Selfish Sewing Week - A Zinnia

In case you haven't heard, it's the fall version of Selfish Sewing Week!  Hosted by Rachel over at Imagine Gnats, it's an excuse to focus your sewing for yourself! Thats assuming you have kids you often sew for, ha!

I sew a fair bit for myself normally, but I hoped to get through a more than normal this week.  Not much luck, busy work week and tired me meant I've mostly been lying on the couch in the evening!  And it's going to be a sunny warm weekend after a month of chilly weather so I suspect I won't get much more done! BUT I did sew up a skirt!

A Colette Zinnia in fact!  From some of the err large amount of Cotton + Steel I may or may not have snagged at Fabrications a few months ago!

Sadly, I only bought 1.5 meters, and it needs 2 meters because of the width in the skirt.  So I cheated and narrowed the width and cut it the wrong direction.  It's just quilting cotton so the drape isn't right anyway and the narrower width is probably more appropriate for the weight.

Otherwise she came together pretty easy, although I admit I sometimes detest sewing in pleats! Yet I LOVE the look of a full skirt, I may need to make more.  One of these days I also need to sew myself up a proper underskirt too, it will totally make it lay better and prevent me always wanting to adjust the pleats!

And it also has the required POCKETS.  That is all.

So in light of my lack of progress this week, I'm thinking I might just deem next week Selfish Shirt-dress Sewing Week and sew these up then then instead?

8 Days a Week - McCartney Jacket

I made an adult jacket!  This was one item of clothing I hadn't yet tackled, so when I saw it was part of the 8 Days a Week Collection,  I was super excited to test it!

After much debate I thought I'd make it pretty casual and dug out some stretch denim I had in my stash.  And for the lining I thought I'd channel my love of old buildings and used up my piece of blueprint from Caroyln Friedlander's Architextures collection (yes I realize I have no good picture of the inside, ha!), with a little splash of some Japanese import fabric for the accent.

It's constructed basically the same as the little Imagine Jacket I made M back in July.  It's way more straight forward than you'd think with a jacket! And I think I got the hang of those welt pockets now!

It's super comfy with the rib knit and easy to wear!  Now go check out the details on the patterns over on Pattern Anthology!

8 Days a Week - Neptune Tee

So excited to start sharing my tester versions of the newest Pattern Anthology collection 8 Days a Week!  This collection is basically a wardrobe in one!  A great combination of basics and special pieces.

I thought I'd start of my posts with the Neptune T-shirt!

I usually shy away from sewing basics, like a t-shirt, as I have little time to sew and tend to want to only sew things that I can't easily buy.  BUT this shirt has some awesome details that you can mix up to make a special tee you definitely can't buy!

Ideally this shirt needs a more stable knit, so I sewed mine up in some french terry.  It made for a cozy shirt! I think though, especially if you opt to put other fabric in the triangles to stabilize the bindings you could use any knit! I have my next fabric already picked out!

I hover between a XS and an XXS, and in this case made the XXS.  In hindsight, it's not my best size, given I have broad shoulders for my bust size, so I'm sizing up next time.  Regardless this version is still totally wearable regardless (just pretend you don't see those lines under my arms, ha)!  One of the reasons I love a knit, it stretches!

One thing I particularly like about this pattern is the low/high hem option, I love the look, and the length is just perfect.

So don't forget to go check out the 8 Days a Week collection.  The special bundle deal is only available for a limited time!