This is the Ellie and Mac South Shore Romper, a super cute pattern. This fun romper pattern has a cross over, or faux wrap, bodice with the option to have shorts or pants . Plus, it has a few different sleeve lengths included.

So, this was one of those sews where nothing went quite right. Perhaps you have had this sort of thing happen to you too?

First of all, I ran out of the blue modal fabric I had planned to use, so I had to do some digging and ended up finding a coordinating gray dbp fabric. I cut the band and tie in the same gray color. That worked out great in the end!

Second,  I lengthened the bodice per the pattern instructions as I have a long side waist. The pattern is drafted for a 8 inch side waist, and I measured my side waist to be 9.5 inches.

So I lengthened the bodice by 1.5 inches. The pattern is drafted for a 5’4″ person, and I’m 5’5″ so I thought I would just leave the bottom half alone and be golden. I got it all sewn together and, crap,  the inseam was too low, and the shorts came to just above my knee. I know I have a short rise, I should have expected this!

So, I tried on the shorts and pulled them up to  where I liked how they fit and looked, then made a mark near the waistband. After cutting the shorts at the mark I made, I re-attached the elastic to the top of the shorts portion. But…I made a mistake and had to seam rip a bit off at the beginning and accidentally put a hole in the fabric! Agh! 

(btw, I should have used knit elastic, but I used braided and you’ll see in the pics if you look closely that it is a bit stiff and therefore wavy, anyway…).

I finished attaching the elastic and sewed the shorts into the bodice and realized you could totally see white thread stitching popping out near the seam. Lesson learned, next time I’ll use a narrower stitch on the serger when attaching the elastic. I fixed this by using a zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine just outside the visible stitching and it fixed the issue.

Now, what about that hole I made earlier? It’s small and in the back, so I darned the hole with matching thread on the sewing machine. Voila, done! Or so I thought until I got to my closet to hang it up and realized I just darned the hole to the top of the bodice!

🙁

I slept on the issue, then ended up picking the stitches out the next day. I was REALLY careful not to make another hole this time. After re-darning the hole without attaching to any other part of the garment, it was truly finished. 

I’ve worn the romper quite a few times now, and have never noticed that little hole I fixed! All’s well that ends well!

We Learn From Our Mistakes

I say this to myself all the time, but I really learn something new with every project. I’m sure that’s true for you too. Try not to let your mistakes get you down, and instead treat them as a lesson for next time! I still got a super cute romper out of the deal!

How’s Wearing It?

I haven’t owned a romper in my adult years. It’s so comfortable! It feels like pajamas, but looks really cute. The criss-cross top makes it really easy to get on and off.

Here’s the back, I had enough of the blue fabric to make the back of the bodice. I really like how the shorts are a bit loose at the bottom, it’s super flattering.

The pattern does come with an optional tie as well. I like it both ways, with and without the tie. A more drapy fabric would allow the tie to look cute in a bow too.

Here it is with the tie in the back, it does cinch in the waist nicely.

I’ll make another, but next time I’ll know how much to add and subtract in the length and hopefully not make those same silly mistakes again!