This post was written by Zollie Creative Director, Grace Casey-Gouin

I recently found some time to make my two-year-old a little jumpsuit from an up-cycled button-down, and I embroidered a little watermelon on the pocket for no other reason than joy. I was happy to be able to use my stash of Array for the embroidery.

Despite working for a yarn company, I truly don’t get much external crafting done— at least compared to my standards from my pre-child era. When I was pregnant I ambitiously bought a lot of sewing patterns for kids clothes and told myself that I would make all of my son’s clothes from upcycled fabrics and natural yarns. From a knitting perspective I have managed to crank out a few projects, but sewing was put on a total pause during a huge move and life change. 

So here we are two years later and I was able to take a moment earlier this summer to sew a toddler jumpsuit from a button-down of my husbands that has a huge highlighter stain at the breast pocket that we could not get out. I used this pattern from Tiny Design Pattern on Etsy and, back in May, I spent my “spare” time feverishly and carefully sewing this romper with french seams, and added pockets to carefully conceal the highlighter stain. Using the existing button placket saved a lot of time and I was so thrilled with the result only to discover that it had a fit issue at the neckline. I hung it up and vowed to fix the neck fit issue and add some cute embroidery embellishments the following weekend. 

Fast forward two months and I glanced in my son’s closet and the romper caught my eye. With only a month left of a summer when this could actually fit him, I grabbed it and spent my precious weekend toddler nap time to fix the neck issue. The fix was actually quick and I still wanted to embellish with a little embroidery so I rummaged through my project bag of Array wool yarn. I grabbed 3 tubes I had on hand from our Beginner Embroidery Kit with Arrouna Khounnoraj (Cherry 2, Meadow 1, and Lime 4) and had to make a hard decision—embroider tomatoes or watermelon? Ultimately, having Natural and Black 1 on hand, from our project featuring Lauren Marina, to help add a little more value contrast helped to seal the deal for watermelon. After confirming my palette choices, I used a pencil to draw a little ½ circle and used mostly split stitch to make this little watermelon on the pocket. 

When I finished my project I got curious about which Palette Scout cards would match my color choices so I flipped through my deck until I found the perfect matches—I love seeing the palette laid out this way. Garnet 3, Ember 1 tone, Buttercup 5 tone, Reed 4, and Quetzal 2—the ultimate split complement palette of summer. 

I presented the jumpsuit to him later to try on—sure enough it is almost too small for him now and he loves it. I also feel really pleased with the result, partially because it was a quick and impulsive project that made me feel a little bit like my old-self again—the one who had time in the summer for projects.