Summer Sewing Successes and a Fail

I hope you've been having a great summer/winter* (*delete as appropriate). I've been having a fun (and exhausting) summer trying to entertain my mini peops whilst Pat has been working and studying hard. We're going on a little late-summer break for a few days tomorrow, so I want to quickly share with you the last of my summer sewing projects. 

I begun this season with next to no seasonally appropriate clothes, but thanks to some strategic sewing, based in part on my findings from #MMMay17, I've been able to put together a decent selection of warm weather stuff. I've almost exclusively been wearing:

• anchor Luna pants
• flora and fauna Luna pants
• blue and black jeggings
• cheetah breastfeeding top (with shortened sleeves)
• stripy breastfeeding top made from a thrifted maxi dress (currently unblogged but can be seen on my Instagram feed, @sozoblog)
• African wax fabric Scout tee
• stripy Scout tee
• short-sleeved Agnes top
• denim Tova top
• navy Cabernet cardi
• leopard Jenna cardi

All but the last four items are recent makes and they reflect the changes my personal style seems to be going through. Out with the retro-y, Rockabilly-lite, and in with whatever-you'd-call-it. Anyway, as great as these pieces have been, what I found I was still missing was really warm weather clothes. I still didn't have any sleeveless tops or shorts (which is evident thanks to my pasty white upper arms and legs!). To fill those gaps, I made these last two summer projects, which also may be my favourites!

Top:

Whilst planning my first version of this pattern, I'd spied some other sewers on the interwebs leaving the sleeves off the Delphine et Morissette La Brune pattern. I decided to follow suit. I'm not a fan of my upper arms, but a sleeveless La Brune is a great solution because the shoulder ruffles provide a focal point that steers the eye away from that area of my arms. Witchcraft.  

I was able to squeeze this top out of the remainder of anchor print light weight denim that I used to make my first pair of Luna pants. It's quite a loose weave, which on the one hand is ideal for a loose fitting summer top (and much softer than the stiff poplin I used for my first version of this pattern), but on the other made the ruffle application a bit of a headache as the raw edges had a tendency to stretch out due to all the handling. I did the best job I could, and I don't think anyone would notice that it has bubbled a little next to the ruffles unless I forced them to!

Once the top was nearly complete, I tried it on and decided to cut a tiny bit away at the bottom of the armhole. I then bound the raw edges in the same way as the neck hole using the method used for the neckline of the Scout tee. I bought some ready-made bias binding rather than making my own because I didn't think the loosely woven denim would provide enough stability to the neck and arm holes. Aside from omitting the sleeves, I also made the shoulder ruffles even narrower than I did on my first version, and I now think the proportions are spot on.  

Shorts:

For the shorts, I also revisited a sewing pattern I had previously had a go at. When I tried the Sweet shorts pattern three years ago, I found the sizing to be way too big. So this time I started with a whole size smaller, and made a toile (muslin) that Claire kindly helped me fit. I ended up making a number of changes:

• started with a size smaller than my measurements correlated to
• made the leg length about 1" shorter
• added width around the waist (about 5cm in total at the top, if memory serves, blended out to nothing at the hips)
• shortened the front rise by about 1cm
• pinched out some fullness from the back leg at the hem

I made them in this navy suiting that has been in my stash forever. I have no idea what the fibre content is, all I know is that it doesn't need ironing (whoop whoop!). I still have a ton of this fabric left, so I'm sure it'll pop up on this blog in another incarnation some day. I used some turquoise jap silk from my stash for the pocket bags but did a French seam around the curve for a neater finish than overlocking would have resulted in. 

I added extra topstitching in a few places as the fabric wasn't super-responsive to pressing and I wanted all the seam allowances to lay flat. I think topstitching down the seam allowance along the front rise has resulted in some sort of creases radiating outwards from that area, but it's probably only noticeable if I stand stock still and pointed them out to you. The other tiny flaw that something is compelling me to share with you, is that my top and bobbin threads must have been from different reels because the topstitching that keeps the hem facings in place is a slightly different tone of navy to the rest of the topstitching.

Anyway, those things aside, I'm not sure that these photos are doing them justice but these shorts have a really smart, polished look IRL. They are still a bit big, but I expect to gain some weight once Frankie finishes breastfeeding, so that's fine. A lot of work went into them, as much as you'd put into a nice pair of trousers, so I hope I'll get many years of wear out of them.

FAIL:

In the interest of equilibrium, I thought I'd share a recent FAIL project with you too. Sewing bloggers rarely seem to share the project attempts that didn't work out. I usually don't either because I doubt it's very interesting to you readers, and also because I just want to forget about a FAIL as quickly as possible! But I'm worried that without ever sharing a FAIL, those who are new to the sewing game may get an inaccurate sense that every sewing project will, or should, work out. Lessons always have to be learnt that way, it's an important (if annoying) part of improving. But due to my new policy of toiling every-damn-sewing-project that doesn't use a TNT pattern these days, I've managed to avoid having a FAIL for ages. 

So my plan here was to make a top to prevent my flora and fauna Luna pants from being a wardrobe orphan. As I've mentioned previously, I've been trying different styles and silhouettes lately (which led me to making the Luna pants), so I decided to try the free Deer and Doe Plantain T-shirt pattern. I must have mentioned my plan to Claire, because she very sweetly printed it out for me, it's one of her absolute favourites and she's made a million. I had this light-weight, slinky coral jersey in my stash (also from Claire! What a friend she is!) and I thought the colours would work well. But that's about all that did work well...

I tried it on before hemming (see above) and it was a total 'meh'. It didn't skim my figure like some sort of contemporary French siren as I'd hoped, instead it felt really frumpy. I fiddled with the fit a bit by taking in the side seams here and there, and in the end I salvaged the neckline and reworked it entirely using the TATB Agnes top pattern that I've have many successes with previously. But even that didn't work! The fabric was so thin that it showed EVERYTHING, including the exact shape and position of my breast pads, every detail of my bra, the ingredients of my most recent meal. I was really annoyed because I'd made a nice job of the neckline, but I'd had to finally admit defeat and throw it into the textile recycling bag. GAH.

Thoughts:

The anchor La Brune and navy Sweet shorts have been such a success that I'm firmly over the coral Plantain FAIL. I've worn this outfit as often as the weather has allowed since their completion, both feel really comfortable, even though the shorts sit a bit higher on my waist than I'm used to. And the sleeveless-ness of the top feels so nice that I can't wait to make more sleeveless tops for next summer. I fancy trying Jennifer Lauren Handmade's Hunter tank, which should work well with these shorts thanks to the high waistline, plus either Made by Rae's Gemma tank or Wiksten's tank top. Plus next year I really should finally make the Deer and Doe Chataigne shorts pattern that has been lurking in my stash for a couple of years. 

What about you? What have been your most successful recent warm weather sewing projects? Any FAILS you'd like to vent about?!