Is This the Ultimate Suit for Jumping in?
The jumpsuit has gone from ‘80s wardrobe outcast to firm fashion favourite, but for me it’s never crossed my mind that I would one day own a jumpsuit let alone sew one.
Image credit left to right: Fiona aka Diary of a Chain Stitcher; Raylene aka Scarlet Stitch; Kelli aka True Bias; Zoe aka So, Zoe . . .
The Zadie has become a firm favourite of the sewing community since its release in the summer of 2018. Every single post I’ve read has been full of compliments, with sewers saying that the pattern was fast and a perfect fit. But I still had my reservations about the pattern itself. The pattern has a lot of built in ease and, as a sewer who falls on the petite side in clothes, I have found myself drowning in fabric for a few of my makes in the past. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy a baggy jumper or hoodie as much as the next person but at 5’5, with a small frame, I’m not interested in swimming in my clothes even if it’s lounge wear.
The Zadie from Paper Theory is described as a relaxed and easy to wear one piece that comes with the option of wide 3/4 length sleeves or sleeveless with a dropped shoulder. It wraps around your body with a tie belt, so there is no need for fastenings. The pattern was also designed to reduce most fitting issues and has plenty of built in ease. The legs are cut wide and skim above the ankle with deep slanted pockets on the front. There are small pleats at the waist on the front and back for some shaping. The neck edge is finished with a bias binding.
I cut the smallest size, 6, and decided not to add sleeves. I have many long sleeve tops and it would be nice to be able to have the option to layer my jumpsuit depending on the weather. The pattern was designed especially for woven, medium-weight fabrics like cotton and linen but would still look amazing in fabrics like crepe, viscose twill or satin that had more draping qualities. As I was making this jumpsuit in a sewing collaboration with my friend Lyndsey for our monthly newsletter, Noteworthy, I had chosen this beautiful viscose twill in pewter for my wearable toile and for my final version the same, but in forest green. Both fabrics were from Minerva.
This was the first Paper Theory pattern that I had sewn and I found the instructions and drawings easy to follow, apart from the finishing for the crotch area. We had started at 10am and by the time I got to finishing the pattern I was quite tired. We both had been sewing for quite a long time and, where I can’t speak for Lynz (but you can read her version here), I was frustrated with the pattern. Viscose twill frays quite a lot and I didn’t even notice until I had finished my jumpsuit that I had sewn one of my ties in the wrong place. This caused a strange rippling in the binding as well. Every little wobble that I had in my bias binding was very obvious and this probably is the worst finish of bias binding that I have ever done on any garment. To fix this I’m thinking of adding a little popper to stop my neckline gaping so much and to give me a little modesty back.
If I were to make this pattern again I would stabilise the neck edge, with iron on bias tape, as soon as I had cut it out rather than after whenever the pattern calls for it. By that point I had sewn quite a few seams and could already tell that my fabric had stretched with that much handling. Staystitching is a straight stitch sewn through one layer of fabric. It’s most often used around a curve to prevent distortion. I don’t like stay stitching as I find that it doesn’t really stop additional distortion due to the additional handling of the fabric which brings me to iron on bias tape aka magic tape. It does the same job of staystiching but without all that hassle.
I would also take out the seam on the back by cutting that piece on the fold; because of my extensive handing I had over stretched my fabric and despite excruciatingly slow sewing, multiple pins and trying to smooth out the puckers in my darts, I couldn’t make them a perfect match to the top and trouser part.
This was also the first time that I had made my own bias binding and without a bias maker I can say it was an absolute pain. No amount of steam or pressing made my handmade bias tape stay. For most projects I’ve always bought my binding and I think I will carry on doing so.
Brownie points for Paper Theory
Despite my difficulties with the pattern, I feel like there is still a lot of credit to be given to Paper Theory. They really encapsulate what slow fashion is and to be really focused on sustainability; it really shows in their blog posts, patterns and social platforms. Tara, who is the pattern cutter behind Paper Theory, was one of the first to respond to the call for more plus sizes in the sewing world by releasing the Zadie jumpsuit with an increased size range. I absolutely love that the models on their website are of diverse backgrounds and ages - which should always be at the forefront of thoughts rather than one of the last.
In regards to the Zadie pattern, the pockets were fantastically large, which is how they should be! The inclusion of bicep measurements as part of the finished garment measurement was a nice touch. This measurement is rarely included and I think it should be for patterns that have sleeves. Even in this garment where it is barely needed, it’s still an important part of the garment. After all if your arms were too tight it would ruin the garment’s wearability just as much as it would if it was too tight elsewhere.
The pattern is also laid out in quite an efficient way and this was to minimise use and wastage of fabric - which I’m sure many can say is quite refreshing.
Final verdict
Sadly, I will not be taking this pattern any further than my wearable toile. I can see a lot of my friends wearing this relaxed style jumpsuit, but for me I felt that there was too much fabric around my waist to be comfortable. I will still keep my eyes open for other more fitted jumpsuit patterns as I think they will be more of my style.
