Boilersuit Bandwagon

Here I am chanelling my past in a vintage jumpsuit.

So, I sold out. I made what I thought I wouldn't. Jumpsuit, flightsuit, boilersuit, coverall - whatever you call it, it's certainly a trend right now. I'm not one for following trends, but I do love an item of clothing I can throw on and just wear, without much thought. The nearest I have ever got to making a jumpsuit is making the Burnside Bibs, which I managed to complete just after Christmas and I really like them. The photos were taken very hurriedly by my daughter as it's blowing an absolute hoolie out there today.

Back in the late 80's I worked for a hair salon franchise and the uniform for the juniors was a white boiler suit with short sleeves and red ties. Other memebers of staff wore either black or grey suits in the same style. It's safe to say it put me off! So i'm a little bit surprised at myself with this make.

There are so many patterns out there, every pattern company has one and the latest offerings are from the Alexa Jumpsuit from TATB and the Blanca flightsuit from Closet Case Patterns. However I had a secret weapon. A free to me pattern and free to me fabric.

As part of a stash of patterns I recieved from a lady on freecycle I scored this 1984 Brooke Shields inspired pattern. I was 13 then, and probably wouldn't have worn this at the time. It's McCalls 8926 and it also comes in a childs version 8927 so you can be all matchy matchy if you wish. The pattern was size 14/16 and aready cut to the size 14.

Now I'm a bit wary of excessive ease in 80's patterns and in the big 4 in general, so before cutting into the fabric I did a lot of measuring to check the size. The previous owner had already folded out a couple of centimetres from the width of the front and back body pieces. I measured carefully and decided that the same adjustment would work for me. I have a long torso and after more measuring of pattern pieces and myself. I knew that I needed to lengthen the body and added an inch to the body, just above the waist. This turned out to be the perfect amount of length to add. The rest of the pattern I left as it was.

I hadn't realised at first, but the fronts overlap on an angle, this seemed a little odd, but I went with it.

Some of the construction seemed rather unusual and left me scratching my head on occassion, as there are far better and easier ways to construct some parts of the design, for example using the burrito method for sewing the yoke.

The only part of the instructions that was dreadful, was the collar construction. To start with, sewing anything with a tight curve and a 1.5cm seam allowance is a nightmare. I hadn't realised how I have become used to much smaller seam allowances.

I followed the instructions and was left with an unsatisfactory finish in the inside of the neck edge on the front bodice piece where raw edges were visible. I ended up carefully unpicking and reconstructing it in a slightly different way to fully enclose all the raw edges. As I'd already trimmed these, this was not easy and not perfect. In the process I'd also stretched out the top collar edge and it's ended up with a few puckers in it.

However the rest of the construction went without incident and the edges are all finished well. I really like the top stitching at the bottom of the front opening -really neat, in fact, collar and facing apart, it's actually a fairly easy sew. I made the short sleeve version and included patch pockets on the front.

I also top stitched the sleeve seam onto the bodice, which gives a lovely professional finish to the seams.

The fabric came from a fabric and pattern swap locally, sometime last year. I love the colour - it's perfect summer colour. It sewed beautifully and needed very few pins to keep it in place. I have sewed a self coloured belt to go with this, but need a couple of D rings to finish it off, so it's being worn with other belts at the moment. The belt loops are made in the same way you might make bias binding, but in the straight grain. I positioned them as directed, just above the pocket openeing, forgetting I'd lengthened the pieces and really needed to attach them a touch higher, but I can live with it.

I also raided my stash of buttons to find something suitable, but I didn't have anything that would match. however I had 3 self cover buttons of a good size and used those instead.

All in all this is a virtually free sew, as the fabric was gifted to me, as was the pattern, The thread and notions were from my stash.

So am I loving the boilersuit trend? Well that remains to be seen - lets just see how much wear this gets over the summer? I'm looking for ways to style this - so hit me with your ideas. I'm also interested to know if you are jumping on this trend.

Pussy Bow Saraste Shirt

Late last year, when I was thinking about my sewing plans for this year, one of the items I wanted to sew was a pussy-bow blouse. I had scored the Sew Over It Pussy Bow Blouse at a pattern swap and really did think that it would be the way to go. However, after making up a muslin, I didn't like the neck opening and the thickness of the bow. I wanted something more substantial, more wearable and versatile.

I had made the Saraste shirt dress from Breaking the Pattern by Named clothing last year and knew that the fit was pretty good. I decided to use this as my base pattern and set to tracing out the additional pieces in my size (3).  I made the basic shirt and then cut a long tie to make the bow. This slows me to wear it with or without the bow as the mood takes me and give a more versatile piece of clothing.

My hubby had bought me this beautiful bamboo silk from Raystitch for Christmas and I knew that this was the right fabric to use. I had originally seen this fabric when on a course in London near the Raystitch shop and I called in between my course finishing and my train home. This fabric has a beautiful hand, it's drapey but presses well. it doesn't really fray but creases a. lot. I used very lightweight interfacing for the collar, button stand and cuffs.

I followed the pattern instructions for the shirt and it came out really well. I did manage to stretch out the shoulders a little bit when sewing them, which is unfortunate, but I can live with it. (truth be told I can't be bothered to take it apart and redo it). The sleeve has quite an odd construction. Whereas a normal shirt has an underarm seam and then a sleeve placket cut into the sleeve; this design has the seam at the back of the sleeve and a vent is formed by turning under the open edges at the bottom of the sleeve before adding the cuffs. In my opinion, this is not the best way to construct a sleeve and if doing it again, I'd adapt the sleeve to be more like a normal shirt pattern.

I had made most of this shirt way before lockdown, but then it got busy at work and I didn't have time to complete it. I needed to buy matching buttons but the week before lockdown I was on a residential all weekend with children from my class so I didn't get the chance to buy any. However a few weeks ago I had bought some self-cover buttons for a wedding dress I'm making, but the fabric was just not behaving and I couldn't use them for the dress. The bamboo silk, however, was perfect for self-covered buttons and I spent an evening making them up. Then the project sat and waited for a few other things to be almost completed before I made the buttonholes. I usually use my Bernina for all my sewing, but my back up machine is a much newer Janome with a one-step buttonhole function. I spent the second Saturday of lockdown finishing off a few projects and doing a mammoth buttonhole making session. I'm always a bit nervous when making buttonholes as they are a nightmare to remove if they go wrong. Everything went well and all the buttonholes on the blouse turned out well - phew!

This blouse has been hung up waiting to be photographed for 3 weeks, I finally got around to doing it today. While I love, love, love the bright blue skies and sunshine we've been having. it does cast strong shadows on our back yard. So today's bright, but overcast weather was much better for taking photos. I dragged my hubby out to act as photographer - as usual, and here we go - blogged item of clothing!!!!

I doubt I'll be wearing this much in the next few weeks, it might get some wear if lockdown ends before the weather gets too warm, but I think once we get to the autumn, this combo of the pussy-bow blouse and my wool wide-legged trousers will get plenty of wear, especially at work. I'm glad I went with this combination as I have so many different ways to wear it.