Miracle Weekend - There was SEWING!!!

Give a man a fish and he has food for a day;

teach him how to fish and 

you can get rid of him for the entire weekend.

~ Zenna Scha

"Sewing" is my "fishing"...  ;)

I know - I can hardly believe it myself!  But not only did I get some weaving done over the weekend, I also got in some sewing!

Oh, happy day!  :)

I made a reversible bubble romper (with this pattern) for a young couple in my ESL class, who are expecting their first child in July.  They are going to name their son Manuel, their color scheme is green (not blue) and they hope he grows up to be a baseball player.

I documented every step with photos, in part because I think it's a very clever design that allows every single seam to be hidden.

There are really only 3 pattern pieces - the front (cut on the fold), the back (cut 2) and the tab (cut 2 and interfacing) that opens and closes between the legs.

Step #1 is to attach the two back pieces to the front piece.  Here is one of the fabrics I selected - green and a sports theme (including, but not limited to, baseball):

My second fabric choice was in the same style - but had a pirate theme:

Once you have shoulder seams complete in both fabrics, you align them, right sides together and stitch the neck and upper back openings - you can see where I stitched by looking at where I trimmed the fabric with pinking shears:

And you stitch the armholes:

Next, pull each side back through its corresponding shoulder seam, to turn the romper right-side-out:

This takes a bit of pushing and tugging and fiddling...  

...and some serious pressing...

...but it turns out beautifully!  :)

After that, you work on the side seams.  You can see here how I have one side seam opened up - when the other side is opened up similarly, they can be aligned and stitched, right sides and matching fabrics together.

Here is a view with one side seam closed up:

Next up is the leg openings:

See how they are opened up here:

This one is a bit different, because you align different fabrics, right sides together:

After stitching them together and turning them right side out, you add a second row of stitching to form the casing for the elastic:

And here is the elastic inserted, courtesy of a safety pin:

The only seams left open are the back and crotch seams.  You do the back seam first - all in one long seam:

Open it up...

...pin it together and stitch - right sides and same fabrics matching - scrunching the rest of the romper in the middle:

The last main step is to hide the only remaining raw edges - along the front and back crotch - inside tabs.  This step is not unlike attaching a collar to a shirt.  Here are the tabs:

Hopefully, in this next picture, you can make out the tab, as it is being attached to the romper:  

After you get one side of the tab attached, you flip it over, tuck everything into it and seal it closed.  

Here's the romper with both tabs attached:  

Add some button holes and buttons, or snap tape, or strips of velcro:  

And you have finished a beautiful, reversible, bubble romper!  

The only thing I've never been able to figure out is where to put my label, since there is no "inside" to this outfit...  ;)