I Need Closure(s)--the Baby-Safe Kind

Ladies and gentlemen, I am direly in need of closure--the baby-safe kind. Call me a paranoid mom-to-be, but I don't feel safe/comfortable putting buttons or drawstrings on baby garments, especially not after taking my Infant CPR/First Aid class.

So I'm at a loss with how to finish the two cardigans I've knitted for Cartoonist Baby. Both are fabulous Elizabeth Zimmerman patterns from a less button-phobic era, and on both I ignored the directions about adding buttonholes.

The above is Exhibit A...

• Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Baby Sweater on Two Needles from Knitter's Almanac, made with some yarn I kettle-dyed a few years back. The yoke and borders are simple garter-stitch, and the lace pattern is a simple 7-stitch repeat. It's knit almost all in one piece--the only seams are under the arms.
• Sizing: The pattern sizing depends on gauge--it came out a bit on the larger size, I'm thinking about 9-12 months.
• Yarn/Needles/Notions: I used 1.5 balls of Knit Picks Swish Worsted Bare that I kettle-dyed pink a few years ago with size 4 circular needles (I'm a loose knitter).
• Modifications: None. Unless you count all the mistakes I made in the lace pattern that I fixed as I went along (or the fact that I reknit the first few rows three times before getting a hang of said lace pattern).
• Difficulty Level?: It's a simple pattern, but the instructions are so pithy that I had to do extensive internet forum searching to interpret them, especially when it came to the sleeves and underarms.
• Here's a link to all the details on Ravelry (I've made it public so you can see it even if you're not a member).

Here's a back view:

And for Exhibit B...

• Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket from Knitting Workshop, It's all one piece knit in garter stitch.
• Sizing: The pattern sizing depends on gauge--similar to the lacy cardigan, I'd say mine is about 9-12 months.
• Yarn/Needles/Notions: I used 2.5 skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted Allspice and 1 in Marine Heather. (Same washable wool as the lacy cardigan).
• Modifications: None. Except for omitting the buttonholes.
• Difficulty Level?: It's a simple pattern, but it helps to use a row-keeper to keep track of where you are.
• Ravelry link with all the details.

So: closures. I always put snaps on sewn baby garments, with interfacing underneath to stabilize the area. But I really haven't seen many baby SWEATERS with snaps--I don't know that they'd work with loose hand-knit fabric. Maybe I could sew some grosgrain ribbon inside the button bands to stabilize them?

Or what about some kind of hook and eye treatment or some kind of frog closure... just one or two largish ones to keep the cardigans from falling off?

Any suggestions appreciated!

P.S. I actually knit up a little baby hat (the "Fool-Proof Baby Hat" from Clara Parkes' The Knitter's Book of Yarn) with the remainder of the yarn from the lacy baby cardigan... I figured Cartoonist Baby could wear home from the hospital.

...but it turned out preemie-sized, and since I'm told Cartoonist Baby was already 6 1/2 lbs at 35 weeks along, I'm going to rip out and reknit a newborn/small size. Witness:

P.P.S. Oh, and obviously--yes, still pregnant. My official due date is Friday but my original date was last Wednesday... I can't say that I have a patient bone in my extremely pregnant body at this point, either. I'm well aware that every pregnancy is different and due dates are hardly deadlines, but I want my baby NOW!

Perfect Pattern Tracing Paper: A Love Story

It's a story as old as time itself: girl meets perfect pattern tracing material, girl loses perfect pattern tracing material, girl tries to find solace in arms of one substandard flimsy scratchy hard-to-write-on tracing material after another... girl finds perfect pattern tracing material and sews happily ever after!

They (and by "they" I mean Carolyn in a recent blog post, but she sparked quite a discussion!) say that some seamstresses/seamsters are Cutters and some are Tracers.

Well, once upon a time I was a Cutter. I'd buy a pattern, cut a size 12 or 14, make any adjustments directly to the delicate tissue, and hope it worked out. Sometimes it did...

And sometimes it didn't, as with the New Look faux wrap dress that turned out four sizes too big. But alas! The pattern was cut and there was no going back to try a smaller size. If I wanted to try it again... I'd have to buy it again.

Living in NYC, nowhere near those $1.99 pattern sales, this was no small expense.

Then there's the magazine formerly known as Burda World of Fashion--tracing is NOT optional. So I was a subscriber from 2005 to 2007—and never MADE A SINGLE THING. And so, during my Knitting Years, I sold all my back issues on Ebay.

All due to an irrational fear of tracing.

I did flirt here and there with various materials, based on tips gleaned from the PatternReview message boards: regular wrapping tissue paper, newsprint, multipurpose printer paper, sketch paper, artist's tracing paper. I even ordered some mysterious "Pattern Tracing Material" from Nancy's Notions. But they were all either too flimsy or too thick, too opaque or too transparent, or the sheets were just too tiny to trace an entire pattern in one piece. It was a serious Goldilocks situation.

And then Everything Changed. I took a fabulous beginning serger class this January ("Sweating With Your Serger" at Sew Right) to learn how to use my grandmother's neglected Kenmore. And we were required to purchase and use some pattern tracing material. So along with my hideous (if highly educational) sweatshirt and my serger, I found my pregnant self lugging home a giant roll of 45" wide pattern tracing material on the hour-and-a-half subway/bus combo ride home to Brooklyn.

It was love at first trace. This stuff was perfect--easy and smooth to write on, just stiff enough, just soft enough, just see-through enough. Pretty soon I was tracing EVERYTHING--vintage patterns, BurdaStyle magazine patterns, Jalie and Kwik Sew patterns, baby patterns... I was a tracing maniac! And if I ever made a mistake or wanted to trace another size when I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight or wanted to use a pattern again for Cartoonist Baby as she grew... NO PROBLEM.

Now the idea of cutting directly into a precious pattern (or, horrors, tissue fitting!) gave me the cold sweats.

But let's get to the point--one day, my perfect pattern tracing material ran out, and I realized I had lost the label and had no idea what is was called — Cut-A-Pattern? Trace-A-Pattern? I couldn't make it back to the middle of Queens in my now more delicate condition and Sew Right couldn't ship it to me. I went back to using random bits of typing paper. I even ordered a big roll of "Do-Sew" from Nancy's Notions, but found it scratchy, flimsy and nearly impossibly to write on.

... so I asked on the PatternReview message boards and someone told me the stuff was called Bosal Create-A-Pattern and I ordered a 10-yard roll for $17.99 plus shipping from Vogue Fabrics (they call it Pattern Tracing Interfacing) and now my life is complete and this blog post is nearly over!

Of course, this is just what works for me. Others swear by sewer paper (sewer as in plumbing, not sewing). Gertie likes Swedish tracing paper. The Fit For Real People folks hawk something they call "Perfect Pattern Paper" and Kwik Sew sells "KwikTrace" gridded material. And I do have non-transparent paper with gridded lines on it for making patterns from scratch, though I never actually use it. But now that I've found my lost Pattern Tracing Material love again, I think we'll be in a long-term relationship... no wandering eyes for me!

P.S. Just in case it's not obvious, I am not in any way affiliated with this or any other sewing-related company! But in case you need to identify this stuff by sight, here's what it looks like (it also comes on interfacing-like bolts):

P.P.S. Are you afraid of tracing? Or do you have a tracing material love of your own? Or better yet--do you know anywhere I can buy this stuff in Manhattan or Brooklyn and avoid the shipping costs?