Late last year I made a whole capsule wardrobe for my brother of things that I had in the stash (pattern and fabric), things that he needed, and that he couldn't easily buy due to him having very long limbs (herein referred to as the Long Limbed Sibling Freak (LLSF)).
None of that has made it to the blog yet, but just this last fortnight I've been sewing him a jumpsuit...
It came about because he was in the country and was attending an award ceremony. It should be noted I was not his +1, but I was concerned/curious enough to ask what he was going to wear. I suggested I might make him a pair of black trousers, but then I decided a jumpsuit would be much more fun. Turns out a jumpsuit, with appropriately long legs and sleeves is something he has always coveted.
I was excited to try the
Grasser 1040 pattern. I'd been impressed with the pattern for P's pants in the last post and am wearing a pair of Grasser pants of my own (as yet undocumented) as I type.
He was concerned that the pattern model's version looked too big (they kindly give the model's measurements and the size worn, and I think he's wearing about two sizes bigger than he should as well). His only other requests were that the fabric should be soft and plain and the sleeves long enough. Beyond that it was my choice.
For a jumpsuit to look a bit more awards-ceremony-red-carpet and less mechanic-on-a-lunch-break it needed all those zippers and maybe some silver metallic topstitching.
I bought the pattern online on Wednesday morning and Creffield Digital Print had the printed roll ready for me to collect before lunchtime. I traced it off that afternoon and then realised I didn't have enough black cotton drill in the stash. Thursday was a long work day, Friday the Anzac Day public holiday and Saturday full of chores and activities. No time to shop for fabric. Thankfully Fibresmith had a warehouse sale on the Friday and I picked up 5m of a lovely cotton drill in a light bluish grey. Spotlight opened in the afternoon and I bought some fabric dye and so then by Saturday I had my black cotton drill, even if it's a weirdly off black shade of black.
Sourcing the zippers was the other challenge. I needed 12 zippers in total in no less than 9 different lengths and the lengths would need to be adjusted as I sewed. I'd anticipated this as soon as I bought the pattern so I'd zoomed over to LZF zips in Brunswick where the super friendly staff cut me zipper tape to make 12 zips, put the bottom stops on leaving enough length for each of the zips, supplied all the pullers and plenty of the little top stops for me to apply once the length was correct. And so cheaply too. Five stars for LZF
To make it just a little bit "extra" I used some black and silver flocked iron on transfer material and my Silhouette Cameo to cut a letter G (the LLSF's initial) for one of the pockets
I couldn't quite follow the pattern's instructions for the pockets as it has you use the zipper tape exposed on one side to make the pocket edge and that only works if you have plenty of tape at both ends of the zip. It would be a curious finish, but impossible if you're only shortening your zippers at one end.
Most of the rest of the instructions were easy to follow, with the caveat that they're translated (fairly poorly) from Russian and there's a lot of "processing the detail" type phrasing. There are photos although they don't always match the written instruction so you need to have a bit of sewing experience to tackle this one. The drafting is spot on, so once you work out what you're meant to do it all comes together perfectly. Which is good cause I only had two days and a few evenings after dinner to assemble it all.
The sleeve cuffs, leg hems and waist all have little tabs with snaps so they can be narrowed in a bit. But if you like your legs flared, or need to get your jumpsuit off over your boots there are gusset zippers in the inner leg. Probably completely unnecessary but why not sew on two more zips!
It was finished Sunday night and washed to get the pencil marks out and then ready to wear for Monday night's event. He was delighted!
So, who got to be his +1 for the awards ceremony? Our mum!
And it turned out that I dressed her as well, as she's wearing a Vogue 1817 jacket that I made for her two years ago.
Details: LLSF: Grasser 1040, size 48, height 188-194, 1.5cm sleeve length added otherwise no alterations. Cotton drill.
Mummy: Vogue V1817, mix of dobby spot linen, plain black linen and a poly/metallic blend spot fabric
