It's the final post in our sewalong for the Blanca Flight Suit. Just a few finishing details and you'll be ready to wear it!

SLEEVE SNAPS

If you are adding snaps to your long sleeves, you'll want to try on your Blanca first to confirm the snap placement. We provided some guidelines in the pattern, but you may find you want a wider or narrower sleeve. Once the hem is snapped, you'll have what is essentially a pleat created along the back of the sleeve, so try on your Blanca and pin the hem closed until you get your desired fit. If you need help installing snaps, we have a tutorial for that.

This is what the snaps should look like when assembled:

Here's how the pleat should look:

Once installed, the "nipple" part of the snap should be closest to the lower seam of the sleeve. The other side of the snap should be a few inches away, like so:

The inside:

When the hem is snapped, you shouldn't be able to see the buttons at all.

PANT HEMS

We still need to hem our pants. Try on the flight suit to test the length; the full-length pants should hit the ankle, while the cropped pants should hit about 3" (7-8cm) above the ankle. That said, hem them wherever you think looks good!

Press the raw edge of the hem under by 1/2" (13mm). Press the hem under a second time by 1" (25mm). To reduce some bulk, I like to trim away some of the seam allowance at the first fold line. Pin the hems in place.

Topstitch the hem in place. When topstitching wider hems like this, I like to mark the distance on my throat plate with a piece of tape. You may need a "hump jumper" under the back of your presser foot if your hems are super thick and your needle gets stuck at the level change. A plastic needle case works too.

BUTTON TABS

You should have confirmed the button tab location when you sewed your side seams. Try on your jumpsuit again and pin the tab in place at the desired location. Take the pants off and mark where the button should go - you want to make sure the button aligns with the far edge of the buttonhole. You can see below how the leg should look when tabbed - it should look a bit like an inverted pleat.

Next, mark the location of the button when the pants are untapered. This second button lets you wear the pants either way.

Sew the buttons in place.

It should look like this when you wear them tapered:

SEWING THE BUCKLED BELT

If you are sewing the buckle belt for View A, match the belt pieces right sides together and sew together across one of the short sides at 5/8" (16mm). Press the seam open. Press the long edges of the belt in by 5/8" (16mm), then press the belt in half lengthwise, matching the folded edges. The width of the belt should be 1.5" (38mm).

Before topstitching the sides of the belt to secure, run the belt through the belt loops on your flight suit and through the openings of your buckle pieces to confirm the width Adjust as necessary. If the folded edges on the long side of the belt are really bulky, grade the seam. When you are happy with the width of the belt, topstitch 1/8" (3mm) along the long sides of the belt to finish.

Try the flight suit on and run the belt through the belt loops to test the length of the belt. We have buckle kits in stock which come with sliders, so you can adjust the snugness of the belt even after the belt is finished.

The denim for our sample was pretty thick, so we actually left the sliders off this belt because the layers were too thick to thread through the slider. We sewed a separate belt with a lighter weight fabric to show you how to insert the sliders in the belt. First, thread one end through both slots in the slider, then through part of the buckle.

Pull the end of the belt through the slider in the same direction. Pin the end of the belt to the back of the belt, so that when it's stitched in place the stitch line won't be visible from the front. Test the length, then stitch in place. ideally, the slider will be outside the belt loop of the hip pocket when attached to the flight suit.

When you do the opposite side, make sure the ends of the belt are stitched an even distance on either side so your belt is symmetrical. Make sure you've positioned teh sliders so that when the belt is the desired length they sit outside the hip pocket belt loops.

If you're not adding sliders, trim the ends of the belt as necessary. I'm going to hide the end of the belt and the stitching under the belt loop. I've marked the place to trim the belt with a pin and chalk marking.

Trim the belt and stitch the end in place. This is optional, but I've finished the raw edges of the trimmed belt with a zig zag stitch and a little fray stop.

Thread the finished belt through the loops. And we're all done!

VIEW B - TIE BELT

If you are sewing the long tie belt for View B, the steps are essentially the same, but you will have a pointed tip on each end of the belt.

You can fold a mitered corner at this tip to help reduce bulk, or trim the seam allowance.

Topstitch 1/8" (3mm) around all sides of the long tie belt to finish. Loop through your Blanca and you're good to go!

That wraps up our sewalong for the Blanca Sewalong! Be sure to tag your makes with #blancaflightsuit so we can find your handiwork on Instagram!