Dream Jumpsuit Finished + Free Pattern

The jumpsuit I aspired to own as a teen is now complete, and I love it!

I first saw this jumpsuit as a teen in the 1980s, when no-one wore onesies, and always wanted one. At the time, I didn’t have the confidence to sew one nor the $ to buy. But here we are, 35+ years later, dream realised.

In case you’re wondering, here’s how the dropseat turned out:

I asked Mr H, terrific sport that he is, to try it on to see if it fitted him. To my astonishment, it did! He said the pockets were a bit high. Apart from the Aussie hat, I think he looks like a viking Father Christmas wearing old-fashioned long underwear.

Wanna make one? Here’s my pattern and some instructions.

Fitting notes

• The pattern is only one size, as it’s made to fit 148cm wide fabric (and me). For reference, I’m B35″-W32″-H39″ (B89cm-W81cm-H99cm) and 5″6″ (168cm) tall. Mr H has a 39″ (99cm) chest and is 5’11” (180cm) tall. I think it will fit bodies up to 44″ (112cm) bust or hip whichever is bigger. Sorry, I feel bad it isn’t in multiple sizes, however yes, it’s totally possible to make it bigger – it would take two lengths of fabric with a centre back seam. The body and sleeve can be lengthened or shortened.
• The crotch depth and leg length (and also the sleeve) are extra long as it’s designed for curling up in bed. If I were making one with no ankle rib, just a hemmed edge, I possibly wouldn’t change the pattern length.

Pattern and cutting notes

• The pattern is drawn straight onto the fabric, but if you prefer you can draw it on paper first.
• The pattern is in metric. All the measurements are centimetres.
• CF = centre front; CB = centre back.
• The pattern diagram may look confronting at first! Fold the fabric in half, right sides together, and align the selvedges. Use an L-square to square off the cut edge at the top. Start drawing the pattern at the top right corner (centre back neck), and work your way across and down. Do the body first, then the sleeve, then the pocket.
• When cutting the neck rib, curve the ends as shown, aiming for more rounded than pointy.

Fabric and notions

• This pattern is for knit fabrics. I used polar fleece as I happened to have some at home, but if I were buying fabric I’d consider this Aussie-made heavy brushed sweater knit.
• The ribbing I used is some sort of ultra-stretchy robust rib from Japan that is possibly one of those tubular skirts (do you remember those? You bought a length of ribbing, hemmed the bottom and put elastic at the top, and wore it as a stretch pencil skirt.)
• For the (optional) dropseat, I used two strips of linen in a matching colour.
• I used 10 x 12mm press studs, just the regular sew-on type. Five for the front and five for the dropseat.
• When choosing fabric, think about making the jumpsuit duel purpose. For example, in brown it could be used for a bear costume, or in red as a Christmas ensemble.

Sewing

R/S = right side; W/S = wrong side. All seams 1cm except dropseat (6mm). I stitched the whole jumpsuit using a straight stitch and a regular needle, with no overlocking since the fabric didn’t fray.

I haven’t illustrated all the steps, just the ones that are unusual.

1. Sleeves. You’ll have a pair of sleeves that look like this:

Lay them out flat, and switch around the smaller part as shown. Don’t flip the pieces; you’re rotating them 180 degrees and putting it with the other sleeve…

…so it looks like this:

Sew the pieces together, to make a pair of trapezium-shaped sleeves.

Then fold the sleeve in half and sew the underarm seam.

2. Sew the shoulder seams of the body. I put 6mm cotton tape in mine (25.75cm for each).

3. Sew the sleeves in the armholes. The sleeves are sewn in in a ring, not flat. It doesn’t matter fit-wise whether the sleeve’s seam goes at the back or the front, but I put mine at the back (because my fabric is napped, and the smaller part of the sleeve runs in the opposite direction).

Place the sleeve next to the armhole and extend the armhole slit down to make it the same depth as the sleeve (see sketch below). Snip a tiny notch at the top so you can match the top point of sleeve and body.

When you extend the armhole slit, make the bottom of it teardrop shaped, a generous 1cm wide.

A teardrop shape, rather than a pivot point, spreads the stress load on the fabric at the underarm, and it’s also easier to sew.

Sew the sleeve in with the body uppermost and the sleeve underneath. As you sew around the teardrop, snip the seam allowance a little if you need to (I didn’t need to).

4. Centre front (CF) seam. Sew a short section of the centre front seam, below the front stand (left diagram). Open out the seam (right diagram).

Flip one of the front stands 5cm over, and stitch from the centre out to the fold. It’s only a tiny seam, 1.5cm. Don’t stitch through the body of the jumpsuit, just the stand and seam allowance. The diagram below shows the arrangement for a right-over-left front stand. Flip the opposite side over 5cm instead if you want it the other way.

Snip exactly to the stitching.

Turn the 1.5cm section through to the right side. Fold both sides back 5cm and topstitch the bottom of the front stand to hold it in place.

5. Neck rib. Fold the ribbing in half, wrong sides together, and pin it around the neck, on the right side of the fabric. Begin and end at the centre front notch.

Fold back the front stand 5cm, partly covering the neck rib. Stitch around the neck through all layers. Fold the front stand through to the right side and poke out the corner.

You could topstitch the front stands to hold them in place, but I didn’t – I found that the press studs held them in place well enough.

6. Crotch gusset. When you cut out the crotch gusset, it looked like this:

You slit the fold to give you two gussets.

Sew the two gussets together along the lower edge as shown.

Then rotate the gusset so that A matches A, and the seam matches the centre back fold of the body.

Open out the gusset and the body, and sew the gusset on. Note that the pointy ends of the gusset won’t reach all the way down to the ankles; they’ll stop about 8cm-ish above. Make sure that both legs are the same ie the gusset reaches to the same distance above each ankle.

Then sew the other long edge of the gusset to the front legs. Start matching the seam at the ankle, and keep pinning until you reach the top of the gusset. Sew each leg separately, then sew the remainder of the centre front seam, below the front stand.

[I just had a thought! You could sew crotch snap tape to this seam for bathroom access, instead of making a drop seat in the following instructions. I would probably try this if I made another one.]

7. Dropseat (optional). Try the jumpsuit on and mark a point on the back 2cm below the top of your bum crack. Take the jumpsuit off and lay it flat, and where the point is, cut a 68cm horizontal slit across the back.

Take the two cotton strips for the dropseat and press then in half longways, wrong sides together. Overlock or zig zag the raw edges together to stop them fraying. Lay them on the right side of the back, matching all the raw edges. Stitch them either side of the slit, taking a 6mm seam allowance.

[If I were making this jumpsuit again, I would iron some lightweight fusible woven interfacing onto the lower strip of fabric, so that when I sewed the press studs on it would be more substantial. Still, it seems to be holding OK uninterfaced.]

At the ends, carefully snip the jumpsuit fabric to the point of each stitching.

Push both strips to the wrong side. Understitch the upper strip, and press it under. Press the lower strip up.

Tuck the ends in and secure each with a pin. The ends of the slit will get covered with the edge of the patch pockets.

8. Patch pockets. Fold down the top of each pocket 5cm and stitch. Press under the other three sides 1cm. Try the jumpsuit on and pin the pockets in the best position, covering the end of the dropseat’s slit, then sew them on.

9. Rib cuffs. Sew the rib cuffs on the wrists and ankles.

10. Press studs. Sew some on the front stand and the dropseat. I sewed five on the front, about 10cm apart, and five on the dropseat, about 11.5cm apart. For the press studs on the upper side of these, I sewed through all the layers to hold them together (very neatly, because you can see the stitching on the outside).

I hope you enjoy it!

And some nice news: the reason for making this jumpsuit was to wear it to bed over my pajamas instead of covers, as long covid has given peripheral neuropathy in my feet and I sleep with them hanging out of the bed. They feel unbearably hot, tingly and burning. Mr H says they’re a major contributor to global warming. But two weeks ago when I started sewing this jumpsuit, I started taking a supplement for them, and for the past three nights I’ve been able to tolerate covers. Will they get better? I am hardly daring to hope.

Cheers!