I’ve had the Nettie pattern (Closet Case Patterns’ first ever pattern) in my stash for ages. Made the dress a few times (here is the one blogged about), but as I was trying to use up leftover fabric that seemed to bulk up my stash, I occurred to me that I could use the bodysuit version of Nettie to reduce it.

I cut a size 8 and shortened the bodice by 1 cm above the bust both on the front and back bodice. This meant that I had to shorten the sleeve as well by 1 cm in the armscye and reduce some of the beck bands by 4 cm to match the new body length. In addition to this, I took off another 5 cm of the sleeve length to match my short arms. (Long sleeve versions).

For my first version of Nettie bodysuit I used leftover fabric I used to make a dress, a lurex coated jersey fabric. I cut the scooped front and high back. However, I did not have enough fabric left to cut long sleeves and felt a bit wasteful to cut the short sleeve version so I’ve gone for the 3/4 length sleeves.

I constructed it on the overlocker and used the sewing machine to topstitch the bands so they lie flat. The whole thing came together pretty fast.

I felt that I needed a bit more guidance on how to add the poppers on, so I used the sew-along on Closet Case’s blog to understand better who the whole thing goes in. At this point, I realised that in my haste I just the little rectangles in the same fabric as the rest of the bodysuit not in a woven fabric. But this was easily fixed as I only needed little rectangles, and I had loads of scrap fabric. It was not had to find matching grey fabric for them. I ended up cheating a little as I have a ribbon full of poppers already installed in. Only needed to cut them to size and attach the ribbon to the fabric. Happy days, no hand sewing on this one for me.

I ended up with a sparkly bodysuit I can dress up or down depending on the outfit I need.

This version feels a bit tight. This is because of the amount of stretch in the fabric. However, I think it’s fun and will go into my outfit just because it’s silver. I’ll just pair it with a little cardigan or jacket.

I did not stop with one version and used it to make another one using leftover fabric from the dress I made for a blog tour last year in April. For this one, I cut the long sleeves and cut a high front and high back. I used the same process as before: overlocker for the seams and topstitching for neckbands and sleeve hems.

I found the second version, a bit looser, mainly because the second fabric has a lot more stretch than the first one.On a closer look at the pictures that show the back view, I can see that a sway back adjustment is also needed. So for the next version of the Nettie bodysuit, I’ll have to adjust the pattern further to reduce the back length for a better fit on the back.

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p dir=”ltr”>Who would have thought bodysuits are fun to make and wear? Until now I avoided wearing them or making them. They are quite useful as they do not come out of the waistband of trousers/skirts, which means I’ll never show off my belly. Maybe they are a tad annoying when having to use the loo when out and about, but that won’t stop me from wearing them.