Holy balls, y’all. It is DECEMBER. December. How the hell did that happen? With December comes all kinds of things. Decorations (ok, we did that in November), wrapping gifts, frantic sewing of presents I planned months ago and failed to work on. Add in a leaky roof and sneezing cats, and it has been quite a month already!!
Of course, something I always look forward to in December is the RP Christmas Dress. There is always a free version and some sort of add on or bonus that is a paid pattern but packs a punch!! This year is no different!
The free version is beautiful, drapey, and has a faux scarf, so you can’t set it down and lose it! (Is that just a me thing?). And the infinity version is just dreamy. Same great drape, of course! But with length options from shirt to maxi. And this magic neckline.
Not only is the neckline lower, which I prefer anyway, but it has a ton of different ways to move it around, shift the sleeves, all kinds of craziness, to have completely different looks!!
I went for the mid-calf (or midi) version, but it is totally scrunchable to knee length as well!! I tried out a few different options and can’t wait to wear this to something fabulous (maybe the target order drive-up spots) and try a different look altogether!!
I’m so not done yet. Not only is the infinity version just a gorgeous dress with options out the ass. RP put together a bundle with two different fabric choices to go along with it!! The Ivory Ponte is the same that the gorgeous model’s used for the free dress cover photos. And this Burgundy Brushed Sweater is the other option. Plus, you can grab additional yards of either fabric (ivory and burgundy) if you want more than the bundle!
I am obsessed with this sweater knit. It is brushed on the right side, so the softness is insane. The color is kind of a cranberry with black specks, so it reads burgundy from a few feet away. I just love it!!
I’ll definitely add a few shirts and at least one more dress to my closet. And I hope you do as well (wanna be twinsies?) Have an amazing holiday season. Celebrate hard but safe. Sending virtual hugs to each of you!
So. I’m like super late on everything. Life has been…crazy. like, I thought I was busy before I started running a fabric store. Before, when I was working two jobs. Or when I did a master’s degree while working full time. Nope. None of that compares to the constant work I’ve been doing. Now, I’m not complaining at all. I LOVE my job. And my team. Well, teams. And being surrounded by happy fabric and sewing stuff every day!! But damn. I haven’t sewn. Like, bare minimum only to meet deadlines. That’s it. And not fun. So, last night I took the opportunity for a little bit of fun sewing.
This fabric has been in my stash forever! And since it just restocked, I figured I could use it and replenish if I need to! It is a gorgeous French terry from Sly Fox Fabrics, of course. So happy to be using stash fabrics. With all these gorgeous new fabrics at my fingers every, single, day, it is hard to remember the shelves of fabric I already own!
Since I’ve been so busy, I was really looking for the fastest possible thing I could make. The Cora Cardi popped into my mind because it takes maybe an hour from start to finish. But the cutting is at least half that and I’m tired. So, why not hack it?
I decided to use the selvage edge as my edge (because it looks nice) and go for sleeveless. But then I needed drama. I wanted it to be epic and dramatic and just a little ridiculous.
Mission accomplished. And I cut and sewed it in 15 minutes. I’m calling that a win!!!
Hoping to share more and more and have more free time coming soon. So keep an eye out and know that I’m missing all your wonderful comments, questions, and feedback!
I am so, so late with this post. But I have really good reasons. I don’t even think they count as excuses!! I did sew a couple old patterns in June, with the intention of sharing. Plus I made them to go over these cute-ass swimsuits. And I got to see a friend I haven’t seen since January!! Lots of really good stuff in June.
So, why am I late with this post? Well, it turns out a few weeks ago, I started rolling out a series of events that came to a head in the last couple weeks. When the amazing Katy announced she was closing my favorite Sly Fox Fabrics, I told my boss, Rebecca, about it, just in case we could do something. Well, Rebecca doesn’t do anything halfway, and she is one of the most supportive and encouraging people I have ever met. So, she and Katy struck up a deal and signed contracts and now I am going to manage SFF!!! So I’ve spent the last two weeks working to coordinate moving a whole bunch of stuff from Ohio to Georgia, learn how to order fabric, find somewhere here to actually put the stuff, etc. It is…a lot. It is thrilling, wonderful, exciting, scary, and completely fabulous. But a lot. Somewhere in the last two weeks, I forgot to write this post. I apologize for anyone who was looking for this and I hope you find it worth the wait!!
I’m sharing a mix of old and new patterns in this post because I am just completely obsessed with all of these pieces!! They are all from Rebecca Page Sewing, too!! Let’s start with the Laura. I know, I know, I made one in April. BUT! This time I made the dress in woven. You might recognize this fabric from a Work It post last year. Apparently I ordered enough for a whole extra piece! Virginia really loves how Laura fits and how easy it is as a swim cover up. And I love the end result of a woven dress that only takes about an hour to cut and sew.
Staying on Virginia, she is rocking the Two Piece Swim Set (ok, we all are!), in crop in this gorgeous green swim knit! SHE IS A MERMAID!!! Plus, we paired it with the swim bottoms, high waist, ruched front options. I did adjust for height and bust as needed and she is so comfy!! Perfect for some mix and match with her other swim pieces. And she loves the two piece that doesn’t really show extra skin! Isn’t she just gorgeous?
I’m also wearing the crop swim top, with the added zipper!! I love this touch. Makes it a little different and very much mine. I’m also rocking the high waisted bottoms, but no ruching for me. I added height as needed by comparing my rise to the finished measurement chart and I LOVE the fit of these. I am comfortable and feel supported. PERFECTION!
I paired my kick ass bikini with a sheer, stretch mesh high-low skirt. This mesh has been used for a few projects already, since I bought a ton of it from Fabric Mart. I love it. I completely hacked this from the Hayley High-Low skirt. Which is intended for wovens, has a waistband, and elastic at the back waist. BUT I LOVE IT!!! It feels exactly the right kind of ridiculous. I love that my suit shows through just a bit, especially the blue on blue. And how the white top looks with it! I definitely want to make this swim top out of non-swim fabric and rock some it as a crop!!!
Saving the best for last, this is my friend Lisa. I don’t think I’ve shared any photos of her on here before. We worked together for almost a decade before I left my last job. She has always been supportive and wonderful and happy to model tester pieces for me. This time, no tester pieces. I made pieces to her actual measurements and she is gorgeous in them!!! Starting with the swim…She is rocking the ruched tank option, along with the zipper. I really love the unique construction and built in support on this one. (I made Virginia a tester one early on and she wears it all the time. I clearly need one.) Lisa is rocking her tank with the ruched back, flat front, mid-rise swim bottoms. This swim patterns has so many interchangeable options!! I want to make an entire capsule of different suits out of this one.
Lisa is rocking my new favorite shorts. This are from the Sports Shorts and Leggings pattern. Another one with interchangeable options, you can make leggings of all lengths, shorts, or shorts with leggings. These are the shorts alone, but I fancied them up by putting a lacy fabric over some plain white. These came together so beautifully. They are effortless to wear, look fancy, but feel pajama-y. The perfect shorts.
Basically, it was so fun to make all nine of these pieces. Coordinate, mix and match. Just love it. The rest of this fabric is either scraps of unknown origin, or it is from the local Fine Fabrics. One of my favorite parts of sewing is digging through fabrics, mixing and matching til I find the right combo for my project. Which makes me extra excited for my new adventure with Katy and Sly Fox Fabrics.
This month, I am so excited to be making more swimsuits!! We are lucky that our local pool as implemented a TON of safety features so they could open! We are going to be checking it out next week to see how safe it is, get some sun, some exercise, some water. We always need new suits! More suits! ALL THE SUITS!!!
Virginia’s favorite swim bottoms are the Bondi Swim Shorts from Rebecca Page Sewing! She loves the ease and comfort, plus coverage. She made her first two pair last year and has been asking for more in more colors. We also grabbed enough of this polka dot and stripe fabric from Fine Fabrics to make suits for both of us and that other sister who lives far away! So it just made sense to make her favorite bottoms in this fabulous fabric!
But for a top, that’s a whole different thing. I’ve been thinking about hacking a swim top for myself for…a year, at least. I doodled out my idea and showed it to Virginia. She immediately stole my idea and asked if I could add a skirt to it. Thief. But also, super cute addition to my desired top. So I can’t be mad.
I mashed two patterns together, and made up my own bits for this top. The bust is from the 5oo4 Escapade. (We both love this pattern actually!) I didn’t cut the back on the fold, and in fact shorted it by several inches. I also cut a 1.5 inch strip to make the loops and ties on the back. There is elastic in there for extra support. The loops are 3 inches long and next time the ties will be 30 inches because they’re a tiny bit shorter than I’d like them to be. Thankfully, she doesn’t actually need to untie this one to get it on. I evenly spaced the ties in between the seam allowance along the back and basted them in place. I also basted the ties and some elastic at the center V. Make sure the loops and ties are in between the layers, right sides facing, before sewing. But the elastic needs to be on the wrong side! Ask me why I’m so adamant about those placements…. I put elastic along all the edges of the top, after I sewed the seam. Keeping seam allowances as bulk free as possible.
Turn it right sides out and press. Yes, press. Pull the center elastic and zig-zag over the top to get some ruching. Really show off the decolletage. Then you can baste or serge the two layers together along the bottom edge if you want. I’m lazy and didn’t, but swim is slippery and you might prefer it.
For the skirt, I used the 5oo4 Laura peplum piece. I finished the scoop in the skirt just like in the tutorial, then attached it to the bottom of the bust pieces. It turned out the scoop was a bit wide for Virginia, so I was planning to just add a center seam and take it out. But when I clipped it to ask Virginia what was comfortable, she LOVED the pleat that I clipped out. So we went with it! It turned out so dang cute. She just loves the end result and I can’t wait for us to wear matching swimsuits. That’s going to happen.
I hope you’re all enjoying the warmer weather and sunshine, and staying safe and whatnot.
Hi everyone! It has been awhile since I have done a takeover of Stephanie’s blog but life got a little crazy in there. I graduated from my bachelors degree and I have the summer off (not counting two jobs) and thought with the sewing summit coming up, what a perfect time to do a takeover.
So somehow I got roped into not one, but two videos for the sewing summit. One with each of my sisters. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sisters, but crafting is more their thing than mine. I don’t really have a hobby even. So, I got to hop into a hobby of each of theirs. One sewing and one using epoxy. Both were interesting projects and I got to create some pretty cool things (keeping it clean for the summit here).
With Stephanie I did a tutorial with how to sew the Roxy Wristlet and show it from a beginner’s point of view. Mostly you get to see how dummy proof it is. I even managed to actually make a purse. Wristlet…whatever. Thankfully she walked me through it and I wasn’t required to learn how to read a pattern. I only needed to learn one thing at a time. After all, I just finished school I have earned a break here.
I’m sure Stephanie got irritated with my lack of desire to even choose fabric for the project. Thankfully she picked out some great liners and saved the day. Now she just had to get me to commit to the filming. I, of course, was available whenever she needed me (how does one type with sarcasm?). Anywhos…
I admit the end project coming together was really cool. You do a fliparoo and there is a Wristlet. Pretty snazzy.
Now, I also got to do a video with out other sister, Vicki! She, like Stephanie, does a bunch of different crafts. (Pretty sure they got all the crafty genes between the two of them). Vicki and I did a really cool epoxy video. Definitely check out her blog and see what we did. It was really cool. I got to make my own tumbler!!! And guess what?! I used the same fabric as my Roxy. If you didn’t already figure it out, I do love bacon.
It was a lot of fun to do a video with each of my sisters. Especially since Vicki lives like 1000 miles away. Thank goodness for graduation celebrations (or what consists of one during this thing called a pandemic) that bring family for a visit.
Hope you guys enjoy BOTH of my Sewing Summit videos. They were a lot of fun to make. And since I am a super duper novice for both videos you know you can make both yourselves, easy peasy.
