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Friday, March 26, 2021

Simplicity 8529 - Colorblocked

I follow a couple of fashion bloggers for inspiration and saw a cute colorblocked sweater in camel and off-white and just LOVED it, but not necessarily those colors. I love black and olive (and blue! but that's another story) and had this piece of olive french terry in my stash. I have no clue where I bought it (I think I bought it at Kokoon, a local retailer who sometimes sells off her fashion fabric). And I only had 1.25 yds. Well, I had several cuts of black french terry (seriously?) on hand and settled on this piece that was a perfect match in weight and drape.

Then came the task of trying to find a pattern. I checked Burda first because, of course I did! But nothing stood out. When I made this Simplicity pattern way back, I wasn't thrilled with the outcome. Looking back, I really liked how it looked on me, it just didn't wear well. I decided it was possibly just a fabric fail and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. The dropped shoulder design was just what I wanted! 

By going with a pattern with a dropped shoulder, I knew I'd only need to adjust the front and back . I traced a line from the top of the shoulder to the armhole, sliced, added seam allowances, and sewed it up. This meant that on the right side, I have olive fabric connecting to the olive sleeve and on the left, black fabric to a black sleeve. PERFECT.

Note to self and other intrepid pattern hackers:
the front seam line should have a slight convex curve to it to remain straight when on the body. It's fine...the pattern fits relaxed enough and the fabric has enough drape that the now concave(!) line doesn't really show. 

I made no material changes from the last version - size medium, shortened 3 inches. 

I did leave the side vent as-is this time (I think I sewed it closed a bit more last time).

It's quite cozy too in this lightweight french terry. I know it's a very specific garment that limits the bottoms I can wear with it, but I'm still pretty happy with it and think I'll get good use out of it. If nothing else, it makes me smile :-)

I'm actually wearing the same pair of jeans here as in the original pic 2+ years ago! :)

I have had very little mojo because, life. And am pretty sure I'm UNABLE to work on my knitting right now. I might work on it for a few minutes this weekend and see how my hand responds. Right now, it's not looking good :( 

I have sewn a couple things - 1 is kind of a secret for now (shhhhh!) and the other is a sweatshirt for my daughter. I have a hoodie in the works for myself but a STRONG desire to sew some real clothes, and a bit of an add to the fabric stash arriving this weekend. 

I sewed these 2 tops for my daughter, my son in law's shirt, some baby stuff, a cardigan/jacket for myself, and literally eve.ry.thing else I've sewn so far in 2021 has been a top. No dresses. No skirts. No pants. I am feeling BLAH!

So I hope to refocus my efforts, in spite of Covid, and start to work on some things that make me happy. Starting with a TNT, Butterick 5760 in a boucle from stash.