Hey you're just too funky for me

I've done a lot of sewing over the past 9 days--I had energy at night to sew (although I had promised myself to never sew after work again after this mishap) and then I took Friday off from work.

Let's start the show!

1. Simplicity 4095, view A

Ok, so this one was kind of a mess. It's supposed to have these super cute side gathers, which are super cute side on.

But head on, ugh.

The problems began when I saw how small the pattern pieces for the 14 (my usual New Look size) looked. So I went up two sizes. I should have gone down one size. The finished garment measurements were on target. Lesson learned: Trust the finished garment measurements!

I wound up taking out the side gathers

I also pulled the right wrap over a bit more to take care of the gaping bust line.

See what I did there?
This has been Sewing Pattern Reviewed.

2. New Look 6762, redux.
I wear this shirt quite a lot (looks great under a brown cardigan, since the cardigan hides those awful shoulder darts while still displaying the ruffled collar, and brown and aqua is such a fab combo). The sleeves were just slightly too short. So I decided to lengthen them by adding an elasticated ruffle to the sleeve edges, mimicking the ruffled collar.

Pretty awesome!
This has been Sewing Pattern Reviewed.
SPR'ers are the nicest people! Here's Joan1954's comment on my review:
"I love your ruffled remake of this top. Maybe (for large cash) you should sell New Look the rights to redo this pattern your way. :D I'd buy your version any day!"

3. New Look 6828, View A
Inspired by Antoinette's refashions, I took a mock turtleneck my dad didn't want:

And turned it into this gem:

I love those gathers! I barely had enough fabric to make the shirt, though, and had to cut the back yoke against the grain.

But it all worked out and the pattern was quite fun to make. Because I paid attention to the finished garment measurements, I was able to pick out the right New Look size (10 for this one!)

Here's what the full garment looks like:

The best part was not having to hem it, since I used the original shirt hem instead. Awesome!

This has been Sewing Pattern Reviewed.

4. New Look 6807, view E
I made this shirt again, this time in gray double knit!

I adore those ties in the back.

You may recall, I already made this shirt in pink:

So I was trying to add sleeves on to this gray one for winter. No sleeves were included for this pattern (even though other views have sleeves, those shirts have raglan sleeves; this shirt would require regular ol' sleeves.) So I tried putting regular ol' sleeves in, using New Look 6828 sleeves. However, what I failed to realize first was that the shoulder is not wide enough so the sleeves pulled on the neckline in their attempt to find some ease.

So I took the sleeves out and put in armhole bindings instead.

This has been Sewing Pattern Reviewed.

5. New Look 6782, view D.
I really wanted to make a red shirt for Valentine's Day! This one I'm still not done with. I didn't like the look of the gathered "skirt" (bottom portion of the shirt) so I extended the midriff panel and cut out the skirt straight, no gathers. Also, the bust gaped for me (again) so here's what I did to fix it:

Here's where I'm at now:

I mean, it looks done. But the hemline is one inch longer on one side compared to the other, which I definitely will fix before moving on to my next project. And I'm trying to decide if I should use the braided trim or not?

It's just draped on in that shot (love my expression), and obviously, if I sewed it on, I would sew it on straight and finish up those edges at the end. There's also a braided belt that I could make too. What do you think? Braid or no braid?

This has been Sewing Pattern Reviewed.

Other sewing stuff
I cut out a bathrobe and another shirt to make. I'm going to be good now. No more crawling all over the floor cutting stuff out with my hurt back. Today I made a huge sewing purchase: a big rotary cutting mat, big enough to cover my dining room table. I got it at Michael's with a 50% off coupon. It is in three sections and can be locked together. When I'm not using it, it will be stored under my living room couch. In a few days, I will go back and buy the rotary cutter with a 40% off coupon. I'm hoping it changes my life! The mat itself was a bit heavy to carry to my car so now my back is letting me know that because I'm not supposed to lift anything--but I promise to be good the rest of the week with it so that it can mend, especially now that it's week 5 of my injury!!

V-day update: I forgot to mention, in addition to items in yesterday's post, Pete also gave me 2 scratch off lottery tix ("Love Bug" losers) and a Valentine card that I was going to give him but wound up giving him a different card. How funny would that have been if we sent each other the same card? (It helps that he bought it in Princeton before he left, and that we both like JoyCards so much!). He also made me a very cute video Valentine. He also says another gift is on its way.