That's When I'll Jump

What do you get when you combine a pajamas sewing pattern, a tank top pattern and a jeans pattern?

I've been itching to make a jumpsuit ever since I finished my romper. We don't have any jumpsuit patterns, and I didn't love anything I found online, and if I had, I couldn't possibly wait for it in the mail. So I combined a few things. This is made out of knit cupro, which is made from the bits of cotton left on the seed when they are separated, but is processed to feel and behave more like silk. Like any well-behaved jersey, this doesn't wrinkle much. And it feels so, so good.

Here's how I made my cobbled this thing together :

I traced and altered the Megan Nielsen Reef Pajamas pattern to have a crossover bodice instead of a V-neck by continuing the lines of the V, and added more width until I was comfortable enough with the coverage. Each bodice piece is self-lined. To prevent too much gaping of the front crossover pieces, I cut the lining piece about an inch shorter and stretched it to fit. I guess that helped?

The Reef has a lot going on in the back and I didn't want all that (and couldn't find the pattern pieces), so the back of my jumpsuit is traced from a tank top that I've remade a ton.

For the pants part, I used the Closet Case Morgan Jeans. I've made only one pair of pants from this pattern, but it has really come in handy for a lot of other projects! I'm a size 6, and only had to do a small swayback alteration, and now these pants fit me perfectly.

To make the pattern more jumpsuit appropriate, I left of the waistband and fly, combined the back leg and yoke, and widened the legs a tiny bit. I also lengthened them at the waist about 2 1/2" so they reached my natural waist. I'm sure you could use any pants or pajama pants pattern for this, or lengthen a shorts pattern -- this is just what I had.

Here is the most genius part of this, and the whole reason I bothered to write this blog post : inside the pants are a shorts-length mesh lining. The mesh and cupro are super slippery against each other, so nothing clings! A friend tipped me off to this brilliant construction in a jumpsuit she bought from Anthropologie.

This is power mesh from Mood.

This fabric is pretty heavy -- this jumpsuit weighs 1 lb. The crossover pieces intersecting the pockets measures about 1/4" of fabric -- seven layers. That doesn't gather so well, and it's pretty lumpy in the front. The bodice is blousey, so it actually doesn't look bad, but I thought I might want a belt, so I made a mystery braid belt with our pigskin suede. That was a waste of time because the suede is way too lightweight and it looked like a mess. But I made these tassels!

I used this tutorial to make the tassels. It's insanely easy. By using the raw edge of the leather (i.e. scrap), I ended up with this great layered effect. And if you're wondering how I come up with these ideas, I look at the Anthropologie website a LOT.

Leather can seem intimidating to work with, especially as it's not very forgiving with mistakes. If you're not reckless enough to make a few mistakes like I am, I definitely recommend taking a class. If you're local to Cleveland, our friends at Studio How-To teach leatherworking (among many other things)!