{"id":4357,"date":"2013-05-30T04:25:29","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T11:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=4357"},"modified":"2013-05-30T00:58:08","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T07:58:08","slug":"sewing-for-me-linen-top-white-skirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=4357","title":{"rendered":"Sewing for Me: Linen Top + White Skirt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sewing for myself is becoming addictive. I’m keeping it simple and am continuing with baby steps in building a handmade wardrobe as you can see. I have yet to have a seam-ripper-free experience and every project has had its share of snafus, but I am totally<\/em> getting into this selfish sewing business.<\/p>\n

For one, I’m learning about my body shape on a whole new level. The other day, K lovingly looked at my legs and said, “Mommy, you have the cutest legs!” “Really???” I responded incredulously. “Yeah, they look like giant squashes!”<\/p>\n

…um.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out them giant squash calves. There’s a reason I wear almost exclusively jeans, preferably boot cut in dark washes. But I saw this skirt in this book<\/a> (from which I attempted the top<\/a> last week) and I really wanted to make a summery, white version.\u00a0The midi length is probably not the most flattering for my gourd-like legs (which look oddly discolored in this photo), but with the pin-tucks and substantial heft of the linen\/cotton blend, I love how the skirt feels.<\/p>\n

The skirt sits low on my hips and I can see now that it throws off my body proportions when the top is tucked in. I still cringe at pictures of myself, but through sewing and these photos, I’m finding that I’m a little less critical. Just a little. And at this point, I’m truly having a hard time taking myself too seriously.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s called a “wrap skirt” in the book, but it’s not really. I think it just refers to the fact that the ties wrap around the waist. I have to literally squeeze and shimmy myself into the skirt because there is no button or zip closure. It’s kind of weird and the instructions may be wrong. Here it is from the back – the tucks\/pleats look nice, right?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I found that the pattern pieces didn’t match up very well (this happened with the top from last week as well), and although I really like so many of the designs in this book, I am not loving these types of inconsistencies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The linen tank top was an afterthought. I had accidentally pulled out this pattern<\/a> when looking for another top, and thought, “Hey, this looks easy!” I had just enough of this cocoa-colored linen left over from the Belgian Style dress<\/a> I made K, and I really love this fabric. It has a dart on the arm scythe pointing down toward the apex (in other words, a downward dart from the armpit to the boob), which I don’t think you see often, and I wanted to see how it would look on me. Eh. I like it fine though the neckline got a little wonky, and it might<\/em> provide a little bit of a slimming contour. Because I didn’t cut it on the bias (not enough fabric), I just used bias binding to finish all the raw edges.<\/p>\n

Here I am, gripping the fabric of the top to make it look less blobby.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m focusing on summer clothes even though it’s grey and rainy here in Seattle because in a few weeks, we’re going to the lake in Michigan and I had this idea of making a vacation mini-wardrobe. My goal is to have 10 me-made garments (that fit well and that I love) to take with me on the trip. I’m feeling ambitious…Not sure if this skirt and top will make the cut (the shimmying into the skirt leaves me feeling a bit undignified), but so far, they’re pretty comfy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sewing for myself is becoming addictive. I’m keeping it simple and am continuing with baby steps in building a handmade wardrobe as you can see. I have yet to have a seam-ripper-free experience and every project has had its share of snafus, but I am totally getting into this selfish sewing business. For one, I’m learning about my body shape on a whole new level. The other day, K lovingly looked at my legs and said, “Mommy, you have the cutest legs!” “Really???” I responded incredulously. “Yeah, they look like giant squashes!” …um. Check out them giant squash calves. There’s a reason I wear almost exclusively jeans, preferably boot cut in dark washes. But I saw this skirt in this book (from which I attempted the top last week) and I really wanted to make a summery, white version.\u00a0The midi length is probably not the most flattering for my gourd-like legs (which look oddly discolored in this photo), but with the pin-tucks and substantial heft of the linen\/cotton blend, I love how the skirt feels. The skirt sits low on my hips and I can see now that it throws off my body proportions when the top is tucked in. I still cringe at pictures of myself, but through sewing and these photos, I’m finding that I’m a little less critical. Just a little. And at this point, I’m truly having a hard time taking myself too seriously. It’s called a “wrap skirt” in the book, but it’s not really. I think it just refers to the fact that the ties wrap around the waist. I have to literally squeeze and shimmy myself into the skirt because there is no button or zip closure. It’s kind of weird and the instructions may be wrong. Here it is from the back – the tucks\/pleats look nice, right? I found that the pattern pieces didn’t match up very well (this happened with the top from last week as well), and although I really like so many of the designs in this book, I am not loving these types of inconsistencies. The linen tank top was an afterthought. I had accidentally pulled out this pattern when looking for another top, and thought, “Hey, this looks easy!” I had just enough of this cocoa-colored linen left over from the Belgian Style dress I made K, and I really love this fabric. It has a dart on the arm scythe pointing down toward the apex (in other words, a downward dart from the armpit to the boob), which I don’t think you see often, and I wanted to see how it would look on me. Eh. I like it fine though the neckline got a little wonky, and it might provide a little bit of a slimming contour. Because I didn’t cut it on the bias (not enough fabric), I just used bias binding to finish all the raw edges. Here I am, gripping the fabric of the top to make it look less blobby. I’m focusing on summer clothes even though it’s grey and rainy here in Seattle because in a few weeks, we’re going to the lake in Michigan and I had this idea of making a vacation mini-wardrobe. My goal is to have 10 me-made garments (that fit well and that I love) to take with me on the trip. I’m feeling ambitious…Not sure if this skirt and top will make the cut (the shimmying into the skirt leaves me feeling a bit undignified), but so far, they’re pretty comfy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sewing","7":"category-sewing-for-me","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4357"}],"version-history":[{"count":83,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4475,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions\/4475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}