The Mom Jeans (Butterick 5895)

June 15, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 5 Comments

Sometimes in sewing, shit just does not work out the way you planned. Sometimes you accidentally make mom jeans. I should point out that this is not really the fault of the pattern, in this case, rather just the fault of some lazy, lazy sewing.

I was blessed with a naturally hourglass figure, and some longer than normal (for my height) legs. However…I have an absurdly short abdomen. And no shoulders. It’s weird. When making high waisted items, it would be smart to take that into consideration, wouldn’t it? I did not do that. I just went full steam ahead, cutting and sewing a straight 12. I am such a smart girl sometimes!!!

Even I don't have an excuse for me — Even I don’t have an excuse for me

This is Butterick b5895, a Gertie pattern, and as such has tons of reviews. Most of these reviews are good, so…this was a sewists error. I had also intended to make the crop top that goes along with these pants, but honestly, I just lost interest in this pattern. Perhaps one day I’ll pull this out again and revamp it? For now…I move onto my maxi dress . Don’t let that discourage you from giving this a go, though. They actually came together crazy fast and the instructions were way easy to follow. Go on with your normal-sized abdomen and make some adorable capris! Happy sewing 🙂

The Circus Dress (McCall’s 6952)

June 10, 2015June 30, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I’ve really been making an effort to sew from my stash. I bought this fabric last year when Joann had a sale on their “silky prints”. While I do love polka dots and red is one of the few colors are wear…I had almost immediate regret after buying this fabric. It’s just too shiny, too red. It looks like clown costume material! I thought about doing a solid black something with the clown polka dot skirt, but I just imagined that as worse…

Enter McCall’s 6952. Originally, I had envisioned this in view C, for my maxi dress sew-along but I really just think the print would overwhelming. Instead I went with view A, I love the back detail! Also I’ve been looking for some light weight, flowy dresses for the humid Ohio Summer.

All and all, it was a pretty quick sew. I opted to skip the elastic band, using some ribbon as a belt instead. I also added pockets, because I just really like pockets. I cut a straight 12, but I really think I could have done a 10, even without a zipper. Being entirely honest, I don’t think I’ll be wearing this dress as often as some other garments, but I still do like it. If you’re looking for a quick summer dress, this could be sewn in a day, though I’d suggest sizing down and maybe not using such a blindingly shiny fabric 😉

As for the maxi dress sew-along, I wanted to give you all a peek at what I’m sewing! I’ll be using McCall’s 7119!!!

There will absolutely be pockets on this, too.

I know I’m all about McCall’s lately, I swear I have other patterns on deck! I’m really excited to sew my first maxi dress, and I can’t wait to see what my fellows sewists come up with! Happy sewing 🙂

The Tank that Almost Wasn’t (McCall’s m6359)

May 20, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 7 Comments

When I first started sewing again, I made my first garment with my dear friend Amy. After the nightmare that was that dress, I thought I would try this simple knit tank. Easy, right? WRONG! At this time in my life, I was sewing on a base model machine, with no knowledge of how to work with knits. What’s worse, I had no clue about pattern fitting. I was hopeless.

I remember when I was originally sewing this, the fabric kept getting sucked into my machine. The stitching just seemed off (zigzag stitching and a ball point needle MAY have been helpful 😉 ) The bust darts were too pointy. Using bias tape for the first time, I found it to be wavy and unsightly. In my frustration, I shoved this thing into the bottom of my scrap fabric tote, never to be seen again. That was until I stumbled across the pattern, while browsing the McCall’s site. I’ve sewn plenty of knits now! My machine is much improved! I have ballpoint needles! I HAVE A SERGER! Out came the old tank!

Please pretend you can't see my bra. — Please pretend like you can’t see my bra.

The pattern had been lost long ago, so this was all improvisation. First things first, take in the sides. I was on my way to Amy’s to sew on this particular day, so I did this quickly and without a second thought. I quickly pinned the sides down, turned it inside out, and ran each side through the serger, using the furthest seam line guide on my machine. It fit!!! Perhaps not in the way the pattern intended, but still in a way that I liked. My second step was was to fold the bias tape over, on the inside of the garment, to give it a stable, less wavy finish.

Also please ignore that ridiculous neck tattoo and my love handles.

That was it, folks! Just a few alterations and this garbage tank is in regular wardrobe rotation. Originally, I had intended to use this embarrassingly simple pattern to make old band shirts wearable again. Now that I’ve conquered it, perhaps you will see a few embarrassingly angsty but modified band shirts on the blog (looking at you, extra large the Get Up Kids shirt).

Happy sewing 🙂

Me-Made-May’15 Week 3

May 18, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I really need to get better at this me-made photography. At the very least, I could post the full outfit instead of just waist up photos 🙁 I promise to improve!!

For week three, I opted for my anchor dress. On this particular day, it was hot here in Ohio and my air is still out, so easy, comfy clothes were the way to go.

The "I'm working" pose. — The “I’m working” pose.

My second outfit was yet another McCall’s M6754. For some reason, the solid green was a huge hit at work, even though I think the floral is a much better fit. The one was a very early make, and it shows in some of the extremely wonky stitching! Oh well, I still wear this stuff with pride.

I have to say…this challenge is a lot easier than I expected. As an added bonus, it’s really driving me to finish/mend some old projects I have lying around! I’m looking forward to sharing week 4 🙂 Happy sewing!

Me-Made-May’15 Weeks 1 & 2

May 11, 2015May 11, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So I must confess: I only wore one me-made item the first week of May 🙁 In my defense, that week was only two days long, though…

Week one also happened to be half priced frap week!

Week one I opted for the lace tank from the Back With a Peplum post. At work, I cover up my half sleeves, so…also features a rtw cardigan. You’ll notice, I finally got around to finishing the neckline and arms with bias tape. Also, I have spectacles now! Though I don’t really need to wear them all the time, you’ll be seeing them often, as I’ve always wanted glasses.

For week two, I opted to wear two versions of McCall’s M6754, my go-to pattern. Expect to see more of these in the future, and probably a blog post about them 😉

On the way to work, no cardigan. No spectacles, because check out that eyeliner. — On the way to work, no cardigan. No spectacles, but so much makeup.

Bathroom selfie and and the return of the spectacles.

The hardest part for me has been getting decent photos, obviously! My apologies for the low grade cell phone photography, I need to recruit someone to take photos for me. I hope you’re all having as much fun with this as I am! Happy sewing 🙂

The Anchor Dress

April 24, 2015April 24, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 6 Comments

At it again with the killer posing. I swear I don’t have that many wrinkles!!

So I know this is a super old pattern, but…I still think you should make this dress immediately. It’s the Butterick B5317 by Maggy London and it’s fantastic. The dress features six fairly large pleats, right underneath the bust, which makes it very flattering. The pattern calls for a side zip, but as I made mine in a knit, I omitted the zipper. However, I did notice that the bodice darts were a bit too pronounced, so perhaps such a sturdy knit was not the best fabric choice? The pictures don’t do the bust any justice, though, I’m the worst at pictures. Also, I ended up taking the straps up a few inches, and the bodice in a bit. Honestly, I have nearly constant strap issues. At this point, I’ve planned for it. By pattern sizing, I should have made a 14, but I scaled down to a 12. I think I could have done a 10.

Awkward ankles, weird shadows, and unfinished shoulder seams.

I opted out of doing a contrast fabric, frankly, I just didn’t have one and there are NO fabric stores where I work or where I live. It’s only a thirty minute drive to Joann, but still…no time. Also, since I didn’t do a contrast band on the bottom, I decided to try out a rolled hem. ROLLED HEMS ARE THE BEST!! Once I figured out how to set up my trusty serger for this, it was beyond easy. I usually serge all my seams, so I’ve come to expect setup difficulties, but here there were none! Success on the first try!

All and all, this dress came together in about three evenings, from start to finish. Around six hours, I think, including fit issues. I’ll actually get some wear out of it, and truly, the fit isn’t that bad. Also, shout out to Etsy and my momma for my awesome Harry Potter locket 🙂

Happy sewing!

Throwback to the “Va Va Voom” Dress

April 9, 2015April 21, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 6 Comments

As you can tell by my limited amount on posts, I haven’t been blogging for very long! Since I’m busy this week doing lots and lots of mending, I thought I’d share one of my favorite pre-blog makes.

"Sewn by Ashley: a history of bad posing" — “Sewn by Ashley: a history of bad posing”

I love this dress. I mean really love. I’d sewn this dress with Amy from That’s Sew Amy. From cutting the fabric to finishing the dress, we got both of our dresses done in one day!! Now that’s a win! Not to mention, we were sewing these from the Frankenpattern contest., so there was a decent bit of “winging it”. I think sewing with others is just so much easier, don’t you? I find fitting and working out pattern issues are much less problematic!

So my version of this dress was a mixture of Simplicity 1426 and Gertie’s Pencil Skirt. To combine the two, I made the pencil skirt but omitted the waistband, and just added to the width of the bottom band for the top. Then I added a center back zipper to hold it all together. Easy peasy. I did size down the top, if you follow the pattern guides, I’ve found the top to be too loose not at all like the pattern cover.

I made this one out of a patterned stretch twill, which was fantastic to work with, and black gabardine, which I had purchased by accident. The gabardine was just meh to work with. This being the first time I’ve used it, though, it may have just been the wrong material for this project. Still turned out what I think is fabulous dress, which I am still trying to find a reason to wear!

Back with a peplum

April 1, 2015April 1, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 12 Comments

Holy hiatus!!!!! My apologies for my absence, life has been very crazy lately. But we’re settling back into normalcy now, and spring is here (aka sewing season). It doesn’t hurt that my mentor started a sewing bloggers group on Facebook this week,either. So…about the sewing. I’m in love with the Simplicity 1425. I stretched it out over three days of lazy sewing, but it could easily have been completed in one day. That’s including all the alterations I made. I will absolutely being sewing this one again.

Speaking of the some alterations, let’s get down to that. I cut the lace for view E, and cut the black lining for view B. To be blunt, I just love a bit of cleavage. For the pleats, I decided to sew the lace and black cotton together, so as to not have an overly poofy peplum (almost like an underlining). NOW, Simplicity calls for three buttons to hold this bad boy together. THREE! Fuck that noise, I have no faith in buttons to keep me from being naked in public. Based on what I saw seemingly every other sewist do, I decided to do an exposed separating zipper in the back. This baby is secure. The neckline is just serged, and will be eventually treated with bias tape. My lace has a scalloped edge, so I left that as is. I feel like all this black needs that touch of femininity, ya know?

Seriously, what am I supposed to do with my hands?

Buying fabric in my area is a sad, sad endeavor. It’s basically Joann’s or Hancock. Also, I’m just absurdly cheap. I’m telling you this to justify making this top from the cheapest quilting cotton in my stash, and lace leftover from a previous project. Despite all of that, I like the way this top came out. Admittedly, I need to do some fitting here. There’s puckering in the back needs love, and the waist needs to be a bit more fitted. Give this pattern a go, I’m sure you’ll love it!

The floral top/sewing from the stash

January 10, 2015April 21, 2015 by Ashley ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

It's dark in my house — It’s dark in my house

For January, I’ve decided to try to curb my fabric and pattern hoarding by sewing ONLY from my stash. We’ll see if I make it!!

I had actually made this top for my momma for Christmas, in a silver satin. Fun fact, my mom is nearly impossible to photograph. There will never be a picture of her in that garment, all i have are pictures of patterning!

HOWEVER, I liked it, so…fuck it I’ll make one for myself!! The pattern is actually Simplicity 1280. But I did make some edits. For starters, the fit was just much, much to loose for my liking, so I actually cut an extra small instead of a medium. I also slimmed down the sleeves a bit, and tapered them instead of doing a bell sleeve. I intended to add the elastic, but honestly, I like it without. I added 3 inches to the sleeves again, as I usually do. For the neck binding, I’m fairly certain you just make your bias tape, which was kinda fun. The pattern also instructs you to sew the front sections together, on the diagonal edges. I skipped that bit, because I like a bit of cleavage 😉

The fabric is an old clearance (chablis?) fabric from Fabric.com. I had used it previously on a dress, with a circle skirt.

I think I purchased around four yards originally, so this top truly doesn’t take a lot of fabric! The pattern also comes with a ton of variations, including pants/tights, I honestly think it’s worth the buy. It’s also a super quick sew! Happy sewing!!!

Nightmare coat (Space Invaders coat)

December 15, 2014 by Ashley ♥ 15 Comments

So, not to start this first post off on a bad note, but…fuck this fabric. The pattern, Butterick B5686 is not so bad (the different cup sizes kinda threw me a bit). This coat earned it’s nickname, Nightmare Coat, based entirely on this extra fraying houndstooth fabric. I swear, if you look at it, it frays.

The pattern itself was fairly easy to use. That said, the instructions do have you combining the lining and the outer shell before they’re actually complete. I find this to be excessively bulky and complicated, so I assembled both separately and then combined. I also added an two extra inches in the sleeves, because I have super long arms. That may not be necessary for others! Only two of the buttons are functional, but I think if I ever made this again, I’d do all four. It needs it. For the lining, I used a flannel backed satin, which feels like heaven but is a bit slippery to sew!!

All and all, I really do like this coat. I love a houndstooth print, and it is warm and cozy. I made view C, so it’s nice, long, and elegant looking. Just…if you use this fabric, know it’s a bitch!! I would suggest maybe surging each piece right after you sew it, perhaps, just to prevent fraying. Be aware that you won’t use all pieces of the pattern, because of the variable cup sizing, that can get a little confusing when you’re sewing!!! And yes, I know, I didn’t do the greatest job matching the fabric print, but it’s my first coat, I’m still pretty happy with it!! Now for gratuitous coat photos!

Amy's boy Guinness made an appearance! — Amy’s boy Guinness made an appearance!

Pretty lining!! And a slightly see-through top, oops!