Sometimes a sewing project unexpectedly makes its way into your life.

Although the Sierra Jumpsuit was my favourite pattern from Papercut Pattern’s Geo collection, it hadn’t yet weaselled its way onto my sewing queue.

But, then, I had an entirely unexpected stroke of sewing fortune.

Meter Meter got in touch with me, to see if I’d be interested in a mini-collaboration. Which involved me being able to choose some fabric and patterns from their amazing collection of high quality (and often sustainable!) fabrics.

Ummm, YES!

When you’re favourite fabric store in Europe offers you a chance to try some of their fabric for free, of course, the answer can only be YES!

So expect to see more Meter Meter fabrics on the blog over the next couple of months ** (See disclosure note at end of post).

And this freedom encouraged me to be a little more adventurous than I’d been originally planning.

Inspiring me to give the Sierra Jumpsuit a go!

Stonewashed Linen from Meter Meter

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you will know that linen is the greatest fibre known to mankind.

I want to be swathed in it at all times.

I want to live in a climate, where that is possible. Mark my words, one day I will retire to a land when I can be accompanied by the comforting swish of soft linen every single day.

May the gentle crinkling be with you…

And, being such a linen lover, I’ve bought my fair share of linen. For me, the softest, most incredible linen in the world, has to be The Fabric Store’s exclusive milled linen, in the regular weight (160gsm). The Fabric Store’s heavyweight linen (265gsm), whilst also lovely, doesn’t have quite that some level of ‘this-is-so-buttery-soft-how-could-it-possible-be-linen’ wow factor.

Which brings me to this stonewashed linen. At 220gsm, it’s slightly less heavy than The Fabric Store’s heavyweight linen and I was pleasantly surprised to find that, as far as heavier-weight linen goes, I actually prefer this stonewashed linen.

Yes, you heard that. I found it better than The Fabric Store’s heavyweight linen. It’s softer, less rigid than The Fabric Store’s heavyweight linen and, even after washing, maintains the same softness as the day it arrived.

I guess that’s the joy of stonewash.

Just in case you’re wondering, the stonewashing process for this linen involves basically putting it in a commercial driver with natural pumice stones – in other words it’s a chemical free process (no enzyme wash involved here!)

In addition, more practically speaking, another HUUUGE bonus of stonewashed linen is that there’s no need to pre-wash!

Just cut away.

I chose the ‘Dijon’ colourway for my Sierra Jumpsuit. Because I was having a yellow moment at the time. So I’m basically recreating the image on the pattern envelope here. But, at the time of writing, there are 10 other lovely colours in the stonewashed linen range too!

A disjunctive proposition

I absolutely adore the finished product.

See, just look at me jumping for joy!

And the stonewashed linen from Meter Meter is simply divine. So far the weather here is too cold to actually be wearing it against my skin but I look forward to the day I do…

But, despite happily walking away with an awesome finished product, I just gotta say…

The Sierra Jumpsuit pattern has some major issues, in my humble opinion…

Those projects are always kind of weird, right?

In the end, you’re happy. But there was so much ‘Why, oh, why?’ involved in the process…

So here goes, I’ll try to dissect it for you…

My Sierra Jumpsuit

Let’s start with the facts.

My Sierra jumpsuit is basically a size medium. I graded a little towards the small line around the bust, but from the waist down, it’s a solid medium. For full-lengthed legs, the Sierra jumpsuit comes with either a tapered or a slightly wider leg option.

This is the tapered leg, which is an entirely new shape for me. I’ve spent a large part of my life avoiding looks which I feel exaggerate my hips, but it’s refreshing to throw caution to the wind and try something new.

I made a few adjustments at the outset, which are typical for me in jumpsuit.

Before going into this, just as a little aside as to how fabulous sewing is to help us to get to know our bodies, I spent my entire life feeling that I had odd, short legs. Thanks to sewing, and specifically to sewing jumpsuits, which I’d never really done until about a year ago, I’ve had the major light-bulb moment that my legs aren’t where it’s at at all.

Rather, I’m actually quite long in the torso.

It feels empowering to be able to clearly identify NOT ‘what’s wrong with my body’ but ‘what adjustments I need to make from the random-arbitrary-standard to get the shape that fits me best’.

So, armed with this knowledge, I lengthened the bodice by 1 inch at the outset. This was actually a touch complex, because it then required redrawing the curve of the neck of the bodice pieces, as well as the stabilising interfacing pieces.

I also added an extra centimetre of length into the crotch area and an extra centimetre in overall leg length.

If it weren’t for this extra length, this Sierra Jumpsuit would be major wedgie-ville for me, so I’m infinitely glad that I made these essential-for-my-body adjustments. With these adjustments, all is fine in that department. I can raise my hands in the air with no issues!!

Sierra Jumpsuit: The Pattern

So, I mentioned already that this wasn’t the best experience I’ve ever had with a pattern.

But, to be fair, I also want to note that there are some really great aspects of the Sierra Jumpsuit.

The tie details and shapes are just divine.

The combination of a loose-fitting ease-y garment which still looks totally put-together is the epitome of modern dressing.

Also, I mashed myself a tie front wrap jumpsuit last year and getting the ties and the wrap front and the details just right is tough!! This pattern does it well. The pattern appropriately uses interfacing and lining to avoid stretching out of the neckline – a problem I’m having over time with my pattern mash tie front jumpsuit I sewed last year.

So, despite having not the best experience, I’m contemplating doing it all over again. You heard it here, I will make another Sierra Jumpsuit.

Which almost never happens. If I experience inordinate difficulties with a pattern, it usually ends up in the trash can.

Life’s too short.

The fact that I’m willing to work through the issues to try this again is a testament to how much potential the Sierra Jumpsuit has.

Trials and Tribulations

Now, I had the Sierra Jumpsuit as a paper pattern, kindly offered to me by Meter Meter. This isn’t the first time I’ve used a paper pattern from Papercut Patterns.

And, I have to say, even though they look so incredibly beautiful, they are not my favourite pattern to actually use.

As opposed to just appreciate as an objet d’art.

In case you haven’t used them yourself, they come with both the instructions and the pattern printed on a large sheet of sturdy brown paper. The instructions are designed so that you can cut them up and glue them together, to create a little booklet, about A6 size ( I think, I’m not great with paper…)

I find that the brown paper is difficult to trace because of how dark it is. In my poor lighting conditions (hands up if you only ever find time to sew when it’s dark outside…), I’m prone to miss notches and little details.

But it’s the instructions that bug me the most. They end up being teeny tiny. Especially for something a little complex like this, I found the diagrams hard to follow due to their diminutive size…

Of course, what is important about instructions is not just whether you can read them easily, but what they’re actually telling you to do. I found that the instructions for the Sierra Jumpsuit, well, they just weren’t the greatest. There were inconsistencies throughout and, towards the end, where the going gets tough, I felt like the instructions got going and just left me to muddle through on my own…

There were literally steps where I was just left thinking – I have no idea what they are trying to tell me to do…

And this was how I felt, even though, after a baste fitting, I realised I could, with a bit of strategic wiggling, get my Sierra jumpsuit on and off without a zip. So I totally skipped the entire insertion of a side zipper.

Yet, still I was confused!

The main thing that I found challenging (and a tad frustrating), overall, is the construction method.

The Sierra Jumpsuit is sewn so that it doesn’t come together until right at the end. I think it’s the fact that the back piece is a single piece whereas at the front you have the wrap bodice and pants as separate pieces which makes this necessary. So you end up with this unwieldy confusing twisty-turny piece of you’re-not-quite-sure-what until it’s almost all over. No chance for fitting and testing along the way. This was memorably described by Jen over at Sewing and Slapdashery as ‘a line of jumpsuit’…

Doesn’t really make for a reassuring sew…

Sierra Jumpsuit: The fit

Now, the other main reason the pattern itself doesn’t have me jumping for joy is that, as much as I love this finished garment, it has major fit issues.

It is too big under the arms, I need to raise the armsyce for my next one.

And, it gapes at both the front and the back neckline. The front is likely my fault since I had to redraw the curve to lengthen the bodice. Although, in all honesty, lots of versions I’m seeing pop up online also seem to have issues at the front neckline.

But the back v-neck, just doesn’t even come close to fitting and lying flat. When there is nothing on underneath, the v-neck can also lend itself to some bra visibility. On my next version, I will raise the apex of the back V by an inch or so and pinch a bunch of extra fabric out of the rest of the back neckline to try to make it, you know, fit.

And the pockets are just plain old weird!

They aren’t drafted as regular in-seam pockets (to accomodate the zip on one side). But they are a pain in the butt to construct and I find that they gape open ridiculously. Plus, despite being big and unsightly, the pocket itself if very shallow (compared to the huge opening) and I am constantly worried of anything I place in them falling out.

My pockets are in the most unflattering position possible, although this one is totally my own fault. I lengthened the bodice and crotch, but forgot to raise the pocket position to compensate! Next time I will replace them with regular inseam pockets (since I know I don’t need the zip), possibly anchored to the waist.

Sierra Jumpsuit: Tips

But despite all of these things, there is something so compelling about the finished design that, yes, I think it is worth the effort to sew it again.

And so, I thought I’d just record a few tips for my future self.

In addition to, you know, fixing all of the above fit issues!

First, I chose to self-line the bodice, but I found that it rapidly became very confusing which was bodice piece A and which was B. I am a lazy sewist who doesn’t always label her pieces. #sorrynotsorry

That minor shortcut is just not worth it with the Sierra Jumpsuit. Label your pieces and, if self-lining, clearly mark what is your lining and what is your shell. It will save you time later!

Also, don’t pick up your weirdly shaped back piece by the shoulders and admire it…

I did that. And it caused the neckline of the back piece to stretch out considerably. The back facing (with the same neckline) is interfaced right at the beginning, so it doesn’t have this problem. But when it came time to attach the shell and the facing, the former had grown considerably. On the future version, I will add a strip of stabilising interfacing to the back neckline of the shell piece as well.

The Sierra Range…

But, you know what, there is just something about this pattern, that is definitely drawing me back, despite its imperfection.

Well, probably the gorgeous stonewashed linen from Meter Meter has a lot to do with it.

I feel like the most sophisticated bumble bee ever when I wear it in its ‘winter variation’ as featured in some of these photos…

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And, I do like the way that sewing it with a slightly heavier linen (or other fabric), opens the door to plenty of layering opportunities, making the Sierra Jumpsuit a garment to reach for year-round.

And, you know what else I love?

My Sierra Jumpsuit, with its tapered legs and bright colour palette, was not necessarily something I would have picked out as being ‘me’, but sometimes it’s immensely rewarding to venture a little out of your comfort zone.

Surprise sewing for the win, right?

When was the last time you sewed out of your comfort zone?

Did it work for you or did I just get lucky here?

** Disclosure: on this blog, I will always tell you if I have received a pattern and/or fabric free of charge, rather than paid for it myself. I promise you, there’s plenty of Meter Meter fabrics on this blog that I’ve paid for!! Apart from receiving both the fabric and a copy of the paper pattern free from Meter Meter, I received no remuneration for this post and Meter Meter did not ask me to write this post, nor see its content in any way. In other words, these are entirely my own opinions and views!

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.