I {heart} Rompers: Pattern Review

To me summer weather and little girls means it's time to breakout the ROMPERS! I was so happy when I came across this FREE tutorial though I had never ever tried to shirr anything before in my life. I thought, "How hard could it really be?" Well I soon found out!

I started by reading some of the suggested tutorials on shirring straight from the Made By Rae tutorial page. It seemed easy enough so I loaded my bobbin with the elastic thread and started testing it out on some scrap pieces of fabric. I spent the next 3 hours or so trying to figure out why I wasn't getting the result I had seen online. I thought "This just isn't for me, I guess" and I walked away very defeated. Later that night I got back online and started looking up trouble shooting on shirring. I can't tell you how delighted I was to read that Brother sewing machines are notorious for making shirring difficult! I read one blog post that actually said "It's not you, it's your machine!" Few! I had started to doubt my abilities and was taking it quite personal. Who knew that you sewing machine could hurt your feelings?!?

The best advice I found came from another blogger (My Favorite Things) who has the same exact machine as I do. She too had the same struggles as I did, wasted just as much time as me but was able to figure out how to make it work. What a smart cookie! I followed her tips and voila! It worked like a charm...whatever that means...

I am so excited about my new skill and am looking into more projects I can do using it.

As for this Romper Tutorial from Made By Rae, it was a breeze! Minus the shirring hiccup of course.

I will definitely be making more. If you find that you are intimidated by the snaps that go on the bottom of the romper she suggests cutting off the bottom strip of snaps from an old onsie and sewing them onto the new one. You can also buy some snap tape and attach it that way. I bought a snap kit at Hobby Lobby and attached the snaps that way, it was too easy!

Happy Crafting!