Trend Alert: The Clyde Jumpsuit from Elizabeth Suzann
Elizabeth Suzann was new to me, but a firm favourite amongst the sewing community. I had to check out the hype and I'm so happy I did. Here's my results.
One thing you'll discover about me is that I tend to live under a sewing rock. I don't follow trends, and if something I make seems on trend it's a complete coincidence. But after chatting with my friend Emily, she told me all about Elizabeth Suzann, what was happening, and how some makers in the sewing community were making her patterns available (with Elizabeth Suzann's (ES) permission of course). So I signed up for the newsletter and downloaded the Clyde Jumpsuit and pants. They really just spoke to me, so I was excited to start but also nervous because it came with zero instructions.
The patterns were made freely available by minimalistmachinist, mombasics and thestoryclubpdx, and their suggestion was to donate funds to an organisation with the amount you would have paid for the patterns. I chose to donate to the Black Voters Matter Fund. As an Australian, voting problems in the USA are a little bit hard for me to watch...okay, really hard to watch, so this was something I really wanted to contribute to.
Now time to chat about the sewing. I followed the instructions from notaprimarycolor; all her steps are saved in her highlights. To determine what size I wanted to make, I used the sizing charts directly from the ES site. I ended up deciding on the size XL regular. It was a pretty fast sew up, but a little bit slow when it came to cutting because you know I made it hard on myself and chose to do different coloured panels *so confusing*. Also, if you’re wondering why I did coloured panels, it’s because I drew it on procreate and wanted to recreate it so badly (see pic below). Oh and the lines; if you're like me and never worked with technical patterns, one line is the cut line and one is the sewing line. You're welcome. Haha. Did I mention I only have a black and white printer? Yeah, don't do that. I had to use my kids crayons to mark the sizes.
Once it was all done I tried it on and it went right up my crotch, which was definitely less than ideal and also surprising cos I'm not tall at all (5'4" to be exact, but I am mostly legs). So I had to add in 4" on each side. I decided to keep this as a design feature and alternate the colours of each side. That definitely helped so I altered my pattern pieces to reflect that change for next time.
For the fabrics, I used cotton twill's from three separate stores. Not intentional by any means, just using what I had on hand and I loved how it came together. The ochre was from A Thrifty Notion, the army green from Mood and the Charcoal from Blackbird fabrics. All similar in weight, but not the same, so that made me a little nervous initially. Overall, it came together great. My husband thinks it looks so good that he fully believes no one will believe its handmade. Gotta love that compliment, and I'm going to take it and run.
These patterns are no longer available, but will be in the future directly from Elizabeth Suzann. I don't have the details but I'm sure if you follow the #esmadebyme hashtag it will keep you informed while seeing other fabulous versions of Elizabeth Suzann patterns. Oh and you can also sign up for the newsletter on the ES website too! Link here.
