Butterick 5535 - Madras Skirt

Butterick 5535 is a pattern I've had in my stash for quite a while and just never got around to sewing.  I used it with a madras fabric for my 4th skirt for a Sawyer Brook sew along, and I think the fabric and pattern were a great fit.  My 3.5 foot photographer took these photos at the end of a long day wearing this skirt, and the only problem is that it didn't hold the pleat crease very well.  I may go back and stitch them in.

I love how the bias yoke on this skirt with the madras, and how the pleats make it kicky but still fitted around the hips.  I'll defintely be making this again.  Even if I omitted the pleats, this would be a grat A-line skirt.

 Here I wore it with a store-bought tee (red, white, and blue for Memorial Day!), but I envision wearing it with a white top through the summer.  I'll definitely be reaching for this one.

Gradations Bag followup

Oh my, such excitement over my Gradations Bag!  Thank you, thank you for all the kind comments about it.  I have still been proudly carrying it around. 

Lois, I don't think I'll be selling these.  1 - I didn't check the terms of use, but I'd probably have to buy some kind of license to use this pattern to sell, and 2 - With as much time went into this, I'd have to charge like $400 for one to make it worth my while.  :-)  That said, for friends and family who have voiced some interest, I'll see what I can do just cause I love yas!

Mom - sorry I misunderstood your glances.  Maybe I'll let you borrow it when I visit.  :-)

Gradations Bag from Modern Mix

I have a new project to show today... not the usual.  I made a little bag for summer.  Usually I prefer a leather, store-bought bag (with the exception of this, I hardly ever use bags I've made), but when i saw this pattern I fell in love.

The pattern is from Modern Mix, a quilting book by Jessica Levitt.  I found it on sale at Connecting Threads.  That's a great price - I paid quite a bit more at a local quilting fabric shop.  There's a review of the book on StashBooks here, which shows a bunch more projects.

ANYWAY, I really love the projects in this book.  They really are modern and "Mix" refers to mixing prints and solids.  I do think it makes for a cleaner, less-busy look than all prints.  The project I made is the Gradations Bag.  I love the graphic impact of the bold stripes.  I mixed them with a natural linen/cotton for summer instead of the dark color shown in the example.

The example from the book:

Magnet snap - love this.

The back:

Had to show off my decent matching at the bottom seam. :-)

Inside pocket - there's just one, but it's a fairly small bag, and it would be easy to add more if you prefer it that way.

Fabric covered cardboard bottom.

Ok, it's time for a revelation.  My mom was here when I bought the book and started working on this bag.  She didn't "get" it.  I think she thought it was an interesting design with the gradually changing color, but she was not a big fan of the bag.  I thought "ok - not everyone has the same taste - the world would be boring if we did, yadda yadda yadda."  Fast forward to having it finished and carrying it around, and I've gotten not one compliment.  A bit odd given I have friends who look for my new creations.  I'm wondering if I have very unique tastes and it's really just not an attractive bag.  My feelings aren't hurt - I still love it, but it just seems odd to me.  Such dramatic problems!  :-)

Button-front A-line skirt (Simplicity 2564)

I've finished my third skirt for the Sawyer Brook sew along.  I modified Simplicity 2564 (also used for my scalloped pencil skirt) to slightly A-line and button up the front.  To do this, I just eliminated the back zip and split the front piece in two, adding fabric for the overlap and folds of the button bands.

The fabric is Balsa Linen and the buttons are Kera. 

Salme Patterns' - Sleeveless Dress

I first read about Salme Patterns on Quality Time.  Super cute stuff and very reasonably priced.  You do have to print and tape together, but there are only 4 pattern pieces to this, so it didn't take too long.

This is the Sleeveless Dress pattern.  Very cute, I think, and very simple to sew.  The only tricky part is getting the tucks nice and even. 

The fabric I used is the cotton voile I mentioned here.

I think this dress definitely needs a belt of some sort to be most flattering, but here it is with no belt so you can see the shape.

This was easy and quick to sew, and it's perfect for the hot summer.  I highly recommend checking them out.  I also bought these two:

Kimono Top

Romper (oh yes I did!)

A sad evening

I'm in the midst of a disastrous yogawear sewing disaster (yes - double disaster).  Sad.  :-(  The pants are coming out ok, but the tank top is a hot mess.  Just thought I'd share.

PR RTW Contest

In the back of my mind, I had the notion of entering the Pattern Review Ready to Wear Contest this month.  The month sped by, though, and I didn't really have an inspiration or plan, so I let it go.  Then, I was flipping through the Boden cagtalog, and BAM.  There was a ton of things I covet in there, but this was the simplest one, and I had the bright blue cotton shirting in my stash.  It's not crinkly or as drapey as the fabric in the original, but I'm really pleased with how close it looks to the original.

The Boden top is here. 

My pattern starting point was New Look 6849, which I've used several times before.  It's a nice top for a woven fabric that doesn't need a zipper if you don't do the back darts and make the neckline large enough.  Some changes I made were to eliminate the center front seam and the back darts.  I also made it a bit wider under the arms to give some room for the elastic gathering. 

Let me know if you have any questions about how I did this.  It wasn't too hard and only took three hours (during which I was watching tv and sewing pretty slowly).

And just in case you need some comic relief today, this is the problem with your photography team being 5 and 2:

They each need their moment in the spotlight... every time

and they pout when you kick them out of the photo.  Notice my hand still in the pocket for the shot like the one on the website.