Tutorial: Snappy Baby Romper (Pattern)

I love this little number.  I'd also be lying if it wasn't inspired a bit by the Snappy Toddler Top from Prudent Baby, which is also one of my favorites.  Though, with this i made a thicker neckline yoke, which i prefer the look of, but seriously, who wouldn't love a baby in this outfit!!!

 

To make this, I used an old sheet I had, which I love, i've used it for other projects, and have a lot left still!

• You'll need :
• the Pattern- at 100% (or no scaling) it's approximately 12-18m. For largerjust add legnth. For smaller. i would probably print it at 90% for 6m, 85% for 3m. 
• i made it for my tall and skinny 8.5mo, who wears 6 or 9m body suits, 12m pants  (because of the length).
• approximately 3/4 yards of a fabric
• about 20in of elastic
• 7 sets of snaps.

1. using the front body piece, fold the middle with wrong sides together and match up the pleat lines, do a few stitches to tack this pleat. Then do the same with the two outer pleat markings on each side, this time folding and matching up the pleat lines with right sides together. Your front top will look like this.

2. split center with the center front pleat loop and pin.

3. Fold the outer pleat loops toward the middle, pin

4. Using the back body piece, both back pleats will be done the same, fold and meet pleat lines with right sides together. Do a few stitches to tack the pleat. Fold the pleat loops toward the center of the body piece, pin.

5. On both front and back body pieces, baste across the top at a 1/8^th inch seam allowance to fix the pleats in place.

6. For the front and back yoke pieces, there are 2 different ways you can complete the circular necks for both the first step is the same; starting at the markings, back stitch and stitch towards the outside of the yoke, around the top and finish (with a back stitch) at the other mark. The first way, you can clip the curves, flip it and fold/iron under the edges. The other way would be to complete it the same way that in the previous post, basting across most of the opening, clipping the curves, turning and ironing. Then seam ripping the basting edge, leaving a neatly folded over edge. Do this for both the front and back yoke pieces.





7. Taking both front and back body pieces, stitch them together on both the sides at a 3/8^th inch seam.

8. Fold and iron the seam flat- for this I usually use my handy dandy flat iron that I’m too lazy to use on my hair.

9. Hem the leg bottoms by folding it 1/4inch and iron; then 1 inch and iron. Make one row of stitches just under the hem amount. About 7/8 inch seam allowance, then again at 1/2inch seam allowance from the bottom, under it.

10. Measure around the baby thigh to get the length of elastic needed per leg hole. Using a safety-pin lace the elastic through the casing we just made, tacking it down at each opening.

11. To finish off the arm holes, apply bias tape around the edge, I usually prefer home made, since it’s A LOT cheaper and comes in prettier colors when you get to choose it. But I had a little left over bought stuff, so I just used that instead. Visit Dana Made It Blog for a tutorial on making and sewing bias tape.

12. To apply the yoke to the body pieces, insert the body piece into the appropriate yoke open that we seam ripped. (front with front, back with back). Make sure there is about 1/2inch of the body piece inside the yoke.

13. Pin.Stitch across the opening to finish the top at approximately a 1/8inch seam allowance. Stitch around the entire yoke at this seam allowance. Do the same for both front and back yoke pieces

14. To finish the bottom of the romper, use inseam lining pieces. Take two of the pieces and line up. Stitch around the edges at 1/2inch seam allowance.

15. Clip the curve. (for this, I much prefer using my pinking shears, cutting close to the line of stitches. It provides a quick and uniform clipping).

16. Flip it inside out and iron. Do the same at the previous 2 steps for the remaining two inseam lining pieces.

17. Line up the inseam lining pieces with the unfinished bottom seam, there will be hang over on each side. The pieces should be lined up on the right side of the fabric. Pin.

18. Stitch the inseam at 1/4inch seam allowance. Clip the curve.

19. Flip the lining to the inside of the body piece. Iron and stitch at 1/2inch seam allowance.


20. Apply snaps to the inseam area.

21. Apply snaps to each of the shoulders. And we’re done!!!

Here are a few action shots of mine on Baby:

Enjoy!!!!



Rompers For Baby N

Baby M has been up to a lot lately. She’s recently learned how to crawl, but before she had the patience to do that, she decided to try out standing. She can’t figure out how to get there, so sometime she pushes up then just crawls around like this. Its hilarious.

And before I get to some of my new projects I’ve made, I just have to have a photo brag about my adorable child. I can’t believe she’s getting so big!!
　
　

　
　

Any who: on memorial day, my sister-in-law, Vanessa, was having a picnic/party. This was only the 3^rd time I got to see my niece. So I just HAD to make her some delightful little summer outfits. (also adding them to my catalog of items that can be ordered through me!!!) Rompers are my Favorites!!! They’re seriously adorable, especially these ones, they’re based off of a few patterns that I had seen in Joann’s- New Looks 6970- and New Looks 6794. Both adorable patterns, but I am way too cheap to purchase those patterns, since they never go on sale. They are very simple patterns to fake too. Just simple pattern pieces I’ve made for other patterns, interchanged with other to make cute outfits. I have made a few cute rompers out of these ideas. Here are some of them I had made to hold you over until our next installment, I have an adorable romper pattern for you all!! Cheers!

Another Angel...

As I stated in my last post, this will be hard to type, but I feel I need to share it. My mom passed away suddenly recently, May 7^th 2011. She was 56 years old, very young. She seemed perfectly healthy with no obvious warning signs. She hadn’t been feeling well on that Thursday night, so she stayed home from work that Friday. I wouldn’t have even gotten to talk to her on last day alive, if it wouldn’t have been for an accidental dial. I had called someone and when I was hanging up my phone (which is touch screen) it accidentally called my parents house. I was about to hang it up, thinking no one would be home, but she picked it up. We talked about silly things that won’t matter a month from now, but when you don’t suspect someone will go, not all conversations are meaningful. I believe I asked her about what kind of fabric to get in order to make my daughters christening dress, she answered with her signature attitude, “I don’t know, that’s your thing, not mine”. We chatted for a minute about why she hadn’t gone to work, then I had to hang up because the baby was having one of her classic breakdowns and I had to tend to her. I told her that I would see her on Sunday (for mother’s day) and I hung up.
The next morning I woke up and was going about packing up my house, (because we had weeks before that when I got laid off, decide to move back to our home town of Pittsburgh). I got a call from my brother, who was panicking saying that I had to get home now, my mom was unconscious on the floor upstairs. I asked him all the normal questions like where daddy was, if someone had called the ambulance, to calm down. He said the paramedics were there, I said ok, I’d get dressed and be on my way (which at the time was 1 hour and 45 minutes away). I dressed myself and the baby, a little panicked myself, and I packed my diaper bag, for a long stay at the hospital with plenty of bottles, food and toys for the baby. Then called them back to see what I needed to do and where I needed to go. My brother, still freaking out, didn’t know anything. I instructed him to give me to dad, that I need to know these things before I was on the road, incase my cell didn’t have service.
I got to my dad and said something to the effect of “what’s going on? What happened? Where are they taking her?” I think he was in shock that my brother hadn’t have told me, I don’t know if Ben (my brother even understood what was going on yet). Either way he just blurted it out, that she was gone. He was so upset, asking me where we should take her, the EMS and police wanted to know what funeral home. I think they figured she had died of known causes, but what they didn’t understand was that this was a complete shock to us. I told him that they couldn’t take her somewhere until they know what happened. After I hung up I immediately called my husband, he had taken my car to get gas while I was getting ready. And he came home quickly, he called his boss and told him that he couldn’t be to work that day. He obviously understood. My husband, the awesome man he is, held it together while we drove back to my hometown, while I was a mess in the passenger seat spouting off lines every now and then like “what am I going to do, she was my best friend?” and “Maggie and our kids to come are never going to know here?” when we got home all my brothers were there and my dad, sitting in the dark and quiet in the living room. The rest of the day was a blur. But those hours before hand, I couldn’t get out of my head if I wanted to. That was the worst day of my life.
Fast forward to Wednesday, I just couldn’t find something I like to dress the baby in for the funeral, nothing was appropriate, so I went to my fabric and I sat and cried, thinking of what I would make for the baby, what my mom would like. I settled on a pretty gray cotton with purple flower and purple tie dye looking fabric. I made up something simple and pretty. My mom would have loved it. She absolutely loved to see the pictures of my daughter in the clothing I made for her.
This is the dress I made:
　

                                                                               Front:

Back:

　
At the funeral, it was heart warming, her office, (which is a HUGE law firm in downtown Pittsburgh that takes up 10 floors of a building which is one city block big) chartered a bus to bring people who wanted to attend the funeral. I’m talking a full greyhound sized bus full of people, and even with that, people from here work were still forced to car pool over because there wasn’t enough room. The church was packed, even more so than it gets for Sundays. While walking in to the church in front of her casket, I just couldn’t believe how many people were there. The pastor gave an amazing eulogy about how she was no quitter and how she always looked for the good in life saying “when a door closed she looked for the window”, then told the entire room about the time when I was 2 ½ years old and I locked her in the basement in the middle of winter while my newborn baby brother was on the table in an infant seat. In the middle of winter she trudged around the outside of the house in a nightgown without shoes in the snow, to get back in the house. I was so embarrassed. Haha. We took her to her grave, which is only steps from the outside of the church. And we all just cried.
Afterwards we went to a luncheon set up by her boss’ wife. There the baby pooped out half way through and we laid her asleep on the table.

　

　
　
I also got an elusive picture of my oldest brother and father in suits, they joked that this wouldn’t happen again until one of them die (the funny part is that it is probably true).