Sewing Indie Month: the Walkley Dress

Having just finished a stressful week at work and an involved sewing project, I was ready for a no-fail sewing project. You know, a creative version of a digestif, to help decompress after a heavy (mental) meal. Enter the Walkley Dress (or should I say in walks the Walkley Dress...) and its promise of three main construction seams and just a handful of finishing seams! Perfect for a palate cleanser.

The Walkley is part of Pattern Bundle #2 for Sewing Indie Month, which is a great way to get a bunch of new popular patterns for an amazingly low price! (If you think I sound like a used car salesman, that's fine because I am actually a huge proponent of used cars. My family never bought new cars while I was growing up, and still doesn't, and they've all been good to us, so frankly I'm not really bothered by that comparison. Besides, teaching is like being a used car salesman everyday: "See this chemistry? It's excellent! You will like it so much if you give it a chance! I know chemistry don't sound super exciting but I promise you, chemistry is SO important in your life! If you learn this chemistry now, you'll get good grades AND a bonus teacher rec letter for college apps!" Wow, that was a lot longer aside than I expected it to be.) These are the patterns included in this bundle:

• Pinot Pants by Skinny Bitch Curvy Chick
• Fit and Flare Skirt by Maison Fleur
• Bess Top by Imagine Gnats
• VNA Top by Fehr Trade
• Nettie Bodysuit and Dress by Closet Case Files
• Walkley Vest & Dress by MIY Collection
• Jasper Hoodie by Paprika Patterns
• Nautilus Swimsuit by Seamstress Erin
• the new Kinga Skirt by Kate & Rose
• the new April 1962 Coat by SomaPatterns

I've had my eye on the Nettie bodysuit all summer (t-shirts that just keep riding up when tucked into skirts are a big pet peeve of mine), my pre-pregnancy bathing suit could definitely use a Nautilus replacement, and the Jasper sweater dress would be perfect with leggings come fall (which won't happen for another two months here in CA; please don't shoot me). Those are a little more involved than I want, though, plus I would have to track down appropriate fabric, so I figured I'd try out one of the less well-known patterns, the Walkley Dress. Actually, as far as I can tell the only versions out there are the original photos that come with the pattern. It's always interesting to test a new pattern, and more so if nobody else seems to have, but thankfully there's not too much potential to go wrong with a t-shirt dress! 

Having just made a knit dress with the fold-over method of finishing, you'd think I'd had enough of that questionableness. But! The Walkley has actually planned for this finish and adjusted the pattern piece accordingly, so there's no trying to get a too-small circumference to play nicely with the larger rest of the garment. I love it when designers are thoughtful like that! 

I made version #1 in an acrylic with spandex sweater knit from the remnants bin at Jo-Ann's, hemmed to be tunic-length to go with leggings and tall boots. Because it was a 4-way stretch fabric, I ended up taking up the armhole and curving in the side seams at the waist to get the fit I wanted. I didn't take pictures of the original cut, but it just looked a size too big because of how the weight of the fabric pulled it down. I thought I was getting ahead of the game when I corrected my pattern piece, but I ended up regretting it when I made up version #2 in a significantly less stretchy knit. I knew these remnants from the previous knit outfit were less forgiving, but somehow I wasn't thinking straight and made it up with the same corrections, which yielded not a body-skimming, semi-fitted comfy dress, but a gotta-suck-in-my-stomach almost body-con type fit. Oops. Oh well, at least they were just remnants, and I do like the nautical look. Lesson learned, always think carefully about fabric choice!

SHB wanted in on the photoshoot. He's in the middle of a clingy phase so if he's awake, he wants to be touching me.

Thankfully, babies make good accessories.

They also like playing with your accessories.

This is the only photo I have of the back.

Summary:

Fabric: 1 yard of acrylic with lycra sweater knit with a faint bronze pattern; see previous dress for the stripey dress fabric info

Notions: None! So simple. Love.

Hours: 2 for the first one to cut and assemble pattern, play around with serger settings, and correct the pattern, then 1 for the second one 

Total cost: $5 for the sweater knit (yay for 50% off remnants!), probably less than $2 for the other

Will you make it again? I'd like to try more adventurous slicing of the pattern, but that's dependent on getting more knit fabric. Given my current theoretical attempts to stashbust, probably not for a while.

Final thoughts: This very basic t-shirt dress is one I could have figured out on my own, but sometimes it's just nice to have somebody else figure it out for you, you know? Also, I'm kind of in love with the boat neck right now, as most of my previous makes are scooped/V-neck. This is a problem because SHB has figured out where milk comes from, so if my shirts are low enough in front, he'll try to reach his hand down and help himself, only to get upset when my boob doesn't come up and out like some kind of extendable hose with a milk nozzle. I'm sorry, is that TMI? At any rate, he doesn't try if my neckline is super high, so boat neck = win.

Outtakes from the photoshoot: SHB likes trying to dive out of my arms. We've had some close calls.

If you'd like to make your own grabby-SHB-proof Walkley (or, you know, other patterns), the bundle is on sale until Thursday! At $3.80 per pattern, it's pretty much the only time you'd get indie patterns for Jo-Ann's sale prices. Even better, 20% of the proceeds go to Women for Women, a charity dedicated to helping women who are affected by war and conflict. There's also a bunch of pretty great prizes for sewing up these patterns to participate in Sewing Indie Month! 

For more Sewing Indie Month bloggers and their makes from this bundle, check out:

• Casa Crafty
• Girls in the Garden
• Grey's Fabric
• Groovy Baby and Mama
• Handmade by Carolyn
• House of Pinheiro
• How Good is That?
• Lucky Lucille
• Magpie Makery
• Scruffy Badger Time
• Thread Theory
• Three Dresses Project
• Workroom Social

He's crawling so fast now! He loves all electronic things so when he realized the camera was the one making all the beeping noises, he made a sprint for it.

Oh hai, I can haz camera?

[Disclaimer: Mari invited me to help promote Sewing Indie Month and its associated pattern sales. I received the patterns for free; all opinions are my own.]

All These People Want to Know...

Normally I hate it when fashion bloggers make sweeping statements like "____ people should never wear ____," or "____ is the must-have item this season." However, I'm inclined to agree with the "every lady needs at least one fabulous statement coat in her wardrobe" sentiment. While I understand that, for many people, function and practicality are more important than style and statement-making, I have to admit I'm a sucker for 1) red garments, and 2) anything long enough to swoop around in. Besides, long red coats always make me think of that infamous international burglar...

Can you guess who I am? (And don't you love my superb photoshopping skills?)

Fun fact about me: I hate games of chance. I prefer to win based on my (perceived) intellectual merit; trivia games are the best because they allow me to show off the results of way too many nights of following Wikipedia rabbit trails. Even when I was younger, I enjoyed collecting tidbits of knowledge the way some of my classmates liked collecting Sanrio items, so it's probably no surprise to those of you who grew up in the 90s that my favorite kid's game show was -- you know what it is* -- Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? 

Please tell me you read that last run-on sentence super fast, in Greg Lee's voice. 

Anyway, by now you've probably heard about Lolita Patterns' latest release, the Spearmint coat. I was originally contacted about being a test sewer a few months ago, but due to a sad comedy of errors (a tragedy of errors?), I wasn't able to finish the coat before the deadline. I was originally going to use the rest of the velvet tablecloth from my pirate coat, but there wasn't quite enough for a long coat, it was too drapey for the my liking, and my machine's walking foot decided to give up the ghost, so pile fabrics were not going to happen. By the time I switched gears and prepped, cut, and underlined new fabric, there was no way I was going to finish in time to give Amity and Leila any feedback. I was pretty disappointed in myself for botching my first test-sewing experience, but thankfully those two lovely ladies were very understanding. I did finally finish my coat about three weeks ago, though, and thank goodness it's such a fabulous garment, because my initial bad feelings toward the coat are now totally eclipsed in my memory by how much I like this coat! Seriously, every time I wear it, I get so many positive comments. And I can't help but feel good when wearing such a bold color. The Lolita!CarmenSandiego cosplay potential doesn't hurt either!

Likes: dramatic collar, full skirt, and slim-cut sleeves. I don't know why so many Big 4 patterns have sleeves big enough for two of my arms. 

And oh hey, look at what's hanging out in the side seam...

Pocketses! 

Okay, totally geeky of me, but look what I've got on my pocketses lining fabric: rings. Pay tribute when you can, right?

The coat looks good hanging open, too. 

I need to press and steam it better. 

Side view...oh hey, I'm following one of those fashion blogger tips: if you've got a small bust, wear something with large ruffles in the chest area to make it look fuller. 

Back view...I'm in love with how huge the collar is!

After getting over the initial bad mojo from the failed tablecloth version, I have to say that the sewing process itself went fairly smoothly. For all that the collar looks so impressive, it's actually extremely easy to sew, and I think a confident beginner could tackle this coat. When I showed my mom and sister, they were both duly impressed that I had actually made it myself.

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with myself too!

Summary:
Fabric: 100% wool coating from Jo-Ann Fabrics (purchased two years ago with the intention of making a winter coat, only I decided that I wasn't ready to tackle it yet), underlined with a cotton/poly bedsheet since the coating was still pretty thin and drapey. The lining was another sheet, but a 100% polyester microfiber one instead, since I wanted it to be somewhat slippery, but not as slippery as actual satin lining fabric. I did actually start using the "real" lining fabric for the pockets, but it misbehaved so much that I opted against using any more for the sake of my sanity.

Notions: A yard of horsehair canvas, plus a hook and eye.

Techniques used: You guys, I actually bag-lined my first ever garment! I think I've read this Threads article about fifty times, and been confused every time, but the ladies over at Lolita Patterns did a good enough job explaining it that I did it right the first time (an achievement in and of itself), and, get this, it was 2 AM. If my sleep-deprived and sickness-addled teacher/student brain could do it without seam ripping, those must be some pretty dang good instructions. Oh, and I used horsehair as interfacing for the first time! Good thing, too, since it then gave me the idea to interface Thranduil's collar with the leftovers.

Hours: Ummmm, this might be the only downside. It took me a good 4-5 hours to cut everything, and then an additional 15 or so hours to do the sewing (but I was also underlining everything). I didn't need to do any fitting though, thanks to the forgiving front opening, so there was that. I also didn't do the bound buttonhole, so that saved on sewing time. What I did appreciate was not having to waste time trying to figure out why pieces didn't fit together -- guys, this pattern is well-drafted and everything actually matches up!

Total cost: Thanks to massive sales, teacher discounts, and excellent coupon usage, I was able to get the wool for the coat for $12, and then the two sheets were an additional $3 each. I think the horsehair was about $12...throw in another few bucks for thread and it brings the price of materials to about $35. Not bad at all, considering that a coat like this could easily run upwards of $100 at Nordstrom.

Will you make it again? I think it's unlikely, since it's a pretty singular coat, and more than one garment with a huge ruffled collar is not really necessary. However, I will most likely steal the sleeve and armscye of this pattern, because it is one of the nicest I've ever had to set in. Also, as mentioned by several other test sewers and the actual pattern debut blog entry, this is a "top coat," so it definitely runs snug.  I cut the size recommended for my measurements and I can't wear this with anything bulkier than a long-sleeve tee or a thin sweater (think the kind of flimsy ones they sell at Target in the Merona collection). Since I live in California, that doesn't really bother me, but if you're intending to actually layers items under this, I'd go up a size or two. I would also check the size of the pocket opening, too, since they feel rather large to me. I might just go and sew up the bottom third of mine, actually.

Final thoughts: Thank you, Lolita Patterns, for coming up with such a fabulous coat pattern! It's almost as fabulous as Thranduil's spangly tunic, it's that fun. And while some people have said (hi Mom!) that the front neckline is too open and I'll catch my death of cold, I personally think of it as a built-in scarf showcasing mechanism. Now I have an excuse to get more huge statement scarves.

If you're interested in purchasing your own Spearmint pattern, you can get it here at their online shop, or you can even buy it in a bundle with the other Lolita Patterns releases, the Gunmetal and Sugarplum.

Twirl time!

And if you haven't seen Knitnbee's and LadyKatza's red Spearmints yet, you should go check them out! Apparently this pattern just begs to be made up in such a vibrant color. Hmm, what are the chances of one day having a red Spearmint meet-up IRL?


* "Do it Rockapella!" Oh my goodness, this song brings me back to middle school like no other. It used to be my dream to get on the show, even though I'm terrible at making decisions/answering questions when under a time crunch. I'm pretty sure I would never buzz in first and then end up being the gumshoe that doesn't even make it to The Chase.

Those Elusive Four-Leaf Clovers

If this were a fashion blogger's outfit post, it'd be considered pretty boring: neutral-colored slim-fit trousers, countered with a more intense color near the face and a lace collar for interest. But I'm not a fashion blogger, and this standard work outfit is exciting because it's entirely me-made! Okay, I didn't crochet the lace collar, but still, it's exciting to have made some very sensible basics.

I need to make some new underthings that don't leave lines under my clothes!

Despite having made successful slim-fit pants before, it's been long enough that I've re-built up all my previous anxiety about fitting my bottom half. My orange trousers were wide-legged enough that I wasn't super concerned, and besides, there was no fly-front. Somehow, the combination of an unmodifiable center front seam and my weirdly shaped legs makes me lose all confidence. Oh, and let's throw in an untested pattern for good measure! Better yet, let's make it a pattern that's notorious for funky fit and requiring multiple muslins, the Colette Clovers. And the icing on the cake, of course, is messing with the pattern by throwing in a fly front.

Not that you can really tell it's a fly front, even close-up -- I did that good a job on thread-matching for the topstitching.

I've only ever made one Colette pattern before, and that was the free Sorbetto tank; that simple top required so many changes that I pretty much gave up on Colette patterns as being drafted for an entirely different body type, hence my refusal to buy the Laurel (plus I already had a shift dress pattern in the stash). Still, I figured pants might not be as bad, plus the pattern was free (generously gifted to me by Ms. McCall of Brown Paper Pattern)! In the end, I ended up not making as many changes as I was afraid I would need to. These pants aren't perfect, but they're not bad for a wearable muslin. Here's my list of alterations:

• I made them fly-front instead of side zipper pants, using pattern pieces and directions from McCall's 6610.
• Knowing how bubbly the darts would be in this unpressable mystery fabric, I omitted them and took out the difference from the center back seam instead. I think it worked pretty well, and I'm now pretty convinced that I don't ever need darts again. 
• I majorly smoothed out the hip curve, as they were slightly ridiculous. It was like bloomers or jodhpurs or something similar. 
• I also took out a bunch of width from the inseams, up to 1.5 inches on both the front and the back, tapering to nothing at the knee. 
• I took in the back side seams by about 1.5 inches at the mid thigh, tapering to nothing at the knees. Essentially, my back side seam is just a straight line down from the waist to the knee. 
• The curve of the waistband just didn't look right to me, plus it was made for the side zipper, so I subbed in the Sewaholic Thurlow trouser waistband. I felt slightly wrong, mixing my indie pattern company pieces, but the Thurlow waistband worked just beautifully. I faced it with a little bit of this nautical print Japanese cotton that I got in Birmingham on my UK trip a couple years ago, because it matched the seam binding so nicely. 

Pretty insides! 

I still think the back fit needs work, since there are all these wrinkles (fish-eye dart adjustment, maybe?), and the grainline is off on the front because of all my adjustments. The front under-crotch is slightly baggy too, but all in all it's not worse than any of my RTW pants. Hah! now there's a dubious compliment if there ever was one! I thought the whole point of sewing was to get better than RTW fit. Oh well. I guess the trick is to psych myself up for another pair before too much time goes by, that way I can really work on the fit while things are fresh in my mind.

Sometimes the back looks okay, depending on how I'm standing...

...and sometimes it's drag line city. Yikes. 

At least the back waistband actually fits! No plumber's crack or gaping when I bend over.  

As for the top, it's made from sweater knit rescued from my first failed Drape Drape top, simply re-cut into a cap-sleeve fitted top using my knit tee block. Since the sweater knit was so sproingy and unpressable, I decided against my standard knit neckband and instead finished it with some leftover rayon bias tape. It was looking pretty boring, though, so I added the lace collar at Mr. Cation's recommendation. I'm finally getting with the trend of collared everything!

I just now realized while looking at this picture that the cutouts on the collar are little stars!

Rayon bias tape made from the remnants of this dress' fabric, cotton crochet lace collar whipstitched on by hand. 

Summary:
Fabric: The remaining 1.5 yards of this stretchy gray-brown plaid I had left after making my Mad Men dress. They work beautifully for these pants since they've got excellent stretch and recovery, while still being quite stable. I used As a result, these pants are uber comfortable. The sweater knit is probably acrylic, about a yard.
Notions: 3.5" metal jeans zipper, hooks and eyes and a metal snap for the fly front closure, lots of seam binding. The lace collar is from Wholeport.com. They don't seem to have this style anymore, but there are some other cute ones!
Hours: The top took about an hour, the pants were more like 10+. I lose track when things take more than a few days to make.
Will you make it again? I theoretically want to, in order to fix the fit! There's so much potential here, but after a certain point you can't change the wearable muslin anymore because you've run out of seam allowance and/or patience. And the knit tee block I've already used a gazillion times, so that's a for sure.
Total cost: The whole outfit was less than ten dollars ($2 for the collar, $2 for the sweater knit, $5 for the pants, and miscellaneous other notions)
Final thoughts: I can't think of anything else to say that I haven't already, but generally I like it? These are the kind of separates that are so basic that it's hard to drum up too much excitement. I'm pretty pleased to use up more stash fabric, though...the pants are even stretchy, so while they may not be knit, per se, they're still kind of in the vein of the month's challenge??

I have to remind myself that most people don't look at me and think about the crotch curve adjustments I should have made. Nope, that's just me, sneakily staring at people's nether regions while trying to figure out how their pants fit. 

I think it's funny that these pants are called Clovers, since three-leafed versions abound (pretty good fit, definitely acceptable), but the four-leafed version (looks absolutely amazing and as drag-line free as the the modeled photos on the site) is pretty rare. Okay, that's a pretty belabored and cheesy metaphor. The question now is, do I keep working on this pattern, or try tracing my own from pants that already fit me? When I compared the crotch curve on the Clovers to my favorite RTW pants, they were pretty drastically different. The Clovers look more like the "official" crotch curve pictures in all the sewing books I own (less pronounced J in front, almost an L in the back), but I like the less-curved crotch curve fit of my RTW pants. Maybe I just don't know how pants should fit? Anyway, I bought myself the Craftsy Jeanius course to copy my favorite jeans since it was on sale last weekend, but I know myself and I don't think I have the patience/stamina/meticulousness required for Kenneth King's couturier directions. I think I'll give the haphazard pinpricking method a try first...

May Stashbusting: The Mint and Silver Dragee Tiramisu

Five months between pattern purchase and finished garment is not really that long a time. I've got some patterns in my stash that have been lingering unmade for years, but considering how excited I was for Cake Patterns' first release, well, this dress is somewhat overdue.

I really wanted to take pictures wearing the Tira while eating actual tiramisu, but that didn't work out. Instead, you'll have to settle for this gorgeous house in Kensington in San Diego at sunset. 

Since mint is a color that is also a food/flavor (and apparently there's at least one food blogger that's made a mint tiramisu), I ran with the concept and dubbed the gray sparkly stripes the silver dragees.

OH HEY GUESS WHAT IT'S A MAXI TIRA!

Isn't it gorgeously long and flowy?

The skirt just hits my instep in front, and skims the ground in the back.

I started sewing this dress with some of my earlier excitement tempered by the reviews from other sewing bloggers -- it seems that in the smaller sizes, there are more issues with getting a good fit in the bodice, and having to take in the side seams significantly seems common, too. Of course, the day after I finished the dress, Steph posted a list of corrections for the smaller sizes that will be in the second edition. I love that she actually took the time to read all the reviews and make those changes! However, they came too late for me...but I did end up making some of those changes myself, so I know I'm on the right track.

Even with all the changes, still no gaping! 

Based on my measurements and some of the finished garments I saw floating around the blogiverse, I cut a 30 for the high bust, an A cup, and a 25 waist. While my waist isn't actually 25 inches, the instructions helpfully suggest going down a size for a tighter fit, which is what I wanted. I was also really pleased to have stripe guidelines on the pattern pieces; in the past, when I've made garments with chevrons, I had to be extra careful and think long and hard about which way the stripes were going to end up before cutting (and even so, I may have cut a few pieces backwards), so it was nice to have that thinking done for me already!

I am so proud of these chevrons!

Changes I made: Besides the obvious change of making a maxi (my skirt ended up being 38" long, instead of the prescribed 24"), I also ended up

• omitting the bust gathers, 
• adjusting the center notch placement so that it didn't overlap quite so much in the middle,
• bringing the side seams in by another inch on each side, but then my jersey was very stretchy and quite thin. 
• When I tried on my bodice without the skirt, there was some weird wrinkling/dragging at the shoulders, and even when I pulled the midriff down to mimic the weight of the skirt (make sure you do that!), there was still a weird bubbly dip. I realized that it was because of the slight convexity of the shoulder seam; my shoulders must be really wide since they didn't hit anywhere near the supposed shoulder location of the pattern! I just made the shoulder seam a straight line and that took care of most of the problem. 
• Because of the weight of the skirt, the zigzag stitching started pulling apart a bit at the center front and back and the side seams, so I actually went back and added an inch of regular straight stitch in those four locations. This doesn't seam to have affected the overall stretchiness of the waist much, as I can still pull it over my head just fine. 
• At the recommendation of many of the reviews, I added the sleeve band after sewing the side seams, as I think it looks neater that way. 
• I also didn't bother hemming the skirt, since, well, floor length circle skirt hem in jersey = slightly worse than sewing over beads and breaking needles.
• Even though Cake Patterns prides itself on always having pockets, I left mine out since the jersey is quite thin and the skirt is already quite heavy. 

It's hard to say what my favorite thing is about this dress -- I love the colors, the wide stripes, the chevrons, the silhouette, the twirliness of the circle skirt...this might be one of my favorite makes ever!

Mr. Cation: you look like a flamenco dancer! Me: Is that a good thing? Mr. Cation: I dunno, that's just what you look like.

Weeee!!!

Twirly pic spam!

Check out my impeccable stripe matching at the skirt side seams too! The bodice, not so much.

Summary:
Fabric: 4 yards of 60" jersey knit in mint/silver stripes. The silver stripes were annoying because they're actually woven through with tiny metallic tinsel threads which kept catching on my walking foot's upper feed dogs. I actually ended up abandoning the walking foot when it made stripe matching worse than my regular foot.
Notions: None! I'm toying with the idea of going back and adding elastic to the waist, but I don't have any of the correct size right now.
Hours: Four hours, with one devoted to cutting...spreading out that much fabric in our apartment had to happen in installments. Fitting the bodice and fiddling with the walking foot also took some time, but now that I have those issues figured out, future (non-maxi) makes should go much faster.
Will you make it again? Yes! Like I said, I'm a fan of the chevrons, the surplice bodice, and the cap sleeves. I even traced my size onto tissue paper so as to keep the pattern intact in case I want to make it for anyone else; I'm that enamored of how good it looks on a multitude of shapes and sizes. When I make this again, I do want to raise the underarm seam a smidge, though, since it pulls just a bit when I raise my arms.
Total cost: $4...gosh, I love Michael Levine Loft.
Final thoughts: In case you couldn't tell, I adore this dress. I've said before that the reason why I love maxi skirts is that they're the closest you can come to playing dress-up while still looking like a normal person, and the swooshiness of this dress is no exception! I love how the top is so sleek while the hem is so full, and the colors are just enough to be special without being over the top. The fabric is light enough that it almost hovers in the air around me as I walk, instead of getting tangled. Okay, enough gushing; I could go on for a while if I let myself. Thanks, Steph, for making such a fantastic pattern!

Okay, just one more whirling dervish picture to properly show my joy at this dress.  

I've still got enough fabric leftover to make a top or a skirt -- but do I really need another dolman sleeve top? Probably not...but thankfully, EmSewCrazy and I have collected a bunch of project ideas for knits on our May Stashbusting board...check it out if you haven't already! And if you're scared of sewing with knits, consider this month's challenge a good reason to tackle them. Here are some good tutorials for starting on stretch fabric sewing. In the words of Thor, have at thee, stretch fabrics!

Another Blank Canvas Tee Hack

I liked this pattern so much, I had to make another one. Besides, I still had leftover green and black fabrics, so in the interest of using it up before Walnut could get hair all over it, I tried a different hack. I was going for a sweetheart neckline, kind of like the Macaron Dress from Colette Patterns, but due to the sizing of the pattern, it didn't quite work out. That's okay, though, because I still like my resulting top just fine!

Here's what my hacked pattern pieces looked like. You'll need to mentally add seam allowance for the green and black pieces.

With another three inch extension for length.

Here's the back of the top, tucked into the skirt...
the green part ended up being lower than I expected. Oops. 

I'm not going to bother with my usual sewing summary, since it's pretty much the same as the previous one, but just a little less green fabric and a little more black. Also, hemming this mesh was a bit of a nightmare.


In a fit of non-procrastination, I also made up the black skirt that I was promising myself. I originally wanted a full circle skirt, but it turns out that I only had enough for a half-circle skirt. To that end, I decided to test out one of my vintage patterns, Simplicity 8349 A, from 1969. It's a supposedly above the knee bias cut skirt, with a side zipper. I was initially concerned, since my pattern is meant for a 24" waist, which I am definitely not! But it seems that even back then, considerable ease was built into the garments, because mine fit just fine without any modifications. I made View 3, and since I used jersey, I didn't bother hemming it. It's a bit on the long side, but I kind of like this 1930s length.

Definitely not above the knee, even if I did do a two-inch hem like the pattern called for.

With my Jason Wu knock-off tee, it reminds me a bit of this ensemble from Revamp Vintage, but updated. And much more casual materials. And much cheaper.

I also added another rectangle to the tie on the top to get the bow look.

Swish! Swish!

Summary: 
Fabric: 1.25 yards 60" black cotton-poly blend knit.
Notions: zipper, 2 hook-and-eye pairs, interfacing for the waistband
Hours: 1.5...easy peasy, especially with no seam finishing. Yay for knits!
Netflix queue: Switching it up since I'm tired of similarities between Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton (servants stealing! issues with the cook! rebellious daughter! pregnant housemaids! dalliances while your spouse is busy! maids who aren't content with service but want more!)...what could be more different than documentaries like Slave Ship Mutiny and Lost in the Amazon?
Will you make this again? Maybe. I like the shape and its movement a lot, and I might want a shorter version in a nice wool plaid.
Total cost: $4 with the zipper, fabric originally $2 from SAS Fabrics in Tucson three years ago
Final thoughts: Love the bias skimming my hips, the very practical, goes-with-everything black, and how easy it is to wash. I might still chop off a few inches and hem it, but I'm undecided.

I know the Sew Weekly theme is supposed to be a refashion, but honestly, the sleeveless top I had set aside for it is totally uninspiring. It just needs to be taken in at the sides, but there's bias binding around the armhole that I don't feel like dealing with. Does refashioning a pattern count?