Graduation Celebration: McCall's 7167

This past weekend was a whirlwind of activity and while I was exhausted on Monday, I was grateful to have spent such a fantastic weekend with family and friends!

Before the ceremony:

He was proud of his big sis!

I didn't cry but I sure felt a swell of emotion at her completing 

one phase of life and moving on to the next!

This is my favorite from during the ceremony. It's like she's 5 again :-D

We had family and friends come in from North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois and Arizona

My parents, 2 of my 3 siblings, 1 sister in law, 12 of my 14 nieces and nephews, my great-niece and great-nephew. 

WHEW!  Plus my nephew's girlfriend and 2 of my cousins. 

There was yummy delicious food and CAKE! And because she loves her name, I ordered this custom wall decal from Wordybird Studios on Etsy (nayy, just cute stuff at good prices with fast shipping!)

This is my all-time favorite baby picture of her! She was 4 months old and full of chubby goodness :)

We got rained out and I ended up with DOZENS of people crammed into my house. It was exhausting but so worth it. 75 days until she moves into her dorm room! :-O

On to the outfit!!

I was all super proactive about starting my jumpsuit and still ended up stitching the final parts about an hour before we were supposed to leave. OY!

This was on Memorial Day! I had made so much progress!!!

(Could be because I sewed up the Style Arc Cara top in the middle of working on it. Hahaha! Review and photos to come)

I have standard adjustments that are needed with Big4 patterns and this one was no different. Tissue fitting the bodice confirmed:

3/4" swayback

3/8" tuck on front (always needed for V-neck and wrap/surplice bodices)

3/8" wedge removed from center back (tapering to nothing at the waist)

Lowered bust point 1"
Added 1" to waist

And also:
3/4" Added to back rise*
1/2" removed from front rise*

I got the bodice and lining done, basted in a zipper and woe is me! There was gaping at the armhole.

Especially noticeable on the side where I'm holding my phone

This is something I consistently forget about and thanks Jess (as usual!) for reminding me that since the pattern has sleeves, an adjustment is needed to make it sleeveless. I've seen this discussed plenty on blogs that do a bit more educating. I considered unpicking but seriously, it was sewn and seams were graded and understitched AND I was running out of time. I took a dart at the armhole as close to the side seam as I could. It wasn't perfect but it looked much better than it did before with the gaping. And putting it there meant when my arms were down, it was fairly unnoticeable.

The dart

*I know jumpsuits need a bit more crotch depth but wasn't thinking. IT IS JUST BARELY OKAY! I did my normal crotch adjustments but I should have added MORE to the back and removed NOTHING from the front. OY.

Then, I sewed my two back inseams together. I haven't done that in AGES. And the sad part is, As I was pressing it open (before serging), I was so confused as to how I was going to join the front with the back. Went right over and serged those seams together. Good grief.

L, over at You Sew Girl taught me how to easily remove serger stitches. I can't remember if it was in a blog post or if it was something she mentioned here but...you cut both needle threads every other/every few threads like regular stitches and then you can just pull the looper threads and it all unravels nicely.

Unpicking the regular stitches from the spongey poly crepe almost made me cry though! Plus, I had already trimmed with the serger! I ended up measuring what seam allowance was left (which was more than 3/8" but less than 1/2" (we'll call it 7/16"!) and trimmed the front pieces down to match. Whew.

My next snag came with the zipper. I realized after the fact that the Cara top got sewn because I didn't know what the hell to do with the zipper. I was so confused as to how I would get the invisible zipper in with the crotch seam done up already. And I didn't want to risk that horrible lump at the end. I then realized it was NOT intended to have an invisible zipper, it was a centered zip.

There are very few instances where I like centered zips. Very few. I was going to go exposed but decided this didn't really match that styling and went with a lapped zipper. Once I got that in, I was back in business!

This was 9:30 p.m. the night before!

I sewed the hems by hand and sewed the lining to the bodice by hand as well. Posted on IG one hour before showtime:

Everyone was playing board games and making fun of me working my butt off to finish!

I really love the jumpsuit - even the pleats! Finishing it did not catapult it to a "fave" for June though. I do like it a lot and was very comfortable in it; and the color - LOVE! But the imperfections are frustrating on this one.

I do think the crepe was a great choice for it and besides having to work a little harder at pressing, it was easy to handle and sew. I went with an ivory pongee lining and only after I cut the front pieces out did I have a "duh, you need to line the back too!" moment. So the front, including waistband is lined in ivory and the back in a pale yellow. Hey, it works!

I was going to put it back on today and take some photos but I'm tired! Sorry!! Perhaps the next time I have to take blog photos (ahem, Cara top and Burda skirt??) I'll get some front/side/back basic pics.