Have you ever tried to use a toddler as a fit model?

There is nothing. Absolutely nothing graceful about trying to do a fit session with a toddler.

They have no attention span. They will not stand still.

With a grown up, you get to work a little more methodically. You can get a gist for the length of the garment, whether it’s balanced, what the silhouette will do when a full sized person is sitting, getting on a bus, lifting up arms, and walking down stairs. All very handy things to know.

Little kids grow and grade very differently to adults. The system of grading is way more idiosyncratic and even the big childrenswear labels in Australia can’t decide on a standard grade rule for kids, let alone internationally. Obviously I can’t use standard dressmaking pins to alter the garment with little kids - and safety pinning at speed is a true art form that must be perfected - and fast, if you’re going to get any work done!

While these cuties run and hide from you, your task is to project how you might grade the garment for smaller or larger sizes, get a quick glance at the level of the hem, how much the proportions allow for growth, movement, and hark back to the original design successfully. Sometimes I record a video of the fitting so that I can pause and make notes, but it’s definitely not failsafe.

Another main concern is the opening of the garment. It’s important to me that it’s easy, and that the garment can be washed with no fuss, and that it feels comfortable. That nappies can be changed easily.

I must fit a garment in the knowledge that a variety of different nappies could end up underneath. Cloth - more bulky than disposable. I don’t like to see the nappy at the top edge of the pants when a baby squats, so I add length at the centre back waist, and shape to about an inch lower at the centre front. Often there is an excess of length here - little ones under about three years old tend to have a gorgeous pot belly that never, ever tolerates elastic across the middle. Pants will, without fail, end up under the belly button, at the smallest part of the waist. I might be breaking all the rules! But this is how I roll, baby.