Category Archives: Jumpsuit

A pink marshmallow Blanca

In which, like a millennial cliche, I blend into my pale peachy pink wall, in my pale peachy pink jumpsuit – in my second Closet Core Blanca flight suit.

In my ongoing desire for a ‘put one garment on and be dressed’ lifestyle, I pretty much just want to sew and wear jumpsuits and dresses at the moment, so this luxuriously cosy baby pink onesie is really a very practical make. The buttery, powdery, peach fuzziest, babiest of baby cords is needlecord in rose from Stoff & Stil.

It was just a delightful project to sew! I completed it leisurely in little bursts over a couple of weeks, taking plenty of time over doing nice topstitching and finishing. I sourced the zip and buckle (actually a bikini clasp) from Jaycotts – I’d have preferred copper or rose gold but couldn’t find something suitable in a matching set.

I had a couple of minor fitting niggles with my first Blanca (although they were difficult to fully diagnose in the print I used), but I… didn’t bother to change anything for this one. The fit is passable but the shoulders are almost certainly a size or two too big (I think the pattern is supposed to have a slight drop shoulder, but it feels too baggy overall around the upper chest and back) and there’s a weird situation going on at the small of the back: it feels like there’s both not enough height/width to fit my butt and too much fabric that’s pooling above the butt like a swayback is needed. Strange one, not sure where I’d start to make that better. I also shortened the sleeves considerably and folded out the pintucks on the back panel.

I did however bother to rework the finishing of the zip that I mentioned annoyed me on my first Blanca. Essentially I folded back the generous 3/4″ seam allowance twice to enclose the zip tape edge and topstitched it in place; a sort of lazy Hong Kong style finish. I’ve saved the steps I took as a highlight on my Instagram. Also, every single seam is flat-felled (apart from the inseam, which is French) = zero overlocking anywhere, extremely pretty pink guts.

I don’t know why the collar looks darker btw? I was super careful to cut everything with the same nap, must just be how the light hits it. Anyway, very pleased with my marshmallow suit and new ability to blend into my wall should I need to.

DIYing the Elizabeth Suzann Clyde pants and jumpsuit

As I’m sure you’ll have heard if you’ve been remotely near Instagram, the much-revered slow fashion brand Elizabeth Suzann are sadly shuttering their business – but more happily made the generous decision to open-source the patterns for many of their garments. The patterns were temporarily made available by some enterprising sewists via Dropbox, but Elizabeth has now announced she intends to release the patterns herself at some point in the future, so they are no longer available until she does that. Edit to add: It was suggested that people who downloaded the patterns make a donation to a movement working to combat white supremacy. I picked StopwatchUK, the campaign for fair and accountable policing.

I’d never bought any ES clothing and while most of the styles veer towards too wafty/boxy for my tastes, I did get swept along in the excitement and tried a couple of the patterns out: namely, both the ‘work pant’ and jumpsuit versions of Clyde, which is largely and rightly famous for its delightfully scoopy pocket situation.

I first made a wearable toile in a horrid polyester, for which I did an Instagram story construction sewalong – there’s lots in my saved highlight about picking sizes and how I went about construction, so I won’t repeat it all here. Then I made a proper pair in this this light and crinkly (alright yes, wrinkly) ‘Flow’ viscose linen from Lamazi Fabrics – in the Cappuccino colour, although as you can see it’s actually significantly darker than the product photos – more of a Mocha imo.

I made my size according to the chart, an 8 in regular length, but my Clydes are fitting rather looser and baggier than the RTW version, probably because this fabric is loosely woven and drapey (my toile fitted more neatly). They veer a tiny bit hippy for my taste as a result, but I’m still wearing them a lot as they’re so comfortable. I have a thicker cream cotton to make one more pair as they sure are good for these stay-home times.

(My top is the discontinued Grainline Tiny Pocket Tank in leftovers from my Claudia dress! Love that I was able to eke something else out of that special fabric.)

I made the Clyde jumpsuit fairly rapidly afterwards, in an indigo enzyme washed linen from Ditto. I didn’t toile and this is the size medium regular.

The fit is generous and it isn’t sitting quite right on the top half where I’m more petite. I fudged removing some excess/gape from the princess seams but next time I’d cut a size or two down and pivot out some of that armsyce/neckline gaping.

I made a long, skinny tie belt as I didn’t think I’d like the shape without, but turns out I’ve been wearing it largely unbelted despite this perhaps being more ‘flattering’. See also: work at home lifestyle.

When I posted this on IG I grumbled a bit about my beef with linen fabric; namely that everyone else seems to love it yet I find it nothing but heavy, creasy and scratchy – even this supposedly enzyme-washed one. Common advice is that it softens up with washing and wear but to be honest I don’t wash my clothes very often – certainly not every wear – and I don’t really have the patience to wait for a fabric to get nice. I’ve been throwing it into the washer whenever I do a coloured load, which has helped a bit and it’s developing that nice worn-in effect along the topstitched seams. The comfort of the silhouette means I’ll tolerate the fabric, but I’m still far from a linen convert.

For two free patterns resulting in highly home-lifestyle-appropriate garments that I’ve worn a ton, I’m very happy with my pair of Clydes. I don’t know if it’s just because I know they’re RTW patterns but they definitely have the feel of well-drafted garments you’d buy in a store. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the official pattern releases to see if I can pick up more fabrication and construction tips.

Blanca in Lantana

An uncharacteristic ditzy-printed garment for me, doing a bit of stashbusting to make a wearable toile of the Closet Case Blanca flight suit that thankfully turned out very wearable indeed!

The Blanca is a hella stylish all-in-one zip-up number with a straight leg, tailored fit and tons of pockets. Most of Instagram has plumped for a solid colour, but I decided to use a long-stashed fabric that I thought might give a bit of a different look.

The fabric is Liberty Lantana in ‘Minako’ print from The Fabric Store originally. Lantana is a perhaps lesser-known Liberty substrate that’s composed of 80% cotton / 20% wool. It sort of feels like a lightweight, drapey cotton flannel suiting, soft but not overly warm – very nice to sew and wear! Shaukat has a few Lantana prints too. I was delighted to find I had the perfect length of zip in my stash with a pretty pewter-coloured pull and teeth.

Sewing it up was pretty fun and not as time-consuming as I was expecting, though I cut corners by leaving off the chest and back pockets as the detailing wouldn’t show up in this print. I followed the instructions for the zip and collar insertion which were straightforward, although I am not super keen on the zip tape and seam allowance showing when the neckline is unzipped and how there is asymmetry between the faced vs non-faced sides. Next time I would consider leaving off the facing side and finishing the zip tape / SA edges together with bias binding.

I cut a size 10 graded to 12 at the hip and found it pretty true to size – it’s designed to be looser in the bodice and slimmer in the hip. The back has some interesting details like pintuck-pleats down the bodice and a curved back waistband – all of which get completely buried in this print. The waistline is designed an inch lower than the natural waist; I think I might pull it up in my next version, although the fit overall is pretty good.

I’m enjoying wearing jumpsuits right now, the ideal blend of comfy enough for the mainly-housebound lifestyle but smart enough to nip out in too. I’ve got some baby pink needlecord to make another Blanca and I’m glad to finally have this fabric out of my stash and into my wardrobe.

Creamy True Bias Yari jumpsuit for spring

I toiled the True Bias Yari Jumpsuit last year sometime and for whatever reason (…winter, I guess) had a massive delay before picking it up again. But then I saw Sarah’s winter-white version and this Asos cutie and got on the lookout for creamy fabric to make my own. Just in time for spring, hint hint weather.

I cut a straight size 12 for the toile to fit my hip measurement but the top half turned out way too baggy, so this time I cut an 8 graded to 10 at the hip. It’s actually still turned out quite loose through the leg so a straight 8 probably would have been fine. I could possibly benefit from a small FBA on top, which would be easy to add through the princess seams next time. I love how flat the crisply-faced neckline lies though and there’s no gaping even with only three buttons. (The buttons are vintage milk glass from my endless stash. )

I was going for a relaxed silhouette but tried the suit on partway through construction and decided it did need waist definition. Also the crotch and pockets were hanging very low like it was too long in the body. I didn’t fancy the side D-ring ties included in the pattern – they look a bit awkward and unflattering to me – so I sewed a drawstring channel to the inside waistline and made skinny ties to feed through. The slight blousing effect this resulted in also fixed the length issue!

Here’s the channel from the inside. Mmm, I love all these creamy stitch tones against each other.

The only other tweak I made was to level off the top of the pockets to straight rather than slanted, to match the Asos inspiration suit better. I like that the deep hem at the top of the pockets matches the width of the little cap sleeve cuffs. This pattern was lovely to sew overall and unusually for me I followed the given directions almost completely, adjustments aside.

I grabbed the fabric with exactly this project in mind on a recent trip to the wonderful Abakhan in Manchester, a pre-cut piece of slubby cotton-linen blend that reminds me of silk noil costing about £8 for around 2.5m – in Abakhan you pay by weight so I wasn’t sure of yardage at the time. With creative cutting I could just squeeze the Yari pieces on (3m is the recommended yardage).

I got some of this fabric in black too and I’m tempted to use it to make a Yari sister as I reckon this will get a lot of wear as soon as it warms up a little.

It’s a wrap hack

I haven’t been sewing a great deal lately: I’m guessing it’s something to do with the upcoming change of season coupled with not feeling too great about my appearance lately and not feeling inspired by any of the fabrics in my stash. General end of summer gloom!

I didn’t push it and instead did a refreshing destash sale and started looking after myself better in other ways, then this weekend my inspiration naturally returned and I made this jumpsuit that I never want to take off.

My inspiration came directly from Catherine of Threadsnips, who snapped up a lovely rare vintage wrap jumpsuit pattern of a similar style to this. She very helpfully pointed out how a similar effect can be hacked from any other plain front jumpsuit pattern by simply extending out a triangle from the centre front and attaching ties.

I followed her example using the fabulous Butterick 6312 as my base pattern (which I’ve made before and still wear frequently). I followed the v of the neckline down to the waistline then reversed it below the waist down to the crotch. It’s always a risk cutting a hack directly onto your good fabric right off, but having made the base pattern before I thought it was low risk in this case.


Construction was pretty speedy. I made self bias to finish the entire neckline including the wrap edges all in one go. At the crotch I pinned the overlap in place while wearing it and topstitched it down for a couple of inches to secure. I made two straps and sewed these onto the points, and finally made a buttonhole on the right-hand side seam to thread the inner strap through. There is no need for any other fastening as the wrap opens wide enough to step into it, woohoo.

I treated myself to the fabric with the destash earnings: It’s cotton ikat from Merchant & Mills, the same fabric type I used for my first version too. I needed 3 metres as it’s quite narrow and used nearly all of it. This fabric is the dream to work with and to wear; I really could imagine a wardrobe composed of little else. I suspect it’ll be fine to wear in autumn and most of winter too.

Next time I plan to alter the fit slightly around the neck as it’s not spot on, and I plan to curve out the v a little so it sits better on the upper chest. I might attempt a swayback too as I get fabric pooling under the tie belt. And hmmm, pockets, it definitely needs some sort of pocket action next time.

Tweaks made, there’s a quite serious risk I could make dozens of these (in an army of ikats?) and wear little else! It’s crazy comfortable and I feel really good in it, which is pretty much all I can ask for at the moment.

Lilac love affair

I’m having a bit of a moment with lilac/lavender, which is manifesting in my recent fabric choices and sewing. I read recently it’s even being touted as a new contender for millennial pink’s crown, so I guess as sewists we’re far from immune to fashion trends.

I went head to toe lilac for this jumpsuit, which is kind of out of my usual comfort zone but I’m finding it incredibly wearable and I think it suits my colouring pretty well.


Every so often I’ll go on a vintage pattern eBay binge, and this one popped up on my last search. I love that vintage patterns often over-deliver in cute details, clever construction methods or useful instructions. This one came with plenty of fitting tips and the crucial access point is done via shoulder-strap buttons, a practical choice which I haven’t seen used before. I used some vintage shank buttons from my stash.

This was really fun to sew up and the fit of the size 14 was almost perfect, I just had to shave a little off under the arms. The neckline and arms are finished with an all-in-one facing and the seam allowance at the waist forms a casing for thin elastic which the bodice is designed to blouse over.

The fabric I used is tencel-linen blend from Minerva Crafts. It was quite a bargain I think as it’s lovely stuff: it handled beautifully to sew, is really soft and creases a little bit but not madly. I wish it came in some other colours!

I’m definitely going to make another one of these as I think it will layer well for cooler weather too. I have already used the lower half to make some trousers as well, which I’ll try to post soon.