Pattern Hack - Turn the Love Notions Chorus into a Romper
This week saw the release of a very special Love Notions pattern. The aptly-named Chorus is special because the Love Notions’ community designed it. The fan-designed pattern features a beautiful deep draped cowl neckline in front and back, that makes for a graceful ‘Grecian Goddess’ feel when styled as a maxi in a fluid fabric like ITY or viscose elastane jersey.
But they missed a trick. The pattern as written is for a shirt or a dress, and the Chorus is just as lovely when sewn as a romper! In this pattern mash I’m going to show you how you can take the Chorus top and combine it with the Sunday Romper to make the elegant secret pyjamas jumpsuit of your dreams.
Choose your size
You might think that a pattern that sized 0-32 and a pattern that’s sized XS-5X can’t be mashed together, but they can. Here’s how:
You’ll need to sketch out 3 columns.
Measure your waist and hip and make a note of them in the first column.
Label the second column ‘Sunday Romper’ and write down your closest sizes for waist and hip (they may be different sizes for each).
Label the third ‘Chorus’ and write down your closest sizes. For the plus-size range this pattern has a lot of ease, so for example my waist is 48” but I chose a 4X, which is 45.5” on the body measurements chart in the pattern.
Prepare the pattern pieces
Next, you’re going to prepare the pattern pieces. I suggest that you either trace off the pieces from your A0 printout, or print a fresh A4/Letter copy because you’re going to make some alterations to the pattern that are specific to this hack. I wouldn’t attempt this with a projector unless you’re confident making the changes digitally in Inkscape first. This isn’t one to do on the fly with your rotary cutter as you’re going to be altering the bodice length and it’s important that the back and front bodice lengths match (unless you’re doing a full tummy adjustment, which I discuss along with lots of other fitting adjustments in my post on sewing and fitting a jumpsuit).
You’ll need either the shirt or the bodice from the Chorus with the Deep Drape Front and Drape Back views. Choose the full bust front if you have a 4” difference or greater between your high bust and full bust. I have a 5” difference, so I chose the full bust piece.
You will also need the pants pattern pieces from the Sunday Romper. Print the pockets as well if you’re going to include those (I did), and the inseam length you want for your final romper, although we’ll be using the shorts length for fitting, since that uses the least fabric.
If you haven’t yet bought the Chorus Top and Dress pattern you can do so here.
Lengthen the bodice
You’re going to add length to the bodice in addition to any height adjustments you normally make. I have worked out three ways to do this, all of which yield the same result so choose the method that makes most sense to you.
Method 1: Side waist measurement
This is the more mathematical approach. Measure your side waist (from your armpit to where you naturally crease when you bend to the side) and measure the same on the bodice. Remember to deduct 3/8” seam allowance for the armscye and 1” hem allowance at the bottom of the pattern piece. Subtract the pattern side waist number from your side waist number. The figure you are left with is the additional height you need to add. Add 2” to that for blousing over the elastic casing (vertical ease?).
Method 2: Bodice adjustment
The bodice pattern pieces and the shirt pattern pieces have identical necklines, but the bottoms of the pieces differ from each other. The bodice is cut straight across at the waist and has a 1” hem allowance for attachment to a skirt (in the original pattern). If you’ve made the dress already and have fitted the bodice, use this, just add an extra 2” for blousing. Add this to the bottom, as that will become the waist in the finished romper which is where you want the fullness to be.
Method 3: Shirt adjustment (my preference)
If you have already made the shirt, or you’re more of a visual learner, this is the method to choose. You’re going to take a Chorus shirt you’ve already made, or make a muslin shirt without hemming it, and use that to determine how much length to add. Watch the video below where I demonstrate this.
If you prefer to read instructions: what you will do is put the shirt on and tuck it into a pair of trousers or a skirt that sits on your natural waist. In front of a mirror, partially untuck the shirt either by pulling it out a little, or by doing a silly dance (like I did) until it sits how you want the top of the jumpsuit to sit. Grab a handful of quilting clips and clip as close as you can to the waistband at the centre front, side seams, and if you can reach it the centre back or at least as far round the back as you can.
Take off the shirt, being careful not to dislodge the quilting clips, and measure from armpit seam to clips all the way around. Measure the pattern pieces too, remembering to subtract the 3/8” seam allowance at the armscye and 1” hem allowance at the waist. The difference between the shirt and the pattern piece is the amount you need to add to your pattern piece. Note that you do not need to add 2” for blousing with this method as you did your blousing out before you pinned your shirt.
For your muslin, keep about 1” more than you measured you would need, to account for shirt fabric trapped by the waistband and slight inaccuracies in clipping. It’s easy to chop this off later if you don’t need it.
Blend the waist
When it comes to blending the Chorus bodice (or shirt) with the Sunday Romper pants, you want them both to be as close to the same size as possible at the waist, so there is no easing in required when sewing them together later. I highly recommend that you blend the top in to match the width of the bottoms as the top has a lot more ease and the back drape will improve with extra fabric.
When you come to blend the waist, remove excess from the bodice, not the pants waistline because the Chorus pattern has a lot of ease.
If the back bodice is too narrow, add the additional width you need to the centre back (not the side seam). Draw a straight line across at the hem, and use a French Curve to match the gentle curve at the neckline.
This is the back of the romper. The back bodice has been widened at the centre back to match the pants back.
FITTING TIP: This is actually a great way to add extra drape if your back drape is too shallow for you, and it makes getting into the romper easier too as it adds extra length to the neckline. Add between ½”-1½” to the cut on fold line, which works out to 1”-3” on the back bodice when opened out. I added 1” and my back drape now sits beautifully and skims my body.
Make a muslin
Are you a planner, or a pantser? I’m guessing if you’ve got this far then you’re a planner like me. So we’re making a muslin. A muslin (or toile) is especially important with a romper because if it doesn’t fit your torso length it has nowhere to go. It’s either cutting you in two, or you’re doing Hammer Time.
The good news is that if you made a muslin shirt using method 3, you can use that for your romper muslin. Just chop off what you don’t need. Remember to make any adjustments to your pattern piece first.
For your muslin pants I suggest making the shorts view and don’t bother to add pockets or hem.
Sleeves
Sleeve style is really up to you, but there are some considerations. You will need to wriggle in and out of the sleeves every time you take the romper off for the bathroom. For this reason I suggest choosing either the split sleeve or the sleeveless view. If you do the sleeveless view sew arm bands onto your muslin for trying on. This is because the armscye stretches out very easily and can compensate for 2” or more in bodice length.
I know this because I made my first muslin without sleeves or bands and it fitted well in the bodice, so I made a second muslin after fitting the pants but put sleeves on that one and suddenly the bodice was too short. Comparing my photos I realised that the first muslin had stretched out under the arms.
If you make the split sleeve view for your muslin you’ll save a significant amount of time if you just cut off the 3/8” centre hems and don’t bother hemming the bottom of the sleeve either, just overlap the raw sleeve pieces.
TIP: When it comes to sewing the split sleeves for your final garment, lay the fronts on top of the backs when viewed from the Right Side. If you lay backs on top the split will not align with the shoulder seam when sewn.
When the fronts are laid on top of the backs (left) the opening will align with the shoulder seam. If the backs are laid on top of the fronts, they won’t align (right).
Sewing your romper
This is the easy part! Follow the steps in the Chorus Dress tutorial to sew the bodice/shirt. Do everything except finish the waist/hem. Set the bodice aside and follow the steps in the Sunday Romper to sew the pants.
I have a couple of tips for easy sewing:
Serge (overlock) wherever possible. Serging the armscye in particular will trim off any stray tips of the folded back drape and will help the shoulders to lie flatter when worn.
If you’re adding pockets, draft the pocket bag so that it reaches the waistline. In the fine fabrics that we’re using it won’t add bulk, but it will make basting (tacking) the pockets and managing all that fabric much easier.
Mark the 1” hems on the bodice and pants waistline in air-dry pen on the Wrong Side. This will make joining them together go much faster.
Take a tiny snip out of the centre front of the front neckline right at the raw edge. You can do this because the top part of the drape will sit inside the bodice when worn and you won’t see it. But it will help enormously when it comes to constructing your romper and putting your romper on in future if you omitted the pockets, since it will be the only way to tell front from back.
Mark the centre front ‘CF’ and centre back ‘CB’ at the waist on the Wrong Side of the bodice and pants pattern pieces. This will make pairing them up far easier later.
I have a trick for ensuring your elastic doesn’t get twisted. I’ll share it further down.
Joining the top to the bottom
Once you have your bodice and your pants sewn, all that’s left to do is join them.
When it comes to Step 10 in the Sunday Romper pattern, there won’t be any T markings on your pattern pieces. But, the bodice and pants should match 1:1 with no need to ease them in because you blended the waistline. So match the side seams and then work your way in towards the centre being careful not to stretch the fabric. If you marked centre front and centre back accurately with air dry pen you can use those markings to match too.
When it comes to sewing the channel, make sure that the side seams of both the pants and the bodice are aligned at the 1” stitch line. This will help ensure that your waistband doesn’t twist.
Adding the elastic
I have a 48” waist and I used a 33” length of 3/8” braided elastic in my waistband. My elastic was quite weak, so you may need to experiment to find what length works best for you with the elastic and weight of fabric you have. Just make sure that the elastic fits comfortably around your natural waist AND it stretches out easily and big enough so you can climb out of it. It needs to go comfortably over your hips and down your legs.
TIP: If you mark the same side of the elastic with an X at both ends, when you thread the end through the casing, you won’t have to guess if it has got twisted. The two Xs should still both be on the same side.
Getting in and out of your jumpsuit
The reason this hack works is because the Deep Drape Front and Drape Back create a neckline that’s large enough to fit your whole body through. This also means without something holding it in place it will want to fall off your shoulders at other times. There are several ways to fix this. You could create long ties and secure them into the shoulders, you could add the hook half of a hook and eye set and hook your bra strap into it. There’s also instructions for creating a bra strap hook in the Chorus Top and Dress tutorial.
I prefer to use bra strap retainers. I got these from Hemline but other brands exist. These little gadgets attach to your garment with tiny safety pins and then clip around your bra strap with miniature snaps. They come in several colors so you can match them to your romper although they won’t be visible when in use. I love them because installation is easy, they’re removable, and because they’re designed to do this exact job, they work like a charm. I can’t even feel mine when I’m using them.
Share your Chorus rompers on social media
So that’s it! You’re now the proud owner of one gorgeously elegant cowl necked jumpsuit. The ultimate in secret pyjamas for the office or for parties, or actual pyjamas for lounging about at home or by the pool. It’s all in the fabric choice.
I’d love to see your rompers, so please use the hashtag #inclusivesewing when you post to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or Pinterest and give me a wave.