DIY SUMMER JERSEY PLAYSUIT | MCCALLS 6083

Whew, boys and girls, looks like I survived my busiest period of the year at work! That explains the absence, as I was hardly at home in the last weeks, let alone able to do any sewing! It all went very well, in case you were worried, and now were back to regularly scheduled programmes.

Soooo, looks like we might actually get some summer this year and, as the incurable optimist that I find myself, I proceeded to end my sewing hiatus with a quick and easy-breezy playsuit. I wanted to submit another mini-entry to the Jumping into June competition, if Chris is still taking submissions :). Here are a few of the entries so far. Plus, you might remember that I’m getting married in October in the sunny Caribbean, so no time like the present to beef up my summer wardrobe.

So, here we are, with McCalls 6083, which is definitely becoming one of my summer TNT patterns.

You might remember this little number that I made for Offset Warehouse’s blog in May. This time, I went for a more casual look (version A), with shorts and a tube top, but in jersey instead of the beautiful pink silk I used before. I wanted an easy to wear, comfortable and cooling outfit that I’d be able to wear on the beach and also dress up for dinner/drink in the tropical nights.

The fabric was purchased from Guthrie & Ghani during our Bee Jamboree in Birmingham a few weeks ago. Lovely Lauren opened the shop for us on a Sunday and I had to oblige by buying loads of fabric. This lovely viscose jersey came from two end of bolt remnants that looked really lonely and I couldn’t help myself to give them a good home :). You can see I was excited 🙂

They were only small pieces, so I had to combine them to get enough for this project. And I was really happy that there were not many pieces left, feeling very sustainable.

Alterations: I cut a size 10 and graded to a 12 for the shorts and also added 3 cm to the back crotch length, an alteration I always have to make to any trousers. Other than that, pretty much followed the pattern instructions.

Construction: It’s a great pattern, really easy to put together and It really helped that I had made it once before. The fabric is quite slinky, so it was a bit hard to handle, but I ended up using the rotary cutter quite a lot and that helped. I used my Pfaff Coverlocker 3.0 to assemble it all as an overlocker and then the coverstitch option to finish the raw edges. I only used the sewing machine to understitch the pocket edges and to make the elastic casing for at the waist. I used a straight stitch for the former and a stretch stitch for the latter. Of course, I had jersey needles in both the overlocker and the sewing machine. I also found out that there are such things as ballpoint pins, so I ordered myself some, but they didn’t arrive before I finished this.

Speaking of pockets, I had to mix and match a bit, using the teal fabric as a pocket sack, but that worked out really well to make the connection to the top.

The bodice top and lower edge of the shorts were coverstitched.

Notions: the only ones required are elastic, 2.6m of 1.5 cm wide.

Overall: a very easy sew, very easy to wear and for a jumpsuit, easy to get in and out of. I was glad to be able to use the fabric from Lauren so quickly and now all I have to do is to look forward to the holidays to wear it.

I will just leave you with a few more pics, as I had a blast posing on my lush balcony (through Carl’s green finger magic). I think it looks really good covered up with a cropped denim jacket and of course with my long lost but recently found holiday hat :).

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