redemption refashioning

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to comment on my recent post regarding my frustration over sewing through fitting transitions. It’s good to hear that others have dealt with this and come out OK!

I recently finished reading a book about approaching real life issues with the mindset of a gamer. (It’s the geekiest self help book that I’ve ever read, I love it!) One of the major points that stuck with me was the idea of a challenge vs. a threat mindset. In this case, viewing the situation as a fun challenge to take on willingly, rather than as a threat to my ability to continue sewing at all.

In fiction, I love a good redemption story. It’s lovely when a person or situation that appears to be a lost cause turns out to be good after all. What’s been one of the biggest frustrations in my sewing over the last year or so is feeling like I’m wasting my precious me time, and/or perfectly good fabric, in turning out bad-looking/fitting clothes. So I’m starting a new project: as much as is possible, I’m going to see if I can give some of these less-than-stellar garments some tweaks to make the time that I spent crafting them more worthwhile.

I’m kicking off with a project that I hadn’t blogged yet. This started out life as McCall’s 6885. Confession time: I only sewed about half of it. I started out making one for myself, out of a yummy Cotton & Steel lawn, and in a similarly colored flannel for my mom, as a thank you for all that she does to help me with the boys. (Printed with a TARDIS design, because my mom is awesome like that.) But then I got sucked into the more immediate practical need of Hobbit nearly outgrowing his largest diapers and having to finish the batch I’d been procrastinating on finishing. I’d also recently found out that I was pregnant, so Mom kindly finished this dress for me so I could squeeze into it once just before my first trimester ended. (As well as her own shirt. One of these days, I’ll thank her properly!)

I don’t have a great before picture. There was basically no extra room around my hips at all, and the pleat plus the baby bump meant the midsection bagged out horribly above it. Also, the shirttail hem just wasn’t working for me, given how high the slit ran and how tight the hips were. Even with leggings, I was kind of embarrassed to wear it, especially for work. It really didn’t get better after Padawan was born, either. One of the things that it did have going for it was the patch pocket that I added to the front to hold my phone. Even though it’s probably an odd placement for a shirt, I’m glad that I was able to keep it after the tweaks! Because pockets are great and more clothes should have them.

 

I couldn’t bear to waste the fabric, since it felt so nice to wear and sew with. So earlier in the summer, while I was sewing a bunch of navy blue things anyway, I decided to make it wearable. So here’s what I did:

• Cut off the shirttail part of the hem to give it a straight edge all around.

 

• Cut a couple of triangles out of those pieces, on the crosswise grain for maximum height.

 

 

• Opened up the side seams and inserted the triangles.

 

 

• Re-hemmed it to a nice tunic length.

 

 

And it looks sooooooo much better now! I tried to show the insets on this picture, but they’re really hard to see due to the random nature of the print. (Which, honestly, is probably a good thing!) It is a little bit of a closet orphan at the moment, because I can pretty much only wear it with jeans (something I do try to avoid when teaching, when I can — I’ve had to relax that rule since the kids came along), or one denim skirt that fits, but is awfully short now that my thicker waist makes it sit higher than it used to. I’ve paired it with the Jalie pants from the last post, since I had teaching today, though the baggier pants with a tunic top is not my favorite look. If I can ever find the right fabric, I think this would actually look amazing with some seafoam/ light teal pants. Maybe the Style Arc Elle, if I work up the courage to test that pattern. (Bonus: I have a cardigan from the Anthropologie clearance rack that would also go great with that color pants!)

Semi- orphan status aside, I have been pleased with this salvage job. After all, fabric of this higher quality is not allowed to be a wadder. What would you pair this with, if you were planning future fabric hunting/ wardrobe planning?