Simplicity 8601

The cover photo sold me. It's such a cute top and in a stripe? Swoon. I also like the yellow version but wonder if the tie front and sleeves would be too much??

Anyway...on my little SR Harris excursion I picked up this blue striped shirting. I love the shade of blue and the stripe width. It wasn't until I was wearing it that I realized it is cotton poplin. I do not like poplin! I like the nice, smooth feel of it but don't enjoy wearing it.

The pattern is relatively straightforward; front and back, plus sleeves and facings. I used a size 14 and did a pivot and slide FBA. That is a strange adjustment for me...I prefer the traditional method. But sometimes, you just don't want a bust dart.

The neckline is HIGH on me. It looks really relaxed on the model; but I lowered mine 1/4" which was clearly not enough. After measuring and tissue fitting, I didn't need to add to the sleeve. You know what I always forget? Just because it'll FIT doesn't mean I don't need to add to it. So it isn't tight at all, it fits, but it's not as intended compared to the pattern. I should have still done my 1" bicep adjustment.

The front seam is sewn to a certain point and then narrow hemmed. Note how short the ties are on the model. The circle? It's at the waist! THE WAIST!!

Because I am silly, I took a bunch of pics and made a compilation of my "OH MY GOSH THEY WANTED THIS SPLIT UP TO MY WAIST!" My finger is where the original marking was on the pattern.

hahahahaha! 

I stitched it another 2.5". You can't go too far or you won't have much to tie. Also, I feel like the front isn't near as long compared to the sides as the drawing or pic indicates. 

I did a swayback adjustment but when you tie it, you pull it to the front and I think it looks a little messy. Maybe in a fabric that has more drape? Like the challis or georgette recommended :-p

Also, see what I mean about the sleeve?

I wore it to work yesterday and really liked this outfit.  I like the top but probably won't make this pattern again.

So I Bought the Most Possible Fabric...

:) Are you ready?! LOL!!!!

Last year I thought the Sew Camp looked like a great idea. And this year knew I wanted to go. I'd reminded myself to look into it but forgot until Carolyn mentioned it. Because it was cheaper (and I mean, why not?!) for me to fly into New York than PA, I decided to add a day at the start of the trip. Well...I ended up adding 2. Sort of.

Another Nor'easter was heading for the east coast and I got out just ahead of the storm. I was able to spend about half a day Wednesday and half a day Thursday in NYC.

I visited M & J Trimming before everything shut down Wednesday. I went to see Stomp! on Broadway that night as well. I used LYFT for the first time ever. I'm all grown-up now! :-p

Thursday we had to move up our train down to PA and were able to visit Mood, Pacific Trimming, Metro Textiles and stopped in a couple of other places.

I got made fun of for my Minnesotan-self wearing a lightweight jacket, which was open most of the morning btw, when it was supposedly "cold". :-p

Friday morning we headed to Fabric Mart wherein we spent HOURS (3-4) shopping, laughing, and having a great time. 

Seriously. If you order from them online you HAVE to visit the store at some point. It was really awesome. And, do not let those bags fool you. MOST of us shipped the bulk of our fabric home! :)

One of my fave pics from the weekend!

Carriage Corner Bed & Breakfast is really a fantastic, homey, cozy place. They've decorated beautifully, the food was *AMAZING*, and sew camp is now definitely a once a year plan for me. I was able to finish 4 items (my knit items were hemmed when I got home):

Ottobre 2/2018 top and dress 

Burda 7/2017 pants

McCall's 7627 top for my daughter

I was going to save this for the end but who wants to end wonderfulness with not-so-wonderfulness? Not me! My daughter had a fender bender in my tiny blue car. Sadface. It is currently with the body shop for like, EVER! (or 5-7 business days but, whatev...) She is okay which is what matters.

Moving on!

I snagged some wonderful items while at the B&B; handmade (gorgeous!) wood clapper and shoulder press stand...and through conversations and what not I also managed to order an Ott Lite, Seam Fix seam ripper and Betzina's Fast Fit book from Amazon while we were sitting at our sewing machines! :) I also had the (mis)pleasure (haha! Only because they are so out of my budget right now!!) of using a Huskylock and Bernina serger. Swoon. I love my Brother but yeah, those are definite upgrades. 

And then we had these in our bathrooms to use and I brought a couple home because black makeup towel, marked makeup is TOO cute to pass up!

FABRIC!!!

The first piece of fabric I decided to buy, at Mood

Mood is as overwhelming as you'd think it would be. It's a several hours trip in itself. I can totally see it being the place to shop for something special but not my everyday stash-mania type of store :)

Top: lightweight striped denim, heavier double sided striped denim

Bottom: hand painted tweed suiting, navy wool suiting that's pre interfaced

Next up was Metro Textiles

Much smaller but well curated and Kashi knows his stuff.

Top: Kelly green silk charmeuse, black silk georgette

Bottom: polka-dot silk chiffon, awesome "shingled" white woven

Left: All 3 are a heavy, drapey, super fantastic rayon crepe suiting. I saw the white first and "good" white fabric is hard to come by so I knew I needed. Then I saw the fuchsia and then he showed me the black. DOH! I got 3 yds white, 2 yds black, 1 yd pink

Right: navy tonal suiting, print cotton pique woven, light gray suiting with a little shimmer (hard to capture in a photo)

Kashi found this navy acetate lining for me for my Mood suiting (I snagged 4 yards because I really like the polkadots!)

And I had a swatch of my trench coat fabric and Kashi chose this lining. It's perfect!! 

And then Fabric Mart!!!! 

It was really cool to see the store and get a feel for how things are done. I'm amazed at what all they do with the staff size. I spied a bolt of shirting that I wanted but it was waiting to make it to the website. It's there now...and I'm assuming P-Z will be on sale tomorrow wherein I will buy it. Never mind what I have now. NEVER MIND IT!!!! :-p

Top: precut woven orange with gold stripes (LOVE!), rayon challis (I bought 2 of these 2 yard cuts), rayon challis paisley print (I think 2 or 3 of us got this one)

Bottom: precut rayon crepe challis(!), cotton voile, polyester blouse weight, printed blouseweight woven (I haven't checked the composition of it). The print runs through the center with solid navy on either side.

The orange is a Cotton & Steel print designed by Melody Miller. I love fun selvedges!

The most uneventful photo ever??

Top: camel (it doesn't look like it at all!) wool blend suiting, striped cotton rayon suiting (!), polkadot sweatshirt fabric

Bottom: Kaufman cotton flannel (pjs!), pale pink shirting, light blue striped shirting, white cotton-lycra shirting

You may have seen this next piece on my Instagram (or someone elses! I think 4 of us bought it)...It's a beautiful panel print that's double sided and was just too fun to pass up. Even if I have no idea what to make from it.

And this one I went back and got towards the end, and had to pull stunts to get it home LOL! It's likely synthetic, is a pale blush color, and it's a panel. I feel like I asked for 4 panels but there's a LOT of it. Should be interesting!!!

Lastly, I was surprised by my own disinterest in knits this go round but...I snagged a couple.

Top: cotton knit in grey stripe (used for my Ottobre top), black floral jersey

Bottom: Navy floral double brushed knit, taupe sweater knit

 Pacific Trimming was everything!

And even though their pricing was better, I really liked M & J's selection.

Top 2 from Pacific, all others from M & J.

2nd photo on the right is for the 4/2018 Burda trench. I need another set of the small D-rings though

Ribbing and shoulder pads from Pacific, Stay Tape from Fabric Mart

3 pack of Style Arc patterns (all sizes included!) scored at Fabric Mart

I'm not sure how many yards I bought. I estimated 100 total when I was in FM but I don't think it's that much. Maybe 80. LMAO!

That was an epic post of epicness, right?! It was a really fun weekend and worth every penny I spent and all the sleepiness I'm now experiencing!

I have some reviews to do: S8601, Ottobre 2/2018 x2, M7627, my Burda coat...WHEW! Soon!

Burda 7/2017 #115: The Start of Stripe-mania

 So, I love the way this turned out!

I wanted to sew this top last year as my July Burda Challenge project. I have thought about it on and off and have gone back and forth on what fabric to use. And then Emily Hallman posted an in-progress jacket on Instagram with a wide stripe and I loved it!

And then about 10 days later there was a sale at FM and they had this Michael Miller cotton shirting with a 2" even stripe. WIN! 

I knew I wanted to do the front and back with chevron/bias cut stripes and it only made sense to do the lower front and back with horizontal. Only the sleeves are cut on grain! :) And then I purposely cut the sleeve bands with the hint of black but I should have put that on the folded edge. No matter - it works!

Burda's drafting is so consistent and for the most part, what you see is what you get. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before. So oversized/boxy top made me wonder how my normal size would fit. Often, when something fits very loosely I sew a straight size 40. I had time to kill and wanted to get this right and I GASP! sewed a muslin. 

I really liked the fit and decided I wanted to add a CB seam and close up those side splits. 

I love this side view!

The pattern calls for the sides to be completely open and then hand-stitch the first 3/8" and well...you can see I didn't do that! :) 

I also shaped it through the waist a little. I sewed the sleeves in flat and sewed the side seam tapering in an additional 3/8" at the waist (so taking it 1.5" total). I also did a 1/2" pivot and slide bust adjustment. I didn't want to add any darts or gathers or pleats or anything to disrupt the front lines.

I had 1" petersham in white and 2" in black and the pattern calls for 1.5". Of course!! I went with the 2". If you look closely, you'll see that the front chevrons look off just a slight amount. This is due to the extra 1/2" being covered on the right side. 

Who cares? Not I!

Also, don't look too closely at my sew-in snaps. My hand has regressed and feels as badly as it did like 2 months after the incident. I'm going to the orthopedic surgeon again after the Sew Camp.

The fabric is a tad bit stiff for the style but I don't care. I wanted those wide stripes and I will live with it.

 It has a slight (non-obnoxious) hi-low hem happening and I really like it.

 It's a bold, statement top but I'm into those for casual / weekend wear. I tried this on with everything in my closet I thought might work! LOL! And can't wait to pull the spring/summer clothes out.

I was really surprised that I also liked it with a wider leg pant. I meant to get photos of that outfit -- next time.

Until Later!!

Victim of Circumstance...

 

It all started with 1 pattern wish and ended with 1 crazy teenager. I never feel the need to wax poetic about motherhood...and I never feel need to shy away from the difficulties either. For all his positive traits, my youngest is certainly responsible for about 85% of my gray hair. I'd like to skip ahead to about ohhhh...maybe 3-5 years from now?? Ha!!

 

On Saturday, my son was out running errands and I asked him to stop by JA and pick up this pattern. #1 in my 18 of 2018 pattern stash additions. Except for view D (in pink), I love all of these I was excited to add this one to stash for summer and was feeling pretty good about 2.5 months without new patterns.

 

All was well but then...sigh.

 

Usually, stress fuels my sewing. This time I lost my mojo and spiraled a bit. Blerghhhhhhh. I'm not sure which came first, the cart (patterns) or the horse (fabric)! I do know I'm working on a top for my daughter (her creation, I think it's weird) and she wanted another top with statement sleeves. I thought about M7687 for her and was wondering what I had in stash for it.

 

 

 

Somewhere along the line I started looking for an "interesting top" and had forgotten my mild curiosity about M7724 and then saw a couple made up and decided I HAD TO HAVE THAT TOO!

 

And then I went to SR Harris and saw this mustard striped shirting (she loves mustard) and had to have it. I think that's when I thought of M7687?? Idk. See. Cart? Horse?! But I saw the blue/white stripe on the bottom and needed that for the Simplicity top and the modeled version of M7724. But the other two blue fabrics are for the crazy colorblocked version of M7724 and the striped swimsuit knit is for a swimsuit bottom for a trip next month...

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know how it all went down...just that it did! In my defense to myself, I've purchased 10 yards prior to adding this 10 yards. Of the prior 10 yards, I've sewn 5.5 of them so that's something, right?  And theoretically, 4.5 ish of this fabric will be used in the next 30 days (her fabric, the two 1 yard cuts and ~0.5 yard of the swim fabric). So we're just going to call that good. Mmmkay??

 

Moving on! :-p

 

M7687 for DD (with a zipper in back, not buttons) and I could see using it for myself in the future; so I'll trace hers off.

 

B6488 has been on my wishlist since it came out. I think all of the versions have a place in my wardrobe.

 

V9305 is just too, too cute. I wanted this for my mom and me. I'm not a fan of linen but will look for some for her. I'm not sure yet what fabric I'll use for mine.

 

M7724 as mentioned above

 

M7728 because I forgot how awesome that jumpsuit looks (sleeveless and off the shoulder) until I started looking for a specific bodice for a dress for the OTRII tour with Jay-Z and Beyoncé. That's way later this summer but I was ordering, so why not?! Oy!

 

B6330 because the jumpsuit and jacket mimic two rtw items I saw and loved but were not a perfect fit. And we don't need to settle for imperfect fit!

 

This jumpsuit from Target is the kind of thing I can live in in summer on weekends. This is a size Large. Bust, waist, hips? Great. But so much neck and armhole gaping! I will make it custom-sized and I have the perfect fabric for it.

The jacket is very similar to this nice tencel twill jacket I saw in Marshall's but the M was too small and the L too big. So I'll make my own! I have a lovely white tencel twill that will fit nicely into a summer wardrobe.

Other goings ons:

One day, my coat will be done. I did something wonky with the collar facing but had already trimmed and graded and clipped and there was no way I was ripping it out. So I'm going to forge ahead with a little sadness.

 

I posted this on IG the other day. I was wearing nothing handmade in my outfit but this Burda Illusion jacket is one of my all time favorite items!!! And every time I wear it, I marvel at how terrible the sewing is. But I don't care!!!! :) I'm hoping my black coat does the same for me :-p

 

My son loves hockey so I had this graphic created by LeighBee Designs on Etsy. The image printed as separate elements and I see now that I moved the state over too far. I'll  make them one on future versions. He really liked it and brought me 5 tshirts to add the design to.

 

 

I nabbed this off of my daughter's Snapchat <3

 

I got SOME sewing done! This top from Burda 7/2017 is complete now and needs a press and pictures. It'll be the weekend before I can get photos so stay tuned.

Until later!