Modern Sewing

I've been doing a bit of modern sewing lately due to work and just not liking my current summer wardrobe. So first, work clothing!

Both the purple sleeveless and the aqua sleeveless knit dresses are from Simplicity 9103.  I've used this pattern a few times now (my pink knit dress, my black knit dress, and I have a long purple one with sleeves from this pattern).  It is really simple and is very easy to dress up for work (jacket and scarf!).  I took out the leftover purple knit this morning for a new shrug and realized I had enough for an entire dress instead.  I shortened the pattern by only an inch for the "A" look just due to the amount of fabric I had.  It still comes to just above the knee - making it great for pretty much anything.  The dresses always come out well (okay, so I do edit them and make the neckline higher) and they are just comfortable to wear.  Plus, no ironing.  Woohoo!

The teal shrug is from Simplicity 1961.  It takes a ridiculous amount of fabric to make but it does look almost 1920's inspired on.  Seriously, the purple knit above took about half the amount of fabric as the teal shrug.  But the shrug looks really amazing on so...

In other mundane sewing, I decided to try something I saw on pinterest.  I have a ton of old t-shirts that I love but are now clearly ten years old.  So, I decided to try and revamp them by adding a bit of contrast.  This is the first victim.

I have a lot of fairy t-shirts that I've worn since college, really. I love them. However, the cut to clothing has changed and it's starting to show how old these t-shirts are. So, time to make them look new again.

I bought a remnant of purple knit from Joanns. So far, this purple knit has been quite versatile! Not only did I use it for the inserts to this t-shirt, but it also became bias trim cuffs for a jacket I was mending. I still have some leftover and it was only a 1/2 yard to begin with. I'm thinking it might be patches for future items.

The inserts really are just triangles cut to go into the sides of the t-shirt.  Taking apart the t-shirt at the sides was interesting.  They were serged.  I do have a serger but it's evil.  My singer has a stretch function and it works perfectly fine for knits.  Just taking apart the serged edges took a while.

However, once that was done, sewing the inserts in was a breeze! This is over the purple knit dress. I might make the next inserts more diamond shaped to have more of a drape at the sides.

Still, this works.  My summer wardrobe will have a bit of a longer life now.  :-)