Feathery Jumpsuit

After my last attempt at a jumpsuit failed I decided to try again.   I had a piece of fabric that I found last time I took a trip to my local fabric store.  Its a black poly lycra fabric with a border design of purple and turquoise feathers along the two long edges of the fabric.

Again there was a definite direction of the design to this pattern, and once again the direction of the pattern didn't correspond to the stretch of the fabric.  But this time I knew about it and could adjust accordingly.

I used the same shirt pattern as last time but I added 1/8" to the centerline front and back, as well as adding about 1/2" to each side seam for a total of 2.5" total ease.  It's not much, but combined with cutting the V neckline front and back 1"wider, allows me to get this shirt on over my hips.

Once I had the top of the shirt cut out and basted together I started on the shorts.  I used the pants pattern for the Closet Case Files Sallie Jumpsuit but cut off to the length of my normal shorts pattern.  I ended up taking a bit of width off at the side seams but otherwise used them as is.  To combine the two pieces I just cut two rectangles about the length of the top of my shorts, then used my new dress form to figure out just how wide I wanted the band.  Whilst the top and shorts pattern pieces had been cut out of the patterned parts of my fabric, I cut the center band out of the plain black section to create some visual interest.

I basted the center bands to the top and shirts sections then tried on the resulting outfit and pinned it all together down to sides to get a good fit.  I then took everything apart and put it all back together again properly.  I serged each seam, added a facing to the neckline and added the pockets from the Sallie Jumpsuit into the shorts.  The bottom of the shorts I left as is as I cut them with the lower edge on the selvedge, if I find that they are too long after wearing them a time or two i'll take them up then.

I'm really happy with the way these turned out, I think they look great and they are very comfortable to wear.  They can be a bit difficult to get on, but its not too bad, and I think worth the effort.  I like the way these fit a lot better than the straight Sallie jumpsuit.  The fact that its more fitted under my bust gives my shape much more definition and therefore flatters my figure better.