Cute overload - a new baby romper for a new little lady

I'll start off with a gripe. You know how as a sewist people think you can 'just knock up' a garment in a spare 5 minutes. Yup, you know what I'm talking about!  Well despite the fact my husband knows EXACTLY how long it takes me to make a garment (spoiler: I am Captain SLOW) that is exactly what he volunteered me for. 

Him: "Could you just knock up something for the new baby?" 

Me: "......."

So against my better judgement, and because the friend's new baby is ridiculously cute, I agreed. 

Him: "Oh and we should send it this week." 

Me: "......."

Anyway moan over, because the end result is hurting my ovaries it's so cute.

I already had the Great British Sewing Bee unisex romper pattern. It's available as a free download from https://www.thegreatbritishsewingbee.co.uk/sewing-patterns but the snag is that it's only available in one size - 9-12 months. But babies grow so I decided to just go with it. The pattern calls for 1m of fabric but I managed to cut it out of 1/2 a metre at 140cm wide.

I don't have any child-specific fabric in the shop, but those bunnies on the Roo-tid fabric were calling me so I thought it'd be a nice match. It's certified organic and incredibly soft so perfect for young, delicate skin. The pattern calls for woven fabrics but this is a knit - it is technically an interlock, a stable knit which is thicker than most jerseys so less prone to stretch out of shape. It was nice and easy to work with - I risked it and the risk paid off. 

I decided to use regular rather than stretch interfacing on the shoulder straps to keep them more firm. I did, however, deviate from the pattern to add a band of piping to the front, between the bib section and the gathered lower half. To do this I found a long scrap of fabric and used the white reverse of the bunny fabric, using the piping foot to sew it around the piping cord. Then sewing it onto the bib section first before sewing the gathered front panel together.

(As an aside, making piping is my no.1 sewing job. I LOVE IT. I would add piping to everything if I could as I find it soooooo enjoyable to make. I'll do a tutorial on it soon.)

The only downside to the pattern came when I added the facing to the crotch - the interlock is thicker than regular woven cotton so getting all those layers neat was a challenge but it was doable. I hand-stitched the poppers on and voila! One oh-so-cute romper which is now on its way to an oh-so-cute new little lady. Fingers crossed she likes it!!

Happy sewing xxx