Sew and Tell: September Separates
Happy October! September was a bit of a strange sewing month for me, so rather than my usual makes breakdown, this post will chat through my disappointments and victories. I sewed separates! And knit fabrics! But I attempted five garments and only finished three. My biggest failures came at the beginning of the month and I really struggled to keep up motivation to keep working. Each piece came with it’s own challenge, some of which I overcame and some I did not.
I’ll start with my failures this month, and work up to the victories.
This first one is so sad! So sad that I couldn’t even bring myself to photograph it. The reason it’s so heartbreaking is because it was going so well until the very end.
Project in a nutshell:
- Self drafted the skirt – Win!
- French seamed contrast pockets – Win!
- Bias bound seams and waistband – Win!
- Machine eats button placket – Fail.
Maybe someday be better at navigating my buttonholer for bulky fabrics and unpicking buttonholes, but today is not that day. My buttonholer caught the seam allowance where the center front and facings were joined. With the uneven bulk of the denim, my buttonhole foot just went crazy. The stitches are too tight to unpick and I’ve already ripped the outside fabric twice. Heartbreaker.
Another sad tale of carefully crafted seam finishing that didn’t make it from the sewing machine to the closet is this Sew Over It Penny shirt. Unlike the skirt, this one didn’t even make it to the buttonholing phase. In April, I made the SOI Penny dress and it turned out way too big for me, so naturally I thought I should just size down without doing a full bust adjustment. I was a fool. A fool! Into the “Sad Makes Box” it goes. After binding all the slippery viscose seams and nailing to faux notch collar, I couldn’t close the front! I’ll hang onto it and if at some point I change sizes, I can add some buttons.
My Sew Over It Molly top falls in the middle of this line up. It was the only make this month that didn’t involve a crazy fit or machine challenge. Did I mention it’s my first ever jersey top? And my first time working with viscose jersey? Yay! Construction-wise, I’m really proud of how it turned out. It came together really easily, the color is beautiful and I learned new skills while making it. But I just don’t love it. I used a super supple, lovely viscose jersey as the pattern suggests, but I don’t really like the way it hangs on me. The lightweight jersey catches onto my pants at the hips and creates more bulk than I appreciate. I have hope for the dress version because it’s a bit slimmer through the waist and straighter through hips. I like this top, and I’ll wear it around the house and for running errands, but it’s definitely not the wardrobe staple I’d hoped it would be.
Moving in a more successful direction, these pants began as Butterick B6388 joggers. I made a size large and they were clownishly huge on me. The problem likely could have been rectified by sizing down, but I only had the ZZ size which is L, XL and XXL. I meant to grade down slowly and take in the seams bit by bit, but instead I got a little crazy and ended up with leggings. And they’re great! I likely won’t wear them as pants because this ponte shows panty lines like nobody’s business (and my panties are, in fact, nobody’s business), but they’ll keep me nice and toasty at home and under dresses this winter.
This last piece is my favorite and it’s my monthly Vintage Inspiration make, which means I’ll be posting a full review and styling tips later this week. The pattern is Simplicity 1166. This has been my go-to fall look on warmer days. While many of the construction techniques were new to me, the pattern was pretty easy to follow, until it came to attaching the waistband. Despite removing some width from the skirt, the waistband ended up being 6 inches too small. Like how does that happen? Since the curved waistband is cut on the fold, I simply cut a new one and added 3 inches to the straight fold side. That was a confusing and annoying extra issue to deal with, but I’m so happy with this skirt and it’s been my favorite thing to wear this month!
Thanks for reading! I’ve got some exciting plans for October so stay tuned!
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