I’d like to introduce you to my neighbor Kattie! I recently found out that Kattie likes to sew. When she brought over this adorable baby girl romper I told her that I had to share it on my blog! Kattie does not have a blog {yet} but I thought this might be useful information for those of you who are new-to-sewing, or those like me, only know how to sew straight lines! Here’s Kattie!
To start my name is Kattie Casebolt and I love to craft, read, travel, and will try just about anything once. I have always enjoyed crafting but never realized how much free time I had when I was single or married without children to appreciate it. I started knitting when I found out I was pregnant with my first child and continued to knit for awhile. The only problem is, knitting anything takes a lot longer to get a finished project and once I had children I found it hard to stop mid-stitch when they would start crying or wake up from a nap. I had a very crafty friend (Sharon) who turned me on to sewing and what I could do with it. My husband wanted to keep me happy since he had moved me to a new state with an infant and no family, so I bought my first sewing machine and made my first set of curtains and valances with the help of Sharon. I made a hat/scarf and mitten set for my niece, but after that my sewing machine found a closet and wasnāt touched again until about a year after my second child. I have 2 small boys now and stay home with my children. Some may ask, when in the world do you find time to sew. Well my response would be in spurts and generally in the evening after the kids go to bed. I find sewing to be a soothing activity, although when you get close to finishing a project it has made for a few late nights. I love that I can generally get a completed project within a couple days depending on the size. I have not been sewing long and had not touched my machine in quite some time, but I thought why not give it another try. I am not creative, I love patterns, lucky for me, I had a friend who taught me to sew my first set of curtains and valances with a pattern and now I feel pretty comfortable with sewing. I also love the challenge of doing new things and seeing what I can complete.
This featured project is a little girl romper with bloomers using the B5439 Butterick pattern along with the B5056 Butterick pattern for the hat. Iāll be honest, I had this pattern for a couple years before I actually felt brave enough to attempt it and when I first started, I really didnāt think it would turn out. One thing I have learned is, make sure to look at the pattern before leaving the store and make sure you have everything you need. It really stinks to get home and not have something. Look at the notions, this will tell you what you need, like buttons, thread, elastic, interfacing, etc. I find salespeople really helpful when Iām having a hard time finding something I havenāt used before, like the bias tape or the rick rack.
To start make sure you read through the entire pattern instructions and get a feel for what to do, decide what version you would like to make and cut out those pieces. I did the criss-cross sundress with bloomers. I then laid the pattern pieces on the fabric, pinned the pieces and cut.
This was my first experience with rick rack which you place in the seam allowance of the pocket on the right side of the fabric and then you can hand stitch or use the machine to ābasteā the rick rack in place.
Next, fold right sides together and sew leaving an opening at the bottom of the pocket so you can turn it right side out. You should see half of the rick rack sticking out. You will end up sewing the seam where you left the opening, the pattern says to slipstitch, I just pinned the pocket on the dress and top stitched so that the seam was hidden.
I will tell you, I had to redo the pocket a couple times. First, I didnāt like the rick rack I picked, then the second time my seam was hiding too much of the rick rack. So donāt give up, you can do it. I also placed back sections on at the same time, since I didnāt mind the extra bulk and it is more sewing time and less back and forth. I try to do as many steps as I can so I can sew more at one time. So I also sewed the lining at the same time.
I then placed the rick rack on the dress in the seam allowance. You are centering the rick rack in the 5/8ā seam allowance. The goal is to have half of the rick rack showing when you are done sewing. Once the rick rack is pinned in place either hand stitch or use the machine to baste the rick rack in place.
Put the lining and the dress fabric facing each other so when you look at it you see the wrong side. Sew along seam allowance leaving an opening so you can turn the dress right-side out. I again top-stitched the dress opposed to slip-stitching. I think it gives it a nice finished look.
This was my first time dealing with buttons and buttonholes, but luckily my machine has an easy buttonhole function. If you are new to buttons, you should see if your machine has this function with a special sewing foot, and practice on scrap fabric. This step made me very nervous, since you should have a completed dress at this point, except for the buttons, so if I messed this part up, I would have to start over. Although, really you can rip out the stitching and try again if need be. I placed the marks on the fabric with a washable fabric pen using the pattern and then brought it to the machine.
I then placed the buttons using the same thread from the machine and needle placing the button using the pattern.
You should now have a finished dress.
On to the bloomers.
Turn the raw edge at the bottom using the pattern as a guide, it is 3/8ā, I use a metal sewing ruler with a sliding mark that allows me to keep a consistent seam. You then need to take it to the iron and press, whenever it says to do this, it is an important step. It really makes it easier to sew. You then place the rick rack so half of it is showing, since this will be the finished edge of the bloomers. This was also my first time using bias tape. Place the bias tape towards the bottom of the bloomers using the pattern for the placement. This is where the Ā¼ā elastic is going to go, use a pin to feed the elastic through. I used stick pins to hold the elastic at the ends of the bias tape and then placed stitches in the ends to keep in place. I do this for both sides at one time. Once again, place the fabric with the right-sides touching and sew edges, it calls to sew the seam and then sew again in the seam allowance, Iām assuming this is for strength. Then press the seams to one side. The seams that you just showed are the front and back. The first time I got to this step I looked at my bloomers and thought, hmmm, how is this going to work out. So if you place the seams together like I show in the picture, you get an idea for what the bloomers look like.
You can now stitch the inner thigh seam and have what looks like a pair of bloomers, but need to finish the waist. You will want to put a stitch at the seam on the bottom so that you have a finished look at the legs.
To form the waistline you want to turn the raw edge under, just like you did for the legs, but using a Ā¼ā this time. Then press, turn it again Ā¾ā, or 1ā if you are concerned about getting the elastic in and press again. (See picture) Stitch along the top edge all the way around and then stitch again at the lower edge, but leave an opening, this will allow you to insert the elastic. Take the elastic and sew it together so that you have a waist band, stitch the opening closed.
Bloomers finished!
Now if you arenāt bored to death yet, you can start the hat. The included pattern is fine and almost exactly the same, but I felt the hat pattern had better sizing for what I wanted.
You are going to cut your pieces out and cut the interfacing out (where they show triangles on the pattern, cut the triangle out in the fabric). The interfacing is going to give your hat more stability and shape. I used fusible interfacing, so it needs to be ironed on using a wet cloth and hot iron.
Once you have interfaced the pieces, you will pin and sew using the seam allowances given in the pattern. Pin the sides and front together, and sides and back together, using the arrows from the pattern. You will then pin the two pieces together and sew. Pin the brim, sew the seam, put right sides together, sew, turn and press. Sew the inside seam of the brim and then attach to the crown of the hat. You can clip the brim just do not go over the seam allowance and this will help to give a smooth line.
I decided to use a matching brim, opposed to using a different fabric, but I did do the bottom side of the brim in the contrast fabric. I also chose to line the hat with the contrasting fabric, which the pattern did not call for.
When lining the hat you are just using the same crown pieces and cutting it in the contrast fabric. It is almost like creating another hat, but worth the extra effort. Instead of hand stitching I placed the lining in the hat after I pressed a Ā¼ā seam in to hide the raw edge. I then brought it to the machine and it created a topstitch on the hat, which I then topstitched the brim. You now have a completed hat!
Congrats, you have completed a great outfit, I have now made two of them as gifts, and canāt wait to get started on my next project. I hope this gives you the courage to try something maybe a little out of your crafting comfort, it really is rewarding in the end.
