Warning boobs ahead!

Recently I tried the new Made for Mermaids bralette, the Mama Brigette. I have not loved my store bought bralettes, but my hopes were not super high. When I first started sewing I tried a popular free bralette, and (due to my lack of skills mostly) it was not love.

I was pretty pumped with my muslin, so I went to show the hub. He’s a pretty big fan of boobs, especially mine. His reaction was a big old meh, and I was fairly crushed.

I also felt he was wrong, so I kept going, buying all of the lace, elastic, and power mesh to fuel my adventures.

This even gave my the confidence to tackle a “real bra”. I ordered the wrong size underwires so that is very much “in progress”. I ordered a kit which makes for a pricey toile, but I’m hoping for good things.

Until then I’m going to have quite a few riffs on the bralette, and they seem to be growing on my husband.

Something from the last fabric you purchased

Week 2 of 52

On Monday not 1 but 2 orders of fabric came which was great because this week’s challenge was to sew up new fabric! And I was off Monday and Tuesday which was also terrific. 

I had been trying to make jeans, which is depressing for so many reasons. I am forced to confront the chub. I don’t actually know how to fit anything. I have a limited attention span, and unmitigated failure tends to take the wind out of my sails. So this new fabric was just the excuse I needed to take a break and reclaim some of my sewjo.

My husband is pretty supportive of  my sewing. He wears what I make for him, he says nice things and he tells me when people complement things I have made him. He doesn’t usually complain about how much I spend on fabric either which is even better. So I have definitely been inclined to make him things lately. 

I also ordered panty panels for myself, and I was pretty impressed that panty panel=enough fabric for entire pair of underwear 😊 I need more for matching tanks now. 

But like I said 2 orders showed up, and who am I to play favorites? So I also dug into these thermals which I had totally intended to make into some kind of wonder woman inspired top (with blue star thermal) . And maybe I will with my scraps?

I have plenty of fabric left, but its back to work for me, and I work this weekend, so these pretties and my sweater boxes set to arrive Saturday will have to wait. Which is probably for the best because of the eternal conundrum: tried and true pattern or new (possibly disasterous) adventure? 

First Make of the New Year

I made a thing (or 2). Last night I finished my husband’s Christmas gift 😊 and success! He liked it, which is pretty gratifying. 

I ordered a couple panels from that round, and once I saw his I just had to make my own. 

I love the lane raglan and I saw the cutest raglan online with striped sleeves.  Its a little overboard, but it’s love. Its also soft and warm which is such a win when it’s -12.

And since its the new year and I wanted to work on fitting I also did my first fba on the DIBY Nora at the same time. 

I just love her instructions.  It wasn’t intimidating at all. I feel like it also fit well into the first 52 week challenge. Its going to be a week of cozy makes. And I still have quite a few sweater knits to cut into. 

Goals (Sewing Edition)

I’m largely unfocused with sewing, though I continue to sew in a pathological manner.

I think I’m pretty good at quantity at this point, but I’m ready to focus on better quality and custom fit.

I joined 52 week sewing challenge, 2018 rtw fast, sew my style and 2018 100 item challenge. I like that it will help me focus and try new things 😊, and it is already inspiring knee to try new things. 

Someone is doing a Pinterest board, and copy cat that I am I started one too. Someone showed an app to organize which patterns you own which I love and NEED. Someone else suggested craftsy unlimited which totally lends itself to my fitting goals. 

I have been sewing now for about a year, and it has been pretty awesome to just kind of do what appealed to me in the moment, but my experience with pants has driven home that I need some systematic way to approach at least a few aspects of sewing if I want to improve. So I have set some goals: 

Improve Fitting

Make Jeans

Make Bra(s)

Photography  (craftsy is going to help with this)

Organize in general, patterns specifically (so I know what I have)

This organize patterns thing is hard. The free pattern app wants $5 to actually store unlimited patterns. The other app i can’t seem to figure out. But I’ll get there. 

As for organize in general, I spent too much at Michael’s on goofy journal stuff last night. I can’t resist washi tape.

Boo pants!

I tried the Chelsea pants, and I very much liked them.
I liked them so much I made more.

Then I got cocky. I decided I was going to make some skinny jeans. I already owned the SOS pants pattern and my denim was plenty stretchy soo…
Epic fail.
I tried some adjustments. 

Minimal improvement.

It was definitely time to attack this in a more systematic way, and I totally would have except Christmas happened.

But now it’s time. I have a 3 day weekend coming up, and I’m definitely going to try other patterns. Liana Jeans and Ginger Jeans specifically.

But now I’ve kind of psyched myself out. And I’ve wasted quite a bit of fabric on the many SOS pants that weren’t. But also signed up for a RTW fast, and I like to wear jeans… or at least I like to be warm, and it’s hovering in the single digits here.
Boo pants! But as a (relatively) smart person I can probably do this…?

I made a jacket! (More than one)

I am still learning with wovens so I was a little nervous to test the Hvar Jacket. It looks complicated, but also irresistably stylish!

I was very impressed by the pattern.  Few pieces, and it went together very quickly. It is important to mark pieces as the pattern indicates while you are cutting.  This may be intuitive to the experience seamstress, and for those less scattered than I. It still works beautifully of you have to go back, but be kind to yourself😊 

The pattern is designed for wovens (though some testers used knit with little stretch). For my purple jacket I used a brushed cotton with a subtle herringbone pattern. It has a decent weight, but did drape.  With  the gray plaid jacket I used a medium weight rayon. Very drape-y, a bit of a pain. I did not patteen match because…my motto is good enough,  patience and attention to detail are not my strengths. Both fabrics came from my local Joann (because I’m basic and also didn’t have woven on hand or time to order online) .

 If you happen to have stumbled on my blog and want the pattern:

 https://itch-to-stitch.com/product/hvar-jacket-digital-sewing-pattern-pdf/

I did not choose to do the hong kong seams, but I have a few days off coming up and I want to give it a try. I have two lovely wovens waiting for me (and my new coverstitch scheduled for delivery Friday) when I’m back from my business trip. 

Mini capsule

So p4p was running a little mini capsule contest.  I love contests and sew along,  but I rarely get my act together for deadlines. This was no different. But I did finish it!

I have been having capsule thoughts for a while. The idea of minimalism is appealing to me.  More in theory than in practice though. I’ve showed pictures of my cave and the  fabric therein. Clearly I’m a woman with impulses. I like to pack multiple outfits when I travel because who knows what will strike my fancy. 

I picked things I felt screamed fall.  I used a lot of mystery box fabric, because I wasn’t too sure about this whole concept and so I’m not going to use my favorites.  

I never know how to incorporate dresses in to a capsule,  but I really like dresses, so I hacked the boundless into a maxi skirt and a crop top. 

I ended up making red pleather sos skinny pants (no pockets,  I’m terrible at them,  I had to throw away the black pair after pocket fail), a black pleather pencil skirt (with the leftovers I had from the pants fail) and a dbp maxi. 

I made a mama isabelle top with some small mods in a pretty black floral,  a favorite tee and an lmu/day mash up.

I finished off with two grandpa cardis in basic black and super soft gray. And the final piece was the crop top part of the boundless. 

 love how many options they combined to make. I may try to do another,  more planfully (I know it’s not a word), with special details like lace inserts and cut out backs.  One I will wear often. I’m waiting for several orders, at least one with a pile of fall colored solids… and I’m clearly still me with my hanging threads,  rookie mistakes and hems that will never be finished. 😉

My sewing cave

I definitely posted about my fabric storage challenges before. I even used some embarrassingly crappy pictures. 

I have more crappy pictures today,  but they are after pictures! 

Its not perfect,  but I  feel like this is a marked improvement, and I can even start to cut out patterns on the table.  I suspect my knees will thank me. 

I still need more rings for my curtain of patterns,  but I think my space is more pleasant and manageable. I can’t wait for some extended cave time in the near future 😊. I’m going to try to put together a mini fall capsule for the m4m/p4p challenge I think 😉

Moody

I got to test the mood dress, which was fun because that pattern has a lot of bang for your buck. I’m not just talking about the three options either. That pieced chevron skirt is a show stopper. 

This was a little bit more of a challenge than the Sincerely Riley dress because it had a (gasp) zipper, and the bodice was more fitted, so there was a bit of (unfounded) intimidation factor.  I even learned the burrito technique for the lined bodice construction with some help from my fellow testers and you tube. 

The full maxi skirt was very dramatic both in my muslin,  and my final. I really loved that,  but I do not really like the bodice on me.  I think I erred on the side of being a tad too big because I’m still feeling out my preferences with wovens. I am not really a fan of high necklines anyway.  I did love the way it looked on other testers 😊

I prefer the gathered skirt mod if I’m using the high necked bodice. It makes the look more suited to my every day. I am looking forward to the sew along with the shorter chevron skirt mod too. 

I feel pretty good about this one (even though I had to take my measurements), and I think I grew my skill level just a bit,  so I’m calling it a success. Still making weird faces in my pics though.

Adventures in woven

I am trying a new thing and expanding my stash. I am testing a woven pattern. And it is love. I wore my first tester 3 times in 5 days which is extraordinary for me. I am usually one and done, because I’m on to the next pattern or fabric. 

Because I am testing I can’t really post my finished product, not even in this tiny portion of the internet frequented only by my thoughts (auto correct chose thighs there 😊). 

I love knits.  There is some room for error there. Wovens, to me, are more exact, less ease. And they fray. 

Because I loved the pattern I jumped in with both feet. And a woven maxi just feels like luxury on a hot summer day,  swirling around your ankles in billows of soft. 
Sewing with woven was a little more time consuming and exact than knits,  but equally therapeutic. I certainly love my finished product just as much.

Now I’m on the look out for more woven patterns,  and I’m building another kind of stash. Instead of storage solutions, which is what I really need.  

But how could I resist these amazing fabrics? Clearly I could not since I’ve ordered fabric for 4 more…