Princess' Jumper

When Princess started first grade at Thomas Edison Charter School, she had a lot of homemade uniforms. Her absolute favorite was this jumper.

I know you can't see much of it under the handmade sweater she's wearing, but it was a pretty plain jumper. Basic self-lined bodice, square neckline, patch pocket centered on chest, half circle flared skirt. It's not a triumph of haute couture, but nevertheless this was Princess' absolute favorite jumper. She wore it long past the point where it was tight through the chest and short through the skirt.

Since next Monday Princess starts back to school at a new charter school, I thought we might make her an updated version of the Favorite Jumper. Black isn't a permissible color under her new dress code, so we made it in khaki poly-cotton twill. We traded the juvenile chest pocket for less conspicuous and more adult side seam pockets, and dropped the waist to just about an inch above the natural waist. We made the bodice fit a bit closer than the original, too, since a loose jumper bodice just isn't as suitable for a 7th grader as it is for a 1st grader. And thanks to me screwing up the layout, we had to cut the skirt in four gores. But it worked out well enough. We used an invisible zipper in the back. They're my favorite ones to apply, so much easier than regular zippers that I actually spent money to get a foot adapter for my Bernina, just so that I could use my standard invisible zipper foot with it.


We gave it a bit of extra ease through the chest, but let's face it, this isn't going to fit her once the hormones really start kicking in. But we couldn't give it too much ease, because the only thing worse than a jumper that will eventually be too tight through the chest is a jumper that right now looks like the Kleenex fell out of her training bra. So the plan is to cut off the bodice and add a waistband when that time comes. Since the waist seam is above the natural waist, that will also buy us a bit of skirt length.