When Gertie released the Charm Patterns Jane Set, I thought it was cute, but not for me. I love the retro kitsch aesthetic, but it’s not my style – I love a ladylike contemporary look with some vintage-inspired flare, and the Jane Set is full on Vegas-in-the-1950s-bombshell. But when my best friend and I decided to take a girls’ trip to Palm Springs, I knew I wanted something that felt like mid-century resortwear without being too on-the-nose. Enter the Jane Set.
The Pattern
Pattern Description
The Jane Set is described as the ultimate rockabilly vixen mini-wardrobe. It has loads of options, from a sexy jumpsuit, to a cutesy playsuit (with or without sarong front), and the components can be made into separates – pants, shorts, skort and bustier. It’s designed for stretch wovens, which are my favorite fabrics to wear, and it has a built-in-bra – how amazing is that?
Sizing
The Jane Set comes in sizes 2B through 16DD, which corresponds to a 31” bust to a 48” bust. That’s a pretty good range and some of the Charm Patterns cover even more ground.
Because there is not much of a difference between my high bust and my full bust, I ignore Gertie’s high bust measurements. My understanding is that your high bust measurement is more important when there is a 2” or more difference between that measurement and your full bust. Since that’s not the case for me, if I were to choose a size based on my high bust it would be too big all over.
I made a 4C bodice grading to a 6 at the hips.
Pattern Adjustments
The Charm Pattern bodices fit me really well, and the Jane Set bodice was no exception. I shortened the bodice by ⅛”, but that was about it.
The shorts were a different story. I’m a huge dress wearer, and I don’t really make pants for myself, so I didn’t have a sense going in of the kinds of modifications I need for the bottom half of my body. The crotch curve fit just fine, but boy-oh-boy did I have loads of bunching at my lower back – the telltale sign of a sway back.
I went through my fitting books and scoured the internet, and ended up trying two slightly different approaches to get the perfect fit. I was pleasantly surprised that the more “on-the-fly” version worked better for me.
My first attempt was following the By Hand London Holly Jumpsuit method. This didn’t work for me because my bodice length fit fine and I ended up pinning too much out of my lower back and distorting the crotch curve. There’s nothing wrong with this method, but it may not work for your figure and it’s hard to do when you’re fitting yourself.
The fine ladies of Palmer/Pletch came to the rescue. In both their Fit for Real People and Pants for Real People they recommend just pulling the pants up at the center back until the wrinkles are gone. I actually did this directly on my fashion fabric and then transferred it to the paper pattern so it’s memorialized for future versions. It felt so “unofficial”, but it worked so well. I can’t recommend the Palmer/Pletch books enough. I would normally suggest grabbing a copy of Fit for Real People – I get a real kick out of the mid-90s photos every time I use the book – but prices have skyrocketed on Amazon now that it’s out of print. They revamped the same material last year in their Complete Guide to Fitting.
In my initial muslin I made a straight size 4 shorts and had the pull lines below. I graded out to a 6 at the hips and it fixed the problem.
Design Modifications
I really love Charm Patterns’s modularity – there are always a host of different components to mix and match. I didn’t make any design modifications because I didn’t need to. I made the sleek, simple strapless playsuit, but Gertie has you covered if you want to make design modifications – there are four strap options (including strapless), shorts, pants, a sarong skort, separates, jumpsuits and loads of embellishment ideas.
Construction Tips and Tricks
The Jane Set bodice back unit has a novel elastic self-facing, which gives a very clean finish. I did find the construction of the back bodice unit to the front bodice unit (Step 13) to require a great deal of precision. In order to have a nice continuous finished edge, it’s important that the back elastic facing’s folded edge ends at the same point as the front neckline’s finished edge at the stitching line. For Step 13, I baste my seam first to ensure everything lines up.
I recently used spiral steel boning for the first time and I’m hooked! I find that it’s very important to add that extra structure to your Jane Set. It’s very lightweight and doesn’t add much bulk to the dress – I was worried that it would affect sizing, but it doesn’t.
And when in doubt, Gertie has a sew-along for the Jane Set on her blog with excellent construction photos and links to YouTube videos.
The Fabric and Haberdashery
The tropical print is a stretch twill I bought at Joann last summer – I can’t find it online and I’m not sure if it’s still in stores. The solid black is the Cargo Twill from Stonemountain and Daughter. Since I didn’t have to pattern match, I ended up using less than a yard of 57” fabric. I made my muslin in stretch sateen, but I like stretch twill better for the Jane Set – it is thicker, softer and has more stretch.
Keywords: Charm Patterns, Gertie Patterns, Charm Patterns by Gertie, Jane Set, Jane Set Pattern, Pattern Review, Playsuit, Jumpsuit, Sew the Fantasy