NPRINS

What do you get when you combine lovely fabric bought with a gift certificate (thanks A.!!), a new industrial sewing machine to play with, a 4-day weekend, and plenty of sewing mojo after a trip? Finished garments. :-) Copied from RTW top, self-drafted embroidered lawn skirt, Coclico shoes I knew I wanted something short and poofy with this cream embroidered cotton lawn, but didn't really have an exact pattern in mind. I decided to just make it up as I went along, only deciding on the width of the waistband and the fullness of the skirt. The pieces are all rectangles so it's not hard. I wanted the embroidery pattern on the horizontal so I had to cut the fabric on the crossgrain. Then it's just gathered to the waistband and lined, add a zipper and voila! I had to adjust the side seams on the waistband to really make it hug my waist, but that was it. The skirt and lining only have one seam, in the center back. I serged the edges, then sewed the seams and pressed...

I've been drooling over this Karina Grimaldi maxi dress on shopbop for awhile now, and finally decided to do something about it over the weekend.   Here is the description from shopbop.com's website. This scoop-neck jersey maxi dress features a racer back and a striped skirt. Unfinished hem. 1.5" straps. * 56" long, measured from shoulder. * Fabrication: Jersey. * 100% modal. * Hand wash or dry clean. * Made in the USA. I started with my favorite tank top pattern, and changed the back to more of a racerback style.  I lowered the neckline as well.  For the skirt part I cut wide crosswise strips, then serged them together to make panels for the front and back.  The only tricky part was figuring out how wide to make them, I really liked the proportions on the model but seeing as I'm not 5'10" I wasn't sure it would work.  I tried to guess how long the skirt portion would be, divided that by 5, and came up with 7.2" ...

Pattern: Patrones #259, pattern 37 Fabric: Wool/Cotton/Elastane denim from Textile Studio Patterns Notions: Metal jeans zipper, pink rayon seam binding for the inside waistband and hem, 1/4" elastic for the pocket openings, 2 hook and eye closures I really needed a skirt like this J. Crew one in my wardrobe, the line drawing of this Patrones pattern jumped out at me as a good substitute. It has a fly-front, straight waistband, and yoked back. I left off the right back flap pocket, and added an extended tab closure, and belt loops. J. Crew, $98 Front, with flash No flash Side Back, I had some puckering along that center back seam when I took these pictures, I think the topstitching stretched it out a tad. I threw it in the wash and pressed it while damp and that seemed to fix the problem. Whew! I sewed some 1/4" elastic to the seam allowance of the pocket opening, stretching it slightly as I applied it. It kind of pulls the pocket opening in just ...