Bubble Romper

It's getting cold here.  We are in Florida and this time of year it can be freezing one day and 80 the next so I decided to make Madeline a romper she could wear with a cute warm onesie when it gets cold or without on the warmer afternoons.  I like the way it fits and the ease of this romper but I'm not crazy about the fabric.  I think I'll try something a little more feminine next time and I also think the bodice could be a little shorter.

I used brown corduroy and embroidered blue birds on the front.  The blue bird border came from Embroidery Library.  The liner is a fabric by Moda and the lace is from a dish towel from Anthropologie I used to make a purse out of awhile back.  I really needed about 1" more of the lace to make it lay properly.  I had to pull it to make it fit which is distorting it a little. 

I put snaps on the back and on the inside of the legs to make it easy to get on and off and I put elastic in the bottom hem to make it look more feminine.  It actually looked really cute as a wide leg pant but her little legs were getting lost inside.



The bodice is the same pattern I created for the ruffle dress and for the bottom I measured her from her chest bone to her ankle and added 3" for growing room and seam allowances and cut out a rectangle that length by 17" wide.  I determined the width by looking at the fabric next to her to see how much ballooning would look good.  I then measured her crotch to ankle, added 2" for the bottom hem, and used that distance to cut out a triangle for the legs.  I made it round on the top to make room for snaps and to keep it from getting wonky when it was sewn together

To add the snaps I used a trick that I learned making clothes for the boys.  You cut a 1.5" strip of fabric long enough to go from the base of one leg up around the crotch and down the other leg.  Fold that fabric strip in half and iron flat.  Then you fold up the bottom hem wrong side out and iron. 

Pin the folded strip up one leg around the crotch and down the other leg raw edges together.  This will hold the bottom hem of the leg in place wrong side showing.

sew along the raw edge attaching the fabric strip to the legs 1/8" from raw edge.  When you are finished you will have a snaps panel and the hem of the pant will still be wrong side out.

Turn the hem under and push corners out.  This will give you a finished hem and a finished snaps panel.  Then add snaps.

 Ok,  I hope that wasn't to confusing.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  I wasn't planning to go into all of that but It's something worth knowing how to do.  You can do it with any snaps project.  Just shape the snap panel to the shape of the place you want to put snaps. 

  Have a great weekend....