What is Foundation Paper Piecing?
Foundation paper piecing is a technique used in quilting. You print the design on paper and sew the fabric to the paper to ensure accurate sewing of complicated designs. I haven’t done much with quilting, so this technique is new to me. I had so much fun learning something new!
How to begin paper piecing
I used the butterfly pattern and tutorial from Little Lizard King, found here. I chose to use the smallest butterfly size and made sure it fit on the Destin bodice. The Destin romper has a great open bodice to show off the paper piecing butterfly.
Once I had the right size chosen, I moved forward with cutting out the paper blocks. Normally, one uses foundation paper for paper piecing, but I used regular printer paper. I printed the style options page to color and made sure the design looked how I envisioned. I cut all of the other pieces for the romper first and then used what was left over for the paper piecing scraps.
Sewing the First Block
The first block was tricky. The lines of the first few pieces followed no pattern. I took the whole block apart and began again. The best way to keep things consistent was to line up the lines from the fabric with the line I was sewing. Once I decided this, I was able to complete the first block without much more difficulty. My scraps didn’t quite go all the way to the top of the block. Since I would cut it down to match the romper pattern, that wasn’t a problem.
Trying to do too much at once
I then moved on to the remaining four blocks. I got overly confident at this point and thought it would be a good idea to do all four simultaneously and avoid trips back and forth from the sewing machine to the cutting table. It backfired a bit and made everything more complicated and confusing, so I went back to one at a time. The middle section was the last one I did. The long skinny stripes gave me a bit of trouble and I redid it at least three times. I had to reinforce all of the sewing lines with tape since they started to come apart with all of the unpicking.
Bringing it all together
Once all of the blocks were completed, I sewed them together, removed the paper, and gave it a good press. Then I cut out the bodice piece and started sewing the romper. I love the way the lined fabric looks on the completed piece. It has a very origami feel to it and shows off all of the sewing lines.
Final Thoughts on Foundation Paper Piecing
In the end, most of the long skinny stripes in the middle got cut off, which was sad after all the work I did to get them in there. Next time, I want to see if I can put the block patterns on the pattern piece I want and avoid the waste and struggle of needing bigger scraps. I went into this project thinking it would be a good way to use scraps. The butterfly itself was a great way to use little scraps; however, all of the background pieces used a lot of fabric and wouldn’t have worked with just little bits.
The Destin romper was so fun and easy to make and has such a cute back. The single button will make it so easy to get on. The elastic will extend how long it will fit. I loved learning paper piecing and enjoyed both the butterfly pattern and the romper pattern from Little Lizard King.
I made this romper as part of a collection for my baby. Read more about it here.