Vogue 8935 - Tailored Denim

I started this journey with Vogue 8935, a top that I made back in 2013 for my professional life.  Believe it or not but this outfit survived the great purge. Not because the outfit was worn recently but because I thought I could wear the pieces separately.  The top would work with jeans or leggings and the skirt with a t-shirt or top. Yeah okay, hasn't been worn that way yet but there is still hope!

I know this pattern wasn't well received when it first showed up in the pattern collection and it's now out of print (OOP). There are only three reviews of the pattern on PatternReview and one of them is mine. I also know of two other sewists who made versions of the pattern ~ Donna from Curvy Girls are Chic and Barbara from Sewing from the Edge.

Here are the supplies I'm using in this version ~
Fabric:
8 oz denim from Stylemaker Fabrics (I bought 10 yards of this so you're going to see quite a few garments this fall/winter made from this fabric)
Cotton Shirting from Fabric Mart

Notions:
5 - Mother of pearl shank buttons from the collection
Fusible interfacing from Fashion Supply Group
One elastic twist

Pattern Alterations and Construction Info. ~
I made two alterations to the pattern based upon wearing the original one.

1. I removed another 1" from the shoulder seam on both the front and back pieces. I used shoulder pads to cover the fact that the shoulder seams were a schooch too long in the original. I don't want that for this version.

2. I shortened the main sleeve by 1" because the original one was long and I remember always pushing them up.

Making the shirt tail extension ~
Obviously the biggest change for this version is the shirt tail. I actually drafted the skirt tail pieces myself. 

Here is a pictorial instruction on how to do it yourself:

On the front piece ~

1. I added an inch to the hem bottom.

2. Then I drew down another 4"

3. Used my curved ruler to get the shirt tail side 

Then I added 2" to the front so that it would form a lapped over center front piece. You can see in the picture above that I actually folded the piece to make sure it would work and overlap properly.

Steps 1-3 were used on the back piece to get the shirt tail extension.

The shirt tail extensions were cut from the shirting fabric with 
the stripes running vertically.

Otherwise the construction will be exactly the same as the last version. 
Here is a picture of how the shirt looks now laying on my cutting table and I may still remove the shirt tail extensions so that they lay under the top instead of being sewn to the hemline. The pictures are showing something to me that looks a little off now. I will see.

There is still a couple of hours of work to get this finished and onto my body.

A close up of the sleeves and the mother of pearl shank buttons ~

I thought I would have been able to spend some quality time in the sewing cave this weekend but whatever bug is making the rounds laid me up. This will definitely be finished next weekend cause the temps are dropping here on the East Coast. This top will be perfect for the job with my ponte skinny jeans.

Finally ~ 
Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post. Thanking you for being kind and not bashing anyone...well at least not on the post. I didn't have to remove one comment and I appreciate that. I know that writing the post helped me feel better especially once I saw so many other sewists who understood how I felt. I hope having a safe space to leave your comment provided you with a similar feeling. 

As I said, that will be my one and only post on the election on the blog...can't guarantee that on Instagram! *LOL* The blog will continue to be my safe, sane, sewing space cause I think I'm going to need it in the next four years. To all my new followers both here and on Instagram thank you for taking this journey with me!

...as always more later! May Jesus watch over us and grant us peace!