Fall Essentials Sewalong 2013 : My Palette

Well, it's actually not a palette as I don't think I'll be able to sew more than one garment. Therefore, only one color and one fabric.
I'll make my overalls in a fabric I already have in my stash : 

Linen/viscose blend from Toto, bought with no particular project in mind...Had actually already bought something very similar for a Ceylon, and as I was afraid I wouldn't have enough, I bought 2 more metres, only to find it wasn't exactly the same color as what I'd bought first. Never mind, I know how to use it now! 

Added to this : 

• Anchor buttons left from  my B5895,
• white thread (from stash)
• And some bias trim (not pictured here.)

Started tracing my pattern yesterday evening - stay tuned if you want to know what's going on!

Follow me on FlickR!

Having decided to take part in the Fall Essentials Sewalong, I had to create a FlickR account in order to share with the other participants...after a few klutzy attempts (didn't get why on earth I had to use Yahoo to connect to FlickR...), my account is finally created! You can now follow me by clicking on the little button in the sidebar!

Taking part in my first Sewalong!

I often see people planning sewalongs all over the web...However, much as I would be interested to join in, there's always a hindrance. Either I don't have the pattern this particular sewalong is about, or I feel I don't have the skills, or the schedule seems to set a crazy pace I feel unable to follow.
But...this morning, as I was browsing my blog list, I fell on Sarah's latest post, announcing the Fall Essentials Sewalong...and it so happened that, for once, the schedule was right for me...and the (very un-restrictive) different categories of garments you could make for the sewalong did allow me to make something! So here i come!

I'm currently finishing another shirt for my boyfriend...but if I'm lucky, I should be done by September22nd, the day the sewalong starts!
And here's what I'm going to sew : 

While some of you may question the "essentiality" of overalls (and yet, in my opinion, they totally belong in the "Fashionable Foundations for Frosty Weather" category!), let me explain why this fits the bill for me :

• they are perfect for a look that's vintage, yet casual, and doesn't make me feel as if I were wearing a costume (i mean, as opposed to a dress+heels+big hair+make up...I love vintage style but I'm not really the high-maintenance kind of girl!) ; 
• they offer more coverage than pants, which is a bonus now that the weather is getting colder ;
• they could go with lots of tops and shoes ;
• and I happen to already have everything (fabric, thread, buttons, interfacing...) in my stash to make them almost straight away!

Want to be part of the sewalong? It's happening over at Rhinestones and Telephones!

Butterick B5895, or the Stashbusting Failure

Hi everybody, I'm back from holidays!

Given that rather long post I did recently (yeah, I know, more than a month ago is not recent, but it's only two posts before last if you count this one!) about my expanding fabric stash, you might've thought I would have a reasonable holiday and sew from the aforementioned stash.
But I'm not reasonable, so that's not what I did.
I recently acquired B5895 - one of Butterick's patterns developped by Gertie - and I had some fabric which I thought would be great to make the blouse from this pattern set. But - even though I love sewing them - blouses are not the most needed item in my wardrobe, so I made the pants instead.

Sorry for this "mirror and phone" pic...I didn't have the occasion to go outside and take a picture of them in decent conditions. At least the mirror in my building hall is bigger than the one in my apartment and allows for better pictures!

Want some technical details? There you go!

Fabric : navy poly/cotton sateen with a bit of stretch
Notions : zipper, piping, button, bias trim
Any difficulties ? I've been fiddling a bit to get the fit right, but it's normal when you're making pants and not especially used to it, don't you think? I actually made a muslin in size 12 which was...sort of fine at the front, albeit a bit tight across the thighs...but sadly impossible to close from behind. I was therefore diagnosed with big quadricepses and a full bum. Relying on the pants fitting cheat sheet (thank you Coletterie!), I modified my pattern to make more room for my thighs and buttocks. Muslin#2 allowed me to let in my quadricepses and buttocks…and was even a little roomy! So in comes Muslin#2.5, which was basically Muslin #2 with less fabric at the crotch on the front, and the back re-made to be a little bit tighter. Muslin#2.5 turned up to be still a little tight across the thighs, but perfect at the back, so, as I was making the final garment in a slightly stretchy fabric, I decided to leave it at that. The final version is very comfy and a wee bit roomy (after all, the pattern says the jeans are supposed to be “semi-fitted”, doesn’t it?), but maybe that’s because of pressing the fabric during the process? I hope it will tighten a bit when I wash it, otherwise I won’t be able to wear these pants if I lose weight!
Apart from that, all my seams have pretty finishes (topstitching at the crotch, flat felled seams on the inside legs, turned under and stitched on the outside legs, and bias bound on the zipper… I’m getting better!), I made my very first (well, second, really, and the first, done on a fabric scrap, unfortunately looked much better than the second…) bound buttonhole (thanks to Julia Bobbin for her tutorial!). I also had to redraft the waistband (hadn’t considered that making adjustments at the back would lead to changing it, so it’s finally made with two pieces instead of one…) and used scraps of linen as a sew-in interfacing as I thought my fusible interfacing was too stiff. 

4 details on the same pic, how good is that!?Piping, bias bound zipper, handpicked zipper and (urgh) bound buttonhole...Sorry for the flash, the light is crappy in my bedroom and these dark fabrics are hard to photograph!

...and here's my button! Cute, eh?

Wear again ? Although they’re not really office friendly, these little pants are really great for week end and holidays and will surely see a good deal of wear in the future!
Make again ? Actually, I think I will! I’m sure this pants would look great in a corduroy for example, and slightly longer (ankle-length or mid-calf, something like that for instance!). And that would be both winter- and office-appropriate!