Hello, everyone! I hope you’re all having a good week. There has been an abundance of fabric emails dropping into my inbox recently; I’m so excited to sew some garments for spring and start wearing some brighter colours. I feel like this Jesse Jumpsuit is a great transitional piece as we ease into the warmer months.

When you’ve sewn a trickier garment, are you quick to return to the pattern, or do you give yourself a little break from more time-consuming makes to maintain motivation? For me, it’s the latter. Sewing can sometimes feel exhausting, believe it or not, so when I’ve sewn a garment that really pushes my skills or didn’t quite go as smoothly as I hoped, I like to sew some easier makes to maintain my motivation for a little while.

My first experience sewing the Jesse Jumpsuit by the Modern Sewing Co. was not without its challenges, but it taught me some good skills, and the garment I made was wearable, so that’s a plus! I knew the second time around I really had to take my time. It’s amazing how a notch improperly placed can throw the whole construction off balance. I sewed a bit each weekend over a series of weeks.

What I love about this pattern is that, firstly, you’re getting a whole outfit in one, and it’s season-spanning, depending on the type of fabric you use. For this version, I used the Mini Ambrose Yarn-Dyed Gingham Cotton from Fabric Godmother. The lines on the fabric really helped with the construction, and there’s a tiny bit of stretch to give you a bit of extra wiggle room when needed.

Sizing

My measurements had me at a size ten throughout. The pattern includes instructions to determine your body length and subsequently alter the pattern if needed. My measurement for this was 79cm, which meant I had to remove 4cm from the pattern. This was easy enough to do. I just marked lines on the paper pattern pieces and folded up the fabric according to the amount that needed to be removed.

There are a lot of pattern pieces to cut out for the Jesse Jumpsuit, so it was so satisfying when all my fabric pieces were cut out, and I could start the fun part of sewing!

Pattern instructions

The pattern instructions are pretty straightforward. However, I would say it is aimed at the intermediate sewist, as there are some trickier steps in the construction. In general, I really took my time with every element of the construction, and this certainly helped me navigate the trickier steps, like attaching the facing. I also opted for the version without the zip and skipped the optional topstitching; however, I think gold topstitching on blue denim would look great.

I finished the majority of the seams with an overlocker stitch. When sewing French seams for the pocket bags, I trimmed the seam allowance by half so that it didn’t show on the right side when the pocket bag was turned the right way around.

I found step 19 concerning the welt pocket a little confusing. The instructions ask you to post the welt and pocket bag through the hole on the bodice to the back of the fabric, but the space didn’t seem wide enough, and all the fabric looked pulled on the right side. I tried to widen the gap to push the welt and pocket bag through, but it made a bit of a mess. I ended up hand-stitching around the welt. It looks okay, but it is no longer a pocket!

I used 3cm wide elastic for the waistband; the fabric on the inside waistband is supposed to tuck over the top of the elastic to encase it, but it wasn’t quite wide enough, so perhaps 2.5cm elastic or a wider tunnel for the waistband would be better.

Besides lengthening the pattern slightly, I also lengthened the sleeves to make them full length. Again, you could make a version with shorter sleeves, which would be great when it’s a bit warmer.

I would love for there to be a sew-along for this garment; a guide for the welt pocket construction would be super helpful!

Overall, I am really happy with this garment and really appreciated practising patience with this make. There is always the temptation to sew quickly so you can wear a new garment, but I don’t think I would have been as pleased with the version I’d made.

Have you sewed the Jesse Jumpsuit?