My New Find!

It was exciting to see this pattern for fifty cents. This pattern was printed in 1991. I have made the pattern adjustments and removed the gathers from the sleeve caps. Yes, I cut it for my daughter to match her navy pants. It is in the holding-basket until I finish my white brocade suit. I can't wait to make one for myself.

This is a nice pattern and I like the results of the smooth sleeve caps. Last night I was

scrolling through http://perfectsuits.tumblr.com and there were several jackets with the original ruffled/gathered sleeve caps.

Another Interesting Challenge!

Vita and Natalea at http://Sewyourownwardrobeforayear.blogspot.com  has a challenge that starts April 1, 2013 and ends March 30, 2014. The challenge is to avoid purchasing clothing and create your own wardrobe for a year.

 

 

"Fearless February" Complete

This is my first Sew-Along with "Ten Thousand Sewing Hours."

http://tenthousandsewinghours.blogspot.com/

Ok, so I've finally made my decision for this Sew-Along. It will be a white brocade jacket with the ruffles B5720 with my traditional Butterick 5147 dress. Both pieces will be fully lined. The fabric was purchased from Joann's this past Summer so it will go along with the "Stash Smashing Sew-A-Long" at Sew Much Talent.

This is my dress with the overlapped kick-pleat and extra length added. Now that I have everything completely cut, I can start sewing. Not yet! Our daughter need some help with pant fitting and I can't give up now. So here we go again trying to fit her with pants. So let's stop this project a minute.

Pants That Fit!

My plans were to compete the above outfit for my Sew-Along, but things happen. Our daughter came home and I ended up riding back to her home in South Florida. Pants can be an issue when there is a 15" ratio between hips and waist. Guess what! I finally was able to fit her and to all of you girls that have this issue Simplicity 4366 should help. Take a look~ No, the body didn't come from me, but the other half.

I completed three pairs of View D (light tan pair) while visiting. Of course, I packed my sewing machine. Are you kidding! That was the first thing we put in the vehicle. Now, on with it. One pair was the navy poly/rayon/spandex which she is wearing. The next pair was made from a deep plum suiting fabric and the last pair was made in a polyester satin back twill black fabric. All fabrics were purchased from Fabric Mart.

With this pattern I made two muslims, yes two. One was made out of animal print cotton without pockets View D and the other with pockets View A made out of a plaid cotton with animal print pockets and waist. She chose view D as her favorite. Using View D, I still had to use one size smaller for the waist and add 1" to the length.

That is good in comparison to another pattern that I previously had to do a pattern adjustment to decrease the waist, decrease the length between the waist and the seat on the front and the back of the pattern without having a perfect fit. This pattern has the perfect built in adjustment for the seat/waist length.

Future plans are to adjust View A (white pair) with pockets to look like and fit her like View D. Yes, I can!

Back to the White Outfit

Jacket front and back is pressed.

Jacket is together, including neck and sleeve ruffle. If you noticed, I removed the gathering from the sleeve by following the directions of a video called "How to increase-decrease the sleeve cap length."

The lining is ready with the exception of the sleeves.

                                                                  Lining is complete.

Jacket is complete. Now I'm ready to tackle the dress.

                                                          Pinning lining to dress.

                                                              Ready for the zipper.

 

                                      

All complete with three large snaps for closure.

Red Heart/Valentine's

Butterick 5396 another dress made in polyester poplin from Vogue Fabrics. This is the same pattern as the white suit.

B5396

Skirt

                                                 Olive polyester poplin from Vogue Fabrics

Pants

Olive polyester poplin

McCall's 6400

                                                     Trendy knit from Fabric Mart.

Daughter's Dresses

McCall's 5890 ITY knit from Fabric Mart.

 Polyester ribbed knit fabric with polyester lining from Fabric Mart.

Trendy knit with polyester lining from Fabric Mart.

Ethnic Print

Simplicity 4032

This is the green top with the mini peplum and the skirt is Butterick 4997. Fabric is cotton from Walmart.

 

 

Cotton fabric from Walmart

 

Jackets and Pants

Jacket and pants are polyester poplin from Vogue Fabrics.

Polyester spandex fabric from Fabric Mart. The jacket has the weight of a lightweight coat.

Olive polyester poplin from Vogue Fabrics.

 

 

 

 

"Stash Smashing Sew-A-Long"

Sew Much Talent has a great "Stash Smashing Sew-A-Long" going on to help some who are buried in fabric tunnel their way to the light of day. It will help me rid myself of some of my online purchases. http://csrapdu.ning.com/

All of these items were made using Simplicity 2190 with lighweight knits purchased from Fabric Mart. It is good to have all of this fabric sewn with the exception of one more print. These will be cool for our future weather. View C was used to make the tops. Therefore, I had to add four additional inches to each of them since I'm not as youthful and have some age related assets. Matching headbands were made for most of them.
Before leaving for my trip, I completed one more maxi dresses from the same pattern and cut the last piece of that trendy knit. I am glad to complete these fabrics because I ended up purchasing these while getting started with Fabric Mart and wanting to know what they were like. These fabrics need to be pressed and would not have been my choice before retiring. Since I leave the house sparingly, I have time to prepare to dress so they'll be ok, but this is the end of the road for this fabric.

                                                                              Trendy knit top with pants made last year of jean spandex fabric using Butterick 5535.

This is an accordian fabric from JoAnn Fabrics.

                                                                         

                                                                         

 

 

 

Maxi is made of polyester/lycra knit watercolor floral look shaded grape fabric. Yes, I love the fit of this pattern. One more in a trendy knit to go.

Preparing fabric by matching horizontal prints.

My last maxi using the last of my trendy knits fabrics. A short sleeve orange polyester jacket has been cut and is in the holding-basket ready to sewn. The idea behind making the jacket is to wear it with this dress to tone down the amount of exposed print.

 

Love Hate Relationship!

After sewing the jacket together, I loved how neat it was and was so happy that I chose to use black double knit purchased from Vogue Fabrics. The problem came after I had chosen to completely line it with Jacquard diamond polyester (which is beautiful) purchased from Fabric Mart. The jacquard is so noisy that it is embarrassing to me. It sounds like a rain coat. Guess what? In spite of that, it is still my go-to jacket until I make another. There is something that I haven't shared on most of my posting about alterations. Almost every pattern must have a waistline adjustment of one inch.