We Out! — Stephanie M Decker

This project was probably the most important garment I’ve ever made.

This jumpsuit marked the end of high school for my sister Missy. I’ve made almost every single outfit she’s worn to a high school dance during her 4 years at school. Originally supposed to be her prom outfit (her removable skirt will be coming along soon enough!), we sat down the day after her prom last year and she told me she wanted a jumpsuit with a skirt, hopefully with some sort of mint green color in a print.

That’s when we moved to Spoonflower to search for a print that matched her idea. We found the perfect print on the first page - this multi-colored, mod triangle print from Crystal Walen. It had everything we were looking for - a larger print, mint, and a print that gave us a subtle ‘20s vibe that we thought would be perfect for the start of a new decade!

Once we had our print picked out, we sat down with my Spoonflower fabric sample pack (a must have in my opinion!), picked out our top options - the Petal Signature Cotton, Organic Cotton Knit, Organic Cotton Sateen, and Modern Jersey, and ordered the samples. After looking through them all, it was no question that we both fell in love with the Organic Cotton Knit and I sketched out the design. I ordered 6 yards along with 10 different Chiffon test swatches for color (yes I’m that girl) just to make sure we ordered the best skirt color to match the jumpsuit fabric.

After being the hyper-critical girl I am, I finally settled on a color and ordered another 6 yards to make sure I had plenty of fabric to make the skirt nice and full.

Right before COVID hit, I had every intention to make and finish her outfit for prom. Then, after being laid off from work, I turned to making masks with the cotton fabrics I had around my house (plus a couple options I had to grab for people asking for specifics). I blinked and suddenly Missy was asking me if I could make sure her jumpsuit was ready so she could wear it to graduation… in a week.

With the new, close deadline, I turned to the Zadie Jumpsuit by Paper Theory (a pattern that has a similar pants pattern to what we had decided on) to cut out the pants - folding in and straightening the front crotch curve so that it wouldn’t have the overlap in the front. I pulled out some muslin to test the pants and, after seeing them fit perfectly other than needing a bit more length added (1.75” with a turned-up hem of 1”), I set to cut out the pants out of the final Spoonflower fabric - taking about an hour and a half to line up the print on the seams as best I could.

Once we tried on the knit pants, and we saw that they were just a bit too big in the waist and in the legs so I took in some excess from the center front and center back of the waistband and tapered the legs to hug her thighs more and give more of a flare look.

After the pants were fixed, I sat down and drafted a basic, sleeveless v-neck top with a keyhole in the back. I cut out a muslin, fit it to her perfectly, was interrupted by having to take care of a flood, cut out the final, and attached the top to the pants. I put the finishing touches - a twin needle hem, a bias buttonloop, and a button from my famous button box (buttons passed down from my one grandma and great grandma when they passed) to finish it at 3am the morning of graduation.

After 3 years of making who knows how many outfits for her, it felt kind of fitting to be making it for her graduation instead of prom because it truly did bookend her high school experience. I’m just happy she doesn’t seem to want to take it off.

Happy Graduation Missy!!

*I am in no way being compensated or sponsored by any of the brands mentioned in this post.