McCall's 7410 tank top

Here is my latest summertime creation - this tank top is McCall's 7410.  I love this tank top!  It's kinda quirky with the flared hem, but the fit is great and it is super comfortable to wear.

You might recognize some of the fabrics in this top.

- The red/white/black circle print is a mesh that I underlined with a plain black fabric.  I used this mesh fabric, along with red/silver polka dot binding fabric in this jumper dress here.
- The black and white circle prints on the bottoms, I previously used in this skirt.

I embellished one of the plain black sides with red buttons.  Of course I thought it was looking a bit plain with just the black panels and it needed a little something extra.  To avoid embellishment overload, I opted to only put the buttons on the right side.

The back is a racerback style.  

I also added bindings to the neckline and armhole edges.  The pattern doesn't call for bindings along the edges - instead it just has you turn the edges under and stitch.  I like the look of the bindings better.

A simple way to do the math for adding bindings to an edge is to measure the seamlines of all pieces.  Add those numbers together and that is the total length you need.  By the time you sew your seam on the short edges of the binding pieces to make a circle, you will have automatically subtracted the amount you need (approximately 1 inch) to give the binding enough of a sizing difference so that it rolls properly.

The "Wings" on this top are quite big - but it does drape nicely.

And it twirls pretty good too!

One last view of the back and we are all done here!

For those interested in my stashbustin process - here are the latest statistics:

This blouse - 2 yards
YTD total - 42.41

Happy sewing everyone!
Star

July MAGAM Garment completed - and on time too!

I am finally caught up with my sewing posts and have completed my July MAGAM Challenge just in the nick of time!  Here is it - Vogue 8553.

I've made this dress before and it's a fairly simple sew.  I had enough fabric this time to make the belt too.  But you know what?  I don't think I really like it.

Is it the color or the fact that I've gained 10 pounds and need to lose them?

I don't know.  Maybe it's the belt?  I like the first one I made - it's in a dark burgundy print but I didn't have enough yardage to make the belt for that one.  I'll give it a wear tomorrow and see.  It might just end up in the donate pile.

Anyways, I'm still counting the fabric I used as it was from the stash.  Here are my current stats:

Yardage for this dress = 2.625
YTD yardage: 40.41 yards

That's it for me today!

Happy sewing everyone!

Star

Vogue 9169 and The Sewing Workshop Urban Pants - May MAGAM Challenge Project #2

This was the 2nd part of my May MAGAM project.  The top is Vogue 9169 - View A and the pants are the Sewing Workshop Urban Pant.

The t-shirt pattern looked like it had great potential from the pic on the envelope - an asymmetrical hemline, a bit of interest on the side - all characteristics that are right up my sewing alley.

Yet when I saw what it was happening on my backside after completing the blouse, I had other ideas....  Far too much pulling and tugging happening on the booty portion for me.  I could just picture the lighter knit fabric flapping around as I walked - that would not be a pretty sight!

The front didn't look too bad...

But I decided to cut it off to avoid the flap action happening in the back.  You can see where I pinned it below to mark the new hemline.

The bamboo tie dye fabric I purchased at Vogue Fabrics while in Chicago last year.  The coordinating print I had in the stash - it was purchased at the ASG Sewing Garage sale back in 2015.  I still have a few remaining pieces to sew from that year.... Oh well - they will keep aging in the stash.  The straight hem looks much better - no flapping about and I still have the interest of the side panel showing - so not a complete loss.

As for the Sewing Workshop Urban Pants - they are a cute style, but the crotch is way, way too low.  Not that I hike my leg up like this all of the time, but even with just a slight walking forward motion, it starts to pull in the front.  

On the plus side, I really like the interest at the bottom hemline.  There are no side seams in these pants - instead, the back piece wraps around to the center of the front leg and that forms the "side seam" if you will.  There are two panels sewn to the bottom edge with a loop and a button, creating the fun little opening at the bottom. No pockets although you might be able to engineer some small ones into the front seams, or just do patch pockets.

For an elastic waist pant - they don't look half  bad from the back - I just need to work on the front crotch line for my next pair.  The waistband is interesting on these pants. The elastic starts at the center leg seam and goes around the back to the other center leg seam leaving about a 10 inch section in the front of the pants completely flat.  

The white linen for these pants was left over from the Flint pants I made for the month of May too.  Will I make these pants again - maybe - just need to figure out the crotch issue.  

Here are  my stashbustin stats for these two garments:

T-shirt: 1.5 yards

Urban Pants: 1.66 yards

Total YTD = 37.785 yards

Happy sewing everyone!

Star

July MAGAM Project - Vogue 8553 Again!

Just a quick post today as I haven't yet said what my July MAGAM project will be.  With a theme of stashbustin - I am all over it!

I will be making Vogue 8553 out of a knit I purchased at our ASG Sewing Garage Sale sometime before 2013 so it's been in the stash for a few years.  I've tried for the last 4 months to find a coordinating piece of the darker purple to make the tie and the front inset and neck pieces yet I've come up empty handed so the whole darn dress will be made out of this fabric instead.

I've made this pattern before and learned that the front slit is about 1" too low for my liking so I'll be raising that slit up.

That's it for me today.  Wish me luck!

Happy sewing everyone!

Star

June MAGAM Sewalong - a very delayed post

Life has been very, very busy as of late and I am waaayyy behind in keeping the blog up to date.  So - if you please bear with me, I'll be playing catch up over the next few posts.  First off, is the finished garment for the June MAGAM challenge.  It has truly been so long that I can't remember what the theme for June was (sorry Sarah Liz!), but this is the garment that I made.

Do you recognize the fabric?  It was a recent purchase at this year's  ASG Sewing Garage Sale.  It was a steal at 2 yards for $4.00!  Do you recognize the pattern?  It is Simplicity 2369 that I have made once before. Amazingly enough, I actually stuck with the exact dress pattern I originally planned on using for this fabric! I first made this dress back in 2014 in a black and white circle print you can see here.

It looks pretty homely just hanging on the dress form....

I extended the tie lengths this time to make it easier to tie.

I love the fit of the back too - it's nice and smooth.  One day I'll learn how to take a straight photo!

Overall, for a wrap dress (actually it's more of a mock-wrap dress), this is a super comfy dress to wear and the front wrap doesn't gap open at all.  This will be a pattern that I will make over and over again - this is just version 2!

Stashbustin stats:
This dress = I only had 2 yards and I used every bit of it!

YTD yardage = 34.625

Happy sewing everyone!
Star

May MAGAM Garments Completed - Part One

May has come and gone and I am late in posting my projects.  Seems to be a thing with me lately!

I had 3 garments as part of my May challenge:
- A Tunic from The Tunic Bible book
- The Flint pants by Megan Nielsen
- Urban pants by The Sewing Workshop (will be posted in May MAGAM Part Two - they are complete though!)

First off - the Tunic!

There are so many options for the tunic in the book it is a bit overwhelming at first.  I knew I wanted a placket of some sort in the front so I could use my big Rick Rack as an accent and I thought I might want a sleeve accent or an accent on the bottom somewhere too.  I opted for the regular Tunic blouse, with the Shorty Placket and regular sleeves.

The red and white circle fabric is a rayon that I purchased from a local fabric store last year that was going out of business.  The plain red is a quilting cotton purchased at the Sewing Guild's latest sale this year and the Rick Rack and buttons were from my stash.

There were a few flaws in the main fabric to start with so I needed to work around those when cutting out the pieces.  I opted to cut out everything in a single layer so it was easier to line-up the circles as the rayon fabric was very not behaving well on my cutting board at all.  Cutting out single layer meant creating full size pattern pieces - which was an eye opening experience as the pieces looked enormous to me because I am used to making more fitted garments.  I thought for certain I would be altering this top forever to get a good fit since I didn't do a muslin of the pattern first and decided to just dive right on into the final garment. I held up the pattern pieces to my mannequin and low and behold, they were close - so much for looking enormous - maybe it's just me!

I am not a fan of tunics in general but I have to say this one is growing on me.  The bust darts don't quite hit me in the correct spot (my fault for not doing a muslin first), but if I give it a few years, I'm sure they will line up properly!

For the placket in the front, I knew I didn't want just a plain red thing sewn to the front so I added the Rick Rack.  Of course the rick rack was looking pretty lonely by itself so I headed to the button stash where I found a bunch of red, rounded buttons that were the perfect color and looked similar in size to the small red dots in the fabric.  Then the question arose as to how many to put on the front?

1 button - looked pretty lonely
3 buttons - looked like a nice attempt
5 buttons - we're getting close, but still not there
7 buttons - that's more like it!
9 buttons - Overload, overload!  Too many!  Back off with the embellishments!

I can't say enough about the fit of the back.  I just love it!!!  It hangs beautifully.  The fish-eye darts really make a difference in defining the waistline.  I could have added a side zipper to make the garment more fitted (of course I didn't think about this option at the construction time nor did I read about it in the book as I just glanced quickly at the sewing order!).  As it is right now, I can easily pull it off and on over my head without feeling like I'm a contortionist.

The length of the sleeves was a bit surprising because I normally have to trim off an inch or two on the length. The cut length of the sleeves was where I usually wear my finished length - (again, should have done a muslin first and I would have known this).  After turning up the sleeve hem 1/2",  I added the red band with rick rack to the bottom of the sleeves to make them "appear" a little longer.

I thought about adding a red band to the bottom of the hemline, but I only had 2 inches to spare on the rick rack after adding it to the sleeves, so that was a no-go.

I also added a small bar tack above the slits on the sides.

Next up - The Flint pants by Megan Nielsen  

First off - how cute is the pattern envelope!

I love, love, love these pants!!!  I just can't say enough about them!  A fitted waistline pant with no bulky elastic or zippers is a win, win in my book!

I made the version with the button closure in the front and they are super comfortable.  The fabric is a white linen from the stash of course!  I can see a few more pairs of these in my future = definitely a pair in black and lightweight denim pair would be super cute too!

They have a nice fitted waistband with slanted pockets at the sides.  The pocket on the left (the side with the button closures) is not fully sewn closed which allows you to pull the pants off and on easily.  

I made a size Medium with a few changes:

- Took in 2 inches on the back center seam, tapering the seam down to bubble butt height

- My bubble butt required lengthening the back darts by one inch too

- Took in the sides by 1/4 each side, tapering to the hips

All in all, two successful garments!  I can't say the same for the Sewing Workshop Urban pants though....more to come on that in May MAGAM Part Two!

On with my stashbustin' stats!

Tunic = 2.625 yards

Flint Pants = 2.625 yards

Total YTD = 32.875!

Happy sewing everyone!

McCall's 7119 - A complete disaster!

Do you ever make something that is so awful that you don't even want to comment on it?  This is one of those garments.  When I saw McCall's 7119 in the pattern book, I thought "That's kinda cute, and I have some linen I think will work with it".  I could not have been more wrong.  I was so wrong in fact, that I won't even show you pictures of me in the dress, it is that terrible.  But here it is on the dress form in all of it's unflattering glory.

For those of you thinking it's not too bad, let me list it's unflattering qualities:

• My pasty-white skin matches this linen color so perfectly that from a distance, it looks like I'm only wearing a blue belt and some strange v-neck contraption.  
• The hi-low skirt option isn't working for me at all - and it flys open in the front with just the slightest breeze.
• The bust area is completely wrong.  It needs another dart or something as it gaps in the front between the armhole and the center front.
• The linen I used is a little too thick so it doesn't drape well.
• The back portion of the hem catches in my shoes when I walk.
• It kinda looks like an apron!
• It's just YICKY!

Doesn't get any better with the side view!

The back bunches up so much on me, I look like a Shar Pei!

See that flap there on the bottom portion - bad idea!

Are there any redeeming qualities about this dress?  Just a few that I can think of:

• This dress did use up 3.5 yards out of my stash, thus bringing my YTD total to 27.625 yards.
• Some "lucky" person will be getting a brand new dress as it's in the donate pile as I write this.  I thought it was better to donate rather than add more garbage to the landfill.  
• Both the dress and the pattern are now out of my life!!  

Can you tell I didn't like this?

Better luck with the next garment I guess.  Oh well - you win some and you lose some.

Happy sewing everyone!

Star