Its taken me awhile to get the courage to 'hack' patterns. To give them my own spins or slight modifications.
Jessica from Flosstyle mention the adding ruffles to the Romper. I'm not a big fan of ruffles, but I thought they would look totally adorable on the Zoo Rompers.
Ok so honestly its really easy to do!. Heres the process I went through (with some photos!)
Sew up the two back pieces of the Romper, and mark where the Shirt line falls on the back piece. I marked with a pin, and then just drew a line across. I did have to adjust the butt part so that the legs were straight.
Next draw another line 3/4" inch up from the shirt line, and then another line 3/4" up from that one. (for the bigger sizes you can add another line, or two.. its totally up to you how many ruffles you do!). The distance between each line is totally up to you! I wouldn't recommend having them any closer together, but you could easily space them out to 1"
Next fold the ruffles in half and press, RTS (right sides together)
Now sadly, I hurt my wrist, and it was impossible to take anymore photos, I have been typing this out for the past few days! (Just a tip, don't go rollerblading, in the rain, on a gravel surface..) but its pretty straight forward from here.
After folding in half and pressing the RST, sew down one short end, and the raw edge, making a tube.
Turn the tubes right side out and give another press, this tubes mean you don't have to hem the ruffles!
Sew a gathering stitch down the side. A gathering stitch is a long stitch length down one side that you don't back stitch at the start or at the end.
Once you have done that too all the ruffles, you start to gather your ruffles by pulling on the bobbin thread (the one that was on the bottom). Spread your ruffles out evenly and make sure that your ruffles are the width of your back piece.
Starting at the lowest line, attach your ruffles along the lines that you have drawn, and sew them down. Repeat for all the ruffles.
Once attached yous should be able to remove your gathering threads from each of the ruffles to give it a really nice finish.
Now that your ruffles are done you can just continue to put the romper together as explained in the pattern instructions!
And this is what you get! How cute is she in This ruffled Stork Elephant??
Make sure you join the sew-a-long at Flosstyle Fair and you'll see a few more hacks, and a boat load more of inspiration. Don't be afraid of this pattern, once you get the first one done, you'll realise just how easy they are to put together!
Ok so honestly its really easy to do!. Heres the process I went through (with some photos!)
Sew up the two back pieces of the Romper, and mark where the Shirt line falls on the back piece. I marked with a pin, and then just drew a line across. I did have to adjust the butt part so that the legs were straight.
Next draw another line 3/4" inch up from the shirt line, and then another line 3/4" up from that one. (for the bigger sizes you can add another line, or two.. its totally up to you how many ruffles you do!). The distance between each line is totally up to you! I wouldn't recommend having them any closer together, but you could easily space them out to 1"
Next its ruffle time, depending on how many ruffles your doing, cut your strips. In my case I cut up 3 strips. 3 inch wide, but 1.5 times the width of your back piece. The 3inch wide, again, just preference, if you have your space between lines larger, you can make your ruffle strips wider.
The size 2 was 15 inches wide, so my strips were 3" x 22.5". This is just my personal preference, if you want fuller ruffles, make it twice the width of the back, if you want it less ruffly make it smaller :)
Next fold the ruffles in half and press, RTS (right sides together)
Now sadly, I hurt my wrist, and it was impossible to take anymore photos, I have been typing this out for the past few days! (Just a tip, don't go rollerblading, in the rain, on a gravel surface..) but its pretty straight forward from here.
After folding in half and pressing the RST, sew down one short end, and the raw edge, making a tube.
Turn the tubes right side out and give another press, this tubes mean you don't have to hem the ruffles!
Sew a gathering stitch down the side. A gathering stitch is a long stitch length down one side that you don't back stitch at the start or at the end.
Once you have done that too all the ruffles, you start to gather your ruffles by pulling on the bobbin thread (the one that was on the bottom). Spread your ruffles out evenly and make sure that your ruffles are the width of your back piece.
Starting at the lowest line, attach your ruffles along the lines that you have drawn, and sew them down. Repeat for all the ruffles.
Once attached yous should be able to remove your gathering threads from each of the ruffles to give it a really nice finish.
Now that your ruffles are done you can just continue to put the romper together as explained in the pattern instructions!
And this is what you get! How cute is she in This ruffled Stork Elephant??
Make sure you join the sew-a-long at Flosstyle Fair and you'll see a few more hacks, and a boat load more of inspiration. Don't be afraid of this pattern, once you get the first one done, you'll realise just how easy they are to put together!
