Sirocco Jumpsuit x 2

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with jumpsuits.  I have made one before and it certainly wasn't love at first sight, in fact that jumpsuit was worn a couple of times and then sent to the charity shop.  I wasn't in a great hurry to replace it despite being drawn to a couple of lovely Indy patterns.  The problem, I have with them despite the practicalities of going to the bathroom, is that most have large swathes of fabric that tend to overwhelm my 160cm height.  Yes, we should all be wearing what we like and not conforming to societal expectations that we dress flatteringly, for want of a better word, but I find that when I am not really liking the look of myself in a certain style, I simply will not wear said item of clothing.  Experience has taught me that this type of clothing will not get worn, so I for the most part resist the temptation; until now that is!

Deer & Doe got my attention because their Sirocco Jumpsuit, does not have large swathes of fabric.  I loved the wrap top that appeared to have good coverage, the high waist and most of all those pleats at the front.  I wasn't 100% convinced on it being knit, worried that it may bag out and just be too casual, so for a while, I did indeed resist but eventually after seeing the umpteenth version appear on my IG feed, and the perfect fabric in my stash I did indeed buy it.  What got me over the line is my daughter asking me to make her something to wear to a wedding she had coming up.  Once she saw this jumpsuit pattern she immediately wanted it. 

We had intended to make hers in some navy blue knit, but I felt it just a tad too casual for a wedding, and a wedding at a Winery no less!  A dig around in my stash and I came up with a piece of scuba left over from a top I made my Mum.  If each had their own, it still belonged to my Mum so I vowed to replace it with something else.  Courteney felt a bit guilty about stealing Nana's fabric, but after completing the jumpsuit I did fess up and Mum was okay with it as I knew she would.

I was really cutting it fine, excuse the pun, getting this pattern out on the fabric I had.  I had to run the neck binding down the grain and add a seam at the centre back neck to get it out.  It wasn't until I had cut the entire jumpsuit that I realised there was a rather deep selvedge on this fabric and I was going to have to run the legs in on the pants to make them work.  I hoped I had adequate width to do this, so the whole project ended up being up in the air until the last minute.  Fortunately it all worked out because this pattern does run a little large.  I actually had to run the legs in further to take some of the volume out of them.  I would have liked a little more stretch in the neck band to make getting it on and off a bit simpler because it does require a bit of wriggling but overall Courteney and I were pretty thrilled with how this turned out.

After finishing Courteney's Sirocco I decided I would in fact like one myself and the burgundy ponte I bought on the sale table at Fabric Vision was a good choice for this pattern.  After my experience with Courteney's, I cut the pattern down by a size because my fabric had more give.  Because my fabric had more give, I had to remove 1.5cm from the length of the bodice.  I had actually completed the jumpsuit before I realised I needed to do this but it was a pretty easy fix in the end because I had enough fabric to re cut the yokes which meant no need to unpick.  At the same time, I decided that the pants could do with a little less volume as well and ran these in by 1cm on each of the outer legs.

I love this jumpsuit!  I wore it out to dinner and a concert the other night and it was perfect on a warm spring night with ankle boots.  Would I make this pattern again?  I could have a whole wardrobe full of these and be happy, but really, I actually need only one.  I will however be taking a closer look at Deer & Doe patterns because I think I may be a fan girl!