The Making of My Wedding Jumpsuit: Pattern & Fitting

It was so exciting for me to finally share all of my wedding pictures, and now it’s time to share all the work that went in months ahead of September (a.k.a. wedding month) for the making of my wedding jumpsuit.

I always knew I wanted a jumpsuit, but I wasn’t always sold on the lace idea… that was until I spotted this lace during my Italy trip back in 2018. Part of the trip was a tour of Ratti, of the world’s leading manufacturers of printed, plain, yarn-dyed and jacquard fabrics for international luxury and pret-à-porter brands. After the fabulous tour we were able to shop their fabric warehouse.

And that’s where I found the lace. I loved the thickness, the bold flowers and the exaggerated scalloped edge. I had no idea of any design plans at the time, I just knew I wanted it and that one of my wedding looks would incorporate it.

I didn’t realize it until I got home and was starting to design and work on my wedding look, but one of the designer brands that Ratti manufacturers fabric for is Emanuel Ungaro. So I looked back at past collections and actually found this lace! My piece must have been leftover stock from the fabric run. See the collection here. So cool to have fabric for my wedding jumpsuit be seen on the runway too.

After I sketched my ideal wedding jumpsuit I was on the hunt for a pattern. I couldn’t find one so I actually utilized two separate BurdaStyle patterns that I stitched together along the waistline. My over detachable skirt that I made was actually a self drafted pattern that I pleated and stitched together, but I’ll have an entire other post on that.

The off the shoulder line on this BurdaStyle dress pattern (#133 03/2013) was just what I was looking for, and the sleek leg and high rise of these BurdaStyle pants (#109 04/2019) was what I wanted.

For the back, as per my sketch, I wanted it open. So I first taped the two back panels together so they were flush at the armhole along my size line. For the top I went with size 76 (this was a tall sized pattern, so 76 corresponds to regular size 38 width wise).

I extended the back about 1 1/2″ from the center back line and connected that point with my waistline point along the bottom of my side seam.

I noted the marks where my back diagonal line intersected my size lines along the princess seam.

Then I connected a straight line from my marking closest to the center back to the mid armhole.

I had to over/under lap these markings to make them meet since I needed to accommodate the shaping in the princess seam bringing these pieces together to make one.

Moving the center back panel over the side, I over lapped the slash line until the markings met linear along the same line.

Using my hip curve I blended a smooth curve extending from the lower half of the line.

Along the front pieces I simply added my usual 1/2″ of seam allowance. I didn’t add any to the back diagonal edge.

I cropped the hemline on my sleeve pieces and added my seam allowances.

Now for the pants portion! For BurdaStyle pants patterns I always blend my size lines from 38 at the waist, to size 40 at the hip. I do this to both the side seams as well as the front and back crotch seams. For the jumpsuit the front pant’s waistline if finished by the bodice being sewn to it, but the back is open so I needed to accommodate for the waistline finish. I first decided to go with a facing so I drew a parallel curve to my waistline 2″ down.

To extract the facing piece, I laid some tracing paper over top and traced over each section on either side of the dart skipping the intake to reduce bulk.

My facing piece!

I never do muslin fittings, but since this is my wedding outfit I thought one would be essential.

I stitched my entire jumpsuit together including the pockets in the pants since I wasn’t 100% on them so I wanted to see how they looked and the amount of bulk they would produce.

Then it was time for my first fitting! I was so nervous, but relieved when there wasn’t that much to be altered. I grabbed some pins and a marker (the best part about a muslin fitting) and pinch and pulled all over. The pants were to long and I wasn’t a fan of the slit notch in the front, so I first pinned those up and just had to also slip on my wedding shoes. Then I fixed some excess fabric under the bust along the princess seam and further cropped the sleeve hems. The back piece was a little big so I pinned a large dart to make it lay nicer and I also pinned in the center back pant seam a little more.

I didn’t take out any any pins and I measured all my pin markings to the seam line then jotted down all the fitting adjustments that I needed to make.

First I adjusted my legs and folded up about 6″ worth of length and taped down in place.

For the sleeve I wanted to eliminate the center sleeve seam, so I taped the pieces together and adjusted for any width variance along the other seams. Then I cut off 2 1/2″ more from the sleeve hem.

There was a big chuck to take out of the back piece (like 3″!) and I didn’t want to adjust it all in one slash line, so I decided to spread out the adjustment over three. Excess only needed to be taken out along the edge so when I traced a new piece I pivoted out 1″.

I love doing trace offs in tracing paper so I can refer to other pieces and garments underneath – so I took my adjusted pattern piece and placed it over my muslin fitting with the pin still in place and it was the same shape! So that made me feel more confident in cutting this piece in my lace.

These were the markings for my under bust adjustment and I drew them in where my pins were so I could measure from the adjustment line to the seam line. So I had to take in this seam 1/2″ on each side starting 1 1/4″ above the waistline and ending just under the bust at my top marking.

So I grabbed my red pen and using my curved ruler I drew in new seam lines.

Now that my fitting adjustments were done to my pattern I could now cut it in my fashion fabric – ekk! So my bodice is all lace, but for my pants portion of the jumpsuit as well as my over skirt I order a bunch of this Telio Adore Duchess Satin Silk White Fabric. This was a risky move as I wasn’t 100% sure it would match the lace white exactly, but luck was on my side and they worked perfectly together.

I also had to pick up some lining to back from front lace pieces.

Now for the scariest part of all, cutting into the lace. This part also took a long time because I have to take into consideration where the flowers were places along the neckline so that they sewed together with even spaces between each flower.

I spend a good hour just placing pieces and mentally sewing them together before I made any cuts.

Here’s my second sleeve piece!

For the side front panels I aligned the lace print of the front piece so it was nice and consistent.

Until I was going to commit to sewing my actual wedding jumpsuit together, all the cut pieces were safely stowed away in a casing so nothing could spill or drop on them.

This entire process was so much fun for me and soon I’ll share my sewing process. To see more picture of my jumpsuit make sure to check out this post and I’m also going to put up more tutorials of my other garments I made for the wedding including my getting ready robe and slip a well as a faux fur shrug that I sewed for the evening.

Happy Sewing!

Meg