Jumping In!

Rhonda from Rhonda's Creative Life and I are exploring pants this August.  Last week we shared our favorite pants patterns.  It is always fun to see what inspires other sewists.  Rhonda made a wonderful pant/skirt creation that is so her.  She has a dramatic flare that often shows up in amazing sleeves and unique collars.  That same flare was on display in her full legged, border print pants with a clever skirt overlay.  Just lovely!  Even though we scratch our heads and whine about fitting, we sewing folks are so fortunate to be able to imagine something and then go right ahead and make it!  Yeah us!

This week Rhonda and I are going to be starting with the same fabric.  Not only do Rhonda and I have very different body types, we also have different color palettes.  Rhonda looks lovely in any shade of blue!  She also loves a great contrast!  My color choices, on the other hand, tend toward 'mud' colors and monochromatic.  Browns and greys, neutral linen shades....maybe you have noticed? So picking out a fabric that we would both enjoy working with and wearing was a bit of a challenge.

 Back in July I was trolling around in my local fabric haunt and I ran into the softest, yummiest, cotton Hawaiian fabric.  The quality of the cotton and the hand of the fabric remind me a lot of a Liberty of London cotton lawn. Finely woven with a bit of a sheen.  The print has both blues (for Rhonda) and greys (for me) with a touch of lavender thrown in for fun.  I thought Rhonda would love it as much as I do and snapped up 6 yards!  That was easier than I thought!  But then....what to do with it?!

Now that I am considered 'vintage'...or at least the clothes that I wore in high school are considered vintage...it is hard to get my head around wearing those styles AGAIN!  But I have been seeing jumpsuits everywhere!  Yeah, I know...can I really make a jumpsuit?!  Well, apparently I can.

I did start with a pattern but about the only thing left of the original design is the v-neckline!  The original pattern was basically two front pieces and two back pieces with a zipper up the back to get in and out of it.
OK, it's not likely that I would be able to get to a back zipper in an 'emergency' so that had to go right off.  No zipper meant that I would need to make the top neck opening big enough to wiggle my hips and shoulders through.  I thought I had it right but when I tried to get it on...Nope...That's how the little gathered up elastic piece in the back neckline came to be.  It reminds me of the back of the 'sunsuits' I used to wear as a kid!

The original also had in seam pockets.  I definitely wanted pockets.  I thought about the side seam pockets, but I never really like them.  They always seem to be too far back to get my hands into comfortably.  To get the pockets around to the front of my suit I cut the front pieces along the waistline and added slant pockets.

The original did not have elastic at the waist, it just suggested wearing a belt.  That I liked, but I knew that every time I wiggled in and out of my jumpsuit I would be adjusting the gathers at the waist.  Nah!  I added a casing and elastic to keep the gathers in the same place.

I looked for a belt but was not inspired by anything that I found so decided to make one.  I wanted a 70's type belt with the two rings.  I found some at a local quilt shop but they were $13!!!!  Seemed a bit steep so I wandered around in the hardware store and found some rings...I have no idea what they are actually designed for, but they were only $2.69 and made a really great belt buckle!

          

          

I also made a big long self-fabric tie that I think makes the jumpsuit feel a little dressier.

AND...I actually hemmed the thing 'too short!'  Yep,  I'm gonna see how that feels.  Meany, highwater pants teasers take that!!!! 😱 Sorry, a bit of a high school flashback!

I haven't seen what direction Rhonda's imagination took with the Hawaiian print, but knowing Rhonda, it will be fabulous!  Check it out HERE.

Next week we'll be "Getting to the Bottom Line" again with a new challenge in the month of pants.