I finally got another outfit completed, sort of, the skirt needs a little reworking but it is serviceable for now.
We got this Anna Maria Horner Voile (skirt) fabric into the store in the spring and I loved it immediately and knew that I wanted a skirt out of it. But I didn’t have anything to match with it and hadn’t come across the right fabric for a top. That is until we got in a great selection of tencel knits a couple months ago. The dusky lavender was perfect.
I bought the KS3258 pattern during a Fabric.com sale earlier this summer. I have a couple RTW skirts in my closet with roughly this silhouette that I really like and I’ve had a Chanel-style jacket swimming around in my head for quite a long time. I’m not sure now that the gored construction was right for this fabric. I did my best to line up the motifs but I don’t like how they meet up at the waist. I probably should’ve gone with my initial idea and just made a simple straight pull-on elastic waist skirt. But if I wear the shirt un-tucked and cover the part I don’t like, it is pretty. The pattern calls for interfaced facings and a zipper. I didn’t have enough fabric for the facings and the RTW skirt I have like this just has grosgrain ribbon facing at the waist. I like this so I tried it on this skirt. It worked nicely but the waist is too big because I once again had a fat-girl-sizing-panic and worried that it wouldn’t fit and sewed the back seams at 3/8” instead of 5/8” in addition to cutting the XL instead of the L size. So now the waist is about 3” too big. Matilda has more junk in her trunk than I do so on her it sits differently, on me it is too big in the waist and just right in the hips, I really need a fitting mannequin that closer reflects my size. The hips fit fine so I may just have to do some minor adjusting. One idea is to remove the grosgrain facing and the zipper and put in fold over elastic as originally planned. That would be fussy (I hate ripping stitches, especially on something as delicate as this) but probably the best. The other idea is to re-stitch the back seams deeper and then reapply the grosgrain. Or I could take off the grosgrain, shorten it and then ease the skirt edges to the ribbon at the proper circumference. No matter what I choose, it will be a pain in the butt, but over all probably worth it because as it is now the skirt sits really low on my hips and if I do manage to lose even a minimal amount of weight, it will be in danger of falling off. I loved this fabric for so long that I really must remedy this skirt someday. I’m not sure when that day will be because even though we are enjoying (?) a very warm Labor Day weekend right now, I know the weather will be cooling off soon and this outfit just won’t be season appropriate for much longer. Maybe I’ll stick it in my closet for a few months and pull it back out for Easter and re-do it then.
The T-shirt Pattern 3784, is a success however. Again I took inspiration from RTW items that I already own and know that I like. I did kind of Frankenstein the pattern views together to get the look I wanted. I wanted the flounced neckline but I wanted sleeves, but short sleeves. Not a hard thing to do. The sleeveless version has a slightly different armhole so I used the body and sleeve pieces from view A, shortened the sleeves and added the flounce from View B. I left the edges of the flounce raw because this knit doesn’t ravel or curl when cut on the bias or in a circle such as this. One of my co-workers was experimenting with it at the store and found that it didn’t hold a rolled hem very well plus I didn’t want the added bulk along the edge of a serged rolled hem. I don’t have problems with the narrow facings flipping out, they are under-stitched and top-stitched under the flounce, but I don have some problems with the flounce flipping in. I also like the depth of the V-neck, not too low, not too high and no gaposis. I’m sure I will be pulling this pattern out again for more shirts of varying sleeve lengths.
I did wear this to work this week and my boss and co-workers had nice things to say. I’m really trying to add more wardrobe pieces made from patterns and fabrics that we sell to help promote fashion sewing to our customers. It’s a hard sell in the deeply entrenched quilting world that I live in here in the Midwest but I know there are more kindred spirits out there!
On another only slightly related note. I did spend some time this week updating and organizing my Etsy shop. I had ordered some Moda It’s A Hoot fabric this summer and never got around to listing it in my shop. While working on that I noticed a number of other fabrics missing from my store and got those relisted. Whenever I do this it generates a nice little burst of activity and sales. Always good! So if you have been looking for It’s a Hoot or Tula Pink Hushabye fabrics I suggest you get over there quick and get them while they last because some of them are getting low already. There are also some older but still great looking and high quality Moda and Freespirit fabrics at great prices, some barely over what I paid for them wholesale!
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