australia, singlets and Summer are like Italy and pizza. Dressed up or dressed down the humble singlet is the penultimate wardrobe staple throughout the warmer months. Well, those and Havaianas, of which most of us own at least one pair or 20. Fern owns a pair of pink baby-Havaianas which I'm hoping she'll fit into this Summer to exude some serious beach cred!

Anyway, since she's grown out of all her singlets from last Summer (when she was newborn) I went and bought a a packet of 5 plain white Bonds singlets with the vision of decorating them and sewing matching shorties. 

Unfortunately my sewing prowess leaves a lot to be desired, so the shorties will have to wait until my kind mother in law takes pity on me and helps me make them, else poor Fern will end up with 3 leg holes or a waist 4 times bigger than her actual size.

This afternoon I got motivated to attempt the first singlet though, and I am quite happy with the result! It's my first attempt at the blanket stitch, so the sewing is a little wonky and the buttons may be held on with little more than prayer. But I'm sure Fern will look gorgeous in my little singlet for the five minutes it stays clean, and I will get a quick happy-snap for posterity!

I started with a scrap of material:

 Plus a singlet:

And some misclaneous bits and pieces from the sewing box:

And because I am still ensconced in my obsessive butterfly obsession, you can guess what design I came up with:

I know I won't be prototyping this design any time soon.... but still proud of my achievement!

Here's a close up: