Harem Romper Cuteness

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the first blog post I've published with Frankie modelling! Let's do this thing...

Pattern:

If Brindille & Twig had a fight with Ottobre design for the title of 'Best children's wear pattern designer' in the knit catagory, who would win? Tricky to say. Anyway, this is the former's harem romper pattern, which spans sizes from preemie to 6T. Having tried five of their patterns now, I find that B&T patterns are consistently on the large side. I made these for Frankie when he was 9 months old so I chose the 6-9 month size. He's now almost 11 months old and there's still heaps of wear left in them.

What I love about this pattern is that you can make the whole damn thing using just an overlocker/serger. No need to flit back and forth between sewing machines. It makes construction incredibly quick; I think whipped up one of these in two hours, including cutting the fabric out. That was especially useful when our washing machine went on the blink and he had nothing to wear the following morning!

The pattern includes options for popper/press stud or tie fastenings at the shoulder, but I can't imagine anything more annoying than trying to tie shoulder ties on a wriggling baby after each nappy change. I'm tempted to try buttons/buttonholes too on future version to use some cute buttons from my stash. And in case you're wondering, there aren't any poppers/press studs round the crotch so you have to pull the whole thing down to do a bum change, but it's not as difficult as I thought it'd be.

For Frankie at least, I found that the fit is slightly off: the top part is much looser than the legs. Granted he's has got pretty chunky thighs, but even so. For future versions, I'll blend between sizes and choose the leg width and ankle cuffs from two sizes larger than the top part. Currently, I'd describe it more as a 'leggings romper' than a 'harem romper'.

Fabric:

If you've visited my blog previously, you may have seen these fabrics in action before (this pattern is a great scrap/small-piece buster in the smaller sizes). The cheetah fabric is from Girl Charlee, which I've used previously for this breastfeeding Agnes top (yes, we have accidentally worn matching outfits!). This fabric is incredibly soft with excellent stretch and recovery, so it is absolutely perfect for baby wear. 

I made Dolores some pyjama bottoms from the monsters-and-snacks fabric as part of a myfabrics.co.uk promotion. She's worn them heaps and they still look great, so I knew that the fabric would be super comfy for this romper pattern and launder well. The pink colour way is still available, if you're interested. 

Thoughts:

Some might argue that sewing for babies isn't really worth it as they grow out of clothing so rapidly. However, this pattern would be an exception. If you make them slightly too big initially, they will receive plenty of wear for the very little sewing time required to make them. They can be worn on its own or layered with a vest/bodysuit underneath on chillier days. 

And simply by choosing fabric that is even slightly more interesting than the baby wear selection available in most clothing shops (not hard), they cannot fail to garner compliments. I don't think he's ever worn these outside the house without someone commenting on his outfit. One women practically offered to buy the cheetah print one off him whilst he was out with his dad once! If you follow me on Instagram (@sozoblog), expect to see more of these in the future...