My Birthday Suit – McCall’s M7777 Jumpsuit in Jacquard!

I celebrated my 30th birthday a few weeks ago by making my first jumpsuit! I really wanted to wear something fun, eccentric and bold for my party – something that would show off to the outside world how much I was screaming with excitement on the inside. I wanted to wear a jumpsuit – the ultimate power outfit.

I might hold jumpsuits in such high regard because buying a jumpsuit is tragically out of the question for a tall woman. We need extra length in so many places – no one looks cute and feels confident with a camel toe! Through my muslin process, I learned a lot about how I wear my height and my curves and I was empowered to understand what makes my body so different and so special. Rather than feeling anxious about not fitting the outfits in some dressing room, I got to celebrate my body by designing exactly what I wanted.

This jumpsuit is the culmination of about 3 years of sewing experience and a breakthrough in me understanding how to alter patterns and make them work for me. The pants don’t show off the booty like I would like, but they had all the room I needed to drop it low and dance at my party. (It’s never the right party outfit if I can’t represent for the 99 and the 2000.) I’ll make the thighs a little smaller next time and keep strutting into my 30’s!

Fabric

• Graphic Dot Navy/Green Jacquard
• Also available in Red/Pink
• Polyester lining fabric

Pattern

• McCall’s M7777, View D Jumpsuit
• Sewing difficulty – 2/5
  • Easy seams, invisible zip closure, and a little bit of hand stitching to tack the bodice lining
• Fit difficulty – 4/5
  • This is a tailored look with a non-stretch fabric that really needs to follow the line of your body from shoulders to thighs
• I will make this again!

Fit and Modifications

• This pattern makes it a bit easier to fit the bodice by including separate pattern pieces for different cup sizes
• I added 1.5″ at the lengthen and shorten line for my torso lengthen and redrew the dart lines to meet with the original dart width
• Design change – I raised the very low neckline of this pattern by adding 1.5″ at the center front so I can wear it with a bra (but still show some cleavage)
• I pinched out about 0.5″ from the upper boob in the front armhole and 0.5″ at the back collar to remove some gaping – I find that I need to do this with both most patterns
• I increased the width of the dart in the back bodice to grade down about two sizes to match my narrow back. I also carried this adjustment to the back pants but distributed the width to two darts instead of just one
• Surprisingly, the crotch depth/rise was just right for the front pants pattern, but I needed to add length in the back pattern piece to avoid a wedgie. I cut to but not through the hip at the back pants pattern’s lengthen and shorten line and pivoted to add 6cm to the crotch length but no length to the sides
• I added about 8″ to the inseam to take it from an ankle grazer for normal heights to floor length at Robyn height
• Next time I’ll take out about 0.25-0.5″ from the inner thigh to make it less baggy under my booty

Tips

• If you’re adding lots of length, remember that you’ll need a longer zipper than the pattern calls for so that it zips all the way down to your hips and you can get in and out of the jumpsuit
• Muslin draping trick to add (or remove) the right amount of rise to the pants pattern in the right places:
  • First cut the muslin with 2″ in length added evenly to back and front pieces; use more or less depending on how your measurements compare to the pattern
  • Fold out the extra length where you don’t need it and safety pin
  • Make sure you can still sit down and move around with the amount of ease that you’re removing
  • Use a marker to mark exactly where you’re removing the fabric at top and bottom
  • Measure the amount you’re removing and transfer that to the pattern

Tutorials that were helpful

• This double dart skirt sloper YouTube tutorial by Christopher Sartorial helped me to understand how and why to add a 2nd dart in the back pants piece for my curvaceous figure