Fit to a T baby romper, part 2: cut it out

Hello, and thanks for your patience! In the past few weeks, we’ve moved in Massachusetts and married off our last remaining single sibling in Tennessee. Oh, and Gracie learned to clap and to say it is the cutest thing ever would surely cheapen the experience.

But back to the romper…

First, I forgot to say that if you don’t have a romper-style garment to copy, use any kind of onesie or sleep and play and just continue the line of the side to add legs. That’s why I like this style, very simple and easy to fit.

Cutting out your pattern is great fun, but more a matter of personal choice than anything else. Figure out how you want to preserve the image on your T shirt first, then arrange the rest of the pieces around that. Since the front and back are identical (you could raise the neckline in the back and lower it in the front if you wanted to, but it works well if they are the same in this style, which has a back placket and added neckline), you can simply lay out your T-shirt, smooth it down, and begin cutting your pattern pieces.

A tip: don’t throw away any T shirt scraps yet. They may come in handy later! Especially if you tend to mess up experiment a lot like I do.

Here’s how mine worked out.

• romper front & back -middle front & back of the T
• romper sleeves- one cut on the fold of each T sleeve
• T neckband to be used for romper neckband
• long side remnants  to be used for back placket (cut 2: approximately 2 1/2″ wide and 6″ long, with the grain running up and down the length) and edgings for the sleeves and leg (approx. 2 1/2″ wide and a bit longer than the sleeve and leg edgings. Don’t stress about it.)
• long bottom remnant to be used for leg opening snap reinforcement (approx. 2 1/2″ wide. Length is, well, just make it longer than your leg opening!)

Some other tips: you can cut your romper sleeve at the edge of the T sleeve so that you use the hem that’s already made. You can do this with the leg openings, too, at the bottom of the T, if it doesn’t mess with the placement of your T image. It’s a great time saving step that also looks good!

And a view without the pattern pieces.

Up next: the back placket.