What I did with My Winter Vacation

Dear Mom,
After the holidays, I settled down with the sewing machine and began some serious production. First I made this skirt (in an afternoon, then wore it that night, I believe).

This was also the work of only an hour or so. I wanted to make a jean skirt from an old holey pair of jeans, but I did not want to do it the usual way, with the long pointy triangle inserts. There's no perfectly neat way to deal with the fly in front with that method, and the triangles look tired to me, too predictable. So I fiddled around and came up with this.


I began by cutting the leg pieces in half along the seam line, then using the old side seam as the bottom, I wrapped two leg halves around the skirt. The bottom hems of the pants are that poochy bit on the right side in the photograph above. I left them open for a bit of a slit (I also saved one of the old patched holes on the dangling part in the back). This skirt looks better on me than it does on the hanger - I pulled and eased the pants legs to really get it to fit well.

Then, after the two skirts, I thought I better sew something to wear on top.

This is New Look 6976. I had both the fabric and the pattern here, waiting to be used. This is the second time that I've made this pattern, and I think it might be my last. I thought the gathered (tiny) cap sleeves (they're really more like cap epaulettes) might compensate for the general boxiness of this pattern. I may add some applique or a bit of ribbon to the side seams to tie in back. This will still be a useful shirt to wear under sweaters and jackets now, and by itself in the warmer months - I do like the print quite a bit.

Then I took a time-out from the garment sewing and whipped this out before going over to campus one morning. It's a sleeve for my laptop.

I bet you recognize the fabric? I used two layers of batting for extra cush. The green ribbon was in the bag of odds and ends from Julie.

And finally, I sewed a dress. Another quick and easy garment, this is Simplicity 3875. I cut it out and started sewing late last Saturday night, then did the rest of the construction Tuesday night because I really wanted to wear it on Wednesday.
It is flannel. My goal was to make a dress for winter; I've been wearing my summer dresses quite a bit, with extra layers underneath and sweaters, which has been a good solution, but also means I wear the same things all year round. This dress is pretty toasty, even though the (kimono) sleeves are really only elbow length. It is also extremely comfortable - nightgown-comfy, really. I wore it with my tall black boots, and my grey stole, and it was a good outfit for a long day. (I only matched the stripes on one place - the front center bands!) I will sew another dress from this pattern again, because I think it produced a good, basic-but-not-too-basic everyday dress (the sizing seems overly generous, though - I made a size 10 without any altering at all and I think it may still be a little big).

This sewing has been no fine hand-rolled hem. This spurt of sewing has been strictly about the product, and using things that I've had set aside. But still - satisfying.

Love, Gwen
(ps - glad you like the new look of the blog)