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Sallie Jumpsuit (or Secret Pyjamas)

When Closet Case Patterns released the Sallie Jumpsuit a while ago I bought it straight away.  I don't have a jumpsuit and have never been sure if they would suit my figure, but this one looked flattering and comfortable.  I also love Sallie Oh's blog and her style, which was an influencing factor!

While I love Heather's black, long and wide legged pant version (here), I was staring down the barrel of a trip to Greece in mid-summer, so I modified the pattern to make a shorty version.


I used a black and white print I have had in the stash for ages (result!  stash busting!), with a contrast red version (same print) for the lining and the tie.

To make the shorts from the pants I made two changes - first was to shorten them to the length I wanted (plus hem allowance).  The second was to modify the shape to make them essentially straight leg shorts - a little wider than they would be if they were the top of pants.  I did this by drawing a straight line from the top of the pattern piece on the outer edge, and from where the crotch meets the inseam on the inner edge. It seems to have worked.


I also needed to adjust the top, making it both longer (by really quite a lot) and also wider.  I was a bit stumped by this - I have never done a full bust adjustment (FBA) on a kimono sleeve garment and didn't really know what to do.  A quick google shows a few tutorials out there, but I actually decided just to widen the piece at the seam for a couple of reasons.   I am generally pretty broad across the shoulders and around the ribs, so adding width generally (rather than just focussed at accommodating the chest) seemed like a good idea.



It mostly worked pretty well.  The fit is good and feels comfortable, and in a stretch fabric there is a reasonable margin of error anyway.  There looks to be a bit of pulling at the chest in this picture, but I suspect that's not usually there and might be because I have my hand in my pocket?

Let's just pause for a second there and discuss how much more awesome everything is with pockets. Thanks.

Moving on - what didn't work was my other bodice adjustment, which was to length it.  It didn't work because I didn't trust myself.  The amount I needed to add seemed totally ridiculous, so I decided I must be wrong and lengthed by less.  Seriously - in what world would that be a good idea???!!!

So I ended up having to sew a channel for the elastic which also lengthened.  I thought maybe using the contrast fabric would make this look more deliberate:


I don't really like the result.  It looks messy and isn't especially flattering.  I was pretty gutted.  Then I remembered a belt which seems to work OK:

From the look on my face here my husband was clearly doing something wrong...

It's not brilliant, and tends to need me to adjust the fabric around to stop it bunching too much - that's because the belt is tighter than the elastic would have been so there is excess fabric to distribute around.  But I felt it looked better than the red casing hack...so there it is.

Overall I LOVE this pattern and plan to make another asap.  They are truly #secretpyjamas and I think fairly flattering.  They suit the Sydney weather to a tee!  Here I am out in Rhodes on our trip with my sister wearing it "in the wild"



Ciao for now!

Comments

  1. Looks great. You are going to need it - its been blooming hot hasn't it !

    ReplyDelete

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