Zadie Jumpsuit from Paper Theory Patterns

If you had told me two years ago that I would be making and wearing a jumpsuit I would have said "not in a million years". And yet here I am, wearing this jumpsuit, and teaching a class this weekend on this very pattern. After this pattern came out and I saw so many great versions on IG and blogs I came to the conclusion that it's a pattern that's both simple and stylish, quick to sew, actually easy to get on and off, and it looks great in so many different fabrics. This is the Zadie jumpsuit from Paper Theory Patterns. 



I wanted to take photos and do this blog post this week, so I was outside as the light was fading around 7pm. On the positive side - I had just come home from getting my haircut so I figured bright lipstick, dash out and take my photos. That spot on my patio has a nice blank wall but the light is limited due to the angle and the patio cover. I'm still contemplating painting a section in a nice light color. Oh the things we do for photos these days, right?

This fabric is a polyester crepe ? kind of a textured fabric with a very slight stretch, which I bought around New Years time at Joann's on one of their super sale days. I loved the color but didn't really have any need for some poly, however when I was thinking about this jumpsuit I saw it in my stash. I still have about 1.5 yards remaining so I think that will be a dress. Because now I'm sold on this color :)

Super duper fabric closeup so you can see the texture. Which is a nice feature - it presses perfectly but no wrinkles! And you can see one small change I made which was to add belt loops.




If you've been living under a rock for the past few months and haven't seen this pattern here is the tech drawing.




I did make a couple of fitting adjustments, as I made a sample version which is hanging on the wall at Hello Stitch, in my size 10 and which I thought the overall fit was nice the crotch was very low, to me it felt awkward. I decided to raise it up on this version and then if it turned out too high I could always stitch it lower.  Here's the change I made, raising both the front and back crotch curve by 2 inches. That turned out to be perfect and I left it that way after I basted it to try on.






The slight drawback of raising the crotch curve is that it is now shorter in the body, so slightly more wriggling to get it on since the length of the opening is now shorter, but it is by no means too short and I think the back looks better than on the test version that I made. (In this post if you scroll down you can see the test version that I made).




The other notable change is the length, I added 6 inches to the length, and then ended up hemming up about 2.5-3 inches as I wanted it to be full length, I don't think the crop length looks good on me at all.

This jumpsuit is very cleverly designed in that there are no closures other than the tie belt, but it is really like a wrap dress, so the fronts overlap and provide very good coverage. It's one of the type of garment that probably doesn't look all that great on the hanger if you were to see it in a store but once you put it on then it looks fantastic.






I might have gone a little overboard with the belt loops but that is one criticism of the pattern, or the wearability. Most all of them that I see have the tie belt wrapped but the waist seam tends to slide down below it, and sometimes it looks a bit baggy in the backside. I almost wonder if it would look OK and be comfortable to have a casing with elastic just across the back waist. Might try that sometime in the future.

One other little adjustment was to add to the front edge of the bodice, where the wraps overlap at the center front. This is another of my "I will add a little bit here and if I don't like it when I sew it together and try on then I can always remove it" adjustments. But I left it as it. By adding that small amount on a wrap dress or top you are raising the point where the overlaps intersect. Often this is the difference between a pretty and comfortable neckline and a slightly too revealing wrap neckline.
I wrote an article on the Craftsy blog in the past which is now on the Bluprint site, so it may be helpful when fitting a wrap neckline,



One other place when I decided to go off the instructions was in the binding of the opening. This fabric was a bit spongy and it didn't look great with topstitching as a linen or cotton would, so I hand stitched the bias binding around the neck.
It did take a few minutes but the thread really disappeared into the texture of the fabric and allowed me to get the binding even all the way around. Plus a bit of hand sewing is fine when it's SHARK WEEK on Discovery channel. Any other shark week fans out there? It's silly, it's bombastic and yet I find it so mesmerizing. Also as someone who loves to swim in the ocean, I find it both educational and nightmare inducing. But I love anything ocean related so it's really interesting.





So that's the scoop on my Zadie jumpsuit. This Saturday I have a class on this pattern which is full, however we are offering it again in September and I think there are some spots still open, but I think they will fill up.

What else? I'm sneaking in a few new summer dresses here and there in my sewing time, as I have a vacation coming up. We have a jean jacket class on the calendar at Hello Stitch in October - that will be fun and it's such a great item for our bay area weather. There is one spot that opened up in my Jacket Tailoring class in mid-Sept. I just started on a Jasika blazer this week as I wanted to try out the pattern so I will post some progress on my IG story. Also we're planning a capsule wardrobe class so more details on that soon.


I wasn't going to include this picture but I decided it needed a caption of this type "oh hello, welcome to my garden, where I flounce around in my elegant jumpsuit admiring my flowers, and I ignore the dry patch on the lawn where the sprinklers refuse to cooperate". Or something equally silly but you get the idea.



Happy Summer Sewing,
Beth

Today's garden photo, dahlias and a milkweed, which I happily planted to help the monarch butterflies. And I was thrilled this week to see some in my yard. Long live the monarch butterflies!