Romper Dress

Since the cherry dress I made for Elise probably won't fit her until next summer, I pulled out another piece of fabric and a different pattern and tried again. This pattern was a different brand and I hoped the sizing would be more accurate. I thought I would be making a sleeveless dress with matching panties. However, when I cut out the pattern I saw that it was actually a dress with an attached romper bottom. Huh. Guess I should look at details more carefully before I buy! But I already had the pattern and it looked cute in the picture so I went ahead and got the rest of the supplies needed to make it.

Once again I made the size that showed the correct size/weight for Elise. Aaaaannd, once again it turned out too big.  *sigh*

I tried it on her today and the length was actually okay--leaves a little room to grow, which I'm okay with. But the armhole openings are ridiculously huge. Look at this!

???


Elise is a tad chunky, yes, but what baby has arms big enough for this dress??!

I didn't want to start over, so I played with it for a while and ended up just sewing from the armhole down to the side seam and then cutting off the extra. It means the side seams of the skirt and romper are attached partway down, which I don't love, but at least it's wearable.

I stitched a few white ribbon flowers on the front to finish it. Here it is on Elise.

Aside from the minor alterations I'd say it turned out okay. Not great, but okay. My experience putting in zippers is limited. Part way in I realized I had the foot lined up in the wrong place. Being the slightly impatient person that I am, I didn't bother picking it out. I just sewed the other side the same way. Slightly crooked seams are okay, right?  :)  The other hard part was sewing on the snap tape. I've never used it before and thought it would be super easy to sew on. I was a little bit wrong... the edges are narrow and  it's sewn on the very edge of the fabric so it was hard to get a straight seam. I ended up ripping out the seam and hand sewing it on instead. The stitches are more noticeable but hopefully more neat looking.

I want to make more clothes for her but I don't trust the size measurements now. The cherry dress was simple enough I may try it again in a smaller size. I have enough fabric here I'm sure I can find something that would be cute.  Although Elise would probably look cute in pretty much anything.  :)