On Reliving the 80's - Strapless Jersey Jumpsuit

In the 80's I was a kid living in a communist country, so no, sort of the cold war, I did not get to experience that decade. My husband still finds it perplexing that I do not recognize bands/tunes/movies from that era, and I understand how a Westerner would find it difficult to comprehend what it was behind the Berlin wall, from a cultural perspective, that is. What I do remember though is the AWFUL hair and I hope that trend never gets resurrected.

Anyway, perhaps because I never got to truly experinece the 80's, I am now transfixed with some of the trends that reinterpret that decade, namely jumpsuits. If you think that it is hard to find RTW that fits, then it is three times that hard to find a fitting jumpsuit. Luckily, I can sew.

I was trying to find a photo of my inspiration piece and the website I saw it at is sold out, hence no photo. You can still see it here http://www.intermixonline.com/product/designers/helmut+lang/strapless+jersey+jumpsuit.do?sortby=ourPicks but the photographs really did not capture the details. What you won't see in the photos is a pretty cool drapey "Pattern Magic"-type design feature in the back. I have no ides how it was done and did not try to replicate it since it would have only been distinguishable if the piece was worn unbelted, which I did not intend to do.

The drafting was not hard, particularly since I have already drafted a jumpsuit couple of weeks before. The fullness at the chest and the length of the rise needed the most work/decisions. Once the pattern was made, the sewing part was a breeze, it took me couple of hours from cutting all the way through having it compeltely done.

I made it from a rayon jersey I got in the fall from EOS.

More photos:

(btw, it is very hard to photogrpah black, especially when you are doing it yourself, so pls excuse the not so great quality of the photos. I wanted to wait to DH who has aprofessional camera, but he is here only during the weekends and the weekends have been lacking sun recently.)

Closer-ups:

Notes on design features & construction:

• strapless, pull-on style
• pleated front and back
• a pleat at the side seam overlapping from front to back
• 1.5" elastic sewn to top and then turned under
• reinforced front and back crotch

I am very happy with the was it turned out. It is actually better than I thought it would be! In summation - I LOVE it and hope to wear it a lot this summer!