Playsuit Free Pattern Review

Heyo, today I’m gonna write about what I’m wearing today, a Peppermint/In The Folds Playsuit fresh off the sewing machine!

Since coming across the library of free patterns a few years ago, that Peppermint Magazine have, I’ve been keen to try some of them. The style with the In The Folds collab patterns consists of clean lines and contemporary projects mostly made in block colour linen. And they are FREE 🙂

I’ve been loving the idea of tie straps recently, so that, the generous pockets and the built in shorts drew me to their Playsuit pattern (although if I’d had other fabric I’d have made the tie jumpsuit as I love the idea of that in chambray).

Get the pattern

The pattern and instructions are available below from their website. You need to give them your email (tho its not one of those ones that sends you 3 emails a day, more like 3 a year).

Pattern Details

Relaxed fit playsuit with lowered back, shoulder tie straps and big patch pockets. The ‘bibs’ are fully faced. Maybe surprisingly it has a concealed zip down the left hand side. This is what enables it to be fitted (but in a comfy loose way) around the bust without darts. It has a centre front and back seam and ‘built in shorts’ which are like culottes.

My Take

I am very impressed with the pattern design as unusually I felt my project draped and looked very similar in form to the original. I made a size C and decided based on the final garment measurements not to alter between sizes which worked well.

The instructions are super clear to follow with lots of illustrations and tips on how to do things in order to get the best finish, such as clipping corners in the straps, rather than rush through the project. There were lots of prompts to press and finish seams, which I decided to follow and was proudly able to overlock all the edges and add a label. The professional finish means I feel the item could have been purchased. I even hand stitched the hems on the shorts!

I made mine with 0.8m (yup!) of wide ‘stretch suiting’ which I bought in John Lewis for £8 (at full price) a while ago to make a skirt. This is significantly less than the recommended amount… (more on that in a min). It is 67% polyester, 32% viscose and 6% elastane with a kind of herringbone twill finish. The polyester viscose combo has some pros and cons. The pros being:

• it does not crease (which for me is a massive plus as unlike the linen original it does not need ironing)
• it falls well
• it is relatively hardwearing
• it’s not at all see-through.

The con is:

• that it has a slight shiny cheapesque trouser vibe, especially if you iron it too hot (see my centre front which nicely outlines the seam allowance below!)

The BIG decision

Back to my 0.8m of fabric. I found the playsuit pattern then headed to my stash (which consists of a random assortment of two plastic boxes of fabric) to find an appropriate fabric. This is the biggest most important decision you will make for this project so choose carefully! The fabric choice really makes or breaks a project as I have learnt so often (which suggested I wasn’t really learning) the hard way. More on that in another post.

When I remembered I had the black viscose poly I decided this was THE fabric that would make a wearable item for my wardrobe. A white and blue cotton, tho pretty, was just not going to cut it as it would not be very flexible and I liked the idea of wearing with t-shirts underneath.

I got my pdf pattern printed and cut then laid out the fabric. Luckily it was just long enough for the front piece to fit with a little space underneath. Flipping the back piece and squeezing it onto the selvedge got that one on. I then had to be a bit creative to do the rest. The long back tie strap was squeezed along the bottom and lost a bit of width whilst the front sat vertically between the two main ones (it was completely the wrong grain direction). I then used what few scraps were left to cut and sew some rectangles together to make the patch pockets, hence their bonus detail. I cut the facing in some thin black poly cotton (was tempting to contrast but after GBSB I’d had my warning). And it worked 🙂

Let me know if you decide to make one and what choice of fabric you go for! A blush pink or olive linen would look great. And the shorts could easily be lengthened into trousers to make a jumpsuit…. Pocket embroidery would also look cute… so much potential!