Crafting A Rainbow

Have you noticed that square necklines seem popular this year? Or maybe that is just me, seeing what I want to see. Regardless, I made these two variations of the Workhorse Patterns Ione top over the last few months and I’m finally sharing them!

I’m all about the green this year, and this large print is lots of fun. I got it from Blackbird for a bargain, but when it arrived I decided that the lurid pink was to bright even for me. A quick dip in some grey dye and this is the finished result.

The Ione Top is special to me because it is designed by my dear friend and fellow Sewcialist, Becky. It is named after her grandmother. I tend to do a petite adjustment and get rid of the yoke, using a facing to finish the neckline instead. I didn’t have quite enough yardage for the cuffs as drafted, so I used the scraps I had to make the sleeves a little longer.

The whole dress is made with 2m of fabric, using my typical cutting strategy. I want to use the full length of the yardage for the skirt, so I tear a large rectangle along one selvedge, leaving a long skinny rectangle along the other selvedge to cut the bodice from. I cut the bodice on the cross grain and cut facings etc from whatever fabric is left. Sew the bodice, gather the big skirt rectangle, and attach! This works for me because I’m short, and also because I don’t want a heavily gathered skirt.

This haphazard method does mean I don’t plant the proportions carefully, and in its first iteration the bodice was too long. It was frumptastic! I fixed it by taking it up 1″ at the shoulders and another inch at the waist.

For version two, I used a beautiful Dashwood rayon print that I bought last year. I like boxy tops for work but I find that if they are too boxy, they just slide around and sit funny. I think this is a perfect balance!

I honestly don’t have much more to say! A TNT pattern, a pretty fabric, a cute neckline… but for comedy value I’ll show you just how cold it was when I took these pictures:

THIS COLD! Bloody cold wind and right around freezing. As I recently said while presenting about taking photos for blogging, sometimes you just have to channel your early twenties when you’d leave a coat at home to go to a bar because you were too cheap to pay for coat check. Act warm and photograph quickly!

Me-Made May starts this week, and I’ve decided to sit it out. At first I thought, “How can I end a decade long tradition of participating?” and then I realized I didn’t participate last year either. So there! I will enjoy other people’s pictures but I just don’t have the energy to focus on it right now. I will challenge myself to blog new makes once a week though, which means I’d better get sewing and photographing!

Are you doing Me-Made May this year? Have you ever? Whether you are or not, happy sewing and hope you are well!