Hey Everyone, I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day Weekend. I had the best day! First we all gathered together for brunch at my Mom’s house. My brother whipped up amazing bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches. My sister brought a yummy fruit salad. I was in charge of the Bloody Marys. I suggested it as a joke in our group text but it was very favorably responded to, so I decided to give it a go. A new Mother’s Day Brunch Tradition? Maybe, we’ll see. After Brunch, my daughter, Abby, took me to Nomad’s Outdoor Adventure for an afternoon of rope courses and zip lines. I LOVED it! …We didn’t get to the most challenging black course, maybe next time. Abby’s working there this summer, I was very tempted to join her!!
If you’ve been following along in our FB Group, I made Anna a dress for her Commencement Ball. I used her TNT Anna Dress Pattern – lengthening the skirt to her toes. You can check out how to length the skirt to make a Maxi Anna Dress Here. We found a nice ITY Knit at Fabric Mart… It arrived on Thursday last week. I sewed it up and popped it in the mail Friday. I just got off the phone with her, I’m pleased to say that the dress arrived on time and it fits great!
I’m also working on an outfit to wear to her graduation on Friday. I am in love with my Skort and Simple Pattern, so I decided to play with making a longer (just below the knee) skirt from some black silk I had in my stash. Because the skort pattern is for stretch fabric, I added 1/2″ along the waist and hip edges of the skirt pieces. This made the constructed skirt the same measurement as my full hip. Then I eased in the extra length of the skirt waistline into the shorter, stretchy waistline of the shorts. I finished the waistline with a narrow knit band. After a steam with finger press, it looked really nice. Silk + Navy Performance Sports knit… it feels like pure luxury on!
I also made a new top to got with my skort. I decided to Pattern Hack my Tank Top 2 Ways Pattern. I had 4 narrow pieces of novelty georgette fabric in my stash. I have taken it out and put it back several times because I wasn’t sure how to use it. It has a ton of stretch… close to 100% in both directions. Plus, it was too narrow to cut a one piece front or back. So, I decided to cut out two front and back Tank Pieces. Instead of sewing the center front/back seams, I finished them with 1″ strips of my Black Compression Sports Knit. This was perfect because the knit had plenty of stretch, but was firm enough to support the shape of the tank. You can see from the photo below that I cut the pieces out with the shaped hem that’s is longer at the side seams. In the end, I decided to cut the hem a little shorter and parallel to the floor. When I tried the top on with my skort, I didn’t like the look of the shaped hem with the longer skirt length.
To add interest to the front view, I decided to extend the back shoulder 2″ and shorten the front shoulder 2″. This put the shoulder seam forward. I didn’t want to trace a new copy of my pattern, so I folded the front shoulder down 2″. Then I pinned a piece of pattern paper to the back shoulder to extend it 2″.
The position of the shoulder seam was the perfect place to add a little more interest. I repeated the technique that I used to finish the the center front/back edges. I tacked the edges together with bar tacks. Then I finished the neckline and armholes with folded knit strips.
Stay tuned for photos of the completed outfit! …Remember to post pics in our FB Group to celebrate Me Made May. The member with the most pics wins a 50$ gift certificate to my store 🙂
I can’t wait to see pics of you in your top and skort!