V8461 Turquoise jacket / S4086 Brown & turquoise floral skirt

Okay, I'm hereby admitting that I have a weakness for the brown and turquoise color combination. This floral has been in my stash for at least a year, if not more. I love it, but didn't have much of it, so I decided to make it into a skirt and needed a top or jacket to match. Vogue 8461 is what I came up with. It's simple and fitted with a fun oversized collar. Here's the back:

If I had to make this again, I would use a thicker fabric. But that turquoise wasn't easy to match so I went with what I could find. The pattern calls for snaps, but I feel a little uncomfortable wearing a jacket by itself with only a couple snaps holding it up. (This brings to mind a red dress my mother made for my sister, Elisa, that was closed with Velcro. There was a slight fiasco with that dress coming open at the bus stop...) Anywho, I decided to add some buttons. I did the full lining in chocolate brown. Might as well match the skirt, right?

The sleeves have darts at the elbows. Here you can see the sleeve lining slip-stitched to the sleeve.

I made the view in gray, with 3/4 sleeves.

Okay, about this skirt... My gut instinct was to make it a bias skirt with a little elastic waist. Did I listen to my gut? No, I did not. I had a cute new pattern, NewLook 6593, and I thought I'd try it out on the fabric I love that I've saved for over a year without first making a muslin. Very dumb idea. Here's a picture of the offensive pattern:

It turned out looking like a shapeless sack. If you have this pattern consider yourself warned. But I'd already made the jacket and loved the floral. I went combing through my pattern stash, looking for something I could save the fabric with. I found Simplicity 4086, now out of print, but that I had made before and knew wouldn't turn into another shapeless garment. I took the first skirt apart and used 1/4" seam allowances. Here's that pattern:

I made the top left view, minus the tie belt and belt loops, and shorter. And phew! It turned out looking cute. Here's a view of the top of the skirt you can't see in the outfit photo:

Here's a view of the full lining:

And here's the very tiny hem:

And oh, yes, Simplicity 2858 has died. The brocade with butterflies was very pretty, but had the same 4 butterflies repeated again and again. I should have chosen a simpler design without princess seams or perhaps paid better attention during cut-out. The good news is that I got it for super cheap and didn't invest much sewing time before I realized it wasn't looking good.

Vogue 1020 - Side ruched animal print dress

Can you take another dress? How about another knit? I didn't really notice this pattern until I saw the white blouse Erica did and thought it was so cute. However, I'm not a huge fan of tunic-length tops on my body, so I opted for the dress instead. When they write "close-fitting", they mean it!!! I cut my normal 12, and it fits, but I've got to make sure I don't eat any big meals while wearing it because there's no way of hiding a full stomach.
It might be hard to see here, but there is ruching all along the left side. This pattern lends itself really well to busy prints since it's such a simple design. I found this fabric at Hancock's and fell head over heals for it. Turquoise, brown, and in animal print? They must have had me in mind when they made it.
This was very quick to make. My fabric was pretty thin, a must for all those gathers, and I was able to do french seams down the sides without any bulk. I did bias tape around the neckline to get a nice topstitch, and also at the sleeve/bodice seam for a clean finish. This pattern calls for an invisable zipper on the right side but I found that totally unnecessary. It has so much stretch that it fits easily over my head.

Here's the pattern picture. I like the dress and tunic, but am not planning to reuse this pattern for any of the other garments.

Up next is Simplicity 2858, in a gorgeous maroon butterfly brocade. I'm doing the shorter length jacket (also in maroon) on the pattern envelope but with the smaller collar and loops around the buttons.

Bummed

This is my Back-To-School U-Neck vest from Fitted Knits that I started way back here, minus the neck edging. This turned out really big, which is why I'm so bummed. I kept thinking it would tighten up once I got the trim on it. And since it is knit bottom-up, I couldn't really see how large it was until the shoulder seams were sewn together. So, 5 weeks spent knitting down the drain. I'm so new to this that I haven't figured out how to pick yarn either. This doesn't drape very nicely. I don't know if it's because it's too big or what. The one thing that's slightly comforting is that I can unravel the yarn and use it for something else. Since I already bought matching fabric to make a complete outfit, I'm going to try using this yarn for Mina's Tuxedo Vest from Custom Knits, pictured below. I'm planning to extend the ribbing to hit right below my belly button. I certainly have plenty of yarn.

But, I'm sick of looking at that brown color, so I'm starting my next project. It's the Turtleneck Tube Vest, also from Fitted Knits.

I picked the pink to match a recently sewn jacket that I love but don't have anything to wear under. I've got the first 2 inches out of 4 done for the neck and am loving this bamboo yarn. It's so soft and has a great sheen. I'll show you the complete outfit once I'm done with this turtleneck. Pray for me that I don't end up with 2 knitted wadders in a row. I'm going to be so depressed if that happens.