Sew and Tell

Now that I've bagged me a job (high fives all around!), I'm hoping I will still find a good amount of time for sewing projects. Lately I have been enjoying sewing apparel. When I first started sewing I never (ever-ever-ever-ever) thought I would (ever) be able to sew an item of clothing for myself (ever). It just seemed so...hard. And honestly many commercial patterns seem to hedge on unattractive and outdated (I'm talking current patterns here, not awesome vintage). Perhaps I just haven't explored my options as far as patterns go, and I'm sure there are many out there that would indeed make great clothes, but for now, I've mostly just been following along tutorials, and drafting my own patterns from clothes that I already own.

There are several blogs that I go to regularly for DIY inspiration. I surely can't name them all, but I'll mention a couple. One of them is  www.cottonandcurls.blogspot.ca , which was my starting point for when I started sewing with knit (stretchy) fabric. Liz has plenty of easy tutorials to follow (even for a beginner like me!), and I have been able to make a few things from her huge list of sewing projects (which she still regularly updates, despite just having given birth to her second child a month or two ago!).
Another one I follow is Merricks Art (http://merricksart.blogspot.ca/ ), whose tutorials I actually find a little easier to follow than the above mentioned, not to mention the fact that she has a super cute sense of style, has two sisters (like me!), and a toddler boy (oh, and one due any day now). Right now she is doing a feature on her blog called Sew and Tell, where she invites anyone who has made/refashioned anything from a tutorial of hers to send it to her, and she will post it. Here are my contributions:

This is a hybrid of the tunic tutorial and dolman top - as in the armbands and neckline are from the dolman DIY.

I plan on doing my own tutorial of this one - of course, I'll be heavily crediting Merrick, but it'll be just so no one else has to flip between the two tutorials a hundred times (at least I had to!)

 

Skinnified mens tee. This is a $5 mens tee in small from Wal Mart. I love it for the comfy fabric, and the length! My lengthy torso appreciates any article of clothing that doesn't ride up to my rib cage everytime I move my arms. The peter pan collar is actually detachable, and the DIY can be found on the above link for Cotton and Curls.

Jersey skirt tutorial (second attempt). Although this one isn't prefect either. While the first one's waistband was much too big, this scaled down version has to be put on over my head in order to work (ie. forgot to use a zig zag stitch to attach the waistband, which allows the stretchy fabric to, well, stretch the way it needs to over Menno booties). Once it's on,  it's great though!

So that's that! Next up is a couple of sweater dresses for the chilly damp days we've had here in BC as of late. And then the sewing machine will get some time off starting Monday, as I don my bright pink scrubs and frizzy braid, set to take on a whole new nursing endeavour! More on that later hopefully.