Extra Fabric Needed to Match Plaids

No sewing this weekend.  I was in another town working.  I don't know how much I've mentioned it but not only do I have the honor of serving in the military as a traditional reservist but I serve the military members and their families as well in my job capacity.  It's a great honor and humbling to be among these people as they prepare for deployments or are returning from.  In the interest of security I'm sure you'll understand if I don't go into to much more detail.  So even though I didn't spend the weekend relaxing, it was very satisfying.

Here is a project to share with you that I worked on this last week.

I've had this cute plaid fabric for...well, a really really long time.  It's a lightweight cotton that's a little rough and has a tendency to wrinkle a bit but not horribly.  I haven't bothered to measure it but I think I've around 4 yards of it and for as long as I've had it I've not had a clue as to what to make with it.   Finally I got a flash of inspirations.

 I learned most of my apparel sewing in high school and while there have been the odd projects here and there (the last big one being over 7 years ago and a bit of a fail) I am not ready to dive into anything beyond the straight seam or occasional dart quite yet, so I love the simplicity of this pattern. I decided to make version A (the main picture) It's two side seams, two sleeve seams, lace, a casing, a hem and some elastic.  The most difficult part was lining up the pieces so my plaid matched.  (whoohoo, I remembered this from my high school days)

 

I did make an adjustment to increase the width at the bottom to make sure it wasn't snug around my hips and were I to make it again I would do the casing for the elastic differently  As is it makes the lace want to fold to the inside.  Other than that it's great and just reeks of spring.  My boyfriend thinks it's quite adorable.   

What's great about this is that fabric and lace are both from my stash, all I had to buy was the the elastic, so my cost on this was under $2!  

I'm rather excited to get back into apparel sewing so expect to see more of those sewing projects.  Thanks for stopping by.  Take care.