Half in, half out

Here's a fun thing about me: I experience choice paralysis when it comes to my projects. I often agonize about which little details to include or leave out because I, conversely to many sewists' habits, normally resolve to only make one of any non-basic garment. Meaning whatever view I make has to have the optimal wearability, or it's probably going in the trash.

A coverall jumpsuit is just one of those things I'd feel weird making and owning multiple of. But I can see why a person would want more than one. Sometimes it's too hot and you don't want to roll up your cuffs, you'd rather have short sleeves to begin with. Sometimes you want to do the cool street style thing where you tie the sleeves around your waist and wear it like regular pants. So I took all that into account and made a convertible pants-to-shorts, short-to-long sleeve jumpsuit.

Or I would have, except I decided last minute to keep the top and bottom separate garments. More on why, later. It's a matching set, not a jumpsuit. Or it is a jumpsuit, just in two pieces. It's everything. It's nothing. It's art. It's... something or another.

I've combined two basic patterns for easy modification. First is my tried and true button-up shirt,  with the yoke and bust darts omitted and the shoulders dropped half an inch to give me some ease for movement. Second is my personal pants sloper, which I need to rework. They seem like they're okay, because I can stand and walk and sit in them, but putting my hand in my pocket makes it clear that the hips are too fitted. That's not good! And looking at my photos, there are some areas I could take in as well. Hmmm.

Separating zippers are the mechanical aspect, taking inspiration from those convertible hiking cargo pant-shorts. Dorky? Sure. But they're truly genius and fun in concept. I just had to see if I could pull off constructing something with them as a feature.

Alright, now to discuss why my jumpsuit did not end up becoming a jumpsuit. Frankly, it was a bad design from the jump(suit!) and it ended up being kind of ugly because of it. Here's what it looked like with the top and bottom attached to the waistband:

Expanding the width of the shirt made sense, but I'm not sure what I was thinking having all that excess fabric "tucked into" the pants via pleats. I do not care for that blousy effect at all. It was even worse in the back. I was so disappointed that I didn't take any more photos before I promptly disassembled the jumpsuit.  You'll have to trust me that it looked like one of those inflatable sumo wrestler Halloween costumes, there was so much volume. 

I don't think I intended the pants to be as fitted as they were. I'm pretty sure I meant for them to loosely skim my natural waist, but it ended up falling down to my hips which are indeed wider. Also, I'm still bad at accounting for ease so my "waist skimming" trousers are very much hugging me there. Still, in retrospect I'm not sure why I didn't just make the pants and shirt all the same circumference. Cinching the waist wasn't the goal.

A plus about my decision to split the pieces up is that the pants fit me better. I purposefully kept the crotch low because I wanted the extra vertical room in the jumpsuit. But, as stated before, I botched the hip fitting. Now I'm wearing the pants higher than I originally intended, and my hips and waist have slightly more wiggle room.

I'm mixed about the top. The heavy weight makes it a very on-trend "shacket" as the kids call it. I like the way it hangs on me; there's no shaping but it's not ridiculously oversized or boxy. It's more cropped than I'd normally like, even though this length is actually kind of flattering. But there's not much I could do about that, given that it was meant to be a bodice on something else before it became an individual jacket. That waistband was nearly the last of my fabric.

Also, check out these ugly welt pockets. I decided I needed them even if I don't like how they look. They make the jacket busier, but either they're there or I can try to stuff my phone in the breast pocket. No thanks! The welt pockets don't have any vertical depth so I have to be wary of my stuff falling out the side, potentially. I considered sewing a regular pocket bag, instead of the "reverse patch pocket" thing I did, but I was worried it would hang out below the hem if I put anything heavy inside. That, and because at that point I was tired of sewing and I wanted to be done.

And now, some additional photos:

Now, I prefaced this post talking about how I rarely repeat most patterns, but is it possible that I'm thinking of re-attempting this at some point? Yeah, I am. A jumpsuit redux! Because technically I didn't even make one this time! I'm not overall (heh) displeased, though. Having a two-in-one garment is actually in the spirit of what this project was in the first place conceptually; it's all about having options. I can wear it short or full-length, as separates or as a set, and even with the pieces zipped up asymmetrically. It's neat that it worked out that way

I promise that jumpsuit #2 will not go the zippered-limb route. I think bringing them back just this once is enough.

(A Loose) Tutorial and Tips

Anyone else wanna have cool convertible pants? I can help you out with the construction! You just need a favorite pants pattern and separating zippers. The zippers should be as long as the circumference of your pant leg. To be safe you can buy extra long ones and shorten them manually. My YKK zippers are 3 millimeters wide and the nylon coil type.

 

 1. Start by splitting your pants pattern horizontally into shorts and separate pant legs. Add a hem allowance of your desired depth to the shorts, if it does not already have one. Add a seam allowance that is slightly less than one side of your zipper tape to the top edge of the pant legs.

Tips:

• Ideally, your pants pattern already has a designated shorts view or length, which you should use. If not, any desired length works as long as you:
  
• Make sure your detachable pant legs are the same width as the shorts at the hem, as they need to be the same circumference when you zip them up. Add width to the legs as needed.
  

 

 

2. You'll want to have a nearly fully constructed pair of pants, sans waistband, hem, and side seams. Sew the detached pant leg front piece and the detached pant leg back piece together only at the inseam. Topstitch the inseam now if you were planning to do it at all.

 

 

3. Sew half of your zipper to the bottom edge of your shorts, tape towards the edge and zipper teeth down, or facing the right side of the fabric. The zipper will reach all around the leg. Seam allowance does not matter because you will be hemming this edge later.

Tips:

• To stabilize the zipper, I used a combination of fusible interfacing and grosgrain ribbon. Where I used ribbon on the shorts hem, I did not use it on the corresponding pant leg as it would make things too bulky.
• I made the decision to put the side with the zipper pull on the pant leg and not the shorts. This is a personal preference that you do not have to follow.
• Mark your seam allowance at the side seams and sew your zipper a little away from that mark. I gave myself 3/16 of an inch. This will make zipping easier because you will have extra room to insert the pull, rather than putting it right next to the stitching line of the side seam.

 

 

 

4. Fold up and sew your hem allowance as you normally would when hemming shorts. For reference, my hem is 1 inch. Leave at least 2.5 inches away from the side edge unsewn (my photo example is too little space). This will make it so that when it is time to sew the side seams, you won't be sewing over or through the hem.

 

 

 

5. Your zipper should be facing outward behind the hem, like it's a lapped zipper. For this next step, you could easily just sew the other half of the zipper using your side seam allowance as the starting point of where to place it. However, I like to do this to ensure accuracy:

Take the unsewn half of your zipper and zip it up. Mark where it meets the inseam, and then mark it again on the zipper's other side. Unzip the zipper and take the free, unsewn half again.

Take that zipper half and sew it to the detached pant leg, zipper teeth down and tape towards the edge. Pin the zipper using the mark as reference point for the pant leg's inseam. Pin the rest of the zipper and stitch the whole length.

 

 

6. Fold the zipper back so the teeth are facing outward, press, then stitch in place.

 

 

 

7. Zip the legs to the shorts to check if you're satisfied with the placement. If you are, unzip the legs again and sew the shorts side seams and the pant leg side seams separately. Remember, the shorts have an incomplete hem to leave you enough space to sew the side seams before finishing the hem.

 

 

 

8. Sleeves: the process is the same, but without marking an inseam as a guide. I got away with approximating where the zipper should go by pinning the sleeve bottom to the zipped up zipper. Or, you can just wing it and start the zipper according to your seam allowance. (Reminder: an extra 3/16 inch away from the seam allowance).

From here you can either sew the sleeves into a tube, or flat to the bodice. Working the zippers flat gives you the option to construct the shirt part with whatever is your preferred method.