I am slowing beginning to sew more for myself. Sewing for one’s self is intimidating for a lot of reasons. It’s not always easy to choose a pattern. You really don’t know how a dress, shirt, skirt, etc… is going to look until you’ve taken the time to sew it. Another reason I get a bit squeamish at the thought of sewing for me; it’s a lot of yardage to mess up. When I sew for Eliza, most of her patterns take 1/2 yard to 3/4 of a yard. If I mess up that amount of fabric I’m not that concerned. I am concerned when I flub up 2.5 yards worth of Jersey Knit fabric. Also, finding my size is still… complicated. I bit the bullet, I measured myself, I faced that awful number, I cut it out, and it still wasn’t right. What I have discovered so far is this: when I sew for myself, I’m not my “store bought size”, nor am I my “measured size”. I am some frustratingly, ambiguous size in between. I know as I sew more I will learn what my “size” is, but until then I’m afraid there’s been a pretty sharp learning curve.
So why do I do I bother you might ask? Well… because sewing makes me happy (most of the time
). I want to get to the point were I can make clothes that fit my body well. I also get excited about making clothes that are unique and express my own tastes and style. All that being said; here are some of my latest “sewing experiments”~
This is a knit dress I made towards the end of summer. I have never sewn on knit but some of my favorite dresses are made of cotton knit. I found a pattern that looked easy enough, so I tried it out. The pattern is Newlook 6836.
Over all I’m happy with the way it tuned out. It took me the better part of a day to make.
As I was sewing it I could tell it was a little bit large, but when I put it on I realized it was huge! At that moment, as I stood in front of the mirror swimming in my new dress; I was more than a little discouraged. Then, I remembered a black elastic belt I owned that came with another dress. I tried the belt on and…
what was once a tent; became a dress. Sometimes that’s the way sewing works. The right accessory, sweater, jacket, or shirt can make a so-so pattern into something wearable… even pretty. Moral of this story: don’t give up on a dress too soon.
Like I said, it was supposed to be a summer dress but I didn’t get it finished as soon as I would have liked but a pair of black, lacy leggings and a cute sweater makes it a nice winter dress too.
I also made another School House Tunic. I made the dress version of this pattern last spring, but I wanted to try the tunic.
I do love this pattern. It is so simple to make and it always turns out lovely. I added a few embellishments; the lace on the bodice and a large vintage shell button to the back.
The fabric is a light weight shirting material I bought at Joannes Fabric. It has a subtle raised dot pattern woven into the fabric. I like the light weight material for this tunic. It wears and hangs better than bulkier fabrics.

The super adorable boots in these pictures are unfortunately not mine. I borrowed them from my sister-in-law 
This is a simple little flower accessory I made for myself. Just a fabric flower pin that adds a little pop and excitement to a simple sweater. I’m kind of hooked on this mustard yellow color right now. I used the twisted rose tutorial I linked to in this post to make the rose. The turquoise flower is just a simple yo-yo flower with pearl beads glued into the center.
I don’t want to end this post without thanking my sweet sister-in-law, Allison, who ran around in the rain on a Saturday afternoon, taking pictures of me. It was a fun afternoon! Alli has a beautiful blog which I love reading, and not just because she’s family 