They Said it Could Never be Done: A Hawaiian Zadie Jumspuit

I appears that most manifestations of the Zadie Jumpsuit pattern are made in lovely, earthy, solid-coloured linens. And whilst I fully agree that those look incredibly, I decided to head towards the other end of the taste spectrum for this, my second version of the Zadie pattern. 

My first version, if you recall, was made in some wonderful lock-and-key print African wax fabric (AKA Ankara). I adore that jumpsuit and it's one of my very favourite garments to wear. I love both the way it looks, and the way it feels. The only pattern alteration I made was to fold out 2cm from the bodice pieces to account for my short-waistedness, which I feel was a success. 

This Hawaiian print cotton poplin has been in my stash for almost six years. It came from Fabric Godmother, before I worked for them in any capacity. I've long been a big fan of Hawaiian print fabric, so it's a surprise to me that I hadn't used it sooner. I nearly used it a number of times during my several-year-long Rockabilly phase, yet I came out the other side of that phases with the fabric remaining unused, so I put it into my #2020makenine plans (you can see the full nine in this post).

The most head-scratching part of this project for me came at the beginning, trying to position the pattern pieces onto my limited amount of fabric. Not only was my length of cotton shorter than the pattern called for, but I wanted to cut the back piece on the fold (rather than in two halves) so as not to break up the print. In general I had to be very careful about print placement, positioning two sections of the print too close to each other, for example, would be super noticeable. To make it work, I ended up omitted the hip pockets, which was a shame but a necessary sacrifice. I also made the length shorter, but I had wanted to do that anyway.  

I constructed this jumpsuit mainly through the recent, very excellent, online Sewing Weekender event (organised by Charlotte from English Girl at Home along with Kate and Rachel from the Foldline), which I was very proud to contribute, adding my own little talk about saving money and resources whilst sewing. I hadn't expected to the chance to enjoy any of the content (basically due to the kids being around), yet I managed to watch quite a bit of it. Because I had already made this pattern before, I didn't need to concentrate on my project too much which really helped. 

As for this jumpsuit, I really like it! The print and colours are a bit intense, but when the sun is shining, I think it works well. I can definitely see yet more Zadie's in my future. Maybe a subtle, earthy-toned linen one should be next...

African Wax Print Zadie Jumpsuit

Basically, it's been raining solidly for about three weeks, so getting some half-way-decently-lit photos of my more recent projects has been impossible. Finally, it wasn't too miserable for a couple of hours yesterday, so now I can show you my new Zadie jumpsuit! 

I'm sooooo thrilled with this make. I got it finished in time for a staff night out and my kids' joint birthday party, which happened in the same week. If it hadn't been such terrible weather ever since, I'd probably have worn it every day since as well. 

Pattern:

Is the Paper Theory Zadie jumpsuit pattern actual magic? IMO, there is not one single version out there on the internets that doesn't look amazing, and it seems to work on every body shape. I knew I had to make one at some point, it was just a matter of finding the right fabric (more on that below). I bought the pattern through Fabric Godmother (where I work part time), because they had offered me a free A0 pattern print out, and this seemed to be the right pattern to cash in that offer. I've never had an A0 version of a sewing pattern printed out before. I've always felt it was an extra expense I couldn't justify, but I was very grateful to get to skip sticking multiple A4 pages together this time.

(image source: Paper Theory Patterns)

It felt like a real treat to have the pattern printed out all big, however I did feel under pressure to pick the right size. Having got the A0 version, it would have felt disheartening and a real waste if I'd had to print out another copy if I chosen the wrong size to cut out. I'd heard that the pattern comes up a little large, and I think it was reading about Fiona's (Diary of a Chain Stitcher) stunning cotton Zadie that ultimately pushed me to just go for it and cut out a whole size smaller than my measurements suggested. My measurements also suggested I should blend between sizes, however the fitting notes of the pattern hinted that blending wouldn't be necessary as you can adjust the fit somewhat with how tightly you tie it up.

The one change I did make was to fold 2cm out of the length of the bodice, which is my standard adjustment for my short torso/high natural waistline. The construction was super simple, and not nearly as time consuming as I was expecting it to be. Applying the binding around the front edges was probably the fiddliest part, but in no way headache inducing. 

Fabric:

It took me months of lusting after Zadie jumpsuits on Instagram before I realised that I had potentially the perfect fabric already sitting in my stash. This amazing African wax print cotton was in my #2019makenine plans to use this year, but I just didn't know what to do with it. I bought it a few years ago from Goldhawk road, but I can no longer remember what my initial plans were for it, if I had any at all. I had already used some to make an (un)wearable toile for a different project a year or so ago, but I still had several metres left. As you can imagine, the Zadie jumpsuit is a fairly fabric hungry pattern, and I basically had just enough for this project. 

I adore African wax print, especially the more nutty print designs. This lock and key design is by no means the most bonkers subject matter I've seen used for this type of fabric, and the background pattern here is also fairly subdued. I had been trying to find something more crazy than this on that particular shopping trip, but now I am so glad that I didn't because I think it fits this garment style fantastically, and I couldn't be happier with the combo. Sometimes it really does pay to let a length of fabric live in your stash for a while...

Thoughts:

As I've mentioned a few times already in this post, I could not be happier with this garment. I love the look of it, and it feels comfy to wear but also quite put together. There's a slightly odd, unintentional pattern matching/placement thing happening along the front legs, but I can totally live with that without it bothering me. I'm pretty desperate for the weather to warm up again so I can wear this alllllllll the time. I'm concentrating on sewing from stash for the foreseeable future, however, next year I can definitely see me buying some gorgeous linen to make a solid version as well.