I don’t think I’ve blogged about it yet, but I’ve signed myself up to participate in the Sew Weekly Themed Challenges as a contributor. Mena, the Sew Weekly creator, was initially going to let a limited number of people be contributors on her site, but somewhere along the line she decided to open it up to a wider group. So there officially are around 150 contributors who have signed on to try and make a garment ever week. Felix is quite amazed that such a large group of people would be willing to put themselves through the stress of making an item every week for someone else’s site. heh I think he’s just missing out on the fun though.
All last week I was doing some blog posts, knitting, and in general taking it easy on my first week back to work. Ultimately, I was waiting around to hear back from Sew Weekly as to what the theme was going to be and when the deadline was. Little did I know, the weekly theme was in full force, I was 100% oblivious as to what it was. On a whim I decided to log into the blogging dashboard on Friday and saw to my horror that our weekly creations were due on Sunday night. (In haste, I initially misread and they weren’t actually due until Monday night.)
You can imagine how frantic I was on my subway ride home trying to figure out what I was going to sew within a day that would be cute and go with the weekly theme. Hello Stress!!! I should mention that contributing for each and every week isn’t mandatory. But since it was the first week, I felt obligated to give it my best shot since I did sign up for this.
The weekly theme is “Accessorize“; we were to sew a garment/outfit using any type of accessory as inspiration. Off the top of my head I know I have a pair of leopard/alligator heels that I have yet to wear and thinking I could design something around them. I took to my stash and found nothing that would go good. Then I thought next about all of the cute hats I have yet to be worn (all three of them.) :) It was the perfect accessory to design around. I then took to my fabric closet to find some suitable fabric to make something out of and this time I had the perfect fabric; a large remnant from my Minoru Jacket. Next came the pattern. Since I was on such a time crunch I felt it best that I remake something I’ve already fitted on myself before so no muslins were needed and I could focus on sewing.
Long story short, I cut my fabric on Friday, sewed all day Saturday, took photos and make a contributor blog post on Sunday, and to my utter surprise I was featured on the Sew Weekly site on Monday! It’s been such a whirlwind of stress and fun and excitement!
Don’t you like the title of my outfit: The “OMG One-Day Challenge?!” Pinafore. heh
This soo made my day today (and most likely my week). Felix and I went out and got drinks to celebrate once we got off work. He does deserve lots of the credit, after all he is my photographer. :)
I curled my hair for the occasion. My curling skills are still a work in progress, but the curls held a lot better than they did the first time around.
As I said before I used the Jenny Skirt pattern, the same as my Floral Bouquet Skirt. Unfortunately I failed to take decent notes the first time around so I had to do a bit more fitting for this skirt. I made Version C with the suspenders, and I also made a higher waistband than my original.
Just like Gertie, I decided to crisscross the straps on my pinafore. Since I have such narrow shoulders, I figured this was for a design aesthetic as well as the additional security so that my straps wouldn’t fall down.
One thing that really pulls my outfit together is the velvet trim I added onto the waistband. I had this skirt nearly complete at 10pm on Saturday evening, but I felt like it was missing something. In a moment of serendipity, I remembered some old velvet trim my mom gave me from her stash which would be the perfect trim that would pull together my look: the vintage, felt hat with my Black and white tweedy pinafore.
Let talk insides…
I think a rational person on a serious time crunch would have just made the garment. Since I am not that person I included some stay tape at the top of the waistband, added lining, used Sunni’s new great tutorial for adding a back vent, reinforced the whole back seam with silk organza like I did here, and stitched my hem by hand. I could have been done in half the amount of time if I decided to omit all of these details. But ladies, I truly felt like if I wanted to wear this out I had to do everything in my power to make it a decent, sturdy pencil skirt. I am really happy with the result, but I think for these weekly challenges rubber is going to meet the road soon and I may have to compromise some of these things. I hope it doesn’t come to that since I’m really committed to making my clothes as nice on the inside as they are on the outside.
Hem Detail:
Since I was on a rush I just did a basic catch stitch all around the hem instead of making it invisible. I’m sure it’s all right. :)
And here’s my fancy back vent:
Well, it’s not really fancy as much as it is basic and professional. But Sunni is to thank once again for teaching me how to do this. :)
And lastly an image just for fun:
Felix was teasing me and he made me laugh.
All in all I’m over-the-moon thrilled I was chosen as one of the first contributor creations that Mena featured on her redesigned site Sew Weekly. I know I was on a time crunch and I was stressed for part of Saturday, but I really like the idea of sewing based on a theme. It’s a completely different way of approaching creating garments than I have been doing in the past.
Before I’ve always pick a pattern I want to sew, then I pick my fabric and any techniques and embellishments to add on at the end. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with how I approach sewing since there are loads of patterns in my stash I really want to make. But with the Sew Weekly themes, I first start with a concept and let my own imagination take me where it may. Even though it’s only the first week, it’s been really refreshing to me to approach sewing this way and I like not knowing where a given theme will take me.
I wonder what I’m going to do for next week…. :)
In: Sewing
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