you make me feel like dancing

Hey Gang! I hope life has been treating you good over the last few weeks! Goodness, has it been that long? After coming down from the last crazy show install at work I have been trying to spend some time on 'me' the past month. Trying to find that life balance again of work/play/home/food/exercise/friends/family/hobbies... you know, the never-ending list that makes up a 'life'! And I've also been trying to soak up as much of the summer as I still can. September and October are my favorite months here in Galveston because the tourist season has ended, I get the beaches to myself (little known fact, fall is the best time for the beach here, the water is totally clear, slightly cooler than it's normal 'bathtub' or 'urine' temperatures, and there's no seaweed) and the weather is still summery perfection. I always feel like this time of year is sort of a brand new start - perhaps a bit of that lingering 'back to school' mentality - a great time to make goals, take stock, perhaps slow down a bit, and renew priorities. So that's been my focus these past few weeks.

And of course I've been sewing! Because 'life' would not be 'life' without the feel of fun new fabrics and the whir of my little machines. I've mostly been focusing on my latest make for the Mood Sewing Network - this fabulous Holly Jumpsuit made up in a bubblegum pink, vintage-y Marc Jacobs viscose print (no longer available online). I originally fell in love with the sister color-way of this fabric (coral and yellow flowers on a deep blueish-purple background) but sadly my 'buy now' fingers were not fast enough and it was sold out in the blink of an eye. Devastated, I consoled myself with this, slightly odd, pink, blue and green yardage you see here. Pink and green seems like a bit of a peculiar color combination to me, but I think that's precisely why I ended up loving this fabric. The green tones down the overall Barbie vibe of this pink and takes into a more unique, even modern, territory.

The pattern is of course non other than By Hand London's newest pattern release, the Holly Jumpsuit. I was pretty smitten with the cowl-necked, disco fabulous version of this pattern as soon as I saw it. Many of the versions I've been seeing pop up in the ol' blog feed since the release have been from pattern testers who either tested an earlier version of this pattern, or Variation 1, featuring a cute button-up bodice. Don't get me wrong, those versions are fabulous, but it was this 'Bianca Jagger goes to Studio 54' view that really stole my heart. I wasn't completely sold on using this Marc Jacobs print to make this pattern at first (I had visions of 40's inspired fall dresses) but after a quick consultation with my pal Heather Lou (always a good idea to keep sewing friends on speed dial - or in this case, email - in the event of just such a conundrum) I decided a head-to-toe pepto-pink-and-green look was exactly what I needed in my life!

Crazy eyes!!
I actually made two - count them, two! muslins of this pattern because I wasn't completely confident about the fit - jumpsuits are kinda tricky like that. I went with a size US8 and the first muslin (here and here) seemed to have a lot of excess fabric pooling above the waistline of the back bodice and some horizontal pulling at the bust. I pinched out the excess fabric at the back and then performed a small 1/4" FBA (full bust adjustment) - not something I usually have to do - to the front bodice, rotating the dart into the pleats of the cowl neck. I felt like these were pretty big pattern changes to make so I went ahead and made another muslin to check fit again, but decided to check the FBA changes before adjusting the back bodice, because I had read somewhere that you should only make one fitting adjustment at a time. Well, my second muslin (here and here) had a nice, neat looking back without any fabric pooling, but my horizontal lines at the bust were still there! Not to mention that the FBA had added width to the side seams (as it's supposed to do) which in the second muslin I felt like I could do without. But I was muslin-ed out and deemed my second go around 'good enough' and decided to cut into my fabric. Also, my deadline for my post was fast approaching... decisions had to be made.

As I was cutting out my fabric I gave absolutely zero thought in regards to print placement. Like less than zero. Seriously, it didn't occur to me at all. Which means that the fact that those green flowers are so evenly placed down the front of my legs leaves me pleasantly baffled! However, not all my cut pieces were quite so serendipitous... my original front bodice piece (which is cut on the bias) featured two big ol' green and blue flowers right over each breast! Yep. Way to go, Sal. Luckily I had just enough fabric left to cut myself another bodice with less suspicious flower placement.
HOWEVER!! After I cut bodice numero uno (the one with the FBA, remember?) I noticed that it grew considerably due to the bias cut in my fabric. Turns out this Marc Jacobs viscose/poly silky, crepe-y, magical fabric is quite susceptible to shiftiness and stretching on the bias! Which means... when I cut out my second bodice I decided I didn't need the extra room after all and went with the originally drafted bodice straight out of the packaging. Yes, that means what you think it means: THOSE TWO MUSLINS WERE FOR NOTHING!

So my final thoughts on fitting this pattern are: 1) a drape-y fabric can hide a multitude of fitting sins 2) strap length can also make a huge difference with this pattern (in my case, it got rid of all that mysterious back bodice excess fabric I mentioned way back in muslin #1) and 3) The BHL gang are currently executing a Holly Jumpsuit sewalong with a myriad of fitting posts!

Putting this jumpsuit together was really quite straight forward. Those BHL ladies wrote some fine instructions, and, remember, I had already sewn it twice before (no, I'm not still bitter...) I decided to give my pants a deep, 3" hem, and I hemmed them to wear with my clogs. For reference, I'm about 5'6" and my clogs have about a 3" heel. I didn't have to add any length to the legs because these suckers are loooong as drafted.

But just because the instructions and process was straight forward doesn't mean that I didn't muck it up. I ended up cursing my way through attaching the bias binding along the back, armholes, and extending into the shoulder straps. You guys. I. hate. bias. binding. I glued that shit down and used about a thousand pins per inch and still it somehow managed to shift out of place under my presser foot. I think in the future I'm just going to hand sew it in place. It will probably take less time overall once you consider all the unpicking I have to do! But it turned out fine in the end *deeep sigh*.
The other place I made a major cock-up of things was with the zipper. In my sewing haste I did not stop to consider that my bias cut front bodice may have continued to grow as I was working on it and therefore when I went to attach my zipper my waist seam was way off. If you squint you can see it in the photo above. And I left it like that... because.... pink jumpsuit. More of the 'frosting' type of garment than the 'cake', wouldn't you say? In other words, as much as I love my finished jumpsuit, it probably won't be a wardrobe staple, more of 'special occasion' getup. And on those 'special occasions' no one will be looking at my waist seam.
Especially after I stun them with my sweet sweet dance moves!!

Ah HAH! You thought my title for this post was completely arbitrary, didn't you!?!? No no! There is always a method to my madness! In this case, I took those disco vibes I was getting from this pattern very literally.

Now I would like you to imagine me pulling out my worst best dance moves in front of my tripod, with a self timer, on this residential sidewalk, in front of some stranger's home, at around 5pm when everyone is driving home from work. Picture it in your mind...

YOU'RE WELCOME!

And on that note, I'll sign off! Until next time, my friends, Happy trails!

xx

*The fabric for this post was provided to me free of charge by Mood Fabrics*