A little about me . . . Four and a half years ago, I said, "I do" to my wonderful husband, Ryan, and we now have two little boys who are almost 3 and 1 1/2. My current favorite things to learn about are sewing and photography. In what feels like a lifetime ago, I was a dedicated runner (before the sleepless nights of two babies 15 months apart), a seminary student, and an editor. When I'm not sewing or blogging or loving on my family, I'm a freelance editor for Bible studies published by NavPress. Life is busy to say the least! And I love it.
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Today, I'm going to show you how to alter a jon jon pattern. Before you continue reading, make sure you understand the basics of making a jon jon.
My desire to spice things up a bit started last January when I went a little crazy sewing jon jons for my 17 month old. As I began sewing the same thing once, twice, three times . . . it occurred to me that there must be a way to vary my pattern.
So I looked through the jon jons I'd previously bought that were hanging in our closet and started playing around.
This is my favorite jon jon pattern, the William by Children's Corner, without any tweaks ::
And here is what I'll show you how to make today ::
See how square the neck and arm holes are?
And see the V in the back?
Subtle changes can make a big difference!
Let's get started.
1. Lay out your fabric and cut your pattern as you normally would.
2. Remove the pattern, but leave the pins in place for all four pieces (2 fabric, 2 lining) that will make up the front portion of the jon jon. Use a fabric pen to draw a straight line from the top of the outer front that continues down until it's even with the bottom arm hole, and cut ::
{ Please ignore the rounded line on the top for now. I'll get to that option later! }
3. Do the same for the back arm holes.
4. Use your marker to continue the strap down in a diagonal line to form a "V" in the back.
5. Cut the back arm holes and "V" back.
6. That's it! You're finished! Continue sewing the jon jon together as you normally would.
7. When you've finished sewing and are ready to snip the fabric at the corners, be sure to take enough fabric out of the squared off parts so you keep a crisp corner.
The almost final product ::
8. Add button holes, buttons, and snaps, and put it on your little guy!
Before I say good-bye and thank Jama for the opportunity to guest blog, here's one more suggestion ::
You can also consider rounding out the top like this ::
To give you a finished product like this ::
Or do a little less rounding and create a diagonal arm (looks really cute on!) like this ::
Or you can square off the arm holes AND the back like this ::
There are so many possibilities, so get creative!
Thanks so much, Jama, for asking me to do this post. It's been fun!
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