Cabo Halter Sew-a-Long!

 


I participated in my first sew-a-long this past week with Susan from Living with Punks. I haven’t worked with very many patterns before so this was a learning experience for me. There were some highs and a few lows but when the halter top was done, I was in love!

 

 

 

 

Day 1 Tracing and Cutting. 

I didn’t want to cut my pattern so I used white tissue paper and traced the pattern and cut them out. Then I laid out my tissue paper pieces and cut out my fabric. Pretty easy for day 1.



 

Day 2 Sewing the Bodice.

 

Things were going well until I got to the darts. Darts are pieces of fabric folded into a triangle shape to give the fabric some definition and shape to the garment. I’ve never done a dart before and the bodice calls for four because the bodice is lined. The darts didn’t seem to line up perfectly and I made them too small. I didn’t discover this until my bodice was completely done so let’s just say I had a lot of rework to do on day 3.

Day 3 Attaching Top & Bottom and zipper.

This is where I figured out that I made the darts too small. The bodice didn’t fit with the bottom pieces. So, I had to go back and redo all the bodice pieces. Yikes! I was almost ready to throw in the towel! But I’m so glad I didn’t. After I redid the darts (which I think I’ve mastered now :) ) my pieces fit together nicely.
Next I attached my first invisible zipper. I don’t enjoy putting zippers in but this one went really well and much faster than I thought. Then I had to hem the bottom of the top. For the final touch I added some navy yarn lace trim, that I upcycled from another old shirt of mine, and hand stitched it in the center of the bodice. It went perfect with my fabric (Amy Butler's Love Ivory in Arabesque).

 
I really liked this pattern. I love Amy Butler fabric and didn't know how her sewing patterns would be like. I'm really glad I joined the sew-a-long, and now I have a great summer top. I wished the pattern would have called for having the bottom side pieces serged (separately) before putting in the zipper. This way the edges would not fray or have the possibility of strings getting in the zipper.

Since I live in Iowa, it's a little too cool to wear this top by itself so I took an old sweater and made it into a cardigan. I used the same fabric as my halter top and now can wear it year round now! I will be posting a tutorial on this very soon to my blog.

Happy Easter!

I've been pretty busy this last week. With Easter approaching fast, I realized I had only one week until I had to get all three of my little ladies' Easter outfits finished! I knew I wouldn't have enough time to make three complete dresses so I decided to make a fancy skirt and embellish a t-shirt to match, and of course a new type of hair bow or headband.

For the skirt I made up my own design and did my first lined skirt. I wanted a fluffy skirt so I added some chiffon that I ruffled and attached to the lining. My little ladies loved their outfits on Easter morning. Two of them did a little modeling for me to show off their new outfits.

New Hand Stamped Necklaces

I wanted to add some pictures of some of the recent necklaces that I have done lately. All of my items are sterling silver, even down to the jump ring and chain and are handmade by me.