Paisley Denim Rayon Jumpsuit

I was wandering through Walmart the other day and as I passed the fabric section I noticed a rack of discounted fabric.....and on this rack was a beautiful denim coloured lightweight rayon fabric.  Scattered over the fabric were small paisley designs and then down each side of the bolt was a border pattern of bigger paisley designs.  It was beautiful -  I knew I needed some and decided to get a full 4 ft.

I had a design in mind for the fabric and I think I did pretty well executing the design, unfortunately I didn't get the fit quite right - otherwise this would be close to perfect.

The design I was looking for was a button up raglan shirt with a collar  that sits flush around the neck - I call it a baseball shirt - connected on the bottom to wide legged shorts with a wide waistband in between.

I started with the top using the pattern I used for this purple and teal linen shirt.  Reading back over that blog post I really should have re-read it before I started as the issues I had with that shirt are all still apparent in this one. The neckband doesn't sit perfectly flush around my neck and the princess seam doesn't sit perfectly under my bust, plus there's a bit of pulling across the bust line, but it's nothing I can't live with.

I cut 3 inches off the bottom of the pattern so that it could be joined to shorts to make a jumpsuit, but otherwise made it as is.  I placed the larger paisley design along the top of the shirt, across the sleeves and chest.

The button band and collar band are all interfaced using light weight iron on interfacing and the shirt is closed with 5 grey plastic snaps.

The sleeves are finished by simply turning the edge under twice for a very narrow hem.

Then I moved onto the shorts.  I started with the Closet Case Sallie Jumpsuit pattern.  Took about 3/4" length out of the rise at both front and back and then added 4 inches of width down the center of each panel, which I turned into inverted box pleats when I fitted the pants to the waistband. I cut out the shorts so that the border print was around the bottom of the legs.

Hmm looks like I could do with some work on the back crotch curve!  not the most flattering.

I added a 3" wide straight waistband to join the shirt and shorts together.   I cut two waistband pieces and  sewed them together with the shorts sandwiched in between, then cut some 3" wide elastic to length and sewed it between the two layers of waistband with two rows of zig zag stitches at the lower edge and in the center.

I then attached the shirt to the top of both waistband pieces.  I ended up taking about 1" off the length of the shirt to get everything to sit nicely in place.  The final seam was then turned down and top stitched in place over the elastic using another row of zig zag stitches.  This is the only exposed seam in the whole jumpsuit - I tried many times to enclose this seam but it just wouldn't work neatly so in the end I just gave up and serged it and top stitched it.

I hemmed the jumpsuit to just above the knee -  I would like to make it a bit shorter but then I'd lose the border print.  I already re-cut the shorts pattern once as it was way too long the first time and I didn't want to lose the print  - its a good thing the pattern is pretty much square!

I love this outfit and have worn it multiple times since finishing it.  The few minor fitting issues  are a bit annoying and I've thought about taking it apart and fixing them - but I did a good job making it in the first place - french seamed every seam (except the last) and top stitched to within an inch of its life so there will be no unpicking for me.