Alice & Olivia Inspired Jumpsuit


Pattern: McCall’s 7908
Fabric: 3 yards black stretch denim from Joann’s
Sizing: Sized down 12 on the bottom, 14 on Top
Modifications:
-Added 7” in length to make it full length
-made a 1/4'”
forward shoulder adjustment
-added an 1” to the crotch length.
- 3 belt loops, the back belt loop is 1" wide with red topstitching details and a
button
-a 2” wide belt
-a 2” wide belt
-added topstitching
details all over!
Shoes: Treasure & Bond leopard suede mules
Shoes: Treasure & Bond leopard suede mules
The Details:
The inspiration for this jumpsuit was an Alice & Olivia
jumpsuit that Erin at Busbeestyle posted on Instagram last Spring.
The body hugging fit and all the extra details of this jumpsuit are just perfect. So I thought a lot about how to alter the pattern to achieve the look. According to the pattern sizing I am a size 16 but when I looked at the finished measurements and compared them to ready wear pieces in my wardrobe I knew I would have to size down to get the fit. Especially since my denim is a stretch denim.
I decided not to make an official muslin since I would need to purchase stretch denim to really figure out the fit anyway so I consider this a wearable muslin.To fine tune the fit I measured the pant pattern pieces and compared waist, hip and crotch length measurements to my body measurements and also to my favorite ready to wear jeans. This meant sizing down to a 12 on the bottom for about 1/2" of ease in the hips.
For the bodice, I didn't have a fitted ready to wear garment to compare so I choose to go with the size 14 which gave me 1" of ease in the bust. Then I graded between the two sizes from hip to waist and placed the waist darts on the pants to line up with the princess seams on the bodice.
As I assembled the jumpsuit, I made additional tweaks to the
fit of the bodice. I just basted the bodice together and then pinched out some
extra fabric above the bust.
Garment Assembly:
The pattern directions and assembly were fairly straight
forward with two exceptions:

2) Installing the exposed zipper. The markings on the pattern are
confusing and not explained well in the instructions. The bottom line is that when
prepping to add the zipper the seam allowances need to be pressed back along the front
opening and a ¼” along the bottom of the opening. The pattern piece is marked
for this, however, the instructions say to sew the crotch to the circle at the
bottom of the zipper opening. DO NOT DO THIS. The circle marking the bottom of the
zipper is at a ¾” seam allowance. If you sew the crotch seam to that point the
extra fabric needed to square off the bottom of zipper opening is gone. Instead
sew the crotch seam at 5/8” stopping just below and 1/8” inside of the marked circle.
This allows the zipper seam allowances above the crotch seam to fold flat.
**This is one of those corrections that is probably hard understand until you are actually in the midst of sewing it all together! So if you have questions feel free to send me a note on Instagram
Final Thoughts:
For a first attempt, I am pretty pleased with how this jumpsuit turned out. But there are a few things I would change. I would love to distress this a bit to get some of the faded details of the original. And in hindsight I think I could have sized down to a 12 in the bodice. The original has a really cute curved seam detail across the bum and McCall's has a new jeans pattern with this exact detail. So I think I will make this again in the spring mashing the two patterns together.
XOXO,
Shannon
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