Saturday, September 9, 2017

One Romper Panda



In my previous post, I already told you that I contributed a teeny tiny bit to one Thimble 16. Besides patterns, One thimble also has articles and tutorials, and in issue 16 there is an inspirational piece on how to sew costumes. The most important thing for sewing a costume is your imagination, and the article shows that with one base pattern you can make an unlimited amount of different costumes. The base pattern that was used was the One Romper* pattern by Filles a Mamán (from issue 13*) and I turned it into a panda costume for my son.



My kids love hoods (although they hate the fact that they are not allowed to wear them up during school). A hood is a perfect element to show the details of a costume, so it was clear that my costume romper need a hood. I took the hood from the Marty hoodie from issue 11* which fitted perfectly without any adjustments. The hood is designed NOT to cross/ meet in the middle, so it will fit many neck lines. The hood is designed to have a smaller lining piece, but I turned the pieces around. I actually put the lining pieces on the outside. This way I had a seam to put the panda ears in. I cut the ears from scaled ear pieces from the baby shoe pattern from the same One Thimble issue* as the Marty hoodie.



 Instead of cutting the front on the fold, I just cut two separate front halves because I wanted to add a zipper. I cut the regular neck band, but instead of closing it to a loop, I immediately sewed it to the neckline. Than I sewed the zipper on both fronts and top stitched the zipper. I kept the actual hacking to a minimum to make recreation easy. A real panda has black arms and legs, so I simply cut black sleeves and I color blocked the romper by cutting the pattern on the "shorts" line (and added seam allowance to both side of the cut). I  omitted the anatomically correct black line on the back (the one connected the arms, and made full white back.



In nature a panda has a white tail, and I felt that is would add sitting discomfort more than that it would add "wow" to the suit, so I left it out. With hindsight, I should have gone with a black tail. Although it is not like nature designed it, it would have added to the idea of the costume (as it does in the pillow on the picture). In most cases your costume will not be lifelike, and that is not important. The main thing is that you and your kid have fun, so if your kid asks for a tail, although the actual animal does not have one, or you only have the wrong shade of fabric, just let it go. Enjoy the adventure with your kid, there is always next for an even better costume.



Before I sewed the panda, I used the pattern to make summer pj's for my son. I had the perfect fabric in my stash for a super cool version. I have been adding side seam pockets to everything lately, and I am starting to rethink the way I sew them in. The pockets often end up  like my son is showing here, like little wings. My son totally does not care, but in the future I will sew the pocket opening smaller than the actual pocket, that should keep them in place better.



Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian). If you buy anything through my affiliate links (*), I get a small commission (the price stays the same for you), I am very grateful for everything that feeds my fabric addiction.


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