SSPC 2012: Green Skirt (Dress Refashion)

Last summer, I made a dress from the Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 2443 pattern - the same pattern I made my jacket from. It's a bit of a tricky pattern with the curves in the bodice, especially in a knit, but if you take your time and sew carefully it'll be fine. I wore this dress a few times, but it just wasn't working for me. The issues were all to do with my sewing and fabric choice, not the pattern itself. I'd love to make this again, possibly with a contrasting band around the neckline and waist like so:

But anyways, here's the version I made (as seen at the Coliseum in Rome):

I used a striped jersey knit for the top and an ITY knit for the waistband and skirt. I eliminated the neck bands because I didn't like how they'd look in a stripe. The first issue I had was that I apparently attached the skirt crooked. I think I cut the bodice with the stripes pretty straight, but when I tried it all on, the skirt was clearly veering lower on one side - which was made even more obvious by the way it didn't parallel the stripe above it. I slipstitched the waistband to be a little more even (because unpicking that knit was way beyond what I was willing to do), and it was wearable. But the more I wore it, the more the heavy skirt pulled at that stitching. It also just pulled at the bodice - ITY seems fairly heavy for a knit, especially when paired with a much lighter jersey. Which reminds me, I also had to line the bodice because it was kind of see-through, but I didn't have enough of the white jersey I was using (leftover from something else) to do it correctly.

So I ended up just cutting off the bodice, cutting off the white band at the bottom, re-hemming it, attaching some elastic to the waist, and calling it a new skirt. Voila:

I took this picture as I was heading off to work. so it's over exposed and I only took one shot. Oh well. I really like the color of this skirt, but I don't have enough things to wear with it. I think some back-to-school shopping will be in order soon (although I'm not going back to school...). The nice thing about a dress is that you don't have to figure out which shirt to wear with it!

SSPC 2012: Status Update

Officially, the Spring/Summer Palette Challenge 2012 has ended, but I'm setting my personal deadline through the end of summer. I guess that's less of a challenge and more of a seasonal plan, isn't it? I have, however, completed 6 of my garments (new & fixed/altered). I'm partially done with two of the other garments also, but "almost" doesn't count here. A review:

Pastille dress: New garment - technically started before the challenge, but completed as part of it
Blue roses skirt: New garment - started during last fall's challenge, but sat around waiting to be finished until this challenge. It's a completely hand-stitched Alabama Chanin pattern.
Green skirt: This used to be a dress, but wasn't thrilled with it and chopped off the top to make a skirt
Voile dress: This was altered to fit better and be more comfortable
PJ pants: These were a 2-for-1 as part of Karen's Pyjama Party as well as this challenge
Grey Clovers: I made these earlier this year in a class, but I hadn't completely finished them (umm, there may have been areas that were just basted, not fully stitched...) - until now

Still to be done:

Bird print shirt: This one is almost done. Well, in some ways it IS done - I was all ready to wear it and everything when I realized the blue chalk lines on the v-neck are still completely visible and I can't seem to remove them. Plus, the point of the V has started to tear, probably not helped by my efforts to remove the chalk. I need to figure out how to fix it as it's completed construction-wise but not wearable.
Blue Clovers: This seems like it would be simple as I've made this pattern already, but I want to tweak it a bit more as I'm not thrilled with the adjustments on the first pair. I'm trying to make a wearable muslin shorts-version to test my next set of adjustments, so it's kind of a double project. The shorts are almost done. So close.
Chambray Traveler dress: I haven't even pulled this out of the closet where it's been sitting in shame (it's way too big.) I wasn't excited about this one, but I've been thinking about it more and I'm ready to be able to wear it. It requires quite a bit of unpicking stitches, though (and I used French seams for a lot of it - extra unpicking).
Navy blue interlock shirt: The fabric didn't come in for this one, so I ended up switching the plan to a: Button-back shirt. I bought a black and white linen/cotton blend for this, and I'm hoping I can use a button-front shirt pattern I have to make a button-back shirt instead... not 100% sure it will work the way I want it to.

So numbers-wise, I'm more than half done. Amount-of-work-wise I'm less than halfway. I feel like I've made good progress. I've been wearing things I made, which is fun. I made quite a bit of sewing time early in the challenge, but I just can't set aside that much time lately. I'm going to keep working on this though, and I'd like to get at least the bird shirt and Clovers done in the next month; they're the two on my list I'd most like done to wear during the summer. And one more picture of them all together, because it feels good to see all these things that I've made:

Summer Goings-On

We've been busy around here. I've been trying to eke out a little sewing time but don't have much to show for it. Last Friday we went to the Jelly Belly Factory with a group of jr. highers from our church. I'm snacking on some belly flops as I type.

On Saturday I helped my brother and his wife move into their new house. Then on Sunday we all (me, my husband, brother, sister-in-law, mom, and dad) went to the city for my dad's birthday - a Giants game followed by dinner in North Beach.

Yesterday was the 4th of July (obviously), and I worked on my Clover shorts all afternoon and got them this close to being done. They need a little hand-stitching and one more cuff sewn on. Then in the evening we went to my in-laws' house for a block party BBQ and a few fireworks.

This upcoming weekend we're heading back towards the city with the jr. high youth group to visit the Golden Gate bridge and hike around the headlands. And on a totally different topic, here's my one completed curtain. I still haven't finished the other one or ordered the fabric for the big one. Oh well. At least we can't watch our neighbors' TV anymore.