Planning to Fail = Guaranteed Success!

I'm not sure this fabric and pattern are a good match, which means I can only be pleasantly surprised by whatever turns out (assuming I can wear it). The fabric is a two yard piece of rayon or cotton challis, about 54" wide. It's super drapety (yes, I made that up) and after washing and drying it's gotten a little wrinkly. It's a bit sheer and the scale of the floral print is quite big, with big spaces between motifs.

It's that last fact which makes this such a hard fabric to do anything with. Regardless of one's actual size, large motifs with lots of space in between make one look huge-normous. Sometimes this can work, but it's tricky business. However, sitting in my stash won't change the fabric into something more flattering, so I'm forging ahead by combining this fabric with a Suede Says pattern by Simplicity (2222).

I'm doing look A in size 20, minus the chest ruffles. I'm not sure I want chest ruffles, it's a little too uber-girly for me. I'm going to cut larger than the pattern is to allow for French seams and my ample hips, but I don't expect to make any other modifications. I've already read through the instructions -- love how the pictures are separate from the words, for those of us who know what we are doing -- and I think the pocket construction and waistline treatment are quite clever. So I'm looking forward to make a surprising success ... or something I can sell at my sample sale later this summer.

Oh yeah -- I'm having a sample sale later this summer. Or maybe later this month. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted!

Circle and Twirl

I absolutely love this skirt! I think it is one of the most darling things I’ve made so far, and I’m looking forward to giving it a good home, courtesy of my new Etsy store, The Be Market! (More on that in a future post.)

Circle skirts are pretty straight forward to make, though their simplicity means that you can get very creative with them. For this skirt, I love the free-floating hem embellishment I made (above), as well as the ribbons I inserted in the side seam (below).

If you’d like to make your own circle skirt, here’s a a great tutorial to get you started!

Floral Bag, or Who’s Laughing Now?

Say hello to the Floral Bag from Sue Kim’s fabulous book, Bags: the Modern Classics!

I made the large size, and it is HUUUUUGE! I’m embarrassed to wear it in public, because it is so big. It reminds me of the trend of giant bags a few years back, do you remember that one? I secretly used to laugh at women carrying bags large enough to stash a two-year old baby in. But who’s laughing now, hmmm?

However, the good thing about the size is that the scale of the print on the fabric matches the vastness of the bag perfectly, so it’s actually looks and feels appropriate and intentional. With it’s size and light weight, this bag is perfect for travel, whether as a carry on for a flight or as a weekender for a short getaway.

And from a personal standpoint, this bag neatly fits into my complement of purple travel bags – I just realized that all of my luggage is purple!

Like Shooting Off a Flare

I love this shirt, not the least for the banded hem detail on the sleeves, but it’s significantly more conspicuous than my normal fare. It feels perfect and fits like a dream, though, so I finally wore it out of the house the other day. I discovered that if I hike it backward a bit, I can come off as demure. Whereas, if I wanted to use my cleavage for good (and not evil), I could wear it as I designed it to be worn, Heh heh heh.

Anyway, call this one a success and throw it in the hamper! I look forward to pairing it with racier things than jeans when summer comes. I also look forward to turning it into one of the first Raaw Atalanta fashion patterns for home sewers, to be released this year. Stay tuned!

Wrap This One and Tie It With a Bow

I’m sure you’ll recognize the Hounds scarf I am wearing from a previous post, and you got a sneak preview of this skirt in the video I made for Hounds – so now, here is the skirt in all its glory!

This project was satisfying because I finally did a waistband up to my standards. (Like most sewers, everything must be *perfect* or it Doesn’t Count.) I am already looking for more projects with waistbands, so I can keep hitting sewing home runs!

The other reason this project was satisfying was how pretty the end result is! My store bought wardrobe is fairly drab, and completely lacking in purely pretty pieces. So it’s a great joy to have such a lovely skirt in my collection, and that I made it myself makes it that much sweeter.

I used McCall’s pattern 5430 for this project. I added several inches of width along the center front and center back lines to accommodate my hips. I also combined the pockets from view C with the flounce-front in view A. I followed the pattern instructions pretty closely, and I am quite happy with their clarity and sequencing. I definitely recommend this pattern.

On to more sewing! I wonder what is next …

Release the Hounds

Fun factoid about me: I am horribly, intensely allergic to dogs. I’m so sensitive it’s embarrassing! So this houndstooth check scarf is as close to man’s best friend as I can safely get. (“Hounds” tooth … get it?)

I absolutely love this scarf, and look forward to wearing the heck out of it! I’m also proud of it because it is my first attempt at doing a two-pass baby (rolled) hem on the sewing machine. I do have a rolled hem foot, but it frankly never occurred to me to use it! I’m a bit analog, what can I say.

If you want to make a scarf like this, all you need is 3/4 to 1 yard of fabric that is at least 50 inches wide, and some thread. You can use a rolled hem foot, or do a two-pass rolled hem (i.e., stitched, trimmed, and stitched again), or even do a rolled hem by hand, to neaten up the four sides of your rectangle. Et voila, you’ll have a scarf!

I am the world’s slowest sewer *and* I used two colors of thread for the hemming because I thought it would look cool (and it does, thank you very much), and the whole project took me less than two hours. So if you want a cheap, instant gratification project, definitely give a scarf a try!

I Want So Badly To Be Good

I love the details on this dress, I love how well it fits and moves, I love how easily it went from sketch to pattern to garment, and I loved styling it with so many different patterned elements – purse, shoes, cardigan, and earrings. The more patterns, the merrier! I guess that’s my inner rebel without a cause expressing itself.

I’m a public school girl, so I never wore a uniform – but this dress definitely has that Catholic school uniform look, to my untrained eye. What do you think?

At any rate, Catholicism in my mind will always be associated with Madonna (sorry Pope Benedict!), so I took this blog’s title from her song Girl Gone Wild, and I’ve embedded the video below for your viewing pleasure. I know I shouldn’t be shocked after all these years, but … she definitely had my jaw on the floor with this one. I love Madge!

Silversand Cardi

You saw me cut it out, now you get to see the finished product: the Silversand Cardigan! I named it Silversand because of the color of the fabric and the metallic threads running through it.

This was a really fast project and I’m quite happy with the way it turned out – I wouldn’t change a thing! Also, this cardi is quite warm, despite being sleeveless; definitely good for those early spring or late summer nights with a bit of bite in the air.

The pattern I made is a good one for chunky knits with good drape, because it minimizes the amount of bulk covering the front of the body, so I may make a tutorial on how to draft this pattern using your own measurements (or tried-and-true pattern, or favorite shirt). We’ll see!

In the meantime, though, if I decide to make a light weight drape cardigan, I will probably follow the Light Drape Cardigan tutorial by Bored and Crafty. It’s perfect! (And an instant gratification project, too!)

La Robe Paprique

I’ve got a new dress in the works!

It’s based on McCall’s pattern 5971, a pretty and simple dress with details that make it the perfect dress block for every body type to wear in every situation. I’ve made this dress twice before, making little tweaks each time. This time, I was inspired by Gertie’s version of this dress, to make the whole thing a little more fitted than my previous versions, especially in the waist and derriere.

Change up the fabric from a mid-weight woven to a sheer knit, and now you have something casual and slightly alluring; use a mid-weight knit in a bold color and wear leggings underneath, and now you have something funky and youthful. Make it in black wool and line it with silk (as I plan to, eventually) and you have the ultimate little black dress. The darts in back allow for shape over the derriere, and the box pleats in front easily cover a full belly or abdomen. The princess seams in the bodice make for a snug yet comfortable fit around the upper torso, and the sweetheart neckline is just defined enough to be sweet without being saccharine. Can you tell that I love this dress?

To finish the sleeves, I turned the edge under twice and laid ribbon on the right side of the hem as I sewed through the folds. I didn’t even cut the ribbon off the spool! I find that sewing ribbon from the spool minimizes waste. Anyway, I love the effect so much that I’m going to do the neckline and the waistband seams the same way.

The box pleat on this pattern is quite deep, as you can see in this picture. Isn’t this fabric fabulous? If I’d looked more closely at it when I bought it, I would have purchased more. I bought it almost five and a half years ago from Fabric.com, my absolute favorite online source for fabric. Now that I am sewing daily, I get to finally use the fabrics I spent years accumulating. New clothes and stash reduction! It’s exciting.

Purple and Flyyy

My shorts are done! I love them!

 

 

I may go back and tweak the hem and slim some fullness out of the leg … or I may not.

 

 

They are fabulous and feel awesome! I love the cool, textured fabric and I love the little details I put into this project, like the front button fly with loops instead of button holes:

 

I also made two openings, the above pictured button fly and a side zip:

 

These shorts are definitely a success and a major plus for my wardrobe! And I think I finally cracked the crotch-curve code, so look out for a video on drafting your own pants patterns some time in the future.