Butterick 5353 - Jeweled Top is DONE!

I used Butterick 5353. I shortened the pattern to top length, eliminated the midriff, sewed the bottom with darts, adjusted the darts so they would line up with the princess seams of the bodice, and gave the bottom side shaping so it would be fitted:




Here's my top:




Some things about this top:

1) the bodice is quite long. I didn't shorten it because I planned to wear it with the belt. At the longer length, the belt fits right above the bottom of the bodice and it is perfect!

2) the bottom looks fitted in the pic on the pattern envelope, but it wasn't fitted enough. I had to give side shaping.

3) the bottom might look a tad too big on me and you're right, it is. It's a woven and I'm wearing this tucked out, so I sewed it with enough ease to accommodate whatever I might want to wear with this. If I choose to wear it with a belted pair of pants, it has enough ease so it will lay flat over the belt. No one's going to notice the ease, but I'm sure everyone would notice the outline of a belt protruding if it the top was too tight.

4) I like that the bodice armholes aren't too cut in--I could wear this to church and wouldn't have to worry about anything showing.

5) I used a quality white cotton jacquard that's been in my stash for around 5 years.

6) I sewed on the clear stones randomly, placing them as I sewed them on. Luckily, it turned out well.

7) Almost forgot, I attached the yoke to the bodice with the sewing machine, but I finished it with hand sewing. Have you ever tried finishing a yoke like this with the machine? It's quicker, neater, and easier to just do it by hand.

8) I self lined the yoke and interfaced it, lined the bodice with white lining, and underlined the bottom. With all of that structure, it feels like a designer piece, but even with all of that, this was a super easy top to sew!


BTW--Thanks for the comment Me! I'm really happy that I finally finished it!



Up next is the black and white skirt in my header--it's already cut out. After that, I'm sewing the black corduroy jacket in my header . . . I'm busy with lots of non sewing things, but hopefully, I'll cut the jacket out this week. I'm using a purple-lavender lining. Corduroy is usually used for boxy barn jackets, but I love using it for nicely shaped jackets with good design elements that give it a polished look. People don't expect to see nice jackets like this made out of corduroy and I like surprising them! :-)


Make this day a good one!
Em

Nicefy-ing it up around here

It always all comes back to the hoarder shows! They always make me feel like cleaning and sprucing things up around here! When I watched Monday's Hoarders show, yes, I did get up during the commercials to straighten out this little thing and that little thing. Couldn't help it. :-)

And it is continuing on into the weekend because this weekend, I'm going to nice-fy around here a little more by sewing a tablecloth and napkins from stash. I'm thinking about making some new covers for some of my throw pillows, too. I have a few quilted taffeta pillows lying around with some others on my living room sofa--they look fantastic because the colors are intense, but after around 5 years with them, they are still not the most comfortable pillows to have on the sofa. They're still in great shape, but only because everybody avoids them because they're uncomfortable. :-) I'm thinking about making some new covers so they won't be as slippery and so they'll feel comfortable. If I get to it, I'm using stash for the covers, too.

That's the plan.

Make this day a good one!
Em

My Empire Jeweled Top - Done

I finished my empire jeweled top. I morphed the empire bodice from Butterick 5353 with the fitted bottom from OOP McCalls 8190, a Laundry by Shelli Segal dress pattern.







I embellished the round yoke with clear jewel stones shaped like squares. It turned out exactly as I pictured it in my head--I love this! Here it is with the 50 tuck top that I also made:

About the patterns--the McCalls pattern is a TNT and didn't need to be adjusted. I didn't really make any adjustments to the Butterick pattern, other than to fit it to me width-wise. As far as construction, I interfaced the yoke, lined the bodice and underlined the bottom. I sewed on the yoke facing at the neck edge, turned it, then placed my stones and sewed them on so the stitching would only show on the back of the piece that it was sewn to. I did it this way so the stitching would be hidden. Then I sewed the rest of this topthe way I'd normally sew a style like this. I didn't follow the instructions, but I did look at them, and they pretty much cover the way I did it.

This was super easy to sew! If you need an end of Summer super cute jeweled top, and this style is flattering on you, definitely give it a try. But if it's not a style that's flattering on you, definitely skip it and make something that matches you instead.

Hope your weekend was fun!
Em

OOP Butterick 3440 - Fitted Floral Sundress

Here is the dress I made using my super sized floral print--it's on me with me cropped out. I really like this print. It's very large, but because of the design, it's not too large for petite me. The style of the dress isn't trendy, but when I wear it, I'm going to style it trendy.


This is a TNT and it was very easy to sew. The style is perfect for the hourglass 8.

I used long OOP Butterick 3440.






Before it became a TNT, I had to shape the armholes a little because they looked a little odd, but that was easy enough to do. And I did my usual petite adjustments. But that's it.

Still have a few more projects to share, but this is today's second post, so that's it for today.

Enjoy the weekend!
Em

New Look 6463 - A Simple Plaid Knit Skirt with a Flounce

I have wanted a plaid skirt with a draping flounce for what seems like forever, but somehow never got around to making one . . . until now. I made view E from New Look 6463:







I used fabric that was leftover from my last skirt and from the maxi that never was. Here's my skirt:






The fabric is perfect for this style. The flounce swishes very nicely. And this skirt was super easy to sew. Super fast, too--it took all of one hour. I sewed the skirt as is and it went together perfectly! The only thing I have to say about it is that view E is only 25 inches long. If you're going to make this skirt, be aware that it's much shorter than the skirt that the model is wearing in the pic on the envelope. Other than that, I have nothing to say because sewing this was problem-free--it was very easy.

I have several other projects to share, but haven 't had time to take pics, yet. As soon as I do, I'll post the pics.

I cut waay back on sewing, but it looks like it's picking up again. This weekend, I'm working on an aubergine dress suit--everything's from stash. On Saturday, I'm sewing all day from around 10 am on without interruption and hopefully, I'll be able to finish the set.

Enjoy the day,
Em

New Look 6606 - Fun top with the shaped hem!!!

Here's a pic of my New Look 6606 top with the shaped hem--it's on me with me cropped out:






Well, what can I say . . . only that I LOVE it!!! I knew I would!!! I'm so glad I did the style analysis for myself! If I hadn't, I might have been stuck with a kinda sorta like it, but not really top that lacked shaping. I would have wasted this rayon challis, which, by the way, I am absolutely mad about, AND I would have wasted precious time! Because of the simple analysis that I did, I avoided all of that!

Here's a heads up about this pattern--I raised the neckline because the bodice that I chose is drafted REALLY low!!! As an hourglass 8, I have learned not to wear low cut necklines. I don't know about other hourglass 8s, but because I'm shapely, I have found that wearing low cut necklines gets me the creepy type of attention that I don't want, and it can turn other women really snotty. I know non hourglass figure types who aren't the snotty type will probably think that this doesn't happen, but trust me, it does. Ask your hourglass friends and they will tell you.

Back to my point--some people love that type of attention and can deal with the jealousy, but I'd rather avoid all of that. I avoid the tooo buttoned up super modest look and I avoid the low cut look, too.

And about the points at the hem--to keep the points at the hem pointed, I simply serged the bottom (don't serge continuously around the point or you'll end up with rounded points), knotted the tail 3 times at the point before I cut the serged thread tail off, then put a drop of fray check right on the knot to secure it permanently. I took great care not to let the fray check get on anything but the knot by using a toothpick to do this.

I also used cotton twill tape as a stay at the front neckline. I used challis and I didn't want it to stretch when worn.

I finished several things from last weekend and this one--this top is from last week. I'll post pics of everything as I have time, so you can see how the pattern styles look when sewn.

I've also added a couple of skirts to my queue. Guess it's mini time! They're too cute, I tell you!!!

I don't know if the ruffled pockets will be unflattering to the hourglass 8 figure type, but I will find a way to make it work!!! :-)







And I want a fitted skirt with a paperbag waist just like this one--I'm going to make this one work, too:






BTW--BMV is having a huge one day only sale tomorrow. If you are on their email list, check your email. They are having a shop before noon discount that's in addition to their sale prices!

Hope you had a good weekend!
Em

My Gigantic UFO Pile of Basics!!!

This weekend, it rained off and on where I live. It was perfect weather for sewing. So, did I finish any of my UFOs? Huh? Huh? Uh, no. :-p

But I did manage to make a teeny dent in that pile. I worked on this McCalls 5803 Hilary Duff ruffled top--I only have to finish the armholes and add the buttons/buttonholes.










Here are my other UFOs:

OOP Simplicity 3837:








OOP Simplicity 4273--I only had a yard of this fabric, so my choices of what to make were severely limited. I think I picked well as this cami is so basic that I'm sure I'll wear it a lot with jackets and sweaters:









Vogue 8279. I made a bright lemon yellow one that I really like, so I decided to make another one:






This is the daunting pile! There's so much to finish here!





Butterick 5223 black jacket with collar:




OOP & TNT Simplicity 4887 charcoal gray hoodie to wear with matching yoga pants that are already in my wardrobe:







OOP McCalls 5194 black jacket:

Simplicity black pants:





Believe it or not, I usually don't have any UFOs. I cut all of these out when I was thinning my stash. I cut them out to keep from tossing the fabric.


Since I'm on the subject of my queue, I also plan to sew another basic corduroy jacket for this year. Last year, I made a deep purple corduroy jacket and a plum one. I'm tossing the deep purple because it's worn out already. The plum is still in great shape, so I'm hanging on to it.





My corduroy jacket this year will either be navy or beige, and it'll probably be one of these styles:




And since this was my fave cardi, I am planning to make another one from a stash knit in a shade of rich violet:






I really want to get started on some inspiration pieces so my wardrobe will finally have some panache and style, but I want to finish the basics first so they'll be out of the way.

This is something else that I want to sew for myself--I love the bodice and shoulder treatment, and want to make a top in that style. Oprah has the best clothes!





Well, I was busy with other things this weekend, so I'm very happy that I at least did a little sewing. Hopefully, before the week is over, the Hilary Duff top with be finished.

BTW--this is a note for my fellow Catholics. I took the Catholics only post down, but just in case you only got to read the first paragraph before I took it down, I want to make it clear that I don't believe those things are legit. Far from it!!! They don't jive with our Catholic faith. I don't accept it at all.

Keep good thoughts and stay in the light, but always keep a good dose of skepticism, too, so you won't end up falling for things like that.

Blessings always,
Em