Tuesday, August 20, 2013

A Sleeveless Class Picnic (with mistakes and shoddy sewing!)




I made this little outfit for Elsie back in April during the spring KCW. Obviously, that was a long time ago, and at this point I almost decided to just skip blogging it. But I changed my mind about that because:

 a) It's a pretty cute and easy modification to the Oliver & S Class Picnic top, b) It has some shoddy sewing that you should probably see, and c) It's kind of interesting to see the clothes blogged after lots of wearing instead of in their normal new and pristine state. 



First the changes to the pattern. As you can see, I left off the quarter-length sleeves on the top all together. I sewed up the front and back yokes with their facings like normal, but then I just sewed thin bias tape around the arm holes with lots of extra inches to make cute shoulder ties. I also took in the side seams about half an inch just to make sure the armpits didn't gape too much. The shorts are sewn according to the pattern  (Cutest shorts pattern ever, for sure.) Simple as can be and perfect for summer. You can see last year's version of this outfit here. 





So now let's get to the good stuff that makes you feel better about your sewing imperfections, K? Here you can see on the back that my bias tape tie doesn't cover the entire raw edge and it's visibly frayed. I really should have made the tape a little wider, or just sewn it on more carefully. I even picked the seam out once and tried to sew it on again to cover, but I guess it didn't take. It happens. My home sewn clothes aren't always completely perfect and I think that's probably good to show you! It's still a super cute top on her and no one can notice the fraying under those ties. 





The other problem with my frenzied KCW sewing showed up after washing these shorts a couple times. For the gray denim, I cut up an old pair of my husband's jeans. Then I picked out the trim from my stack of fat quarters on the shelf, which are not pre-washed. I usually pre-wash any larger cut of fabric that I'm going to use for garments, but I don't wash my quilting stash. But I was impatient. Between not being pre-shrunk, and being much lighter in weight than the heavy denim, you can see how the trim got all scrunched up and turned up the wrong side of the denim so it's visible. Again, not ideal, but they are still cute shorts that she wears all the time. It happens.





Both pieces are size 2, and you can get this pattern in paper or pdf versions. The fabric on the top is Lizzy House's Hello Pilgrim and the trim on the shorts are her Pearl Bracelets. (PB's I can't quit you!)

Moral: you are good at sewing. Don't sweat the small stuff.









18 comments:

  1. You area funny, she looks adorable. When you have a cutie like this nobody notices imperfections. :)

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  2. I love this post. I am the queen of shoddy sewing. Alhough my term of choice is "wonky." It happens mostly because I'm terrible at cutting fabric.

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  3. Thanks for keeping things real. Things don't have to be perfect to be beautiful. :)

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  4. Super cute ! Love the honesty, so many of us get caught up on being the perfect mom, organizer, sewer, blogger, its great to share our real-ness. Its nice to see that the not perfect could stand up to toddler action and washing. I have ended up blogging an outfit that has been washed and worn a bit too.

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  5. Oh, now I just realized that I prewashed the Briar Rose fabrics but did not prewash my lining fabrics. Bad Rachel. I'll keep your moral in mind. Really love the outfit, though. Such a good idea to make it sleeveless!

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  6. She looks like Hendrix's little blonde twin in the last photo! Really cute outfit, and I love seeing the "lived in" side of the clothes.

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  7. Great blog post, We should all have a bloopers post every once in a while just to keep it real. So nice to see things get worn enough to wear out!

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  8. You know those 'imperfections' aren't really that bad! You would probably find that in any clothes anywhere after being worn & washed a few times, and my goodness that is a CUTE outfit! I love it!

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  9. Ha! Thanks for this! Adorable. I dig the shorts, too.

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  10. This kind of made my morning. It's a real cute outfit, really like the modification. I have beat myself up over frayed edges that pop up over well washed outfits here and there. It's nice to see it happens to others too. It is usually the fast sewing that gets me.

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  11. Haha! These are adorable! I see no imperfections :D

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  12. Only small mistakes compared to the true whoopsies that I make at times. it is still an incredibly cute outfit though.
    Rosie xx

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  13. thank you. It always makes me feel better about my blunderous sewing when other people share their mistakes. There have been two times recently that I can remember, where I accidentally included a non prewashed fabric in a piece of clothing, and didn't realize it till after I'd washed it once. Super damnit!

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  14. Great post and appreciate the moral. ;-)

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  15. Ah-ha! So you're not perfect :)
    Who's going to notice a little shoddy sewing when she's rocking curls like that!?! What a cutie!

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  16. I'm the worst at bias tape, it never looks as nice as I wish it would, and I often miss the opposite side and either have to handsew (or just leave it). But after seeing other examples of your VERY perfect sewing, it's nice to know you're not a robot. Because I thought you were a robot until now.

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