Zooey Deschanel Reveals How She Hid Her Pregnancy From Her 'New Girl' Costars

Courtesy Fox

Zooey Deschanel recently shared the happy news that she's engaged and expecting her first child, but when the New Girl star was filming the show's winter premiere she wasn't in such a forthcoming mood.

Luckily for Deschanel, 35, the "Swuit" (a.k.a. a three-piece suit made entirely of sweatsuit material) at the center of Tuesday night's new episode was literally the perfect cover-up.

"I'm the only one who wears it in the episode," she tells PEOPLE. "It was really comfortable, and I was pregnant at the time, but I couldn't tell anybody, so I was happy to be wearing comfortable clothes."

Deschanel has especially appreciated a loosening wardrobe as her appetite grows along with her baby. "I'm used to being able to go long periods of time without eating," she says. "Now I'll wake up hungry sometimes, and I'm like, 'What? I've never woken up hungry in my life!' Every day I wake up, and I'm, like, 'Breakfast, please!' "

As for the "Swuit," Deschanel explains that Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Nick (Jake Johnson) encounter a bit of conflict in the episode — on which Shark Tank's Lori Greiner guest stars — after inventing the garment that takes a "business casual" dress code to the extreme.

"Jess loves their friendship and their collaboration, and she takes it upon herself to be their mediator," says Deschanel. "She ends up telling some white lies to try to keep the peace, and then things go wrong because of that."

On the bright side, even though Jess is going to be frazzled by her roommates' shenanigans yet again, at least she'll be comfy.