Tunic, T-shirt and Lander shorts

So far I'm keeping with my declaration made in my last post - no more dresses! at least for a little while. The end of summer and turn to fall fashion is always conducive to making separates. After all, a nice wool jacket is my favorite thing to sew. But we still have summery weather here and I had a few fabrics that wouldn't wait. So here's what I've been sewing recently.



I bought this fabric earlier this summer, with a Stone Mountain Fabrics gift card given to me at Christmastime by the lovely owners of Hello Stitch. Yep I am a bit slow when it comes to using gift cards. Because I want to buy something special, and then remember the giver whenever I use the item.  There are some shadows in this photo so you can't see the full extent of those lovely blues.

Great colors, huh?



Someone asked on Instagram what pattern I used. It is an out of print New Look pattern, although as usual I have shaped the armholes to be a bit cut-in as I just prefer that shape.

Here's the pattern. It's maybe 10 years old? I have used it so many times, first in eyelet for my friend Alice (who actually gave me this pattern), and then long sleeve version (love and wear to excess) and then more sleeveless versions one and two. and now another one.






The fabric is a cotton voile or lawn? It is just a tiny bit more firm than I would like, I prefer these fabrics to be really floaty but maybe with more washings it will soften up. I did prewash once.




Don't look too closely at the garden - getting to the dry and crispy end of summer here in California and we are all just holding our breath until the rain starts again.

Next up is a t-shirt I sewed using this knit fabric which is a bit, um, bold, but after all, I like bold. Twice this summer I ordered fabrics for other people from Fabric.com and both times in order to get the free shipping I needed to spend another $10-15. Thus this one was ordered. (the other time was the lemon print fabric which became this dress.) Batting two for two I would say :)

I decided to lean into the very feminine look of this and add the ruffle sleeves. Turns out I really like them and plan to add them as a shoulder ruffle to a long sleeve t-shirt.



Close up view of the fabric and neckline. This is just a turn and stitch neckline, which I'm not really a fan of, but if you choose the right fabric it works out very well.  The pattern is McCalls 7538, which has all kinds of diagonal piecing. That I removed when I made this sequin t-shirt and that has left me with a perfect fitting plain t-shirt.  For the ruffle sleeves I used the pattern piece from this McCalls knit wrap dress.



And the top sort of matches - or maybe goes with - the Lander shorts I made as a practice run before teaching my Lander pants class last Saturday. Which was a great class and a great group. So popular we have scheduled another session on Sunday Oct. 7. I believe that upcoming session is halfway to sold out so if you are interested sign up soon, here's the link.






As pants go these are easy to sew, and the fit seems quite forgiving. We have a few test versions stitched up at the studio for students to try on and see which size they might start with.

So that's what I've sewn for myself lately. I have all kinds of ideas and plans swimming around in my brain for fall sewing, including this jacket from Burda that completely unnecessary in my wardrobe but so pretty!

Upcoming classes: at Hello Stitch Studio in Berkeley.

Sept. 29: Wrap Dress class. The last one was really popular so we found a spot on the calendar for another one. Perhaps your special holiday dress??
Sept. 30: Copy a Garment class
Oct. 7: Sew the Lander Pants
Oct. 13: Cape Tailoring, 1-day workshop
Oct. 14: Pattern Fitting Class  Morning session class only, learn common pattern alterations, taking measurements, creating a muslin, moving the adjustments back to the pattern. Optional afternoon session: fitting of your own pattern
Nov. 3-4: Jacket/Coat Tailoring, weekend 2-day workshop. Lots of demo on all things jackets, such as sleeve sewing, buttonholes, welt pockets. how/which/where to use interfacing, linings etc.
Nov 11: Knit T-shirt.

I just finished a super cute dress for my friend Heather, and changed the pattern from armhole princess seams to shoulder princess plus some other interesting adjustments so a blog post on that one soon.

And now I'm off to drink wine and speak Italian with my friends. In realtà dovrei dire che sono fuori per parlare italiano e bere vino con i miei amici

Ciao, and Happy Sewing,
Beth

 Todays garden photo, this time of year I'm trying to get as many blooms as I can from the dahlias.