A Cardigan and Tee in Wool Jersey

This cardigan started as a knockoff of an outfit that I saw on Lafayette 148's site. When I found the wool jersey on the Fabric Mart website, I knew it would make a great version of my inspiration outfit.

(inspiration picture from Lafayette 148 with the original fabric beneath it)

However, when I unfolded the fabric, it was very light...too light for what I had in mind. Now I know I should have cut a sample piece and prewashed it. However, I honestly don't have that kind of patience, so I just dumped the entire five yards in the washer. After the first wash & dry, all of the additives were removed. After the second wash & dry, the fabric had beefed up a little and had a little more body.

I decided to work with it after two wash & dries because I don't believe a third would have made much difference in the fabric's hand or weight. Just one thing to note ~ if you decide to wash and dry this fabric, stitch the ends together to insure that the fabric doesn't twist during the prewashing process.

I decided to use my TNT pattern - Simplicity 8059 - for the cardigan.

I've made this cardigan five times now and it's become a staple in my fall/winter/early spring wardrobe. It's a great layering piece and works well with my current lifestyle.

The top is a long sleeved tee from the Cashmerette Concord Tee pattern. This is another fave pattern of mine and I'm thrilled to now have made a fall/winter version. I added 2" to the hemline of the Tee. The extra length was added to the tee to complement the cardigan and make it look more like my inspiration garment.

My tie is a little higher than pictured on the pattern and my other versions. I wanted it to hold the cardigan together better under my fall jackets and winter coats. It's one of the things that annoys me about my other versions...the cardigan is always flopping around under the jacket by the time I get where I'm going.

A few pictures of the completed outfit ~

This outfit originally appeared on the Fabric Mart Fabricistas blog and I did receive a discount on this fabric. However all of the opinions about working with the fabric are mine.

A Parting Shot ~
The grandbabies were with me and my daughter when we were taking pictures. So here is a pic of me walking with them to the main drag to take these photos.

...as always more later!

A Black/White & Red Concord Tee Maxi

I really wanted a red maxi Concord Tee dress as my final rendition of this pattern. My original vision was a red scooped neck maxi with short sleeves and black/white check accents at the neckline and the sleeve hems.  As you can see that's not what I ended up with...

Due to a shortage of the red knit, I had to cut the sleeves from the black/white check accent fabric. This small change salvaged my vision. At first I wondered if I would like it. However, I really do love the final version.

The only change from this maxi dress and the other Concord Tee Dresses is the length. I added side slits from my knees down to make it easier to walk in. 

I used a red rayon knit from the collection which I think is from Fabric Mart but don't hold me to it.  The black 'n white check is also from the collection and I have no idea where it was purchased from because my accents were cut from a 1/2 yard scrap from my scrap bin. Although the knit was last used here in the granddaughter's back to school clothing.

I love the versatility of this pattern...and I guess I've really worked it out this summer! However, it's a real testimony to the pattern's great bones!

A few more pictures ~

Conclusion ~
As you can see, I'm thrilled with this last Concord T-Shirt Maxidress and I'm sorry to bombard you with pics but I really love how this one turned out! It's also soooooo comfortable.

I did end up making five t-shirt dresses from the Concord Tee pattern...even though the Flamingo Sleeve dress won't be able to be worn until fall. The way it shakes out is three of the t-shirt dresses can be worn during the summer - the rose print, the peach print and this one. The black & creme lace ponte with black lace sleeves and the flamingo sleeve dress will work both in the spring and the fall. So I covered the spring/summer season with these makes. I really am putting the pattern away now. *LOL*

Next up on the blog is the border print version of New Look 6340.

Parting Shot ~

...as always more later!

Some So-So Concord Tee Hacks

I thought it was important to share two Concord Tee hacks that didn't quite work out as I'd planned. I know it seems like experienced sewists turn out beautiful garment after beautiful garment. However, I don't know about anyone else but sometimes I have less than spectacular results. I believe it's important to keep it real and share the losers as well as the winners!

So here is the first one ~

I am calling this one a failure. I bought this white & black polka dot lace from Fabric Mart a couple of months ago...maybe late 2016. I've always wanted a slouchy top from it. I thought I could use the Concord Tee to achieve that look.

First the top is too tight. While the lace has some stretch, it doesn't have enough. I thought on it and added some triangle inserts into the sides hoping it would help. It doesn't. Now the top just looks sloppy not slouchy. 

The sleeves are also too tight. Why? Because not enough stretch. These could be shortened and it would relieve some of the stress. 

Even though the pictures make the neckline work, it doesn't in real life. Again this could be fixed by adding the band that I omitted. 

I could fix all of these issues and make this work but I've got other things to sew and am calling uncle. I'm admitting that my fabric + pattern hack just didn't work the way I wanted it to.

I tried my black maxi dress with this too and it looked just as bad as this black ponte skirt does. Though my daughter did take some amazing photos of this fail!

The second one is a black tee with a ruffle ~ 

Technically it isn't a fail until I turn around...

See I added a ruffle to the tee because I wanted more than just a black tee. Why? A black tee is a staple in almost every woman's wardrobe, why did I feel I needed to do more to make it special?

So the ruffle cups right underneath my backside.  You can see it better here...

I just find this look so unattractive from the back and side views.  Though to be honest, the top is quite cute from the front...

This is the look I was going for and would actually wear this to work.  Now though, I'm totally on the fence about this tee. 

To solve this, I could cut the ruffle off and hem the top to have a normal tee. Or I could cut the top off around the top of my hip and add a lace peplum, which would be great. I even looked in a couple of my fave trim stores in NYC for a lace that was precut but found nothing in a price point I wanted to pay. I'm sure I have a lace in the fabric collection that I could use but I've been to lazy to look. 

Or I could just wear it as it is...

BTW, I've lightened the heck out of these pictures so you could see the ruffle details, cause as we all know black is hard to photograph.

These tops have been hanging on my wall for about a month. The polka dot one is definitely going to be disassembled. I will save the scraps to use in a future garment. The black one will have some alteration done to it...even if it is just removing the ruffle...so it hangs waiting for me to be inspired. Though now that I've seen these pictures I may be a little more willing to figure something out! *LOL*

I've been home from vacation for a week. My sewing mojo obviously went on vacation with me since I'm struggling to come up with ideas to sew. I don't think it helps that I have a back log of things I've photographed for the blog but haven't worn in real life yet. Working only four days a week in the city and one day at home, definitely affects what I wear. Especially since I tend to make garments quicker in the summer than in other seasons, thus the back log.

I know that I've been desiring some woven dresses with a looser fit. I have a ton of maxidresses, short tank dresses from ITY knits and a wardrobe of t-shirt dresses now. I would also like a couple of shirtdresses but those take more effort than I have in my sewing tank right now.  So we shall see what comes out of my sewing machine...

...as always more later!

Concord Tee Dresses - Round Two

These next two dresses are all about florals and pattern hacks and are my latest Concord Tee Dresses...

The Sleeves ~
As shown below the sleeves are the difference between the two dresses. I made a slight change to each sleeve to personalize each dress. There are no other construction changes from the original Concord Tee hacks. 

Adding the circle/flutter to the sleeve was discussed in the Adding a Ruffle to the Concord Tee post.

The split sleeve for the rose dress was detailed in this post.

The Dresses ~

After making two darker print Concord Tee dresses, I knew that the next ones had to be of a lighter hue. I pulled two floral print crepey knits (what Fabric Mart called them but what LAFinch Fabrics is calling Liverpool Knits) from the collection.

I need to stop here and discuss the fact that I love florals. I own a lot of floral fabric.  However, if you've followed along for awhile, you will notice that I didn't sew a lot of florals prior to leaving the corporate job. That's all changing now. Big florals, big & bold prints, loads of polka dots and large border prints are no longer off limits! Now that summer is in full force, I'm sewing more of these. So without further ado, here are the latest versions...

Dress with Split Sleeves & Ties ~

Dress with Flutter Sleeves ~

I'm glad I took the time to make these dresses. They will be perfect for the rest of the summer and into the fall.

Conclusion ~

I have one more that I want to make from an ITY fabric. It will get me to five and I will be done with this pattern. I have so many other things I want to make and new patterns to use.  

However, I REALLY enjoyed lengthening and hacking this pattern. It's a great pattern if you just want a t-shirt that fits a curvy body but it also has wonderful possibilities. You can take it on a creative journey to fulfill whatever flights of fancy you can dream of. It allowed me to do the thing I love most about sewing, slice and dice to come up with a new look, based upon the good bones of the pattern.

So I'm off on new sewing adventures! I hope you've enjoyed the series, been inspired and maybe learned a new technique or two.

...as always more later!

The Concord Tees - Hacked Edition

Honestly I've been meaning to get around to making more Concord Tees after I made my first one last spring. As with all good sewing intentions, it took awhile for me to get back to this.

I ended up making four hacked t-shirts. I pulled knits from the collection and started sewing. Well actually cutting first, the first ones were cut using the pattern I traced last spring. I really should have checked the fit before I cut them out...that's why I stopped at four.

Because of that these fit a little closer than I originally wanted. Probably because I've gained back 10 pounds. I will wear them, however it caused me to rethink what size to use for the next batch.

Let's start with these four... 
As usual I don't sew anything straight out of the pattern envelope. I mean I have a basic one and I know what the pattern can do so I decided to take it for a "hack" ride. I kinda feel like I could buy some standard loose-fitting tees but it's harder to purchase interesting tees in different fabrics that fit me.

Hacked Version #1 ~

This one is made from one of the organic cotton fabrics I bought from Organic Plus in late 2015. Instead of using the band for the neckline, I used a piece of 5/8" ruffled elastic from the collection. It was applied directly to the neckline to give it a frilly look. The sleeve band was also omitted. Instead I used a twin needle to hem the sleeve. I already own several white tees and wanted something a little different from the others.

Those are the only construction changes for this tee. However, by adding the ruffle elastic, it really drew the neckline in and gave it an elasticized look. At first I wasn't sure about this but the tee grew on me. It's worn with a new TNT rayon crepe skirt, exactly like these. I love this silhouette. It's going to be my go to outfit for summer!

A few pics...

Hacked Version #2 ~
I used a cotton/lycra blend from fabric.com for this version pulled from deep within the fabric collection. 

It came about because I saw a similar one on the street in NYC. A young lady was walking into Starbucks wearing a gray t-shirt with those bell sleeves. It reminded me of the sleeves from McCalls 7542. So I combined the Cashmerette Tee and the sleeves from View D to get this rendition.

Seriously it was as easy as that and I was thrilled with the final result. My only suggestion is that you make sure that you measure your sleeve opening and the opening of the ruffle to insure that they are the same diameter.

We photographed this with a flare denim skirt that I made last spring. I'm not quite sure I like these two pieces together. However, after taking pictures of six outfits that day, I was done with photographs. Of course, later on I found my grey sweatshirt looking TNT straight elastic waisted skirt (see the black one below). That's how I will most likely wear this tee!

Hacked Version #3 ~

This fabric is a 2 layer embroidered knit that was gifted to me about eight years ago by Karen Heenan, who blogs at By the Seat of my Pants. Y'all know I watch a little too much QVC and I saw a tee by Isaac Mizrahi that inspired this one. His version had a peplum on it but I wanted something a little looser, longer, and straighter. 

To get this look, I cut the top of the tee off at the waist curve. Then I added 17" of 54" wide fabric, gathered at the top and with a side seam. I matched the side seam and stitched down. It was only after it was hemmed that I realized it looked like a slimmer version of a Turner Dress hack.

Oh and the sleeves aren't hemmed...just serged. I haven't decided if I want them hemmed or not. Since they look okay in these pictures, I'll probably just leave them as is.

One more thing ~ because this is a gifted top, I thought I would wear a gifted piece of jewelry with it...so thanks Marcy for the bracelet! 

Pictures of the Top ~

Color Blocked Version ~
My last one is not a hack at all. I just color blocked it using a black 'n white herringbone knit & a black ponte. This is the only scoop neck version I made from this series of tees. Otherwise there is nothing special about it except for using two different fabrics.

I'm wearing this with my TNT black ponte straight skirt with an elastic waist. I've made quite a few of these skirts in several colors and fabrications. I really want a couple of made by me Tees to wear over them. Because believe it or not, I do have days when I don't want to wear a maxidress or maxi skirt.

This is the simpliest hack. It involves just pulling some fabric from your collection or scrap bin and having a go at it. I have a couple more fabric combinations in my head that I will eventually get to! Cause I had a ball sewing these up. 

Finally ~
I was really thrilled with how these turned out...so much so that I immediately traced off more pattern pieces and made dresses from the tee pattern which you saw in my previous post. I know there's been alot of interest in how I made the flutter/ruffled sleeve on the dress and the tee. So that's what's up next on the blog.

...as always more later!