Coordinating Outfits!

When the Child started school I started to get all sentimental about my baby being a proper, grown up girl and not being with me all day.  I have since got over that and am loving the extra time I've got at home.  I'm working three days a week (school hours) which leaves me two whole days to do what I want with, as long as I am back for school pick up at 3.30pm!

    

In celebration of this extra free time I decided to make us coordinating tops.  I let the child have free reign on KitschyCoo's website (pictures taken directly from there) to choose a few fabrics from which I would make the final decision.  As it happens, quite far up her list of about a million different prints, she chose the pink zebras which I am a big fan of.  I chose the grey cameras and between us we chose the grey stripe as a good coordinating neutral.  The grey is not quite an exact match to the grey of the cameras but it is so close and I think works really well.

For the Child's top I did what I always do and used the Skater Dress pattern's bodice and lengthened it to a top length (I added 13cm).  I actually sized up this time to the 5/6 as I have been using the 3/4 for the past two years.  This is a bit big for her but luckily she will grow, and hopefully she will get a good two years wear out of it.  I added a pocket to the front as she had seen a top in the Boden catalogue with stripy sleeves and a pocket which she asked me to copy.

For my top I used the Renfrew Pattern from Sewaholic.  A year ago I did a class at The Village Haberdashery with Zoe making the Renfrew top and it was so useful.  Zoe is an amazing teacher and the Village Haberdashery's classroom is just lovely.  Anyway, I have since made this pattern a couple of times and have made a few alterations to fit me a bit better.  I have traced the size 6 at the shoulders and neck, grading out to a 8 over the bust and waist.  I could probably do with a bit more room in the bust but on the whole I am really happy with the fit. I omitted the pocket on my top as there wasn't an appropriate place to put one!

We wore these outfits for my Husband's birthday treat to the De Havilland Museum in St Albans last weekend, and I didn't feel at all weird wearing a matching outfit to my 4 year old.  Maybe I have become normalised to this kind of behaviour now.  There will definitely be more matching clothes in our future, mostly because I can usually squeeze a child size piece of clothing out of an offcut from something I have made for me.  I just normally make sure we don't leave the house matching, but why not?!  So tell me, would you wear coordinating outfits with your child/partner/best friend/dog?