A new outfit for Easter

I’d forgotten how much fun it can be to really knock out a project quickly! At least, quickly for me. The last several months had been rather sewing-light for me, aside from those two pretty simple kids’ projects from my last post. I’ve also been running into the problem lately of staring at my closet and feeling like I have nothing to wear, a lot. And especially when dressing for things like church. So I decided to challenge myself to see if I could put together a new outfit for Easter this year, entirely from things that I already had on hand.

The difficulty of Easter in March is that I always want to dress in something that screams spring, but it’s often quite chilly! So I decided to take a different approach this year from the dresses I’ve done before, and do some separates. After choosing some fabrics that may be the accidental start of a new chain, I started with the shirt. I thought the Jalie Dolman top that had been sitting unused for several years would be a good starting point, but I didn’t want to make it the 3/4 sleeve length. It’s seriously no good for my regional climate — there’s only about 3 days in a year where that’s comfortable. So I turned them into statement sleeves instead. I took the original sleeve pattern, flipped it so that the underarm seam was on top, hemmed both raw edges, and then added a cuff to the bottom so the sleeves would have this slit in it. Since we’re in the season where it’s impossible to dress for a whole day because you freeze in the morning and sweat by the afternoon, I thought that long sleeves with ventilation, especially in this synthetic ITY, would work well. I did end up getting to test that out, as we started the day in the 30s, going to church during a power outage that left us with just one space heater in the sanctuary, and then it was nicely in the 60s by the afternoon. I did stay comfortable all day, more or less, so I’ll call that a win.

Best shot of both the sleeves and the curved hem, though I didn’t style it this way while wearing it this time.

Overall, the shirt came together quickly, and my coverstitch machine was generally cooperative. I’ve seriously struggled with that. There was still some tunneling, so obviously I still have some tension issues to work out, but it also didn’t immediately start unraveling like it often does. So maybe I’m finally getting the hang of it, after several years of attempts?

Best shot of the skirt, even though I’m headless.

For the skirt, I chose the Salida by True Bias, which had also been sitting unused for years. I found a mid-weight denim with minimal stretch, and decided to do the classic gold topstitching on it. I do love a good denim topstitching! And I’m thankful to have the luxury of having two machines in the house so I can set one up for construction and one for topstitching, because otherwise I never would have finished it by my self-imposed deadline. I decided to make view B, mostly size 14 but graded down to 12 for the waist. After that initial grading, I did very few alterations, aside from needing to take the waist in a bit further. The one major thing was that I ended up chopping the skirt nearly 6″ shorter.

Here’s the original length. There’s nothing really wrong with it, except that since I made it in denim, it kept making me think of the 90s homeschool mom denim jumper stereotype. And since I am a homeschool mom, well… not exactly the vibe I wanted to channel. The other issue was my shoes. My cooler weather “dressier” shoes are mostly falling apart by now, and I really hate shoe shopping for my extra-wide bone structure/constantly feel that mom guilt of prioritizing buying shoes for the kids who are outgrowing theirs, so I more or less exclusively wear my skirts with my 2 pairs of everyday taller boots until it’s warm enough for sandals. And I just didn’t think this mid-calf skirt would look right with that style of shoe. After some Instagram polling and getting my husband’s opinion, I decided to go with the shorter length, and I’m glad. Now it’s giving me those retro 70s vibes that I always had a weakness for (since the 90s when my style was heavily influenced by 60s fashion and my mom’s authentic 70s sewing patterns, haha). And I think that, with this shorter length, it’ll be a more versatile addition to my wardrobe. I’ve been lacking in basic-ish solid skirts that I can pair with printed tops, so this is a big wardrobe hole filler for me.

All in all, I’m very pleased with how this outfit turned out. And I’m hoping to play with the styling a bit more soon, since I can think of a few more pieces in my closet that these two pieces might mix well with. For it to be a real chain, I think I’ll need to come up with at least one more top, so I’ve been wracking my brains and combing through my stash to see what might work. It would be nice to get one more thing in before I have to dive back into plotting the much needed swimsuit that I never got to last year.

The furball approves, too.

A selfless sewing stretch

Finally, it’s spring! So it’s probably time for me to summarize my sewing from the remainder of the winter.

I didn’t sew anything for myself, other than a new patch job on my sashiko-inspired ongoing jeans mending project. The second knee blew out around Christmas, and I had to re-stitch a good portion of the first knee because the embroidery floss I’d used broke in several spots after several washing. I got “real” sashiko thread for this job, so we’ll see how it holds up in comparison.

Aside from that, I did finish two projects. First up, a shirt for my daughter. I ended up scrapping my thought of reworking the neckline on my velvet Busan top, because she loved the texture of it so much that I decided to use the remainder for her. (Like she’d spend a huge chunk of time when I wore it, sitting in my lap and petting my shirt.) I used a peplum shirt pattern from one of my Ottobre Kids magazines. It came together pretty quickly, and she was happy with the result. And twinning with Mommy.

Side note, I realized in the process of making this that I really only have one thing to pair with my shirt from this fabric (my black Jade skirt, which is honestly a bit big on me now but I still have it anyway), so I may have to revisit this for future wardrobe building projects.

For the second project, I felt bad that I’d ended up making nothing for my oldest last year, when I made projects for both of his siblings. So I asked him if there was something he wanted— a bit nervously, I’ll admit, because the only sewing success I’ve had for him since toddlerhood was his Legolas costume a few years ago. He requested pajama pants, with pockets. I had him pick out some fabric, since I had nothing appropriate on hand, and he chose a camouflage-color dinosaur print from Joann’s. The pattern is the free kids pajama pants from Five Out Of Four Patterns.

He’s since told me that these are his favorite pj pants, and has worn them multiple times. Including out in public, since my niece recently had a pajama/brunch themed birthday party and those were the pants he chose to wear. So absolutely a win. I had to cuff them up quite a bit, because they were pretty long on him, but I tried to do it in a way that they’ll be easy to let down as he gets taller.