Cute yet functional

Those little rompers I have been seeing around finally got to me.  Not the adult version…oh no.  That’s just a bit wrong and far too 1980’s for moi.  I’m talking about those little rompers that just scream CUTE! LITTLE! GIRL!

I saw a nice plain one in a magazine and decided to do one for our little princess.  Of course, my versions aren’t plain.  Apparently I don’t do plain.

I do however make them so my child is able to undress herself.  Having romper with buttons or a zipper in the back would be very non-functional.  So would ties or snaps at the shoulder.  It seems like most of the ones I have seen have these types of closures.  Yeah…like that works.  Since my kid knows how to go to the bathroom herself now, I don’t really feel the need to have to help her get undressed anymore.  Go figure!

The options therefore become a front zipper or a shirred-back-easy-to-slip-off romper.  Buttons are not the easiest to undo right now, so I think I will wait on that option.  Sometimes they need to exit their clothing in a hurry, so let’s not temp the Fates, shall we? 😉  Snaps might work, but they are still a bit hard to resnap for Anya.

If you didn’t know before, I really try to make the designs to be as functional, comfortable and pretty as possible.  There are many pretty outfits that I just won’t make for my Anya.  Too much fluff, too hard to sit on, too hard to play in…they just do not seem all that comfortable or functional.  When I make clothes for my kids, I want them to be wearable.  Not just for special occassions, but for everyday.  Anya has worn that pink silk duiponi dress to daycare, since once the holidays were over…I didn’t really care.  I don’t make things to have them only be worn once.

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Voila…The Anya Romper line circa 2010!  Here is the concept line drawings.  It’s almost like I’m a real fashion designer!!  *dream* 😉  The basics of the romper, is a separate top and shorts.  The top is fully lined, with all the seams enclosed, so there is no chaffing.  The shorts have elastic in the hems to bunch it up a little bit.  Two of them have a zipper down the front and one has a shirred back and straps.  All should be fairly easy for her to get off and on herself.

The almost-plain-geisha romper

The geisha’s make another appearance on a posy fabric.  It’s simple but with an extra bit of special with the pretty geisha’s.  Anya gave it a disinterested glance, so I’ll see if she wears it.  If not it may get sold, since it is just too darn cute to not be worn.  I added ribbon to the zipper so it was easy for her to grasp to pull down, plus a little yin yang zipper pull.  Love the little details. 🙂

The it-must-be-pink romper

The obligatory pink.  She went to the fabric store with me when I needed a zipper and *gasped* when she saw this fabric.  Of course, I had to buy it for her.  I only got one yard of it, so it was about the right amount for the romper.  I used the white fabric as the lining, as well as the ruffle.  The little jewels I already had, and I hand sewed them onto the ruffle.  The “braiding” I had already, as well.  I put it in place with Wondertape and then sewed it on.  I added pink ribbons to the zipper so it would be easier for her to find, and grasp it, to pull down.

The mommy-wants-to-use-this-one-for-a photo-shoot romper

Sweet as sweet can be!   Okay, so yes, this is not the most functional of garments.  I just had to make it, though.  Can’t you just see some fairy wings on her when she’s wearing it??  A magical little dress up romper.  I had almost all of this fabric and trims in my stash – I only needed to buy a small amount of cream satin.  The cream woven fabric has a very light pattern with butterflies on it.  I already had the butterfly iron-on.  I love it when a project comes together with a minimal amount of purchases.

 she did a very good job in posing for me this time…much cuteness prevailed as she twirled around the library

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This skirt is not from the romper line.  I broke down and bought some long sleeved shirts on clearance at Old Navy and Anya needed a skirt to match.  I know, I know…I wasn’t going to do it.  I hate buying from the sweatshops, but I just didn’t have the energy and they were only $3 each.  Gah…I still feel guilty!

I know it is shocking that Anya didn’t have a skirt to match a pink shirt, but I do mostly dresses.  She had PLENTY of pink dresses.  I whipped this up in about a hour and a half from fabrics I had in the closet.  I kinda wish I would have made a pattern for that top skirt panel instead of just cutting on the fly.  I really like how it turned out.  The back piece is longer in the middle than the front piece.  I cut bias strips of fabric to make the edging.  I sewed one edge of the bias strip to the skirt edge, and then folded it over and topstitched.  Not too hard…and it turned out so cute!

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Here’s a few blogs for little ones sewing that are pretty fun, too:

** Olabelhe – She designs some very cute dresses for her little girl and started up a pattern business from that.

** Inditutes – A lovely lady that is very green and earth friendly.  🙂  She shows you how to make your own patterns and repurpose clothes.  A great resource with lots of wonderful tutorials.

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I hope everyone had a productive week.  The sudden warming temperatures must be making my body move faster.  I sure feel like I have more energy. 🙂

Right now, I have lots of photography taking up my time.  I had a 3-year old twin boy session on Sunday, and this Saturday I am shooting a small wedding.  All that photoprocessing will be taking a lot of time away from my sewing machine. *sigh*  I really need to get Kai’s classroom project done.  That is just hanging over my head.  Maybe this week.

I have the pictures from the twin session mostly processed.  I ran into a little snag when I came home to edit them.  I couldn’t open up the RAW files.  I hadn’t shot RAW on this camera yet, but didn’t think it would be a big deal.  Apparently I need to upgrade to CS4, since it doesn’t support my camera’s NEF files.  Instead I just downloaded Lightroom for a 30 day trial and then opened them up as .tiff files in CS3.  This is proving a bit too time intestive.  It took me most of the day Sunday, between figuring out what was wrong and how to get to my files.  I’m not sure I will be shooting the wedding in RAW.  I usually don’t need to do exposure adjustments, but I will see if I can get my workflow figured out.  Lightroom is proving helpful, but I need to figure it out first.

So much to do…so little time!