DIY WHITE JERSEY JUMPSUIT | VOGUE 9075

Hello sewing boys and girls! Here we are with a potentially incoherent post tonight, as I am suffering from intense self-inflicted sleep deprivation… I had a very interesting weekend, to say the least, and really pushing myself to finish this post and officially join the Jump into June ladies.

But first, I must tell you what I have been up, so I can beg your forgiveness for any strange turns of phrase or general weirdness in this post. So, this weekend I went back to Bucharest for my 10 years Uni reunion (yes, I know, I’m just that old…). Which was really nice and tame and emotional, so no blame to apportion there. But as you do when going back home, I had to hang out with my bestie, and that never bodes well in the sleep department. Plus the 2 bottles of rose between us certainly did not help either.

So it got to 3.30 AM and my flight was at 6 AM, so I madly decided not to go to bed at all.  I did manage to get a bit of shut-eye on the plane – pretty much all of the 3 hours flight (TG for sleep masks and neck pillows). So back in the UK this morning and headed straight to the New Forrest for Open Farm Sunday, to Double H Nurseries to see how orchids are grown in the UK.

Do look up Open Farm Sunday, it takes place in June every year up, it’s such an amazing event, #OFS15 on Twitter.

And then back to London to take pictures, cook dinner and now sit down to write! Man, I feel tired just telling you about it…

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So, now to the jumping part! I had pledged to take part in the challenge and decided that a jumpsuit would be a really great outfit for my reunion, so killing two birds with one stone! Plus, it has one more additional interesting feature: it’s made out of an old wedding dress that I got on eBay and it turned out to be jersey, not a woven fabric as I had initially imagined. In any case, I am not one to waste, so I unpicked the skirt and used the fabric for this project.

Now let’s get down to business…

Cutting and Fitting notes:

– I used size 10 for the bodice and size 12 for the culottes and graded to size 14 at the waist. I had checked the finished measurements and that’s what my conclusion was. And good thing I had, has it not been jersey, it would have been really snug. I will cut a size 8 if I make it in jersey again, though probably a size 10 will be ok in wovens.

– I ended up taking 1.5 cm from the back centre seam, but that’s an adjustment I usually end up making, I have quite a narrow back.

– I should have increased the back crotch length by 2-3 cm, but I didn’t because I couldn’t be bothered to alter the pattern and then forgot to do it on the fabric. Again, this is an alteration I always end up making, blaming the big bum here…

– I usually decrease bodice length as I have a short torso, but I feel this pattern could actually benefit from a few cms added, the bodice feels a bit short. I ended up just reducing the SA to 0.6 (I overlocked everything anyway), but could have used 0.5-1 cm more.

– I also liked the longer length of the culottes, so I roll hemmed instead of turning the SA as per pattern instructions. I am quite tall (1.71/ 5.7), so this might not work for everyone.

– I chose the version without sleeves and did not add pockets as the fabric is quite sheers and the pocket sacks would have shown.

Construction:

The bodice is lined in the pattern, but I had enough fabric to self-line, and it feels nice and comfortable because of the stretchy jersey. Then I just followed the pattern instructions and did the version without sleeves, so that it was all nice and neatly encased on the inside. I machine basted the princess seams and then used the overlocked to join and reduced the SA accordingly. I understitched the neckline and it all lied nice and flat. There was no need to trim and clip, as the SA was really small already because of the overlocker.

The culottes were very easy to construct, just followed the instructions. I joined bodice and bottoms with a shallow zig-zag basting stitch and then overlocked. 

I didn’t have a long enough invisible zipper, so I just used the one I had, which only came to the waist. Again, the jersey saved me, because it’s stretchy enough to allow me to get in past the waist seam. To make sure the zipper won’t stretch the fabric, I used a nylon tape basted to the centre back seam on both sides. I just treated the two layers as one and inserted the zipper as per usual. I used a hook from the original dress and a chain loop for closure.

To finish it all off, I used a rolled hem, which came out really beautifully on my new covelocker. I was quite keen to use the coverstich (I know, new toys), but it didn’t really work with the weight of the fabric, so although the stitch was great, I didn’t like the way it draped, so I cut it out and rolled the hem instead.

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I absolutely love this one and I have a feeling it’s but the first in a long series of jumpsuits. Not that I am a fashion follower, but it just turns out that they are the darling piece of the season. So guess what, my sewing pursuits are fashion forward too!

Right, off to bedski now folks! Looking forward to more jumpsuits this month from all of you wonderful sewists out there, plenty of time in the new few weeks!

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