Me-Made-May: Week 3

Another week has gone by! Here's what I wore:

May 15: Skirt, old, not blogged.

 

May 16: Top, not blogged. Pattern is New Look 6871.

 

 

May 17: Peplum top, blogged here.

 

May 18: My me-made for the day was pajama pants - not photographed. (And not worn in public, I promise.)

 

 

May 19: This dress is not me-made, but it is mom-made. I'm going to let that count. :)

 

 

May 20: Scout tee, not blogged. Other versions blogged here and here. 

 

May 21: Kelly skirt, blogged here. 

polka-dot peplum

I am falling a little behind on my goal to sew up some extra things this month. I was sick with a cold for a while, and also, apparently people in my family expect "actual dinner" and "clean laundry." Seems kind of selfish, but whatever.

This is New Look 6196, a peplum top with a midriff band and sleeveless, cap, or 3/4-length sleeve options. My inspiration was this Modcloth top from last summer, which is sold out but you can still see it on their website. I was excited to find a similar poly fabric at JoAnn's last fall. I really love how this top turned out! I'm not sure how long the peplum trend will be around, and while I don't think I need a closetful of them, it is fun to indulge in sewing trendy pieces now and again, isn't it?

Here is a side view. Sadly, the only picture where my eyes weren't closed. And I wasn't using a flash! This pattern was a pretty good fit for me (I made a size 12), but a little roomy in the bodice front. I did make up a muslin first and found that while the back was good, I needed to pinch out about 1/2" the whole way down the front (including midriff and peplum).

What I didn't see in the stiffer muslin fabric was that I also needed a horizontal adjustment. After I sewed this up in the poly and tried it on, there was a huge bulge of fabric in the front, right above the waistline gathers! I had no idea what was going on, so I had to place a call to The Sewing Guru Also Known as My Mother. After I described it she said it sounded like the bodice was too long on me and it was causing excess fabric to pool. In the drapey polyester, the problem was just amplified.

The pattern does dip down in the front where it is gathered, but I didn't need that much length. I think if you have a fuller bust, then the bodice will be a good fit as the added length would accommodate your top half. But if you don't you may want to trim some of that off. I tapered to nothing by the side seams so that the front and back would still match up.

I omitted the facings and lined the top as far as the midriff, leaving the peplum unlined. Instead of waistline gathers on the lining piece, I pleated the bodice front to reduce bulk there. The peplum does have some gathering as well, so in a stiffer fabric it would stand out even more than mine. Just something to be aware of if that is or is not the look you are going for.

Anyone else making or wearing peplums? I think this one could use a red pencil skirt. What do you think?

Me-Made-May: Week 2

I made it through another week! Here is what I wore for the second week of the Me-Made-May challenge:

Day 8: Striped tank, blogged here. According to last week's outfit post, apparently I wore this shirt two days in a row, but I have no memory of that.

Day 9: Dress, blogged here.

Day 10: Top, not blogged. Pattern is Simplicity 2599, with a slightly lower neckline and a curved hem.

Day 11: Dress, again blogged here. Just after that photo was taken I caught my necklace on something and it broke. :( But my husband was able to fix it for me, so that was a good Mother's Day bonus.

Day 12: Whoops! Kind of flaked on Monday. I didn't actually take this photo on Monday (because that would be silly; if I had had time to stage this photo, I would have had time to plan something to wear). Somehow I ended up with a blank photo from another day.

Day 13: shirt, not blogged. Embellishments based on this tutorial. (I don't have a die cutter to cut the flowers, so I just cut out wavy circles).

Finally the weather is warming up by the end of the week here so I hope I can wear some more skirts and dresses next week!

Me-Made-May: Week 1

So, here's a roundup of my outfits from the first week of Me-Made-May.

Day 1: Top, blogged here.

Day 2: Scout tee, blogged here.

Day 3: Top, not blogged. An old pattern, with embellishments based on this tutorial. (I don't have a die cutter to cut the flowers, so I just cut out wavy circles).

Day 4: Haha. Yeah. Well, it was Saturday...I didn't actually leave the house in these! Whale-print pajama pants, not blogged.

When I did go out, I took this clutch with me. Not blogged, but the pattern is the Noodlehead Envelope Clutch (with a slightly wider flap).

And on Saturday my son wore a shirt I made:

I didn't blog this one, it's a Flashback Tee with a freezer-paper stencil on it (tutorial from Made). I did blog some other Flashback tees I made here.

I'm not even going to bother with a photo of Day 5, the shirt was so old (and not blogged). But it was self-made, you'll just have to trust me on that. :)

Day 6: cardigan, not blogged, pattern is Sedum by Jane Richmond. This one did not make it the whole day. The weather has been very finicky lately!

Day 7: top, blogged here.

Button-back Scout Tee

I guess I am trying fill out my closet for Me-Made-May, because I am on a top-making tear right now. I think I could make it through the month with what I have, but it's nice to use this month to make some quick new things too. This week I made another Scout Tee. I just love this pattern. It goes together quickly and it's a nice fit without any changes. I have another one on the cutting table right now!

I used up the last of some chambray in my stash. (Waaaah! I wish I had more, I really love this fabric, but I think it has been put to good use here.) For something different I decided to add buttons down the back. I have been seeing a lot of button-back tops lately.

To do this, I just extended the back pattern piece by 2 inches. This gave me a placket 1 inch wide, plus hem allowance for the underside. (Here is a tutorial with visuals, plus she tells you how to make a sew-on placket if you decide you want to add one after you've already cut the pieces out).

I did not make buttonholes (just sewed the buttons through both layers). This shirt doesn't need an additional opening, so I figured why risk it? I have an inherent fear of making buttonholes.

I have seen some shirts where the bottom few buttons are left open, so in that case you would want to make at least the bottom ones functional.  I don't know that it's a look for me, though. I was behind someone on an escalator recently with a button-back top unbuttoned halfway up and I just stared at her waistband the whole time. I'm not sure that was a desirable outcome for either of us.

I'm really happy with this one! I think I'll wear it a lot.

Simplicity 4698 - fitted blazer

Blazers seem to be making a comeback lately (or maybe they never left?) and I love seeing all the different looks out there. I bought Simplicity 4698 a few years ago and I've wanted to try it out for a while now. It's a great pattern that I would recommend if you have it...unfortunately it is out of print now, but I'm sure there are similar patterns to be found. In fact I see Simplicity has one in their Amazing Fit collection that would probably be worth trying.

Dress blogged here.

For this version I chose a lightweight denim from my stash. I'm not totally thrilled with it, but wanted to familiarize myself with the pattern first before cutting into a nicer fabric. Things always go better the second time around. I'm not sure how much I will wear a denim blazer (obviously not with jeans!) but maybe this summer I'll figure something out. As for the pattern, I really like the fit and design and will probably use it again and again.

 

 

I made View E which is kind of a shawl collar (the other view is a notched collar). I lengthened the pattern pieces by about 1 1/4" because I liked the unhemmed length on me. There are a lot of "shrunken" blazers out there right now so if I wanted that look, I'd probably just go with the original length.

The only other major fit change I made was to narrow the shoulders on the bodice pieces so that the armhole seam sat higher up on my shoulder rather than dropping down too much on my arm, if that makes sense. I also took in the front and back princess seams at the armhole. Shoulder pads are optional with this pattern; if you cut it as is, I would definitely recommend them. I thought bringing the seams up and in a bit might eliminate the need for them, but I can always add them later if I decide to.

I found the lining kind of interesting. The back is a partial lining - two pieces that overlap. I was going to dismiss this as some kind of "cheat" on the part of the pattern company, either because they thought it would be simpler for a home sewer or they didn't want to include full back lining pieces with the pattern. After reading some reviews (I just love Jenny's seersucker version) it sounded like skipping it or lining it fully would be better.

BUT...a few days before cutting this out, I came across an article from Threads (October/November 2011) about a vintage tailoring technique using bias triangles to create a half-lining in the back of jackets. According to the article, the overlapping pieces allow for more freedom of movement while reducing bulk in a fitted jacket. The article shows you how to take two squares, cut them down to size and fold them into triangles to fit your jacket, but the principle seemed to be similar to what this Simplicity pattern was doing.

And then the funny thing was, I started looking at summer blazers in stores and kept seeing this same type of lining with the overlapping pieces (of course, maybe they are just doing what's cheapest!). Here are two examples:

 

 

I decided to give the included lining pieces a try, and it worked out fine. It probably depends on your fabric and the look you want. For wool, I would definitely do a full lining, and if I made another lightweight jacket, I might just omit it entirely. Anyway, I learned something new from that article and just thought I would pass it along!

Finally, I wanted to say thank you to Danielle from One Small Stitch for passing on the Liebster Blog Award to me. I really love "meeting" other sewing bloggers through their posts... I don't know too many apparel sewers in real life so it is nice to find a sense of community here online. I am feeling the pressure of Me-Made-May approaching, so I think I will wait on the question/answer/passing on portion until that is all over! Thanks again, Danielle!

And just a final note about the Me-Made-May Challenge - I think I'll post a photo summary of my outfits once a week rather than every day so I'll post my first few outfits next week. I've been busy making a few quick projects, so I'll have some more blog posts to share soon too!

A not-so-formal dress

Not too much to share right now....just a quick post about a dress I finished recently. I had started working on this thinking I might be able to wear it for a dressy occasion, but the style combined with the fabric ended up with a more casual look. That's ok; I think I will get more wear out of it this way.

I'll try to get some more/better photos if I wear it during Me-Made-May.

The fabric is a sheer polyester which I underlined with Bemberg rayon lining fabric. I don't wear a lot of sheers and also the underlining hides all the seam allowances in the bodice. If I had more time to look around, I probably would have gone with a black cotton batiste for the underlining. I think that would have been easier to work with. But the rayon does feel really nice!

While working on this I remembered a post at Pattern, Scissors, Cloth about turn-of-cloth allowance when underlining. Basically, you want to build a little ease into the outermost fabric since it has to go just a little bit farther around your body than the underlining. She shows you how to do that.

All I can say is that I tried to do what she describes! I'm not sure how successful I was with my fabric sliding all over the place, but it was better than my last attempt at underlining a sheer fabric. That time I ended up with some weird ripples and folds at various seam lines.

The bodice is Simplicity 2648 - the same as my red dress. For the bottom, I just cut rectangles and gathered them. The finished width of the skirt at the lower hem is about 56" which is a good fullness for me - not too full.

I think this style dress would work for summer in a brighter color like this:

Source: sheinside.com

Although I looked at that dress up close and I could not figure out how they shaped the bodice. I can't see any darts or seams; the print seems uninterrupted. It just says it's polyester...maybe it's a knit? What do you think?