1950’s Vintage Simplicity: Pattern 1443 Baby Romper

Last year while on maternity leave and holding my daughter for hours upon end while she was sleeping, I perused pinterest and what seemed like every crafting blog. I stumbled upon Julie’s Blog and her post about a vintage baby jumper. She has some super cute projects! Anyway, I fell in love with that baby jumper and had to make one for my little one. The pattern she used is very hard to find, so I combed through Etsy’s vintage baby patterns until I found one that was similar.

Simplicity 1443. Needless to say I added that puppy to my cart and checked out immediately (well, not before adding a vintage bed sheet to my order 😉 ).

There are so many cute little baby outfits here! I love all of them! I don’t think I’ll have time to make them all though, but they’re sooooo adorable.

So #4 it was! It’s not as rounded, but I can easily change that if I want to! I was ecstatic (mostly because I wouldn’t have to work to make my own pattern, considering I have all of no time!).I’ve had this pattern for months and finally found some time to sew it up. Now here it is!As you can see, I was in such a rush to finish, I put the snaps on backwards! It took me awhile to actually notice this. It wasn’t until I was writing this post that it finally dawned on me.

The back still looks super cute though! I love the bubble butt, and I couldn’t wait to put it on my little one. Can’t you just picture a diaper covered bottom filling this out?So here it is with the snaps corrected. Looks much better. I just love those little hedgehogs and selected the bias tape to bring them out. The little hexagons are a mint green, but when I placed mint green bias tape against it, the whole romper looked washed out, so dark blue it was.I used a very contrasty color for the lining. The pattern called for plastic, but we just don’t need that anymore, so I put something soft inside instead. I really love the details too, like the small area of elastic between the legs.It just looks like it would be so comfortable around sweet, chubby baby thighs!Inside…The pattern had me cut the lining short, probably because it was supposed to be a plastic liner. I think next time I’ll line the entire thing. I might also make the straps wider and line them with bias tape for some contrast.

I selected Enchant Little Folk Pink from Cinderberry Stitches primarily for those hedgehogs (for some reason my baby laughs whenever I say hedgehog!), and the yellow gingham is from a Pottery Barn pillow case. I just purchased blue bias tape instead of making my own, and pearlized snaps that are big and easy to snap and unsnap.

Sadly, when I tried this on my baby, she was much too big for it. I had a feeling… I can easily make a bigger version, but we’re approaching cooler weather, and well, I have too many projects coming up, so this will end up going to a friend’s baby (maybe she’ll take pictures and I’ll share them). I’m definitely making more of these in the future though. They’re so adorable I want to melt!

I love vintage patterns!