September rolls around and I start making the clothes needed for autumn and winter. (March is the same when it comes to spring and summer wear.)

This year I took two of my favourite trouser patterns* and made a whole batch of fleece trousers for each child. Up until now I’ve only made fleece trousers when I’ve managed to get one of those large GAP fleece jumpers second hand, but this year I realised that thrifting fleece was a bit silly, given how much I was going to need. So I went to Pennine Outdoor and got myself a job lot in a ton of different colours.

Fleece – it turns out – is great to work with, and the trousers were sewn up really quickly. (No edges to finish, so the number of seams needed was dramatically reduced.) In the end I made 5 (!) pairs per child, and I’ve still enough fleece to make mittens, and possible a pram cozy (if I patchwork bits together.)

They won’t be as muck resistant as wool would be, but they’ll wash well and dry quickly and keep my children warm when it gets cold.

* The basic trouser pattern from Growing Up Sew Liberated (which I have messed about with, taking out the hip pockets and putting patch pockets in instead.) And the Big Butt Baby Pattern which I’m going to keep using it until all my babies are out of nappies.