So this is how it went down...

In the beginning, God created fabric, a pattern, and someone (i.e. ME) with the ability to mess up REALLY easy stuff. So here it goes...

See that little pink circle... it says "EASY"... we'll see about that!


Lesson Learned in the First 5 Minutes: Good scissors are a must!!! Cutting fabric is not like a cutting paper. I DID have good scissors so I didn't think about this beforehand, but of course, when I went to start my project they were M.I.A. Go figure.

Oh, another lesson learned in the beginning. Patterns (at least this "easy" one) show you how to lay the pattern pieces when you cut. Well, they do this for a reason.


See those two smaller pieces... they were supposed to be on the fold so that they each folded out into a larger, symmetric piece. Yeah, had to cut those out twice because I missed that part. It really was self-explanatory in the directions, but I acted like a man and got ahead of the directions. :-) Thus, a mistake was made. There are a lot of little directions and pictures about the right side of fabric and the wrong side (i.e. front & back), selvage vs. fold (i.e. the non-printed edge of the fabric where you sometimes see writing or color dots vs. where you fold the fabric in half), nap (i.e. if there is "direction" to the fabric...think velvet. If you can "brush" it different directions, there is nap. Keep it simple for now and skip that kind of fabric. Simple cottons are best.) So... be sure to read EVERYTHING or you will surely miss SOMETHING. I think I spent about 15 minutes trying to read over everything first just to have the "big picture" in my head.

So anyways, I did manage to cut the pieces out with my pinking shears (i.e. the zig zaggy scissors). In case you couldn't tell, I used straight pins to pin the pattern to the fabric. Figuring out what pattern pieces to cut out, actually cutting them out, positioning and pinning them on the fabric, and cutting the fabric was without a doubt one of the most tedious and time consuming parts of the whole deal. So, if you are ready to quit before you've even started, don't worry, you are not alone. I probably spent over an hour on this part. Another lesson learned: Cut the notches outward. I pretty much just ignored them and didn't cut the triangles out or in, but instead just followed the main shape of the pattern. It all worked out, but would have been much easier if I had those notches as a means to line up the pieces.


The first sewing challenge was sewing the front and back pieces together at the outer sides (the seams at the very top & bottom of the picture). Pretty easy stuff. Sewing Note #1: Pretty much every patten in the world assumes a seam width of 5/8". There should be different lines on the plate around the needle. Just measure out from the needle to 5/8" if it isn't already marked. Sewing Note #2: Stitch width. On my machine, there is a dial from 1 to 5. The smaller the number, the tigher the stitch, and vice-versa. I was on about 1.5. Sewing Note #3: I just used a basic straight stitch. Nothing fancy.


Seams look like this on the inside.


In order to have a flat surface, you peel apart and press like so...




See! Looks like the picture! :-) (Note: It's not exactly like the picture because there was an option to have long pants or be a short romper. I did the short romper.)


So everything since the cutting up to here only took about 30 mintues. Like I said, sewing the big pieces is easy and fast. Next, add a little interfacing (i.e. thicker lining to give the top shape). The whole interfacing part took about an hour.




Close up of sewing the interfacing. Good example of 5/8" stitching.


I was supposed to "finish" the edges. Without a serger (i.e. the machine that makes the stitch that looks like the finished edges inside t-shirts), I wasn't sure how to do this. So, I just added a zig zag stitch. This is on the inside, so it doesn't show.


Another Lesson Learned: There are ways to finish edges with a traditional machine. I used the zig zag stitch, but did it over the edge of the fabric to create this...


Not super pretty, but looks more "finished" than the random zig zag stitch in the middle of the fabric like I did the first time.

Now to start putting it all together...




The biggest "Oh Crap" moment came here. I swore I did everything just right and still couldn't figure out how it went from the picture above to the one below. I learned I had to turn the shoulder straps inside out after trimming all the excess material beyond the seam. Then I had to iron really good to flatten it all out.


Normally, I would have created the button holes and sewn the buttons on here, but I didn't have any yet. So, I skipped that step and started on finishing the bottom.


Next was hemming the bottom of the romper. Pretty straightforward. After hemming, I "finished" the edge like I described above.




Next was adding the bias tape where the crotch buttons go. I wouldn't say there was an "Oh crap" here, but there was certainly plenty of reading and re-reading and configuring and reconfiguring the bias tape to make sure I knew exactly what I needed to do.








Now to sew the bias tape on the bottom of the front piece. I didn't cut off one of the folds like they told me to do. It seemed to narrow when I did the bottom of the back piece. I wanted to be sure I had a wide enough surface for the snaps.


Snaps on! There's an inexpensive little contraption you can use to put on snaps. I highly recommend it. It's certainly possible to do it without them, but it is much more difficult. I ended up only putting two snaps instead of four because I was so frustrated trying to do this step without my little tool. I ruined half the bag of snaps in the process. I HAD one of those contraptions, but of course, couldn't find it. I think I need to quit sewing and organize my house.





WHAM, BAM!!! We almost have a completed outfit!


Next...button holes & buttons.

Button hole sewing contraption...


Closed button hole... Beautiful, right? And super easy, right?


Wrong!!!


I was NOT brave enough to go for it on the outfit until I had done three good ones on strap fabric. Took a while.

And now cut open with a seam ripper.... (Get a good, sharp one.) Definitely put a pin at the end so you don't cut all the way through it...as I did on my scrap. Twice.


Next, sewed the buttons on. Surely, this doesn't need an explanation. Hopefully, your moms all taught you how to sew a button. :-)


ALL DONE!!!!


My Sweet Little Model! :-)








I'm definitely glad I used the thin, cheaper fabric for my "trial run." I definitely learned a lot and think #2 will turn out much better. It was super fun and sewing is definitely becoming a hobby very quickly! I really want to try some easy dresses for some of the little girls in the family or for friend's kids. I've got a LONG ways to go, but have to say I am very proud of how this little outfit turned out! It's a little big, but at least he can grow into it!