I’m so excited to share my latest finished project! And this time it’s not crochet or embroidery, but sewing!

I’ve seen so many people in the handmade/sewing community share their own Jazz rompers the past few years, and I’ve wanted to make my own for a long time! The Jazz pattern by Ready to Sew is a really amazing pattern, as it includes 80 variations of garment elements such as skirt, shorts, peplum, pants, bib front, wrap top, button placket or no, for lots of fun customization. You can find the pattern here. (not affiliated)

I actually started this project LAST YEAR. I managed to print and cut out my pattern pieces, then trace them onto the fabric. But then my wrist injury and nerve pain really kicked up and I had to put the project aside (also, with Covid we weren’t really going much of anywhere, so finishing the romper wasn’t urgent, anyway). About two and a half months post-surgery, I’m very happy that I was finally able to cut it out and finished it!

I have a basic knowledge of garment sewing, especially when it comes to machine sewing, but the pattern directions were mostly clear (and anything I got confused on was easily figured out with a couple of Google searches).

Materials Used:

For the material, I knew I wanted something light and soft, comfortable to wear. I wound up going with this mustard yellow linen blend from Joann in the color “Honey.” The fabric can look a deeper yellow in some lighting, like in the modeling pics here, or much more muted, as in the detail pics below. Also seen in the pics below, this linen fabric frayed very easily. Not a dealbreaker for a garment like this, but just something to note. More on that below.

I paired it with some plastic rosy-pink buttons from a big bag that included multiple size and color buttons I got from Wal-Mart years ago. I use them often for baby and kid gift projects. I typically like to used vintage buttons from my stash for personal garments, but I love peachy, rosy pinks paired with mustard yellow, and these fit the color palette.

Modifications:

The main modification I made to this pattern was making the straps tie in the front instead of being sewn in place. I love this look and also the adjustability. For the “bow” look, I didn’t pull the end all the way through the knot, leaving a loop. I then tucked the tie end into the other side of the knot, creating a fake bow loop. Hopefully, the picture above helps that make more sense. I haven’t finished the tie ends yet because I want to wear the romper a bit and get a feel for how long I want the ties to be first. (I cut them each 1.5 times the length given for the straps in the pattern, and that seems to be a good length so far.)

As for sizing, the Jazz is designed with a good bit of ease and a relaxed fit. Based on the size chart, I decided to grade from a bigger size on the hips to a smaller one on the bib. This was easy thanks to the PDF being layered. I just printed the two sized I needed and drew in a curved line connecting them from waist to top of bib front. I’m fine with how the fit turned out since I really like the relaxed fit and ease, but I honestly would have probably been fine using the smaller of the two sizes straight.

Other Notes:

I mentioned that this fabric frays easily. I don’t have a serger, so at the points where the pattern directions call for serging I either used pinking shears or my sewing machine’s “overedge” stitch. I’m a little worried that the fabric might keep fraying where the overedge stitch was used, but I think I’m going to see how it handles a few washes. I figure I can always go back and pinking shear them, too, if the fraying becomes too much of a problem.

I think French seams would have been a good solution here and I’ve used them before on tops I’ve made, and in fact use them for the pockets on all my crochet skirt patterns! But since I’d never made this pattern before, nor any pattern with this much detail, I didn’t want to change things up too much.

This was also my first time making inset pockets and I’m really pleased with how they turned out! I was nervous before sewing them and worried I’d mess up big time and have some seam ripping involved, but they turned out okay. On one pocket, I didn’t get that bottom curve as smoothly as I would have liked, but it didn’t affect the final look of the pocket. So it’s all good.

A small mistake here at the crotch, you can see that tiny sort of pleat/fold just under the fly bar. Thankfully it doesn’t affect fit and isn’t noticeable when being worn. Since I’m still learning when it comes to machine garment sewing, those two points are my basic metric for whether I go back and redo a sort-of tricky part or not.

This romper is so comfortable and I’m excited to try it with lots of different shirts I have in my wardrobe. Paired with the soft, breathable fabric, it should be nice for spring and summer weather.