What I did on my Staycation: Custom Colette Ginger Skirt

As you can probably tell from my serious lack of recent blog posts... only 2 last year... I've been a little busy raising a little human who just turned 1! As a celebration of his birthday and my birthday next week, I took a week off of my real life job to recharge and work on personal projects.

One of the biggest goals I had was to sew a skirt with an original pattern designed by me. For the pattern, I refreshed an old motif I doodled a few year's back:

Here's what I ended up with. It's available now on Spoonflower!

I ordered two yards of Spoonflower's new lightweight twill. It came out a little more gray than I expected... not sure what happened but I think maybe it was just how the fabric absorbed the ink? Is that a thing?

Anyways... I had two big challenges/learnings with the skirt (Colette's Ginger Skirt).

1. There's a seam right down the middle front and middle back... so some degree of pattern matching was a must. I give myself a solid A- for matching the front/back seams, but basically ignoring the side seams and waistband.

2. The INVISIBLE ZIPPER UGHGHUGHGHGU. I give myself a 4/10 for this one. I got the sucker in... but it required some hand stitching and cursing, several episodes of seam ripping... and I managed to put a hole in the fabric. Don't look too closely. GRRR. Better luck next time.

Overall, I'm very very very happy with the final piece. I was really nervous about the whole thing because I've attempted a few other things with my custom-printed fabrics... and they've always been kind of disappointing. And I've never made a fitted skirt before... and #mombodproblems.

Anyways, definitely not disappointed about this one. I plan on wearing this one A LOT :o)

Ahoy! Sewing a Sailor Top and Checking In

Well hello there. It's just me, sitting over here pretending I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (again). Today I'm sharing my experience with CreativeBug's class from Fancy Tiger Crafts on how to make a Sailor Top.

Similar to many of my projects this year, this one took me quite a while to get off the ground thanks to our latest little addition :o) At one point (obviously before he was born) I really thought I would have gobs of time during maternity leave to work on sewing and design projects. I even thought (gasp!) that I might be bored. So I bought some extra fabric and sewing patterns and made big big big plans.

Kaufman Union Dots Chambray

Well... six months later and... now I know better. However, we decided to start our kiddo a few days early at his daycare so that he could get acclimated and I could have a little break before returning to work. So I finally busted out the sewing machine and got to it. (In hindsight, maybe I should have napped?)

I coooould have ironed this before I took a pic... but meh.

I've been wanting to make this top for a while. The pattern is free with your CreativeBug membership, but beware, the instructions are not included so you have to watch the class. Not that that is a bad thing, I just would like to be able to remake it without watching the class again.

Ugh.

The class was very straightforward and I was pretty happy with the top. It looks great with jeans and also works well for work which I was surprised by. My gathering at the neckline is maaaaybe not the most even but I'll forgive my sleep-deprived self for that one. I also had trouble catching the inside of the yoke as I was stitching-in-the-ditch... but again, that's really more about my lazy-a$$ sewing skills vs. the pattern/class.

Tank Top Sewing and a Fine & Dandelion Sneak Peak!

Well, it's been a really exciting week! I made my first sale on Spoonflower (woohoo, $1.35! lol) and I was picked for Creative Bug's Instagram Challenge for their Fabric Design class. More on that in a minute, but first, I recently embarked on learning to sew with knit fabrics.

It actually wasn't as hard as I expected. I don't have a serger, so the seams weren't as pretty as they could be. I also made the mistake of not paying attention to the length vs. width (which really matters with knits). Luckily Spoonflower's Modern Jersey is VERY stretchy in both directions so it still fits well. Lesson learned!

I made the pattern myself (also a first!) from a Banana Republic tank top. I used this tutorial from Anna at Noodlehead as a guide as well as Creative Bug's Sewing a T-Shirt class.

Here's the design/fabric before I cut it. The design was featured this week on Spoonflower's "Hot Trends" this week and can be purchased here in fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap!

As I mentioned earlier, I've added Creative Bug's Fabric Design class to my ever growing list of online class credentials. And I was thrilled to win their Instagram challenge this past week! The feedback from folks was an AMAZING confidence booster. I seriously want to hug every person who liked or commented on the post. Here was my submission:

I've spent the last few days furiously finishing the pattern I posted and creating a whole collection around it to share on Spoonflower. I just got everything uploaded today and ordered the swatches. Here's a sneak peak of a few of the other designs and coordinates. I hope you are as excited as I am!