....and sew it begins!

Sew My Style 2020 - How I saved my Tania Culottes!!

                                                            January pattern choice

I chose to make the Megan Neilsen Tania Culottes because I love culottes. These looked perfect - the comfort of a pant but the look of a skirt. They looked so flattering in the picture so I jumped right in, ignoring all the rules of measuring, fitting, etc. etc.  I found the perfect fabric and dreamed of what I would wear with these for the photo shoot (even though I hate having my pictures taken). I purchased a beautiful black cardigan to complete the outfit.

I would say the hardest part was the laying out and cutting. I'm not a huge fan of laying out on a single layer of fabric and because the pieces were so wide the idea of perfectly matching went out the window. I managed on my tiny table to get all the pieces cut and even cut out a flower detail to add to the cardigan. I may or may not use, but it is cute.

Why I never bothered to test the fit I'll never know! I starting sewing right away, it was easy and although the pleat detail seemed daunting it was super easy and so so cool. These were going to be so pretty.

I haven't sewn a hidden zipper in quite some time but watched a tutorial and felt confident. I sewed the one side seam - easy. At this point though (before tackling the zipper) I thought I would check the fit. OMG I'm glad I did. The waist sat just under my boobs and the crotch was half way to my ankle - yikes now what.  I figured they were ruined so what the heck lets take a leap and see how they could be saved. I cut off just over 4 inches from the waist down (still saved some pleat - enough to still do what it was suppose to). I cut a new waistband piece 8 inches but this would be folded in half to make up the approx. 4 inches I lost. Because I cut down 4 inches, the culottes slipped on with no need of a zipper. I threaded elastic through the wide waistband and drum roll - it worked. They look perfect and are so comfortable.

I will definitely make these again but I will take the time to properly fit the pattern first.

Love handwork

I am the kind of person that has to keep her hands busy - I can't stand just sitting and doing nothing! I was searching for a project and my daughter suggested I look at embroidery. I haven't done any stitching for sometime but thought why not. Her suggestion was not just for embroidery though, it was embroidering on clothing. We both love to sew and like to make pieces that are unique and one of a kind.

I dove right in, I wanted to start on the big project right away so did very little practice. I had purchased a beautiful gold boiled wool - gosh - over 4 years ago and decided this was it. It's near impossible to find embroidery transfers here so I just freehanded a design of my own. 

After much thought on color I decided to stay within the gold tones and accent with blue and green.

The pattern for the cardigan is a Kwik Sew - very basic because I wanted the embroidery to take center stage. The boiled wool was surprisingly easy to embroider on and the pattern was super quick to sew. I pondered over the neckline wondering whether to add a ruffle but finally settled on simplicity. I absolutely love the finished product and will be wearing this often.