Simplicity 1355 - crossover jumpsuit

This was the first jumpsuit pattern (Simplicity 1355 view A)  I have ever made, and honestly, before this I'd only made one wearable pair of pants. I had made 2 pair of pants and 2 pair of shorts but 3 of the 4 were a disaster!

Since I wasn't sure about the fitting, I did make a muslin. Which I don't like doing but seemed necessary in this case.

The fabric I chose was a rayon challis. It's very soft and drapes lovely but man, it wrinkles like crazy. I had to iron it like crazy after I took it out of the dryer! The color is also fabulous, so it's worth it.

Isn't it pretty?

I read in some other reviews that the back was really low, too low to avoid showing your bra so I raised the back piece about an inch, starting below the seam allowance and slanting out to the end of the piece. I didn't raise it too much because you need space to fit into the jumpsuit since there is no zipper. I raised about an inch and if I made this view again, I'd raise it a little more since the top of a bra would still be visible.

The solid red line shows my alteration, the blue dotted line is the original.

I traced this piece from the original pattern piece. Look how attractive my sandal pattern weight is!

The only other alteration I made was to grade from a medium bust to an extra-large hip. I started to grade out below the bust but made sure to be a the large size for the where the bodice and pants meet, so they are the same size pieces and continued until I was at the extra large. I used my French curve to blend my sizes together and get a smooth line.

My muslin was a pretty big in the waist and hip and I should've gone down to a medium waist and large hip, grading out slightly less. However, right before cutting I tried on my muslin again and I had a moment of fear that I would make the final version too small and decided to cut the same as my muslin. This led to me assembling the jumpsuit, deciding it was way too big, taking a part again and taking an inch out from the waist all the way down through the bottom of the pants. It was kind of a pain, because I had to move the pockets over too. Oh well, at least it wasn't too small. :)

Based on the muslin, I needed to extended the back and front crotch lengths. I had to do this on the other pants I’d made too. Though I cut the large hip size, I still used the XL crotch curve on the interior side (as I had on the muslin) because I needed the extra length and I increased the front/back rise of the waist 2 inches, these alterations are how I extended the crotch length. This was a lot because it wasn't that much too small and in my first trial of the garment, yeah the crotch was way too low after adding 4 inches but really just in the front.

If you make this and have a sizeable derriere like me, you’ll definitely want more room that the pattern allows for the rear!

When I took the extra space out in the waist and hip I also raised the front crotch about an inch. I just trimmed an inch off the front middle and slopped it to each side to raise it back up. I probably could’ve gone up another ½ inch or so there but I was worried I’d make it too short and the jumpsuit would be all up in my business all the time!

Lastly, right when I was almost finished, I removed some pins that had been holding the back pieced together at the top (to keep them out of my way while sewing) and the back pieces were gaping open. I thought about tacking the crossed pieces in the seam allowance but in the end I decided to stitch through to the outside because I would be able to get closer to the edge. In reading some other pattern reviews, it seems I wasn't the only one to have this issue.

Overall, this was a good project and the instructions were easy to follow. I have made a lot of pants but the fitting on this was pretty easy, there is plenty of ease in the pattern. The back is still a little low, so if I make it again, I will either raise it another 1 ½ inches or make the halter top version.