Romper/Jumpsuit from Men's Suit Pants Tutorial

Hello, I'm back!

I started this project in my old place and finished it here in my new space so I thought it was appropriate for this to be my first tutorial.

My husband gave me a couple of his suits to reconstruct. I love that he supports me and always asks me if I can do anything with his clothes before he gives them away. I usually don't take everything because there are a lot of people that could use the clothes (I know I am always grateful for the hand- me-downs I get for my kids!) and I need to limit my refashioning stash. It can get overwhelming if I don't.  Anyway...

When I saw the pants, of course I knew that I immediately wanted to make a jumpsuit/romper. I wanted to challenge myself, though, and use only the pants as my fabric and not use any extra material.

I started with this inspiration photo by Junky Styling, a label well known for refashioning mens suits. They also published a book full of even more inspiration photos! You can get it here. 

Junky Styling

The first thing I did was chop off about 12 inches from the bottom of the pants. The cut pieces will become the bodice of the jumpsuit. But we'll talk about that later. 

This is what you are left with for your capri-like bottoms.

I eliminated the zipper along with the waistband by cutting all around it. 

I then cut the inseams and the crotch seam apart. I did not cut the side seams, I left them as is. 

I opened up the front and back part of the pants (still held together by the side seam) and placed a pant "front pattern" on top of each pant front side and cut around. I did the same with the pant back parts. For the pattern, I cut apart pants that fit me very well.  

I then re-stitched the inseams (front to back) and the crotch seams together. 

Now for the left-over bottom pieces. First, I unfolded the hem on each.

Then I turned it around (the folded part will be the top of the bodice) and cut one side open of each. One will be the front bodice and one will be the back side of the bodice. 

To add interest, I further cut the front bodice into three corset-like pieces. 

Then I sewed them together

This is the back

I sewed the front and the back on the side seams. Not sure why the back ended up longer than the front but that was easily remedied by chopping the extra fabric off. 

Then I cut right through the middle of the front bodice and about 1/4 inch down the middle of the pants, and stitched the top to the bottom. I refolded the top of the bodice, ironed it down, and sewed it down flat. Then I installed a zipper through the entire middle of the bodice and 1/4 way down the middle of the pants.  (I forgot to take a picture of this step, I apologize). 

I had left over fabric which I used to make a thin tube that went around my neck and was sewn right above each bodice side seam. 

There you have it! My men's suit pants to jumpsuit/romper refashion!

I love the way it came out and happy that my sister Melissa was around to take outside pictures.

I like it even more with a little sweater over it as I love the details of the straps peeking out. 

Here's a close up. 

So tell me how you like it. Would you do this refashion? Do you like it better with or without the sweater? Let me know in the comments and thank you so much for dropping by! 

God bless!