Ahhh, this fabric!

Sometimes a sewing project is all about a pattern. Other times, it’s all about the fabric!

When I was fortunate enough to make my first (only) ever in person visit to The Fabric Store last Christmas, this fabric immediately jumped out at me as I walked into the Sydney store, deposited my sleeping, jet-lagged 3 year old on the couch (it was comfy, I promise) and started browsing…

It’s a quite heavyweight but soft cotton and it is just lovely.

The problem with falling head over heels in love with a fabric is that it seems destined to become a million different things.

This was going to be a pair of culottes.

Then a fitted dress based on the Anni Building Block from Named Clothing with some gorgeous stripe-play à la @jess_sews_clothes. Then the Anni Building Block wrap jumpsuit.

Then a Deer and Doe Myosotis.

Although I only had just under 3 metres.

Yeah, yeah, I needed to narrow it down somewhat.

And so, it became an Amy Jumpsuit from Closet Case Patterns.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who suffers from pattern indecision???

Amy Jumpsuit

I really liked the Amy Jumpsuit as soon as it was released. It spoke to all of my minimalist, wide-legged, why-don’t-I-live-in-a-climate-with-more-than- ten-days-of-hot-weather-per-year vibes.

I didn’t buy it right away, however, as it’s release at the end of summer last year was right at the time that I try to start “sewing ahead” for the cooler weather.

(Minor aside, how do you plan your sewing? Sewing for the season you’re in right now or trying to sew ahead for the coming season?).

But, as I tried to narrow down the options of what to do with this fabric and kept flitting between the Anni Jumpsuit and wide-legged culottes options, I realised that the Amy Jumpsuit might just be the perfect median.

And soooo, here we are….

My Amy Jumpsuit

My Amy Jumpsuit is a straight size 12, without any modifications.

If I were to make it again, I would give myself a slight bit of extra room under the arms – it’s not uncomfortable, but could be slightly more comfortable.

And I need to lower/scoop out the butt a tiny bit. It’s not overly wedgy-ville, but there is the occasional moment of hungry butt seam munching happening!

Luckily, this is a change I can still make, so I will do so as soon as I have the right colour thread in my machine…

One thing I never knew about myself until I started sewing is that I have a long torso. As the design was quite loose and flowing and the crotch seemed quite low, I decided to just sew it up as is the first time, prior to making adjustments. Next time, I think I will add a little length in the torso, just for added comfort.

Stripe-play

This Amy Jumpsuit did cause me a few stripe-play dilemmas. I must say, this is probably the first time I had worked with such a distinct and bold feature stripe, which, obviously, requires certain careful positioning.

At first, I thought it would be easy. After all, there’s not many stripes, so it should be easy to position them.

Right?

Oh, how I hadn’t properly thought through the problems caused by diagonal lines in pattern pieces!

I had read this blog post on the Closet Case blog about adjusting the grainline to avoid chevrons along the centre front and back seams. Which is great and, I more or less managed to do this (don’t look too closely at the crotch, my stripe-play lost it a bit here…).

But, this inevitably means that, well, I have some weird chevrons along the side seams. Geometry was never my strong point but, if it’s not some form of a parallelogram, we’re never going to have both a centre front seam and a side seam which are parallel.

Which causes problems. Cuz, like here, if your stripes are doing what you want around the centre seam, then they won’t be doing what you want at the side seam.

It also didn’t help too much that I didn’t really have extra fabric to play with (my plan to lengthen the legs slightly was also scuttled by fabric availability).

So, all in all, it’s a bit of a stripe play learning curve. But, hey, I’m not really going to see the side seams so often!

My favourite stripe feature is the way the stripe at the strap then runs continuously down both the front and back of my Amy Jumpsuit.

Amy Jumpsuit… Easy going…

No construction issues or complaint to share, the instructions were immaculate. I did feel a tad bamboozled by the step where you attach the facing to the bodice and what I was supposed to do with the straps at that stage. I followed the suggestion that, if confused, you could unpick your basted straps on one side. After which, it all suddenly became clear and I realised what I was supposed to be doing.

Sorry, I realise that that explanation will make pretty much zero sense. But, if you ever find yourself at that stage of the Amy Jumpsuit experience, maybe it will become clearer.

Point being, the bamboozlement was entirely my own and in no way a product of the instructions.

Amy Jumpsuit Away…

So, now I have lovely summery, chilling out while looking put together jumpsuit.

I can also attest to this pattern’s ideal “bra-strap covered-up-ness”.

Umm, but now I just need summer to arrive to my neck of the woods so I can wear it without something underneath and embrace its full potential….

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here. And you can find me on Instagram here.