drafting | Sewing | Sewing for me

Elegant, and yet, still very, very comfy…

December 20, 2016

Ah, the holidays.  The food, the fun, the endless get togethers with family  and friends.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but being comfortable is pretty high on my list.  It is also nice to wear layers, since if you are doing the cooking, or are in a crowded house…you can get pretty hot.

This was my answer.

I made a sleeveless yoke top, palazzo pants and a cardigan to go together.  I love how each piece turned out, but…they make me look a bit bigger than I would like.  Just because you love the pieces and they look good on you…they won’t necessarily look good together. On me.  I think I lost 6 inches in height.

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So…I will not choose to wear them together again!  I think with palazzo pants I need to have a fitted top to balance it out.

First are the Palazzo pants out of a chocolate brown 4-way stretch velvet.  This is my pattern draft and what the pieces look like:

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The drape is amaze-balls and it feels so fantastic.  I bought it locally, and need to go back for more colors.  When sewing with velvet, make sure to cut it in the right direction for the nap.

Next is my sleeveless yoked top (my pattern).  My normal way of making this has a gather in the middle front.  I didn’t have enough fabric left to do that, having sacrificed this fabric at the alter of my daughter’s wardrobe. 😉

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Next time I make this, an adjustment at the middle front is needed.  It was a little too pointy, so doesn’t lay quite right.  It needs more of a curve. It still works, and it hits at just right the spot on my hip.

Then, we come to the cardigan.

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This is a sweatshirt fleece by The Worth Collection.  Love having a store nearby that gets leftovers from clothing lines.  This is the softest sweatshirt fleece ever, with a decent amount of lycra in it.  If they had in more neutral colors I would have bought more.  I think they had some in some brighter colors that I would never wear, but I did think about it.

The pattern?  Mine, yes.

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The back skirt curves around to the front, and attaches along the side.  The drape front turns into the back neckband.  I was going to try to do that part on the fold, but there would have been some grain issues, and it was too wide, as well.

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This turned out fairly close to what I wanted for fit.  The dart was a bit too low, so I will fix that next time.  Part of the reason it is low, also has to do with the weight of the fabric.  It is a bit heavy with the skirt part, so it is pulling the top down.  I also did thumb-hole cuffs on it.

Overall, pretty happy with these pieces! 🙂

 

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