Butterick 5925 - slightly modified

This is just a fun top.  It's swingy and comfy and I may make more.  Maybe with cap sleeves, maybe with the ones in the actual envelope.

I need to find some largish scraps that kinda sorta go together and do the color blocking shown on the envelope.

Because I can always use more fun tops.

Choir Wardrobe 11 16 14

Hey, I finished a project...that wasn't just a t shirt...made from a recent purchase... in one week.

Woot!!!!

The skinny pants are Neue Mode 21670, made in 2002 from gray rayon/lycra double knit that would no doubt be labeled 'ponte' today.  They're old and fit much better when I was 20 lbs lighter, but,  hey, under the tunic no one can tell the pockets are gaping, right? ;-)

The tunic...well, it's supposed to be a dress...is Butterick 5244 and hot off the Janome. It's comfy and looks way better than I expected...it may turn into my Christmas day outfit. Who's to know the whole deal is just a glorified sweatsuit anyway, right? ;-)

If you click on the photo to look closer, there is a shadow on it that looks like I dribbled my water at lunch.  I didn't ...I've no idea what it is...but the camera battery died so that's the photo I'm stuck with today.

A couple of  hours later...Ok, I had to log back in because I wanted to share something...

This morning as we left for church, it was raining and about 42 degrees F.  I commented to My Sweet Babboo...'If this were last year, I'd really be wishing I'd have made that trench coat!...but it's THIS year, so I'm wearing the trench coat!'...and I reached into the closet and pulled it out.

I may not have tons of yards out, but having that trench in the 'Done' column is QUITE gratifying!

Sewing ADD

...what happens when plans are made, new projects are cut, bagged and in the queue...

And an off-the-wall inspiration sweeps through and suddenly another project shoulders its way to the front of the line.

Somewhere around the end of last week, I decided I had to use one of the pieces of burgundy double knit that I recently received from Fabric Mart and make a new something for choir this month.

The knit is actually double-sided, with black on the reverse, but for my purposes that didn't matter.

I settled on Butterick 5244, after much deliberation, intending to use the shorter length as a tunic.

The deciding factor was the pockets.  It has pockets.

So I cut it out Saturday and began the ol' ten minutes here, ten minutes there approach to construction.

The pockets are on.

They are ugly, if you look closely, but they're on.

I'm pretty much counting on the fact that it is very unlikely that any one is going to look at them closely.

Single welt pockets in a soft stretchy double knit.  What on EARTH was I thinking?

The directions are a little disaster-making, too, as there is no instruction to actually interface the dress in the pocket area.

I did that...and thought that I could get away without the specified stay-stitching, since I had fused on the interfacing.

Um, I really think you need both.  Were I to do it again, I would do both.

So I needle-and-threaded the wobbles on the ends of the welts; not perfect, but not visible from a distance and this IS for choir, so it will only be at a distance.

Assuming, of course, that I don't put it on when it's done and think 'UG!!'.  This is a little out of my normal style comfort zone.

But I'm hoping that over gray leggings or at least gray skinny pants, it will look kinda cute.

We'll see.

(Have you entered the giveaway?  Just leave a comment before midnight tomorrow and I'll throw your name in the hat...)

Sewing on the Blogging Break

Y'know, you really can get a lot done if you don't spend two (um, or more...) hours a day on the internet.
First project:
I made another one of the Burda twist tops. I had a remnant of burgundy slinky...and since burgundy and black are the choir colors for next month, I thought I'd try a few tweaks and see how it turned out. It's still a cheap top...about three bucks...so I didn't try to do all the changes at once. The knit did make a difference; this is real acetate/lycra slinky and it didn't curl. I did make a few notes on the construction though and I updated the review to reflect my more careful note making ;)

Also, I traced a new pants pattern...Simplicity 4366and made a test up. I know, what kind of doofus uses glen plaid for a test garment? I was very careful to match the plaids...after all, if it didn't fit I intended to donate it, and if it DID fit, I intended to wear it. I did, however, lay my TNT Vogue 7881 contour waist pants over the pattern, so I had a *reasonable expectation* that they would be more or less wearable.

I made view C, which is supposed to be the 'bootcut' view. Maybe my definition of 'bootcut' isn't quite accurate; I would expect 'bootcut' pants to fit fairly slimly through the leg and then flare out below the knee...y'know, to go over a boot. However, these are a little fuller through the leg to the knee, and drop straight down from the knee (you can see in the side view that the plaid does not angle back out below the knee). These are a nice cut and I like them, but it's not exactly what I was looking for. I may try the slim leg view, and then angle that out below the knee.

I need to tweak the back crotch just a bit; I left the original curve there, only adding to the point of the crotch to match my TNTs ( and I had to add about an inch). Next time I need to scoop just a teeny bit out of the back curve and add it on the back outseam and I think they'll be close to perfect.

I obviously don't do enough fly zippers to be good at them; I followed the directions on this one and it was *ok* but tedious. Next time, I'll try Peggy Sager's version.

While I was cutting....

That 'while I'm at it...' paradigm can so easily get me into trouble.

It's responsible for more patterns coming home with me, more fabric slipping into the shopping cart (literal and online), more projects getting started...

In short, that's a quick way to bite off more than I can chew.

But I limited myself to only one 'while I'm at it' job when the cutting table/mats were out...

I have a nice piece of printed slinky that I bought at the Atlanta Expo last year that I've been holding on to, waiting for, you know, the 'perfect pattern'.

Butterick 5185 struck me as being the 'perfect pattern', but the reviews for it were rather cautionary. Sure enough, when I looked at the pattern pieces, I could see that the front horizontal seam, instead of being at the waistline as drawn on the envelope, is actually placed an inch or so above the waistline.

That would drive me bananas.

So, I pulled out my cheap contrary slinky fabric from the dollar table at Wal-Mart to make up a 'muslin'...which I *might* wear, if it turns out nicely, but won't worry about if it needs to be slashed or otherwise damaged to fine tune fit...in order to try it out.

I added 1" between the armsceye and the seamline on both sides of the front; that'll make it longer than the back but Debra H. suggested cutting the front a little longer anyway in case one needs to tweak the front drape so it hangs better. We'll see how it turns out.

When I get to it. ;)