We rely on our core Fit for Art patterns to create and re-create favorite garments, and this cute jumpsuit is no exception! Starting from her Carpe Diem Tunic and Eureka Pants that Fit patterns, Carrie drafted a pattern to re-create a beloved jumpsuit. Follow along to see how she made her copycat jumpsuit.
Evaluate the Garment to be Copied
Carrie has been wearing this one-piece jumpsuit made from a floral quilting cotton for 25 years; she’s been thinking about making herself a new one for the last two or three summers. She started with a careful examination of the jumpsuit’s salient construction and features to be copied noticing:
- The sleeveless bodice features a scoop neckline and is fully lined;
- the lining covers the waist seam where the bodice is joined to the pants;
- a button front opening extends from the bodice several inches into the center front seam of the pants;
- the opening in the lower portion has a facing to support the buttons and buttonholes;
- very full pant legs are gathered at the waist and into 1½” deep cuffs;
- front patch pockets with decorative ties add cute character and are, of course, super useful.
Work from TNT Patterns
The jumpsuit’s scoop neckline and sleeveless bodice is quite similar to Fit for Art’s sleeveless Carpe Diem Tunic, so that made a good place to start. Carrie compared the modified Carpe Diem pattern she drafted earlier this summer for peplum tops and found them to be the same length as the jumpsuit’s bodice. Perfect! She copied the peplum front, back and side pattern pieces, then extended the center front to create an overlap for the button closures. A better fit had been achieved in the peplum with waist darts, so Carrie transferred the dart outtake into the side seams.
For the pant legs, Carrie started with the fullest Eureka Pants pattern version that she had – for wide leg, elastic waist pants. After copying the front and back patterns, one inch was added at the top to compensate for the elastic waist pants 1” deep waistband. Then she measured the width of the jumpsuit pant legs front and back at several points including at the hip, crotch, and knee. When compared to her pattern at the same points on the body, the jumpsuit pieces were consistently about 3” wider, both front and back. Accordingly, she drew new side seams 3” farther away from the grainlines and parallel to the original side seams. A rectangular extension was added to the center seam of the front pant pattern to create overlap and face the button opening.
Last but not least, Carrie knew she could substitute Fit for Art’s cute Pintuck Pockets for the tied pockets on the original jumpsuit; that pattern was ready to go!
Make a Mock-up to Test
Carrie’s next step was to make a muslin with her drafted jumpsuit pattern to test construction, fit and function. Most importantly, could she get in and out of the jumpsuit? Yes, the opening was deep enough to allow entry and exit easily enough. How was the fullness below the waist? Fine through the hips and seat, but the fullness in the lower leg could be reduced (see the red lines in above photos). How about the cuff circumference? That could also be reduced to better fit Carrie’s lower calf and to maintain the degree of gathering.
The muslin also allowed her to work out how to finish the button opening in the pant crotch area, which proved to be the trickiest bit of construction. Carrie ended up facing the “fly” extension on the right front and turning the fly extension under on the left front. Rounding off the bottom corner of the extension, like a jeans fly, and a deep snip into the seam allowance at the bottom point of the extension allowed it all to lie flat.
Construct it with Special Fabrics
Several years ago, Carrie’s daughter gifted her tie-dyed fabric from Africa. Carrie took the fabric to France this summer and over-dyed it beautiful pastel blue. There was just enough of this well-traveled fabric to become Carrie’s first copycat jumpsuit. She turned to a couple of old pillowcases that had also been pastel dyed on retreat in 2022 to cut out the lining for the bodice and pockets. (The pillowcases had not dyed evenly, teaching us that very worn or stained fabric is not a good candidate for the pastel dye process, but that didn’t matter for an unseen lining!)
The bodice and bodice lining were separately assembled, leaving the shoulder seams unstitched. Then lining and bodice were sewn together following the steps in the Carpe Diem instruction book for a sleeveless top with a facing, similarly to Carrie’s linen peplum that had a fully lined bodice. The pant legs were assembled in the usual Eureka Pants construction order, except the crotch seam is open in the front rather than the back. The “fly” opening was finished and patch pockets applied before running gathering stitches around the waist. Finally, the bodice and legs were joined at the waist seam, gathering the pants waist to fit the bodice. The cuffs were added last, also gathering the bottom of each pant leg to fit the cuff.
Knowing that this garment would be subject to regular machine washing, machine stitching was used for all finishing steps. Carrie topstitched the cuffs, all around the neckline and front openings, around the armhole, and finally topstitched the lining into place around the waist after joining the upper and lower portions together. Buttonholes and buttons were the very last step. Watch for more detail photos in Fit for Art’s posts on Instagram and Facebook this week.
Wear it and Love it!
Carrie loves the very relaxed fit of this jumpsuit and that it’s so easy to get dressed with just one decision in the morning! After posting her intentions on Fit for Art’s social media, we learned that several of our followers not only remember this style, but some had a jumpsuit just like it, and a few still own the “Laura Ashley” pattern – McCall’s 4824.
We hope you’ll be emboldened to copy your own favorite wardrobe pieces with your tried-and-true Fit for Art core pattern! Please tell us about your copycat projects in the comments.
