THE TROUSER REFASHION SWAP

 

I was pretty excited to be included with all of these talented bloggers in the first ever trouser refashion swap.  I made a refashion for the ever so amazing Carrie of This Mama Makes Stuff.

Here is a list of all of the ladies involved:

Suzannah of Adventures in Dressmaking

Miriam of MadMim

Miranda of One Little Minute

Melissa of I Still Love You

Liz of Cotton & Curls

Krista of Lazy Saturdays

Kelli of True Bias

Kate of See Kate Sew

Jennifer of Grainline Studio

Carrie of This Mama Makes Stuff 

I started off with these amazing neon yellow/green silk pants from the thrift store.  Ever since I became pregnant I have been so mad that I never jumped on the peplum thrend before I didn't have a waistline anymore to accentuate.  So I thought this was the perfect excuse to make some peplum fun for someone else.

Here is what I started with:

Here are a few pics of the process.  It was a real trial and error type of thing which mostly consisted of draping on my dressform and using every single bit of fabric that I had.

And here is the final project:

I can't wait to see Carrie wear it - look for it on her blog Monday.

ADDING SLEEVES TO MY MISSION MAXI

I recently bought some simple black bamboo fabric from Mood to make up a knee length tshirt dress that could grow with my baby bump and that I could layer through the beginning of winter.  I have loved the Mission Maxi Dress pattern so I decided to use that as my base pattern.  I wanted the tshirt dress to have sleeves so I used a favorite tshirt from target to use as my template to add sleeves to the pattern.  Here are a few pics of the process.

The front:

 

The back:

 

The sleeves :

 

All of the pattern pieces :

A few things to remember if you are doing a similar thing:

-add 1/4" seam allowances to all seams
-add about 1 1/4" to the bottom of the sleeves for the sleeve hems

In the end it was a very easy and quick process.  I just traced the front, back, and sleeves of the tshirt from the bust up and added it to the maxi dress pattern.  You probably wouldn't even need the maxi dress pattern.  You could just compare the body of the dress to an existing dress that you have and draft the bottom too.

I saw that Mimi posted an online class to do a similar thing for a tshirt maxi dress a few days ago.  So if you don't feel confident winging it this might be a really great option.  I am sure it's a great class.

ON MY WALK TODAY

So, I knew it was fashion week, but somehow I never connected the dots that I actually live in the city where it takes place now.  Well, until I walked past this sign today surrounded by many incredibly well dressed and beautiful people.

Sigh, maybe one day . . .

PATTERNREVIEW BLAZER CONTEST

I entered my blazer into Patternreview's lined jacket contest.  There are some great blazers.  Click here to vote for your favorite.

SEWN : BLACK BLAZER WITH YELLOW LINING

(a little prego shot :)

(the lining)

I finished my first item from my garment district fabric excursion a little over a week ago.  Since I have already made this blazer once before, it went pretty quickly and I didn't have to do any fitting.  I did decide to do a lining in this one.  Since the original didn't have a lining I used Grainline's tutorials to draft a lining and then to bag the lining.  Awesome tutorials.  It went great and I am super excited about how professional this one turned out.