Sweaters for Children - Custom Designs for Kids

Why is it that people we love sweaters so much? Is it their soft, slightly stretchy fabric? The wide range of colors, styles, fabrics and patterns? Whatever the reason, it's well known that nearly everyone has at least one sweater, and most of us have several. Sweaters seem to be especially well suited for children, easy to wear, durable as well as comfortable, scrunchy soft and warm on a blustery fall or winter day, and equally comforting on a soft spring evening or a summer afternoon in an air-conditioned restaurant. Kids love to wear brightly colored sweaters, with sports-related themes or their favorite animals as part of the pattern.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about sweaters:

"The term 'sweater' is a catch-all for various types of garments. One advantage of sweaters is that they conform well to the body without requiring the tailoring as woven garments. For example, shaping elements commonly found in woven fabric are rarely needed in sweaters, thanks to the elasticity and drape of knitted fabrics. Even when such shaping is needed, it can be knit into the fabric itself, without requiring seams."

What better way to keep your favorite child or children comfortable, without the irritating, itchy seams from factory-made clothing, than with a custom design hand knitted sweater made from 100% pure cotton. Your child's favorite motif can be hand knitted right into the sweater design (encouraging him or her to actually keep the sweater on when playing outside beyond your watchful eye). Kids love these brightly colored, unique designs. In fact, the younger kids may not want to take their sweaters off!

Please enjoy looking at the photos and descriptions of the sweaters for children on this page. When you are ready to place your order, I will be happy to design and knit something just for you.

Over the years, I've had dozens of requests for sweater designs for children. Here are some of my favorite photos, along with some of the comments I've received from these kids and their moms:

Ah, baseball - who doesn't love a good baseball game? It's our favorite national pastime, it seems, and kids learn early on that baseball is one sport they can all enjoy. Here's a baseball motif which I designed at the request of a mom for her little boy who is not only a devoted fan, but a really good player, too. She specifically requested the number "7" to be hand embroidered on the back of the baseball player's uniform.

Since designing this sweater for the little boy, I've had several requests from men, and one from a woman, for the same design in their sizes. They all commented on how different this design is, especially with the hand embroidered little number "7" on the back of the baseball player's uniform.

I have a dear friend whose husband works at NASA. This design, which I call "Rocket Bear", was created especially for their grandson when he was born. See the little hand embroidered teddy bear looking out the window at the top of the space craft? Their response to the design was so heart-warming! It was a pleasure giving this to them as a gift, because the design wasn't just cute, it actually meant something personal to them. It is the kind of gift that people will remember.

Here's a sweater and hat set which was designed for a five-year-old to wear to kindergarten. Her mom explained to me that the little girl had outgrown the one favorite hand knitted sweater she had received as a gift when she was smaller. Now that she was going off to school for the first time, the mother wanted her daughter to have something really special. I designed a colorful crewneck cardigan sweater with a school-related theme, with an alphabet border along the bottom edge and a checkerboard pattern at the cuffs, making sure that the sweater allowed for plenty of room to grow. The buttons are so special, school buses and blackboards that say "2+2=4". My favorite part of the design, though, is the pocket, in which little hands can store small treasures.

When was the last time you saw a child's sweater with an actual working pocket? It's one of the first things that a large manufacturer will cut out, when trying to reduce the cost of producing goods. When the mother received the sweater and hat set, here's what she had to say: "Susan, Thank you so much! I know that [her daughterl] will like wearing this little sweater to Kindergarten this coming fall :-)"

Every holiday season, I get several requests for special sweater designs for kids. This one particular custom sweater design is one that I will never forget. This little boy had a remarkable interest in rhinos. He liked to read about them, collected photos of them, and talked about them all of the time. I designed this sweater just for him, making sure that the otherwise-ferocious animal looked "kid-friendly", with his slight grin and little beady black eye. The mother wrote to tell me that her son would not take the sweater off! He slept in it. Even now (and it's been several years since I knitted this custom design for him), I would bet that his mom still has the sweater, safely put away somewhere for him until he has children of his own.

For a little girl who loves music and dance, I designed this custom knitted sweater. It is ballerina pink, a color which she picked out herself, and pure white, with hand embroidered musical notes on the front of the sweater. The buttons are little gold bows. The sweater is feminine and soft, and incorporated into the design two of the child's special interests. She wore it to a recital and got many compliments. More than just a sweater, this became a treasured favorite for this little girl. You can be sure that it encouraged her in her love of music and dance, too, which is such a good idea.

Over the years, this style, called "Picot Rib", has by far been my best selling baby sweater style. The design, so lacy and feminine, with the little pink rosebuds at the neckline, and openwork decorative trim at the edges, makes it the perfect gift for a new baby. I have knitted hundreds of these outfits over the past dozen or so years, custom knitting them in every shade of pastel, from pink to yellow to lilac (and of course in white). Back when I used to sell baby sweater sets at crafts shows, long before the days of the internet and websites, people used to look for me when they needed a baby gift, and they always asked to see this style.

Here is another all-time favorite, called "Baby's First Pearls". When my customers need a gift for a baby girl, this is always on my short list of styles to recommend to them. The sweater is custom designed to be personalized with the baby's name, and is so feminine with its beautiful combination of pure white background color, sugar plum pink hand embroidered name, and the little pearl buttons for which it is named. The pink rosebuds at the neckline are also a nice feminine touch. I have lost count of the number of times I have knitted this three-piece sweater outfit - at least one hundred times, maybe more.

I hope the styles on this page have made you smile, and have given you inspiration for your own custom design sweater. Children love sweaters, especially if the design on the sweater means something to them. From spiders to ballerinas, dinosaurs to bunnies, flowers, wagons, fish, cars and school buses, I've had so many requests that I could not begin to count them all.

So don't be shy - please feel free to send me an email and let me know what you are hoping to find. Your one-of-a-kind sweater will be a treasured gift, something to be cherished and remembered for years to come.

When you are ready to place your order, I will be happy to design and knit something just for you.