Sunday, September 16, 2007
Baby Kimono sleeve-widening suggestion
Hi, all
Since a couple of people commented on my last post that they liked the idea of having wider sleeves/cuffs on the baby kimonos, I thought I'd share two different ways I've achieved that.
1) I knit the "straight" part of the sleeves (where you've finished increasing out to the length of the cuff and are working on the part that will actually become the cuff width) to 6" wide instead of 4". This means the cuff ends will be 3" wide when finished instead of only 2", which seems to me to give the baby a lot more room to grow. It also means the v-neck is less deep and the overlap is a lot wider than with the narrower cuffs, so again the baby can get chubbier without suddenly finding the v-neck at its navel and nothing covering its little chest.
However, if you haven't planned in advance (one comment on my prior post mentioned a grandbaby due in a week), here's another way around the problem:
2) Don't seam up the underarms of the kimono all the way down to the ends of the cuffs. Leave about the last inch or two unseamed, so the cuff can "expand" as necessary for the little hand. It looks cute folded back this way, too. If you're concerned that the cuff might be too short to be folded back, you can always add a knitted or crocheted border.
I hope those suggestions help anyone else who feels, as I do, that a 2" cuff is just too tiny, even for a newborn. :)
Since a couple of people commented on my last post that they liked the idea of having wider sleeves/cuffs on the baby kimonos, I thought I'd share two different ways I've achieved that.
1) I knit the "straight" part of the sleeves (where you've finished increasing out to the length of the cuff and are working on the part that will actually become the cuff width) to 6" wide instead of 4". This means the cuff ends will be 3" wide when finished instead of only 2", which seems to me to give the baby a lot more room to grow. It also means the v-neck is less deep and the overlap is a lot wider than with the narrower cuffs, so again the baby can get chubbier without suddenly finding the v-neck at its navel and nothing covering its little chest.
However, if you haven't planned in advance (one comment on my prior post mentioned a grandbaby due in a week), here's another way around the problem:
2) Don't seam up the underarms of the kimono all the way down to the ends of the cuffs. Leave about the last inch or two unseamed, so the cuff can "expand" as necessary for the little hand. It looks cute folded back this way, too. If you're concerned that the cuff might be too short to be folded back, you can always add a knitted or crocheted border.
I hope those suggestions help anyone else who feels, as I do, that a 2" cuff is just too tiny, even for a newborn. :)
# posted by Splindarella @ 6:11 PM 
