Here we are at the last week!

I actually have been destashing this entire time, as I have wayyyyy too much fabric on my shelves!  It was bad before, but then the nearest fabric store to me decided to liquidate.  Wellthen…at 50-70% off it was hard NOT to buy more fabric.  I was like one of my kids in a candy store, and had a hard time saying NO!  Alas, here I am with too much fabric and not enough time to sew.

‘Tis a good problem to have, but…

Time to destash some of my horde!

This outfit is inspired by one from Alexander McQueen.  I love this (apart from the angry-I’m-really-hungry model face):

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It was from a collection a few years ago, and I love the baroqueness of the mullet vest.  I don’t have an embroidery machine to do all that lovely gold stitching, so I am settling for a gold and black satin brocade that I bought for this vest (a few years ago…it is good and cured).

Plus…belted at the waist to accentuate the fact that I carry my weight there?  Yeah, no thanks on that bit, too.

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Instead I drafted a pleated peplum back and fitted princess seamed upper part.  The collar is an extension of the middle front, and then a curved piece is attached from the back.  The back collar has some pretty stiff interfacing in it.  I drafted all of the pieces, and it was quite the endeavor.  I was drafting after I completed part of the vest, so I could get the right placement.  I even did a muslin of the upper part out of denim.  It is partially finished, and I hope to get it lined, too…eventually.

I only purchased 1 yard of the gold and black 45″ brocade, so obviously I needed to use it sparingly.  On the vest I used black satin and the satin brocade.   Plus interfacing.  Yes, another fully interfaced project.  I can pick them, I tell you!

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I am not going to lie and say this project was a piece of cake…it wasn’t.  I had to rip out seams several times.  I apparently need to mark my pattern pieces better, because I put some in the wrong way.  Then, I forgot to cut one of the pieces and ended up cutting it out wrong.  Ugh.  Then…THEN! I got it all completed (zipper in and everything) and it was too big!

UGH.

I wanted to just say, “Screw it, good ’nuff”…but after all the time I put into it I wanted to WANT to wear the dang thing.  I took out the zipper, fixed four seams, put the zipper back in and VOILA…she fits!

And she is just lovely.

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The inside is almost as pretty as the outside, too!  All the seams are fully enclosed.  No handstitching.  I was sure I was going to have to handstitch, but it came to me how to get it all put together right as I was about to drift asleep one night.  Of course.

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Next, we have the skirt part of this outfit.  This is a fitted pencil until just above the knee and then it becomes “swooshy”.  I cut out a basic pencil skirt with darts in the back and a side invisible zipper.  I made yokes on the front and back from satin.  It is also lined down to where the “swoosh, or circle skirt, part begins.  I  trimmed the edges of the hem in almost bias-cut satin.  It was “almost”, as I didn’t have a lot of satin left.  I was cutting it at an angle to the grain, but not full bias.  I am not a big fan of the main black fabric, as it is a thinner polyester that I bought online.  I’d rather buy fabric at a brick and mortar store so I can feel it’s drape and thickness.  This was the only yardage in basic black I had, so I had to pull it from my stash.

The skirt went together pretty well, until I got to here where I cut it to make the front higher than the back:

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Make sure it is the front you are cutting and NOT THE BACK.  *Facepalm*  I might have let a few F-words fly when I saw what I did.

So…I used a few of those scraps of satin I barely had left to add a panel on the back of the skirt.  It is now a design element.  Hey, it turned out alright, so that is the important part!

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Glamourous modeling pics:

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Today is voting day for the contest, so GO VOTE for your favorite.

So, some takeaways from this contest:

  • It got me to sew some more for myself and get things on my “wish list” finally completed.  This week was an outfit that I had been wanting to make for quite awhile (like…years!).
  • I tend to use the bones of a few basic patterns and modify them.  Four of the tops were from one princess seamed pattern block I drafted, and three of the skirts were modified from a basic pencil skirt pattern.
  • I can get a lot sewn when properly motivated!  I didn’t enter this contest to win (which is good since I have been consistently in last place in the voting!), but to get me to sew up some of my overflowing stash.  Mission accomplished.

Now, I need to focus on getting my kids’ costumes completed for Comic Con.  Anya is going as Elsa and Kailan wants to be a Wizard from Clash of Clans.   Anya thinks she needs to be more blonde to be Elsa, but I think she is good. 😉