This is my final entry for the Fabric Mart Fabricista Challenge and although it has been an intense few weeks I have really loved the creative challenge. I really needed a little push to get my sew-jo going!! I have been thinking about all the pieces I've completed for this challenge and have already worn them all, I love that! Its pretty satisfying to end up with pieces that work great in your wardrobe!
The challenge detail are below, taken from the Fabric Mart Blog. And under that I've included my entry plus a few extra pictures. If you are so inclined please vote for me on the Fabric Mart Blog just click this link!
FINAL CHALLENGE - 3 PIECE WARDROBE
We're
in the home stretch! This is the last challenge, can you believe it?
All the ladies in this challenge have done an amazing job and I can't
wait to see who the winner is. The last three contestants are guaranteed
to win something, it's just a matter who will win the grand prize!
This week's
challenge is the 3 Piece Wardrobe Challenge. Find a garment (handmade or
ready-to-wear) that you hardly wear because you don't have anything to
go with it. Create two other garments that would go well with it in
hopes that you will then wear the hardly worn piece. The two items must
be different items such as a skirt and blazer. Do not make two skirts or
two pairs of pants. These two items do not have to match or be worn
together.
This is the
time to really put yourself out there. Think outside of the box and
think about how you can really make the hardly worn garment a show piece
in your wardrobe.
So as you see, my task was to create two items of clothing that would coordinate with a hardly worn piece in my wardrobe. My entry to the contest is below! I chose my beloved plaid wool skirt made last fall for my hardly worn piece. Keep reading for all the details on my two coordinating pieces!
I love my plaid wool skirt made last fall
from thrifted/reclaimed wool. However I often
found that the one coordinating top that I had was either at the dry cleaners
or too warm to wear. So my lovely wool
skirt has spent too many days lingering in the closet when it could be a major
player in my fall wardrobe. I also had
the feeling that the jackets I tried to pair with the skirt were either too
casual or too long and covered up my beautiful plaid. In order to better fit my wool skirt into my
wardrobe rotation I decided to make a coordinating top and jacket.
First Coordinating Piece: Moto Jacket
Butterick 6169 seemed like a great pick for a jacket
to pair with my plaid skirt. Maybe it
makes me think of 90's grunge and that harkens back to my high school days, but
I really wanted to see what the two would look like together. I love the combination of the two pieces and
wanted my jacket to have a little twist to it, so I used a herringbone tweed
wool for the sleeves and a black sateen with a little stretch for the body of
the jacket. For the lining I used a dark
navy bemberg rayon from my stash.
Construction and Fit:
I was a little nervous that the black
stretch satin would stretch out during construction so I used strips of fusible
knit interfacing to stabilize the seams.
In this case I think it might have puckered my seams slightly- so it was
the choice between stretched out seams or slightly puckered seams!
I also stabilized the wool tweed with
the same interfacing and it worked great!
Wool is so warm and it definitely makes the sleeves cozy. I wanted to reinforce/stabilize the sleeve
caps of the sleeves so I used thick red fleece remnants to fill out the sleeve
caps. I referenced the tutorial on the Lisette site to
figure out how to do this. She uses
quilt batting, but the fleece I used is pretty close in texture to
batting.
The fit of this jacket is a bit tricky
but thanks to the princess seams it is completely manageable. The tricky bit is that the jacket is meant to
be closer fitting and I find that to be a balancing act since I want to
(obviously) wear the jacket over a long sleeve top- so there has to be a bit of
extra room. I tried the shell of this
jacket on numerous, numerous times trying to strike the perfect balance between
fitted and roomy. I ended up taking the outer
shoulder princess seams in by 1/2 inch each to accommodate my slightly narrow
shoulders. I also made sure to let the
princess seaming out in the bottom back part of the jacket to make room for my
bum. I took the rest of the back seams
in by approximately 1/4 inch each. For
reference, I started with a size 10 which is usually just right for my
bustline. I also took the side seams in
1/4 inch each. The length of the jacket
was just right for me so I left it alone.
The sleeves were a bit too long so I ended up taking off 3/4 inch from
them. I didn't combine the lining and
jacket as per the included instructions but used this tutorial from Grainline Studio.
Final Thoughts:
I feel that all the small changes made
the fit of the jacket were just right for my frame and I will be able to wear
long sleeves and dresses under the jacket very comfortably. Nothing screams "fall" to me like
plaids and I love wearing wool plaids in the colder seasons, I'm thrilled that
I now have the perfect jacket to wear with my skirt. Also when I wear my new jacket with my plaid
skirt I really feel like I'm on a time warp to 90's grunge but I am completely
fine with that! I liked the early
90's! I think the jacket gives the skirt
a little bit of edge instead of the usual preppy feeling I have when wearing it-
I love options for styling!
Second Coordinating Piece: Fitted Button-Down Shirt
I love print mixing but don't always take
the time to try it, so this challenge was perfect since it pushed me into
finding a print that would work with my plaid skirt. I loved this pairing and really wanted to get a similar look
so I combed my local fabric store and found this cotton voile and knew it would
be perfect. I love cotton voile for
button-down shirts.
Construction and Fit:
Butterick 5526 was almost exactly what I was looking
for when trying to come up with the perfect top for this skirt. I say "almost exactly" because I
really took issue with the collar. Can I
say ugh!! I cut the collar and
considered using the mandarin collar option but when I stitched it on the shirt
it looked awful.
So I decided to compare the Butterick
collar and collar stand with the Grainline Archer collar and collar
stand that I knew I liked. The drafting
of the two collars is very different- both the collar and collar stand of the
Archer are significantly smaller than the Butterick pattern.
I ended up Franken-patterning the Archer collar onto the Butterick
pattern and it worked perfectly. This
was a moment when ripping out a completed collar was totally worth it. I know the original Butterick collar would
have completely overwhelmed my slightly narrow shoulders, but the Grainline
Archer collar is the perfect scale.
I love the princess seaming on this pattern for two reasons, the
first being that I feel the slimmer lines of the princess seams help the shirt
tuck into the skirt more smoothly rather than billowing out like other
button-down shirts. I can't stand the
bunchiness that happens under a skirt when a top is tucked into it! The other reason being that princess seams
work in your favor if you usually grade between two sizes in bust and waist. I started out with my usual size 10 bust and
let the seaming out for my waist and hip area since I normally grade those to
around a size 12.
I added sleeve tabs to this top since I often wear my sleeves
rolled up and used pearlized shell buttons from my stash.
Final Thoughts:
I really took my time in constructing this top, I wanted to wear
it with pride and I do! I serged all the
seams to finish them and everything feels just perfect with the fit. It is soooo satisfying to wear a handmade
garment with pride and know that the styling and fit is exactly to your liking. And I love the combination of these two
pieces, I can see myself reaching for this pairing over and over, in fact my
co-workers will probably tire of me wearing them this winter! I'm also pretty excited that all three of
these pieces play together nicely and so can be worn all at once. I have had so much fun during this challenge,
coordinating fabrics, thinking outside the box and sewing pieces that I will
grab over and over with my skirt.
