Hands up if you watched the first episode of Love Island last night? I must admit I am an unashamed fan of this show and when I heard they were doing a winter version I nearly burst with excitement! Why do I love it? I think it’s the fact it brings a bit of sunshine into my livingroom, makes me fee like i’m on holiday for an hour every evening and OF COURSE I looooove the fashion side of it. Seeing what bikinis everyone wears (I have a bikini problem…I have so many of them!).

Last night the talk of the show was the gorgeous Laura Whitmore’s jacquard playsuit. I had instagram messages from our lovely Amanda saying “we can make a version of this right?”, and it got me thinking and searching the internet for a special Love Island edition of “Cat Walk to Cutting Table” or “Love Island’s back Sewing Hacks”…that title is work in progress – ideas welcome

ANYWAY,

Here is the lovely Laura in her Hasan Hejazi Playsuit! A cool, £189 and sold out in 30 minutes so why don’t we make our own?

I had a look around the entire internet and have settled on the McCalls M7777 romper. We’ll just need to add sleeves, bring that neckline down a little and add the belt.

How do we add sleeves? First of all we’re going to have to do some pattern cutting. don’t be afraid of pattern cutting honestly all we’re doing with dressmaking is altering flat shapes so they look good when they are 3D shapes, that’s it. Don’t get hung up on not having a degree because you don’t need one, you just need some patience and some trial and error time.

I found a pretty good guide here from the McCalls blog which talks you through adding sleeves using a pattern you already have in your arsenal. Even a close fitting non stretch long sleeve shirt pattern cut out to your size will do. Use it to make the armhole (or armsyce) smaller and lengthen that shoulder seam.

Now you’ve altered the bodice we need to alter the sleeve into a bishop sleeve which is super simple and there is a guide here. I would probably gather the end of the sleeve with a small piece of elastic rather than putting a wide cuff on.

I would definitely advise making a toile for this out of cheap non stretch fabric! now Speaking of fabric…

As you can imagine it’s pretty hard to find that exact fabric, or indeed anything THAT similar but I did find two I loved (Hint sign up to Topcashback here and you’ll get cashback on your purchase of either of these fabrics! AND you’ll get £5 extra and so will I). anyway, Topcashback is a whole other blog to be honest, I use it for everything and i’ve made bloody hundreds of £ back.

These are non stretch jacquards, so they’ll be quite heavy. anything with structure that’s non stretch should work though!

Let me know if you give this a go, or find any fabric similar to Lauras playsuit!

Until next time, happy sewing!!

Jenny xx