Piccadilly Blouse

Clothing has been tough this year. To start with, I'm a curvy girl (yes, as in "plus size"), which limits my options to a grand total of 3 out of the 33 women's clothing stores at our local outdoor mall. When I do visit one of those three shops, I find myself struggling with a sort of fashion identity crisis. As a 36 year old stay-at-home-mom, where do I belong? When you cross off the career section, the twenty-something section, and the grandma section, there's not much left. And for the past three months, the plus size women's section has completely disappeared from all our local Target stores where I used to buy at least half of my clothes. The salesgirl that I questioned on my last trip told me that their women's clothing shipment was late this year but still on its way...some time in May.

Sigh... Going shopping for clothes used to get me excited. Nowadays it just makes me tired. After a particularly crummy experience last week, my husband shook his head and said, "That's it. Go buy yourself a book on sewing clothing. I know you can make something better than what they're selling you at those prices." Unfortunately it's hard to find books geared toward curvy girls these days. I've drooled over lots of modern dress books and patterns in the past year, but I've sadly had to set them aside when I realized that they were designed for women half my size.

Thankfully, there are a few companies making patterns for girls like me, and Simplicity is one of them. I picked up this pattern (#1620) and a few yards of a print from Piccadilly, Denyse Schmidt's latest line for Joann Fabrics, on Friday night and started sewing on Sunday afternoon. In a few hours, I had a new top that actually fit me. I sewed a little sash to go along with the blouse just for fun. I plan to try this pattern again with a few adjustments and using a fabric with a little more drape. It's absolutely mind boggling for me to think that I can actually design my own clothing to fit my shape and personality.

Though there is definitely room for improvement, I think I did pretty well for my first clothing project. It all reminds me once again what I love most about being able to sew: the freedom of it. There have been days when I've walked through the mall and felt like there was no place left for me anywhere in the fashion world. By sewing that top yesterday, I created a place for myself, and I made it exactly the way I like it. It's taken me a long time to work up the courage to try sewing clothes, but I guarantee you, there's no turning back now...

Alterations (Part Two)

As I've mentioned before, buying clothing is not always the easiest thing for me, but last February I had my first adventure in the alterations department and it's quickly becoming a habit I love. I can't tell you how freeing it is to know that I'm not limited by the pieces available at the store.  No longer do I have to worry about mailing a piece of clothing back from an online shop if the fit isn't exactly right, and I don't have to panic if they're all out of my size in the first place. This was originally a dress on sale from Old Navy that was actually two sizes larger than I usually wear. A couple measurements, a little pinning and cutting, and a few minutes at my sewing machine were all I needed to end up with a very comfortable top.

While I love the idea of clothes shopping, the reality is not always so pretty. This makes reality almost enjoyable. Almost.

Dapper

As many of you know, my husband teaches advanced history classes for junior high students at a nearby middle school. On Monday, to help the kids get in the right frame of mind for their standardized testing, his school held "Dress for Success Day." My husband and a few of his coworkers decided that this occasion definitely called for bow ties. Rather than spend forty dollars for one at the mall, he asked if I could possibly make one. Martha Stewart had a nice little pattern on her website, and I was able to make two of them for him to use this week. It's really a very easy project if you don't count the part where you turn the tie right side out -- yikes. My husband liked the first two so much that he asked for more, and the dress up day has stretched into a full week as far as he's concerned. Doesn't he look dapper? At the moment, I have a stack of fabric on my desk right now that he picked out which is set aside for bow tie purposes.

I have a few birthday presents to sew this week, and I'm also in the middle of my second Heather Ross improv quilt. The block above is probably my favorite so far. Tomorrow is my niece's birthday party, so I'm off to work on her present...

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.

Alterations

You would never know it by looking at my closet, but I absolutely love fashion. My small clothing budget and plus size figure don't always make it easy for me to indulge in this area, but I've made my peace with it by a) living vicariously through my Pinterest board and b) making it a goal this year to build the best wardrobe that I can afford. My first step toward that goal was promising myself that I would not buy another piece of clothing that I didn't truly love. I can only imagine how many hundreds of dollars I've spent over the years on clothes that I bought on sale or on impulse that ended up being a mistake. Of course, every now and then I find something in the stores and I think, "That would be absolutely perfect if it weren't [too long, too short, too small, too ugly -- fill in the blank]." This happened last week in Target when I spotted what is actually a junior's dress. The thing was ridiculously short on me -- I'm almost 5'11" tall, and it ended over a foot above my knees -- but I loved the upper half. Then suddenly it occurred to me: I sew. I could cut the bottom off this thing, hem it, and have a brand new top that I loved. I quickly dropped this dress and another one in green into my cart and headed for the checkout lane before I came to my senses.

And can you believe my crazy plan actually worked? Just about fifteen minutes of cutting and sewing yielded a perfectly nice top, and after that it only took me ten minutes to fix the second one. It's like a whole new world has opened up to me, and now I can't wait to see what else I can find in the stores that just needs a few alterations before it's ready to wear. I feel a new obsession coming on...

Linking up with Weekending at 1/4" Mark.

Monday

I finally got started on my Weekender, and though I haven't done much sewing yet, I can see where this project got its reputation for being a challenge. I've never done so much cutting for a bag in my life, and I haven't even started on the heavy duty Peltex yet. My favorite part so far has definitely been the piecing I worked on for one of the large pockets. Using my Nursery Versery prints by Heather Ross, I did a little fussy cutting here...a little paper piecing there. I love the way it turned out. For those of you who are curious, I borrowed Tamiko's pattern (which you can download here) and copied it at about 70% of the original size. I plan to use the original pattern to make a pillow cover sometime later this month, but for now, my Weekender and Scrappy Stash blocks are the two big projects on my list this week.

My dear friend Beth at Plum and June is holding our next Long Weekend giveaway this week, in between hurricane-proofing her home and prepping hand sewing projects in case of power outages. Is it any wonder why I admire this woman? Hurry over to enter, and while you're there, be sure to see the sweet quilt she chose as her entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

For our church barbecue on Sunday, the girls wore pumpkin shirts that my sister made for them. All she did was applique a pumpkin (using a Flea Market Fancy print) and stem (out of a wood grain print) onto a plain white t-shirt.  Jeans, sneakers, and pigtails completed the look. It's such a wonderful quick project for this time of year, and my daughters looked so cute that I just had to get out the camera. I can't wait to frame at least one of these photos for the family room.

My thoughts are with all of you on the east coast who are bracing for Hurricane Sandy. I know power outages are expected everywhere, but please do let me know how you're doing if you can. We're praying for you!

Cow Appreciation Day

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this much anticipated date on our family calendar, it's the day in July when Chick-Fil-A restaurants offer free food to people who are crazy enough to come in dressed up like cows. My daughters, of course, consider this to be a major holiday along with Christmas and Easter. This year my sister was sweet enough to make ruffled cow skirts for both her girls and mine.

Does it get any cuter than this? I don't think so...