My baby is growing up so fast. That look on her face just says, “hey mom… I’m not your tiny cuddle bug anymore.” She’s only seven months, and still pretty little, but time seriously flies.
Anyway, I was babysitting my friend’s baby a few weeks ago, and couldn’t help falling in love with her little romper. It was so bright and summery. I loved that it was almost dress looking, but snapped in the middle which makes playing easier. I had this t-shirt that I bought at Walmart that was perfect for the project so I got to work!
I’ll admit that my first attempt was less than awesome. I was trying to make an easy one-piece pattern and… well it didn’t turn out so well. I ended up going back to Walmart and snagging the last shirt they had with the cute butterfly print and starting over.
I basically made a dress. I love the cute little flutter sleeves and the fact that it doesn’t have any buttons or even a bias neckband. What I ended up doing was making a facing for the top and sewing it together with a stretch stitch so it would stretch over her head. It was an experiment that worked out better than I’d planned. I think I’ll make tops like that from now on, or at least more often. I also sewed on the skirt with a zig-zag stitch so that would be stretchy too. I did have to go back through and unpick my straight gathering stitch, but that didn’t take very long. I didn’t even hem the sleeves or the bottom. I just roll-hemmed them with my serger. I liked the look of it for this piece.
So I started with the dress. I made the skirt extra long just in case. I put it on my baby and measured where the crotch should be. Then I cut out this arch. I made it pretty tall because I wanted the romper to have some longer legs/shorts.
Then I put elastic in the legs to gather them up. I used 1/4 inch elastic and sewed it in with a regular straight stitch, stretching it as I went.
Now all that was left was sewing some bias tape over both sides of the crotch. Pretty simple. I added some baby snaps… which took me all day to insert because I don’t have a snap tool and I used a hammer… and ta da! Really though, if you are going to be inserting snaps, get the snap tool. I had to remove bad snaps several times because my hammering ruined the snaps and they wouldn’t fit together.
This is by far one of my favorite outfits that I’ve made. She gets tons of compliments on it. The sweetheart neckline is a nice added detail. I’ve got a couple more of these baby outfits coming so stay tuned!