Boiler Suit to Two-Piece Set

A nearly zero waste refashion!

:)

A nearly zero waste refashion! :)

Hi Sewing Friends!

So, I feel like I’m well on my way to a capsule wardrobe with this latest thrift flip!

When I was out thrifting a few months back, I came across this periwinkle colored boiler suit, and I just loved it so much that I had to take it home. I suspected the fit would be somewhat off, but it was good quality fabric and I knew I could come up with something to make it work for me, so in my cart it went!!

Things I loved about the boiler suit (and reasons why it was absolutely coming home with me despite the fit issues lol):

1.    The color! Very Peri is actually the Pantone color of 2022 and I knew I wanted to make something using this beautiful color.

2.    The pockets!! Have you seen the pockets on these pants? They are HUGE and so comfortable for resting your hands in.

3.    The possibility for a two-piece set!

Fit issues identified:

1.    Pants sitting too low in front (the drop crotch isn’t my jam lol)

2.    Back rise too short (i.e., the back waist was sitting below my natural waist). This is a fitting issue I often encounter with ready to wear clothes.

3.    Sleeves way too long on jacket

Read on to see how I tackled each of these fit issues. Mistakes were made, and I was ready to throw my seam ripper at the wall by the end of it lol, but I absolutely LOVE the finished result and I’ve made a mental note of what I’ll do differently next time.

Ok so before I tackled the fit, I went ahead and separated the pants from the jacket, keeping the waistband portion attached to the jacket, which meant I would later need to add a waistband to the pants. I removed the elastic from the waist and set it aside to use later. Since I was pretty much fine with the fit of the jacket aside from the sleeves, I went ahead and restitched the bottom of it closed without the elastic.

Fit Issue #1: Pants sitting too low

Now that I had the pants separated from the jacket, I tried them on to decide how I wanted to address the fit issues. They were riding very low in the front and I wanted them up closer to my natural waist so I experimented with adding pleats or darts, and decided that adding four small pleats to the front would be the best solution. I pinned them in place, making sure the distance was even between the pleats and then basted them in place. Fit issue number 1 was tackled quickly and easily and it was on to the next one!

Fit Issue #2: Back rise too short

Now that I had the pants sitting where I wanted them in the front, I needed to take another look at the back. Aaaaand just as I suspected, there just wasn’t enough material there to cover my whole butt. On top of that, the back waist was sticking waaay out, making them look simultaneously too big and too small, if that’s even a thing lol. Anyway, I didn’t have any periwinkle fabric to fill that space, so I decided to go with a light pink cotton with a similar weight and attempt to create a yoke to fill the gap. I traced off a yoke from a pair of jeans to get the general shape and then checked to make sure it would fit in the space, adding seam allowance of course. Here’s where I made a crucial mistake. I forgot to interface the yoke!!!! Take it from me, do NOT skip this step! As I pinned the yoke in place it started stretching out beyond belief, creating this weird bubble effect that no one needs on their bum. Soooo, I ended up having to unpick and cut quite a bit of it away, and then just did my best to salvage what was left of it. But once the yoke was finally in place, I was able to taper it in towards the center back waist so there wouldn’t be a huge gap there anymore. I did end up needing to unpick the ENTIRE back crotch seam (I hate seam ripping ahhhh!) so that I could redo the flat felled seam and have everything lie nice and smooth. This was the most tedious part of the whole process, but alas, I got it done!

With that done, I needed a waistband, so I cut one using more of the pink fabric and I made sure to interface it this time lol. I also went ahead and added elastic (reusing the elastic that I had removed initially) to the back waistband for added support.

Next, I needed a button to sew onto the waistband, so I just took one from the jacket cuffs since I knew I’d be cutting those off once I got to working on the jacket.

And with that, fit issue #2 was in the bag!

Here you can see where I added the yoke to fix the back rise.

Fit Issue #3: Sleeves way too long

Ok so this fit issue was relatively easy to fix. I simply cut off the sleeves a little shorter than I wanted them and then used more of the pink fabric to create a new cuff. My cuff isn’t fancy with a button placket or anything, but I really like the shorter length for the sleeves and how the pink fabric really ties it together with the pants.

And that’s it! Those were all the changes I made. And I’m holding onto those sleeves I cut off because they may come in handy for a future project. Waste not want not, am I right?

Styling:

So now that the sewing was done, it was time to integrate these pieces into my wardrobe, and much to my delight, I discovered that both pieces paired well with the pieces from my most recent refashion (see my previous blog post) where I turned a dress into separates.

And, perhaps even more amazingly, I own a pair of tennis shoes with the exact same color scheme! They are light purple sneakers with pink laces. How perfect is that?! For some reason I’ve always been drawn to pink and purple and I love how they look together. My logo, which my niece did such a great job designing for me even features these colors :)

Here you can see where I added two pleats to either side of the waistband.

In honor of Juneteenth and Pride Month, I’ve paired it here with a T-shirt I absolutely love that was designed by my niece a few years back :)