I've had a productive week sewing-wise. I made this top last Sunday. It's the Bali Blouse from New Horizons Designs. I really like New Horizons Designs (formerly Terra's Treasures). I have a bunch of her women's patterns and kids patterns too, and because of that, I generally know how she drafts and know which alterations I need to make. This blouse was pretty awesome though, because it did not require a full bust adjustment! In fact, the only adjustment I made was to shorten it a little on the Lengthen/Shorten line. I usually shorten the pattern by taking out little bits at several places, but I didn't want to deal with re-drafting that angled line, and it turned out working well. I do need to make a bit of an armscye adjustment for my next one, but you can't really tell with this one.

One of the unique elements of this pattern is the open back. However, I did not want to deal with making a second item just to have a complete outfit, so this go around I made a solid back. This was simple--there's a notch in the pattern piece that indicates the center. Put that on the fold and then just make sure the grain line indicator on the pattern is parallel to the fold. Then cut out as one piece, easy-peasy. It fits great, looks great, and is super comfortable. I love the fabric I picked--it's a thin, drapey fabric with metallic swirlies over the blue pattern. In this picture I am also wearing some blue capri pants I made a month or so ago. I love them so much. I took a knit pants pattern and redrafted it completely to fit me. I would wear them every day if I could--I need to make more in other colors.

I plan on making the Bali Blouse again in woven, and later in the fall I'll make it with longer sleeves and a drapey french terry like this stuff from Stylish Fabric.

I also finished a men's polo for my husband from a Jalie pattern.

He has been asking for polos for awhile. It took me awhile to find some good fabric. I was looking for the waffle pique fabric that some of his polos are made out of but had no luck. I finally picked up some cotton/poly fabric from Joanns, and you know what, it is actually super soft and he really likes it. I also picked up some green too, and bought some dark red fabric online. I need to finish those soon because his summer wardrobe is pretty slim.

The weird thing is the back yoke. I think it's made that way for easy color-blocking. My husband has zero desire for color-blocking. I will just combine the pattern pieces next time. Also, Jalie patterns are cool because they include all sizes of boys and men together. They are annoying because they have all the written instructions in one place, then all the instructions in French, then all the diagrams. Going between the two was frustrating. There were other annoying things too, but the final result is good, I just probably won't buy more patterns from them unless I have to.

I haven't made my kids any clothes for a month or so and haven't really had the desire to. My daughters need new dresses, so we took them to the mall. My older daughter easily found something, and we got it on sale and with a coupon, so I was fine buying it. My younger daughter wanted a dress so badly, but we couldn't find anything we liked. They had a bunch of knit play dresses, and she already has those, we wanted a nicer-looking dress. So I promised her I'd make her one, and took her home. There, she picked from my dress patterns and fabric. She chose the Me Hearties pattern by Patterns for Pirates.

It really didn't take long to make. I used some remnant yellow cotton lycra as the under layer. I barely had enough. I used white bra elastic for the neckline and arms. I may re-do those, I pulled them both a bit too tightly.

She had so much fun with it at church because of the circle skirt and twirl factor. I had plenty of the yellow lace left, so I offered to make my older daughter a matching one. She was thrilled, of course! I chose to do the color blocking. I also was thrilled because I used up some remnant swimsuit lining for the under layer, plus most of the yellow lace, and some different white fabric for the color blocking layer. I love using up fabric in my stash! I can't fit more fabric until I use more of what I have, and I really don't like buying fabric and then having it sit around forever. I'd rather use it! Then buy more!

I didn't do the hem properly--you are supposed to hang a circle skirt overnight and then trim it to a circle. Both skirts have some issues, but the bigger one definitely is more noticeable. I may need to fix it, it's pretty bad.

Both girls are thrilled with their new dresses and love matching. I don't ever sew them identical items anymore, there always needs to be a big enough difference that we won't mix them up when doing laundry. This works and both girls are very cute in yellow!

Upcoming projects this week (besides purse sewing for customers): two more polos for my husband, another Bali Blouse for myself, and a pair of shorts I've been promising my son for awhile. We'll see how productive I actually am! I am making a purse for my aunt and hopefully finishing it tonight.

Finally, two girls twirling:

Weekly Sewing Summary