A piece of baby clothing that can be worn for 9 months, or 3 years, how amazing does that sound?
A new baby was born, which meant sewing a baby gift. Already some time ago I bought the Grow on Romper by Apple Tree Sewing. This pattern intrigued me because you can make it bigger as your baby grows. How perfect is that? The idea is that the pattern has three size ranges and that the child can wear the garment for a longer period of time by certain tricks that are build in the pattern. Isn’t that a great idea? The Grow on Romper has three sizes: 3-12 months, 1-3 years and 3-6 years. Especially with the younger kids they sometimes outgrow their homemade clothing so soon. With these grow on type of patterns they can actually wear their homemade clothing for a longer period, I love the idea!
I hacked the Grow on Romper by making it sleeveless, only later on did I see there was actually a tutorial for making the romper sleeveless, oh well. What I did differently is that I added a colour block to the back side of the romper. I liked that because then the straps show a different colour than the front of the romper. It also gave me the possibility to nicely finish the back lining on the inside. I first sewed the top and bottom back pieces to each other. After sewing the lining to the back top pattern piece, I folded the bottom of the lining and by using stitch in the ditch I attached the lining to the back. I also attached the front lining to the bodice by sewing it by hand, so that you do not see it as much from the front side.
There are two ways to make the romper shorter/longer. The first method can be easily seen in the first picture, you fold/unfold the cuffs of the legs as much as you desire. Secondly, there are drawstrings on the inside of the romper. They are at the sides of the romper and make the romper more rushed if you tighten the drawstrings. All in all, it is a bit more work with these drawstrings than just sewing a regular romper, but I think it is worth the effort if the kids can wear the clothing for a longer period of time.
I also loved how the snap placket is attached to the romper. I think it looks fun, as you see a bit of some coloured fabric, but it is also much more sturdy than how I usually do it, because there is more fabric between the snaps. At first I really had to study the photos in the instructions to see what was happening with the folding of the different fabrics. But I loved the result, I will definitely use this way of finishing the snap placket from now on.
Fabric: I bought the pinguïn fabric specifically for this baby gift, it is from Stenzo Textiles from Caresstoffen. The pink fabric is a left over from this maxi dress.
Pattern: Grow on Romper by Apple Tree Sewing
Fabric in 2018: this week 0 in – 2 out (2018: bought 36 – used 45 fabric – used 2 gifted fabric – used 6 scrap pieces of fabric) – in total 36 in 53 out
Sew Cucio 