Denim Romper
August 18, 2017
I got it into my mind that I needed a denim romper with a button-up shirt style top. Instagram is a great source for sewing inspiration. The first photo I saw was this....
I also liked these.....
I started with McCall's 7330. It has good reviews and some promising results (see Erica Bunker's awesome jumpsuit) However, I knew that I wanted a real button-up front, not that silly thing they do on women's clothes that widens into a V-neck at the top causing the collar to not meet at the front. Straightening out the front was easy. Drafting a new neckline and collar, not so much. I've added collars to garments before so it wasn't an entirely new process, but the forward shoulder seam really threw me off. My finished collar went together smoothly, but I'm not 100% pleased with how it sits. I think I could have made the back neckline higher, and the front neckline lower. Oh well.
You can see the buttonbands here. I changed these up as well. After studying denim shirts in stores and in family members' closets, I ditched the pattern's buttonband construction. I extended the left front 2.5" from the center front. I folded 1" under twice and edge-stitched the fold. This makes a nice non-bulky band upon which to sew the buttons. On the right side, where the buttonholes go, I cut a piece 2 3/8" wide by the length of the front. This was stitched to the inside, wrapped around the front, and topstitched in place. I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I ended up with a perfect 1/8" reveal on the inside, just like a real shirt!
I really wanted the fly and the button-band to line up, like some of my inspiration garments. I spent far too many hours trying to figure it out before I concluded it was impossible. The fly is on the center front, but the buttonband is centered on the center front. I even went to the store just to open up the Simplicity 8060 jumpsuit to see how that was drafted. Mimi G has the fly at an angle from the crotch to the waistband, rather than directly on the center. While that works for that style with a drawstring waistband, it wasn't going to work for me. Instead, I just extended the waistband to give it a more dramatic tab and draw attention away from the misalignment. You can see here that I also added a fly shield behind the zipper.
Some of the other design changes I made include adding a hanging loop to the back, omitting the sleeve and hem tabs, drafting new pockets, and generally adding a bunch of topstitching. On the sleeves and sides the topstitching secures flat-felled seams to emphasize the "denim shirt" style.
I struggled with the fit of this garment. Based on my measurements, I cut a small in the top and a medium in the waistband and shorts. I also added 1/2" to the top length after comparing the flat pattern to rompers that do (or do not) have enough wearing ease for me. In retrospect, I should have done pattern adjustments to the small short to add some ease only at the hip/seat. After a basted fit-check I took in each side seam and the center back about 1" starting at the waist and decreasing to nothing at the hip. There is still a lot of bagginess in the legs and front of the shorts. I inserted elastic into the back waistband to get a closer fit without over-fitting or losing wearing ease. The gathering of the elastic makes it hard to see that I didn't gather the top/shorts to the waistband as instructed. Instead, I made teeny tiny pleats. This thicker denim just looked sloppy when gathered.
This was a fun project to make, and even more fun to wear. It has encouraged me to add some button-front shirts to the sewing list and to work on a pants/shorts block.
This was a fun project to make, and even more fun to wear. It has encouraged me to add some button-front shirts to the sewing list and to work on a pants/shorts block.
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