Hey all! Amy here. So, this past weekend was a very exciting one for me. My husband is a musician in a few bands and this past Saturday night was the first time in almost two years he's played a show. I was one of the few people allowed (the venue was capped for social distancing) but it still felt like a MAJOR opportunity to get dressed up and see my friends. I thought I would make a Sallie Jumpsuit as it is both super comfortable and made in this tie dye bamboo rayon from Core Fabrics, super fun! When I first laid eyes on this fabric I thought, "Oh yes, she will be mine". It has a lovely bouncy recovery and is so soft to the touch, a really perfect fabric for a jumpsuit.Â
So, onto the pattern mods. This was my first time making Sallie and my first instinct was to narrow the leg. I didn't want to change the shape too much but I wanted to be able to tuck the legs of this into boots pretty soon (Montreal winters do not play) and I felt like it would get more wear with this simple adjustment.
In order to do this I took my front leg pattern piece and measured the centre. I moved the side seam in the same amount on both sides. I then drafted a new line from the crotch to that new point. Celine pointed out afterwards that if you were to do this really, really right you would do this same process at the knee marking. In my case the lines are a little shifted at the knee but since this is a very forgiving knit, you can't really tell. If you were going to try a similar mod on a woven fabric I would refer to Heather's tutorial here for how to do that.
Most importantly, you want to double check you're not changing the shape of the hip where the pocket lines up. You can see I only changed the drafting underneath where the pocket connects so it wouldn't be affected. Obviously you want to remove the same amount on the back leg pattern piece. In this case, Sallie is a little wider across the back leg and so I removed the same percentage but not the same amount. The only other mod I made was to leave off the waist elastic. I was a bit worried the bum would be saggy by the end of the night but the stretch on this fabric is so good that it didn't bag out at all!
I love this pattern so much and can't wait to make another in a beefier knit solid for winter lounging. This is my favourite type of thing to wear over the holidays when you want to feel dressed while you lay on a couch and eat treats. And of course, it has pockets!
This was a very easy sew but I love how the bodice is a totally clean finish. This feels like a very high end RTW garment and not one that I sewed in an afternoon. I will make a bigger size next time (the arm hole is a wee tight) I can't wait to play some more with this pattern and see the different ways I can adapt it to make my dream jumpsuits.
Highly recommend... have you made Sallie?