Happy Halloweentime! I just finished sewing an amazing Halloween-themed flannel jumpsuit, just in the nick of time!
This is a pattern hacked jumpsuit of the first order, sewed up in flannel, so it’s just as comfy as actually wearing pajamas!
I hacked together three modern patterns for this vintage-inspired jumpsuit: two reproduction vintage ones, and one retro one.
- Dress bodice: Butterick B5748 (1960 repro)
- Pant legs: Simplicity 3688 (1940s repro)
- Scoop front pockets: Butterick B5895
You can watch my latest YouTube video to follow along!
But I also thought you might enjoy some specific details on this project, in case you ever wanted to try something similar. So keep on reading!
It took a bit of thought to hack this all together, but I did it on the fly since a) I wasn’t sure this was really going to work well and b) I wasn’t sure I’d ever want to make something like this again. (Spoiler alert: I do!)
The funny thing is, I had completely forgotten that I had a jumpsuit/playsuit inspiration Pinterest board, until after I sewed this. Clearly, all those inspiration photos seeped in!
To make this jumpsuit, I used the version of my Butterick B5748 pattern pieces that I’d originally re-drafted for a scoop neck for a corduroy sheath dress jumper I made several years ago. I also used it for my plaid flannel jumper that I made last winter.
Because this was a jumpsuit and I was going to use a dress bodice and pant legs from a pants pattern, I wasn’t sure where the waist would exactly sit on me. So I decided to cut the dress bodice 3/8″ longer than my pattern pieces. (And I did this on on the fabric. Told you this was on the fly.)
This was a great call because even with that, the jumpsuit has a slight tendency to give me a wedgie in the back when I lean over or sit. I don’t think I’d want to raise the rise of the legs next time, as I think they sit really nicely on my body and the waist seam is in a good place, so maybe in the future I’ll just lower the crotch about 3/8″ or so perhaps.
To match up the pant legs with the bodice, I basically trimmed down the waist of the pant legs to about 2 sizes down from when I’d cut the pieces out over a decade ago. Which granted, I already knew were one size too big for me, but I hadn’t bothered to trim down the pattern pieces first. But I graded the waist back out to the original pattern pieces size at the hips, because I wanted the legs on these to remain nice and wide, to remind me of 1930s beach pajamas. (Y’know, the Halloween flannel edition.)
As it turns out, I didn’t even need to move the front or back darts to match up between the bodice and waist, which I was all prepared to do. The back ones are maybe 1/8″ off and I could probably have unpicked and tried again but really, this is so busy and how many times a year am I going to wear it? And plus it’s in the back and I’ll never think about it again after this post.
I decided it should have pockets, so I used the scooped out ‘slash’ type pocket pieces from out of print Butterick B5895, a Gertie cigarette pants pattern that I’ve sewed a jillion times. I waffled about if it would be weird to keep the front darts or if I should rotate them out, since almost all pants that have slack pockets don’t have a front dart, but in the end I kept it so I didn’t have to re-trace the pattern (trying to save time here) and it’s totally fine. The pockets are a great addition!
And I love this jumpsuit a surprising amount! It’s dreamy!
I definitely see myself making another one for Christmas, since there’s always holiday-themed flannel fabrics. And I sure love sewing with them–I’ve made at least two Christmas flannel garments: my snowglobes dress and my poinsettia dress.
But I think I’d wear a non-novelty-print one too. Might give me a good excuse to finally knit a fitted mohair turtleneck to wear under jumpers (and now jumpsuits), like I keep saying to myself I’ll do… someday…
To learn more, watch the full story on YouTube!
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