Vena's Raspberry jumpsuit
Hello everyone! I'm Vena (@sewslowvena on Instagram). It's lovely to be able to write this post. When Ana got in touch and asked if I would like to guest blog, I squealed with excitement. I’d class myself as an intermediate sewer and love to create outfits from a piece of fabric. What a superpower! :)
The pattern
Even though this pattern is far from basic. Before Ana released the Raspberry Jumpsuit sewing pattern and Dress, I hadn't seen any shirred versions around the community. Thinking about, it I hadn't seen any shirring persae. I think shirring has become very popular over the last year.
The Raspberry is a Summer pattern with a shirred bodice. Thinking about it, you could layer her up and you’d be ok for Spring and Autumn as well. The pattern has various strap and lower section options: dress, jumpsuit and playsuit. Ana has included comprehensive instructions, including the shirring technique and a tutorial on her YouTube channel.
The fabric
Ana kindly gifted me the fabric and I chose a beautiful bright Lady McElroy buttery fabric. It was a dream to sew with and behaved perfectly.
The hack
I knew exactly how I wanted to hack the Raspberry jumpsuit sewing pattern. It just had to be the jumpsuit version and I imagined it with a pretty puffed sleeve. I absolutely love a jumpsuit, not having to worry about putting separates together, throw them on and you're good to go. Our British weather is so unpredictable and therefore, I thought it a good compromise between straps with a little more coverage.
I just needed to decide how I wanted to go about doing that.
The overall instructions are very extensive and really straightforward for the shirring process. I practised on a scrap piece of fabric to start with, even though I thought it looked complicated it really was easy.
When I looked there were so many tutorials for puff sleeves. I watched a few and used a tutorial by Lauren Johnson. The sleeve pattern/piece is a rectangle, you measure over your shoulder from the top of the bodice to where you want the sleeve to begin and end then add 7” inches (this is to enable you to cut an armhole to set the sleeve in).
You would then decide the length you want your sleeve to be. The sleeve has elastic in a casing which allows it to sit on your shoulder. Finally armholes are cut into the bodice section and the sides of the sleeves. The shape was traced from an armhole on a garment I already own. The sleeves were then set in and et voilà.
I wore my jumpsuit to my daughter's graduation and felt super special! :)
Hope you enjoyed my blog post and I look forward to hearing what you think.
Vena