Staycation Update

This is been a great week, staycations can be as fun as traveling. Don't get me wrong I love to travel especially to the beach.

I had several items on my staycation to do list:
1. Redo vanity area in the bathroom
2. Manicure/pedicure
3. Sew Jalie 3254
4. Sew Maria Denmark Kimono top
5. Adjust Jalie Eleanor jeans

So far I have completed the first three items on my list.
Bathroom vanity redo

Manicure

Toes are red too without the black tips!

Sew Jalie 3254-Complete!👍🏼☺

Bodice hemmed using coverstitch machine

Neckline used coverstitch machine

Marie Denmark Kimono top pattern is ready for me to decide on the fabric and cut it out. This is a pattern that I used last summer to make a couple of tops to take on the beach trip. The fit is perfected so this should be a quick sewing gratification project. I have two knit fabrics purchased earlier this year from Girl Charlee. These knits were part of the January Knitfix.  I was not overly excited about my bundle, there were two items that I especially liked but will not use those for this project.

The floral striped knit used in the project above was from Cali Fabrics, a store located in California. This was the best feeling knit I have sewn in some time. It is a soft knit similar to a sweater knit but with more body. The solid beige fabric used for the sleeves and neckline are a similar knit and I'm not sure of the source. I think it may have come in a bundle from Fabric Mart. It worked well with the striped floral knit as it was similar in weight though a little bit more sheer.

I will take some photos of me wearing the top soon. I will also provide a more detailed review of the fitting adjustments I made.

Staycation

I scrapped the red knit tank and cardi.  I knew that the fabric was sheer but this was really sheer and I did not have enough fabric to cut at least a double front piece. Not only that but I really hated the fabric after handling and sewing just a little bit.  I will make a red tank and cardi as I just ordered a red fabric from Cali Fabrics today.

While waiting for this fabric to arrive, I switched gears and decided to use the recently purchased fabric from Cali, the white with black stripes and floral print rayon knit.  This morning I washed this fabric along with three other off white or cream knit fabrics.

I plan to sew Jalie 3245 using the stripe/floral print as the body and solid color for the sleeves.  I have traced the pattern pieces and the pattern is ready for pin fitting. The inspiration for this was of course from Pinterest.  Here are a few I liked

Tomorrow will not be a sewing day however.  I have planned for a couple of weeks now on redecorating the master bathroom which is really mine; my husband has the hallway bathroom-this works best for us.  I ordered some new beauty organizers and plan to change the colors used for the bath mats and curtains.  The room needs a real spring cleaning or perhaps I should call it a summer cleaning!  Will see how long this takes, so may get the fabric cut out in the afternoon.

Sewing Staycation Success

I truly enjoyed my time off this past week.  I was able to complete three sewing projects.  The first one was posted here.

The second project was another McCall's sweater knit top, M6796.  My first version of this pattern was a year ago.  The second version I deemed a success.  There were lots of side seam matching due to the design.  I cut both front and back pieces as a single layer so that I could get stripes and design patterns to match up.

Here is the finished top on a hanger.  The above side view was a work in progress photo.  Wearing photo will come later.

I decided to use the striped area at the shoulders and the floral design for the bottom.  This created I thought less matching issues at the bottom.  For the collar I wanted to have the floral part of the fabric at the neckline to tie in with the floral bottom portion of the top.  The tops shown on the pattern envelope show adding buttons to the collar.  I am not going to add buttons to this one as I think the fabric should be the focal point at the neckline.

The final item I made and finished hemming this morning was another McCall's pattern.  The fabric used was recently acquired from Fabric Mart.  It too is a sweater knit similar in weight to the fabric used with the top above.  That fabric was from EOS and was purchased about a year ago.

Here are a few shots of the cardigan with back peplum.

AlmaMarie (dress form) has wider shoulders than I do so the garment looks quite different than on me.  This was an easy peasy pattern to sew.  I made my usual adjustments, FBA, FSA, swayback and back length adjustments.  I think I still need to make another FBA adjustment; because there is no closure this current size works but I would like it to be a little more closed than it actually is on me.

I think this will work with pants, dresses as well as top with skirt.

I have enough of this fabric to make a short sleeved top with turtle neck of which I have a few patterns that fit that design.

I think I am now ready to move on to some other more challenging patterns.  It was nice to get immediate gratification from these garments.

So it begins

I am on Staycation starting today!
First thing on the list for this morning was a pedicure.  I decided to try a new to me place.  Experience was good, pedi was good-just not the experience I wanted.

Here is my summer pedicure-

I love green!

I just had lunch and back home for a few hours so now going to cut out my skirt and sew some.

I always have big sewing plans for when I am off, I normally never complete everything.  I will share what I complete as the week goes along!