Dangerous Curves: Sew Over It Camille Jumpsuit

I made my first jumpsuit! And another Work to Weekend Pattern – that’s two back-to-back now (plus I’ve also made the Dana shirt last year but never got pics – maybe it’ll surface at some point when the weather warms up).

The Camille Jumpsuit was one of the patterns that pushed me over the edge to click 'purchase' for this e-book pattern package. Although I probably could have put together a package of similar patterns from the Burda Style magazines that I already own, the curated look of the e-book really sold me, and the modelled photos of the Camille jumpsuit look so sophisticated!

This blog post is a long read so the short story is - I love this pattern and want to make it work for me, but I still have a way to go with perfecting the fit. Don't you just hate it when your standards don't match up with your skills?!

I made up the pattern in this gifted soft brushed cotton, which is so lovely to wear and has a nice drape for the trouser portion of the jumpsuit, which I love. I was tempted to use the reverse of this fabric too, as there’s a cool abstract effect where just smudges of colour from the floral design peek through the black background, but in the end I couldn’t deny the awesome pink and orange blooms their day. I disregarded pattern matching as I didn’t spot much of a pattern repeat, but realise there is a little mirroring on my bum!

I worked really hard on the fit through the torso of this garment, but frustratingly I neglected to think about the sleeves. I used a size 12 as my base and went to town on almost every fitting tweak except that one! I feel I spotted somewhere on the internet another sewist mentioning tight sleeves – but I got lazy or forgot. As I’d used up every scrap of fabric in cutting out I could only let the seams out by 1/4” and hope for the best – but it’s not really enough as now I have some issues in getting in and out of the jumpsuit as my arm movement is a bit restricted! If you're interested in this pattern but have some flesh on your arms then seriously consider how much room you need before cutting out! 

The adjustments I did manage to make are as follows, many based on playing around with my Fit For Real People and Pants for Real People Books:

- A 2” FBA which I sort of made up by following and adapting the SOI tutorial for the1940s wrap dress.  As the bodices are not exactly like-for-like, this resulted in making one of the jumpsuit bodice pleats much deeper than the other – but it looks OK on.

- The FBA also gave me a long skinny horizontal bust dart which I was tempted to ignore and leave open, but as the print is quite busy and there’s a long skinny vertical dart on the back bodice I figured it would be worth it for the fit I wanted, even though it might look weird in a solid fabric.

- I added a 3/8” wedge to the top of the inseam as a full thigh adjustment. A good idea that I think I should apply to other patterns!

- I added 3/8” to the seam allowance to the bottom edge of the bodice pieces and on the top of the trousers to make a full 1” seam allowance for fit-on-the-go adjustments. Because of this, I changed the order of making up and made each piece separately, with lots of pinning and basting before finally closing the wrapover and attaching to the waistband pieces. I ended up using a 5/8” SA on the back bodice and back trouser pieces but used the full inch on the front trouser and front bodice piece.

- After trying on my bodice front wrap was gaping, so I increased the crossover (not sure how much exactly) and snipped off the resulting excess which I’ve pinned to my paper pattern pieces in case I want to make this adjustment again. I think I might have over-fit the bodice however as now there is a bit of pulling at the centre front waistband. Not sure what the happy medium is between pulling at the waist and gaping at the bust - possibly a different fit adjustment somewhere!

- As mentioned, I used the sleeves in a size 12 as is and they were really tight, so I let out the seams as much as I could – they’re still too tight!

One niggle is I couldn’t find a notch for the front facings to correspond to the shoulder notch on the back facings (not my cutting error – it’s not on the paper pattern). That was a bit annoying as it would be easy to accidentally put them in upside down. With a bit of trial and error I think I made it up right!

While I love the idea of this jumpsuit and would make up just the trouser portion of the pattern again in a heartbeat, I definitely still have work to do to make the full jumpsuit fit right. Unfortunately I’m not sure if I’ll be able to wear this attempt at it again – or if I do, I’ll have to thoroughly warm up first to keep my arms and shoulders nice and limber for when I need to zip myself in and out during bathroom breaks!

Next time I would:

- Do a full bicep adjustment, and add more room in the sleeve throughout

- Add pockets. I omitted them despite cutting them out this time out of laziness – I was doing so much basting and unpicking for fit that I plain couldn’t be bothered when it came to it!

- Maybe see if I could rotate the long skinny side bust dart into one of the pleats or to add more room at the armscye? Never done any dart rotation before so that would be a gamble (or learning experience depending how you look at it)

- Add a smidge more room for my big booty – either at the side seams or using a technique that is almost like a full bust adjustment for the rear!

Wow, that was an essay! If you read all that, well done and thank you! Here’s to progress with the fitting journey (and body acceptance) and an improved jumpsuit next time!

NorseOtter xx