Fall Capsule Wardrobe - Done!

About a week ago I posted some sketched plans for a fall wardrobe…

…mostly black, white and coral…

…with some possibilities in other colours!

Well, was the last week of vacation, and I sewed up a storm. I’m done, baby! 

I spent yesterday hanging out with my sister, who was kind enough to take pics for me. I got a little giddy taking pictures in someone else’s back yard for once - as you’ll see! 

First up: 

White Renfrew Tank: Leftovers from my first-ever knit project!

Floral Long-Sleeved Renfrew: I can’t wait to wear this in cooler weather! (Yesterday was HOT!) The fabric was a gift from Sally at the Quirky Peach. Thank you, Sally! I love it!

Coral Stretchy Jeans: Hmmm. I love the colour, but I’m not sold on the fit! I added an inch of width to the pattern I always use, since they usually come out pretty skin tight… but now they look and feel a big baggy to me! I’m considering taking them in from the knee down.Also, you can tell in the pocket picture that this thin denim doesn’t hide ANYTHING! I can’t find any denim locally that is as heavy as the stretch denim in my RTW pants. 

Next up: 

Grey Stretchy Jeans: I had FUN on these! I’ve always avoided contrast stitching, but I went for it on these. Had to make them fun and colourful somehow! I used regular thread and a triple stitch in both red and turquoise. Again, they feel a bit baggy. The fabric is a lovely stretch denim from Gorgeous Fabrics, bought with a gift certificate from my sister for my birthday. (Speaking of which, look how she just happened to match my wardrobe! She’s even wearing a me-made Palova knit circle skirt!) 

Black Mission Maxi Tank: I’ve used this pattern for 3 dresses and about 5 tanks this summer - it’s a winner! I made this one from a metre of amazing black bamboo knit that Anne gave my years ago to wear as a scarf/shawl sort of thing. I wish our local shop still sold fabric this nice! 

Stretch Pencil Skirt: I”m wearing this right now, and it’s SO COMFY! It’s a heavy, seriously stretchy twill that I bought from the remnant bins last year. The pattern is based on the Cake Hummingbird skirt, including my adjustment for a big booty. I didn’t want to have panels cutting up the print on the front, so I traced a version with darts instead. As you can see below, I just sewed a piece of wide black elastic on was the waistband. No zip needed! 

Pink Leggings: I wear skirts with leggings a lot, since I sit/crawl/dance/etc in my work day. I had just enough pink spandex cotton blend to make some short leggings. I use the Style Arc Laura Leggings pattern, and it works great! Just a single seam on each leg and some lazily applied elastic at the waist. 

Sharpie Skirt: My favourite! I got the black and white polka dot heavy cotton at Ikea, and used the same Hummingbird hack pattern as above. This one isn’t stretch though, so I may have over compensated with ease! It sits lower than I usually prefer, and is quite loose around the hips. On the other hand, I can sit comfortably and there’s definitely room for heavy fleece tights underneath! 

As planned, I made the plain skirt first then coloured in random circles with Sharpie. I still haven’t washed it, but I’m hopeful that it won’t fade TOO badly! If it does, I’ll just colour it in again! I’m looking forward to wearing it with bright cardigans in the winter. 

And that’s that! 2 skirts, 2 tanks, a tee, and 2 pairs of jeans. I like the combination of basics and graphic prints, and the slight twist on my usual colours. Everything will fit into my wardrobe easily and get worn often.

Even better, the sewing process was totally relaxing and zen, since it was all TNT patterns. That’s my kind of sewing! 

Now that I’ve depleted my stash of stretch denim, can anyone suggest a good place to buy some online? I’m looking for medium-to-heavy stretch denim or twill, preferably in bright colours? Thanks!

p.s. Some people have let me know they they are having trouble leaving comments recently… If that happens, could you contact Discus? They say everything is ok on my end, but clearly something is going on… Thanks!

Sewcial Bee!

Oh, the things that happen on Twitter! One minute you are applying to a  certain online sewing match, the next you are planning your own all-fun, all-inclusive sewing challenge! No winner, no loser, no judges… just a challenge, a time frame, and some inspiring sewists from around the world! 

Allow me to present: the SEWCIAL BEE!

Here’s the deal: 

• At a set time, my dear sister Anne indulged us with a challenge: This time, to sew a top to wear with a favourite scarf! (Anne is a knitter, not a sewer, and even released her own triangle shawl pattern this spring!)


• We all had 24 hours to sew something and post pics to our Flickr group. (SInce eating and sleeping and caring for kids *may* be important to some sewists, we all limited ourself to just 4 hours of sewing within that 24 period!) 


• Wait and see what awesome things were made! (Wanna see how each one of us answered the challenge? Click over to our Flickr group!) 

And that’s it! It sounds dull when I type it out, but wow, it was fun! Adrenaline was pumping, tweets were flying back and forth, design choices were being made with advice from Instagram… it truly felt like a collaborative challenge! We all sewed from our stash, and it was the perfect motivation to make something a little new, a little different. I loved it! 

Here’s how it all went down! 

3pm: Read the challenge. Reread it, wake up my husband and read it to him. Pull out my massive collection of scarves and shawls. (It’s cold in Canada, what can I say?)  Eeek! Which to choose? 

3:15: Ok, I’ve narrowed it down to 4 scarf choices… Too bad I already made and blogged a top designed specifically to go with my favourite shawl! 

3:25: Ok, picked a scarf! I bought this one in japan at a folk festival on a remote island, so I want to make something to pick up on that hippie vibe… The print is pretty crazy, so I pull out monocromatic knits. Coral or teal? Ask Instagram!

3:45: Look through my patterns, poke through Pinterest… Eeek! Why is it taking so long to decide what to make? (Ok, it’s partly because I came home from the gym just minutes before the challenge started, and I’m still eating and trying to stop my hands from shaking! :P)

OK, finally decided: It’s going to be a Mission Maxi! I just made one the day before, so I should be able to knock this out in no time… (famous last words!) 

4:00: One hour in, and I’m just starting to cut? Yikes! My arms are totally wobbly post-gym, and cutting this cheep jersey is a nightmare! It’s a tissue-weight burnout print, so I’m lining it with a coffee-brown knit to a) make it opaque and b) bring out the contrast in the burnout areas! Both fabrics stick to themselves and each other like velcro though… this is gong to take a while!

4:30: All cut out. Use spray glue (for quilting) to glue the upper bodice of the teal and brown layers together. Check in on everyone else’s program on Twitter! Start sewing! 

5:00: Ask Instagram - contrast or matching binding? Cut out contrast binding, fight to iron a fold… decide to use matching binding instead! 

6:30: Time to live on the edge! It’s high-low hem time! (‘cause there’s nothing like taking a finished item and free-hand cutting a new hem!)

6:55: 5 minutes left and I’m DONE! Remember when I thought this was going to be a quick make? The way the jersey clung to itself really slowed things down! 3h55m! 

Voila! My Sewcial Bee dress, completed! It’s exactly what I would want to wear to a music festival in the summer, and works well with my shawl, as per the challenge! 

So, would you like to join the Sewcial Bee next time? We did this round with just a handful of people who happened to be on Twitter as we discussed it, but we had so much fun that we’d like to do it again. Maybe August 10th? There’ll be a new challenge and a time frame that’s hopefully flexible enough to work for everyone. (And if it doesn’t work for you, you could always choose your own day and sew it later!) We’ll post more info in August! 

Mission Accomplished!

If you are around the blogosphere much,  you know awful puns about “missions” can only mean one thing…

… someone made a Mission Maxi! 

There isn’t much new to say about this pattern - it’s well known, well drafted, and simple to sew. It is also my ideal summer dress. Cool, comfy, and fun to wear! I made a few tanks from this pattern last month (like the striped one here) so it’s already earned it’s keep!

Impressively, this dress can be made with less than 2m of fabric! I made a size 16 on top, and 18 from the waist down, and I could still cut the front and back side-by-side across the width of the fabric. Win!

One of the other lovely things about this pattern is that it’s drafted to be snug at the bust then curve out quite dramatically over the hip. This means that the top fits snuggly, but the waist and hips skim nicely! A definitely win for pear-shaped women like me! 

 

One modification i’ve made to all my versions is to widen the straps and use my own binding pieces. I want the dress to comfortably cover bra straps, so I added about 1cm to each side of the straps. This reduces the racerback shape, which is too bad, but does make it a lot more practical to wear! 

The fabric I used is a nice drapey knit from the ends table at Fabricland… I think it was about $5/m? (As you may have noticed, there were some, uh, issues with pattern placement, but that’s nothing new!) I top-stitched the bindings to add some stability, even thought that’s a stepI usually skip with t-shirts etc. Didn’t hem it though - why bother?In other happy news, this dress is perfect with my Pavlova wrap top! 

And that’s that!

I made this dress 2 days ago… and I’ve already made another since. I think I’ll be making a few for friends/family as well… it’s so easy to sew and fit that it’s a perfect gift! 

My mind is blank of topical sewing questions to ask you, dear readers, so instead: Is it unseasonably hot where you live? What’s your perfect summer outfit? 

A tale of two Hummingbirds

How many Hummingbirds can I sew? Well, a lot! Meet my second skirt and my second top, which through pure chance just happen to be out of almost identical prints! 

Booyaa! The tee is a slub jersey I bought last week, and the skirt is a linen I bought last year. 

Let’s take a closer look, shall we? 

I guess I really am consistent with what I like!!! I’ll never wear them together, but I’m tickled that the fabrics are so similar. 

Let’s talk shirt first: 

I cut the same size as before, but took in the waist and took 2” off the length. I also made cap sleeves instead! Bonus: I cut it out of only 1m of fabric! :) 

It’s such a drapy knit that it’s still a bit loosey-goosey… I’m going to take a page from Katie’s book and cut the shoulders and bust smaller next time!  I think I’ll make the neckline lower next time too… feels a bit covered up!  

Now for the skirt: 

I was so inspired by Susan’s beautiful piped skirt that I copied her before the day was out! I follwed her tutorial to use flat piping. Mine is just normal bias tape that I ironed to make it a single fold. It was surprisingly easy to use, and really didn’t add much time to the project! 

Oh, and guess what? Using piping was one of my own #Sewingdares!!!

I’ve still got a few more to go, but I’m pleased to knock one dare off the list! :) 

Now, my first version of this pattern was stretch, but this one is not. I’d altered the pattern to reflect my adjustments, but I probably should have included a bit of extra ease for a plain woven! It’s not tight, but it’s snug!  Luckily the linen has some natural give in it (from pre-shrinking it in the wash, I think!) 

One of the pleasant surprises while making the skirt was that it was easy to match the large print across the centre panels because all the pieces are cut out next to each other. As a result, the print flows really nicely! 

What (not) to wear: 

While I was planning the skirt, I really wanted a striped shirt to wear with it. I pulled out my brand new Mission Maxi pattern, traced it, widened the straps, and boom, make a new tank top!

I even trimmed it with leftovers from my first Hummingbird top! 

I love it as a stand alone, but I’m not convinced it’s right with the skirt. Check it out: 

I love the piping so much that it seems a shame to cover it… and the tank tucked in looks kinda boxy to me. The thing is, I’d love to wear this skirt to a family reunion this weekend - so I need to make a top to wear with it!

What should I make? 

1. a black tank (maybe with some ruffles at the neckline or something to make it a little more dressy?)

2. a black kimono tee

3. a Hummingbird of some variety?

4. a _____???

Thanks for your ideas!!!