My friends, this Durban jumpsuit is not okay. I’m hoping this will be the first and last time I put a photo of myself on the internet wearing a wedgie. But bear with me, I thought it was important to share it with you for posterity and also because it’s a really great example of what it looks like when a jumpsuit needs a torso length adjustment. It was the very first toile of the Durban Jumpsuit that I made during our drafting phase, and my goodness me does it have some problems. Let’s chat about them!
When we are drafting our patterns i always like to make sure that the first toile includes as many pattern elements as possible so that I can test them right away. For Durban, this make was supposed to be a black boiler suit ( View E of the final pattern), but as you can see it’s missing something. That’s right – no sleeves! When we first drafted Durban I started with our usual woven sleeve block, but in this application it simply didn’t work. It felt constricting and claustrophobic and there wasn’t enough room to comfortably get the jumpsuit on. So I chopped them off, trimmed back the armscye to more of a sleeveless shape and added facings.
Another thing you may noticed in this make is the neckline is higher than our final Durban pattern. My goodness was this neckline uncomfortable! I had to leave it unbuttoned in order to make it wearable. So in the final pattern we lowered the neckline to below the clavicle and I’m so happy with the final position. We also decided to add a V neckline for those who would prefer that shape, and i love that we can offer both options.
But of course we’re here to talk about the big Elephant in the room. The wedgie to end all wedgies. The drag lines of doom. When initially drafting I wanted to try and avoid the saggy drop crotch situation that many jumpsuits have whilst still including enough room for comfortable movement and sitting. Let’s just say we didn’t get it right the first time ;) The torso ease for the initial draft was wildly off and much too short. As you can tell by the delightful drag lines that just want quit no matter how i stand, extra torso length was really needed.
The back view really shows you the extent of the wedgie. My friends, I hate to say it but this jumpsuit is so uncomfortable that it is unwearable. So when we went to implement the other needed alterations to this pattern; more sleeve ease and lower neckline; we also made sure to add more torso length to the pattern. Though it’s really tempting to make your jumpsuit more fitted and reduce that torso length, believe me it’s important that you have that additional ease so that you can comfortably sit down.
These photos are a really good example of the almost vertical drag lines you will see if you need a jumpsuit torso length adjustment.
Now though I do not relish sharing photos of myself with a massive wedgie and terrible crotch drag lines, I think these photos are a really good example of the almost vertical drag lines you will see if you need a torso length adjustment. Please note that this is a little different from the diagonal “smile” lines you’ll see if you need to extend the crotch length at the inseam. These draglines indicate more about crotch depth/rise being too vertically short, whereas smile lines indicate that the crotch curve is not extending deep enough between your legs. We’ve tried our best with the final Durban pattern to make sure that this doesn’t happen for you, by adding a really good amount of torso length ease and detailed information on how to check if the torso length ease is sufficient for you. Before you make your Durban jumpsuit I recommend checking out this blog post which will walk you through how to check whether your torso length ease is appropriate for your particular body shape, and always how to add more length if needed.
I think it’s worth mentioning that when sewing your if you think that your torso length may be too short (or too long) a really quick and easy way to test is to re-sew the waistline seam with a smaller seam allowance (or larger of the crotch is too low) and see if those drag lines improve. Though the final adjustment won’t be on the waistline seam, it’s a really great quick and easy test.
Well friends, I really hope you enjoyed this post! If you found this visual representation of what the drag lines look like when your jumpsuit torso length is too short for your body let me know. I’m happy to share more photos of myself in ill fitting, uncomfortable and wedgie inducing garments if you find it helpful ;) Happy sewing! xo
