Making, Mending, Refashioning

Making: an eggplant colored Everyday Skirt in a rayon-linen blend from Joann's.  Kaufman's Brussels line has a similar colorway, but I had a 50% off coupon for Joann, and I was in a physical store this summer, so there you go.  I do think the Brussels line is slightly nicer fabric, as the Joann's version is just slightly stiff, but it will do.  The color is a nice deep eggplant-y purple.

I'm pretty please with the front of this skirt--it hangs quite nicely (although not quite as nicely as my red version from the Brussels.  But still.  This was after two bus trips for school drop off, and several children sitting on my lap, and it doesn't look too rumpled).

A bit more rumpled in the back.  I also think that the ever so slightly less drape on this fabric makes the back hang less nicely, but it might also be sizing that will come out with additional washing.  

I was on the fence about this shirt--I bought it last year at a Ross near my parents' house, and wore it as a cardigan-type layer, but this year I find I wanted to try it as a proper shirt.  It's okay, I guess.  I didn't love it or hate it yesterday.

My main issue is that the sleeves are just marginally tight around the biceps, but the next size up looked too big on me.  A perennial problem.  *le sigh*

The thread match on this skirt was particularly good, I think.  I wanted to construct the front waistband for a fully interfaced waistband (i.e. cutting the seam allowance to match the width of the petersham) but I forgot, and didn't want it to come out shorter than I prefer.  As it happens, I probably could have got away with it, since this skirt is 1" longer than my marigold linen skirt, but oh well.  Next time.

The sandals were a late ebay find and I lurve them.  One of my summer Dansko sandals bit the dust in late August, so I'm glad to have a second pair for next year (and get a bit of wear this year yet!)  That color green is practically a neutral.

In other sewing news, I mended one of my husband's cassocks (again).  This method works well for points of stress (as behind a button) or for knees that wear through, as I do it for my boys' pants when they go through the knees.  You just need a bit of iron-on patch and your sewing machine.  

Cut the patch to size, and apply to the wrong side of your garment.  I used square edges on this patch, but I use rounded ones on knees.  Zig-zag around the edges of the patch to tack it down.  I like a 4x1 stitch length for this.  If there are actual holes in the middle of the patch, go over those with a similar zig-zag to close.  If doing this on a knee patch, I like to add several lines of straight stitching in a zig-zag pattern over the whole patch to reinforce.

(The wrong side).  In this case, the hole came from one of the side buttons pulling through the garment and creating a tear.  I had mended it with a patch a few months ago, but my husband caught the cassock on something and tore it through again two weeks ago.  So I reapplied the button.  A tailor's trick--use a small button on the wrong side of the garment to anchor the button and give it stability like so:

The right side:

In reality, the mend is not very visible once the garment is on him and buttoned up.  Ditto for the mends in my sons' pants. 

And finally, a refashion:  I did this over the summer when I realized I didn't want the Blue Forest dress as a dress, but wanted it for a blouse instead.

I unpicked all the tucks and pockets and elastic, and cut a curved hem (it is a bit long) and then reapplied the hem bias.  

The leaves are a perfect match for my marigold skirt, so I was eager to pair the two together.  I think I like this blouse a lot, to be honest.  I wasn't sure about it until I wore it, but the double gauze feels great against my skin, and it looks nice with the skirt.  I am comfortable, but also feel "dressed" for the day.

Apologies for rumpled photos--after the bus run this morning.  It was crowded, so I had children on my lap again.

I think the blouse will look nice with the eggplant skirt as well.  I finished another Everyday skirt yesterday (out of a dark teal Hampton twill) that I'm excited about.  I made some swaps to my rotation, and am now feeling like it is coming together nicely.  I'll write more about that when I blog the teal skirt, I think.

I'm doing a trial period of the Noom app on the recommendation of a dear friend.  I'm not sure what I think about it yet, but since I'm struggling to know what to eat right now, I'll give it the 14 day free trial and then evaluate.  

In the meantime, I made this for a couple of meals lately and liked it very much:

baby spinach with poppyseed dressing, grilled cheese on wheat bread, fried eggs, seltzer water