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Oldies, But Goodies
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Aug
3
It was down to the wire. It was our sister’s due date, and the only things we had made for “baby girl” were two 12 month outfits that we had inadvertently cut the wrong size for her big sister. So, we got busy, quickly.
Baby bubble sacque online tutorials are plentiful, but I chose what I’d like to call “the road less traveled.” It all began with an existing pattern. Yes, I confess, I’m not that good. Patterns are my crutch. I can’t trace, snip, and fly by the seat of my pants and have a perfect garment like so many of the bloggers I follow. One can dream though. Maybe one day.
Recently, Emily {suzanne} and I had purchased the Oliver + S bubble dress pattern in hopes of sewing it for “baby girl.” Which is in the works by the way. . .but I’m getting ahead of myself. To make our sacque, we used the skirt portion of the pattern {view b} without the side seam scallops, unlined, and lengthened it by 3″.
Rather than cutting two back pieces, we positioned the back piece 1/2″ past the fold to adjust for the seam allowance and cut it as one piece.
The actual skirt when lengthened was 17″, so you can cut one sacque on 1/2 yard. Perfect for large scraps! We also cut 1″ wide bias strips to make piping that would separate the bodice and skirt portion. To say we love piping probably doesn’t do it justice; I really think we are a tad obsessed.
We had really wanted colored onesies, but never found any ‘just right’ and reasonably priced. Maybe one day we will get brave enough to use dye. We ended up purchasing a 3-pack of plain white Gerber onesies. We measured 1″ underneath each armpit and cut the bottom of the onesie off.
Next, I opened the seam under one armpit approximately 5/8 inch to attach the piping to the onesie. After attaching the piping, I stitched the seam under the armpit closed.
I did say piping obsession. So no one would feel left out, all three sacques got their fair share of piping.
The skirt portion still needed its sides’ stitched up and seams finished. After that had been completed and gathering threads on the skirt were stitched in place, Emily {suzanne} gathered the skirt and attached it to the piped Gerber bodice.
Disclaimer: One can never have too many pins. If they weren’t reusable, we might consider buying stock in them.
At this point, if I had just hemmed the sacque, it would have made a sweet dress, but we are bubble addicts, so I continued on. A quarter inch was pressed up at the bottom of the skirt, then an additional 5/8″ was folded and pressed. I stitched both sides to make the casing and left about 2″ open to insert the 1/4″ elastic.
Of course, you can adjust and use wider elastic if that’s what you prefer. Emily {suzanne} measured 17″ of elastic and fed it through the casing.
These were so easy to sew up {and would make perfect baby shower gifts}, that instead of sewing just one, we sewed three! We decided to embellish two of them. On one of them, Emily {suzanne} made a sweet little mini ric rac flower, burning the ends of the ric rac to prevent fraying. She learned several valuable lessons during the ric rac flower making process, with the first and foremost being mini-ric rac is difficult to handle and weave as the online tutorials forewarned.
For another sacque, I stitched a small piece of the original fabric on the bodice.
We made it just under the wire, and took the third, unembellished sacque to the hospital to meet “baby girl.” Whew. . .no naked baby, at least for today.
*Post Disclaimer: “Baby Girl” has since outgrown the bubble sacques…yes, at 4 weeks old. The piping is preventing adequate stretching for head and arm insertion. So, lesson learned. We must forego the piping (that hurts to type that phrase), OR work a placket of some sort into the outfit. We like the latter option…
*Please note: This post contains “affiliate links”, yet we do solemnly promise that all proceeds will be used to fund our fabric {and sewing} obsession!
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Sweet!
(And I love all the pinning,girls after my own heart)
Well, we thought we’d outgrow this habit as we improved….but if YOU’RE still doing it, we’re a hopeless cause!!
If you still want the look of piping and you want it to still stretch, try buying another color of onesie in the same size cut a one inch strip from the same spot as the white onesie, fold it in half and insert it where the piping goes and sew around. It will be flat piping but give you the same sweet look !and it will stretch.
Would it work to just do the piping in the front so the back still has the stretch? The sac fabric or another knit fabric could be used for piping.
As I was reading this I was wondering how you would get a real baby (or even a doll LOL) into that meticulously piped bodice (there’s a reason that dresses have zippers or button plackets that extend down through the waistline seam).
Suggestion to get the piped look but retain the stretch– use foldover elastic, folded in half, inserted in the seam as you would piping, being careful not to stretch the elastic as you sew, so as not to draw up the bodice. You want it to look flat, like your piping would, but then be able to stretch as needed when dressing baby. Stitch the seam with either a narrow zigzag,or better yet, a three step zigzag so that your stitches won’t pop when you stretch the finished garment.
I have done this to “pipe” top and bottom of an inset yoke on a dress that I made of a stretchy knit instead of a woven and omitted the back opening altogether. I used the same foldover elastic around the neckline and the dress went on right over the child’s head.
Where did you find the precious knits?
The skirt fabrics were cotton . . . not knit on these. We did some other ones that were completed with knit, but not these.
I think these are so sweet. I have also seen them made with minky on the bottom. Lovely!