Hi!!
Wow. It’s been awhile since I have blogged so I am very thrilled to be blogging about Style Makers Fabric Spring Tour today!
Spring is here!! Well here in SoCal Spring arrived a month ago. Flowers are blooming and the weather has been in the 70’s and 80’s (except for the day I took pics of course, it was pouring rain). So when Michelle asked if I would like to participate in the Spring tour I was more than willing to get started on my Spring Wardrobe. Of course, the hard part was deciding which fabric to go with because there were several that I wanted. She also has many delicate Swiss Dots and Eyelet fabrics in the prettiest Spring colors, that are to die for! I decided to pick this beautiful blue (think Chambray), white and black floral shirting fabric to pair with McCall’s M8036 (Sasha).
Let me first start off chatting about the fabric. It is a light to medium weight fabric with a moderate drape which is typical for a shirting fabric. I washed it on delicate/cold cycle prior to cutting and I experienced the typical amount of shrinkage one would expect for a cotton fabric. The background has a Chambray look and goes right along with the Pantone color of the year, Classic Blue. I am thrilled to add more garments that are predominantly blue.
Next up, let’s chat about the Sasha dress. This is my first McCall’s dress in about 5 years! I was so impressed with their new Spring patterns I was ready to jump back in and try again. Now, I have always had a hard time figuring out my sizing which is kind of the reason why I stopped sewing with their patterns. I did sew a muslin of the bodice prior to cutting out the delicious fabric. The muslin was pretty close to the right fit but still needed some small changes to the bodice. I have a 33 ½” bust but usually always size up to 34” because I feel I have a slightly broad back. I choose to make a size 12 however after making the muslin I modified sewing the bodice along the side seams. I started out sewing at the armhole raw edge with a 1” seam allowance and then graded out to a ½” SA at the bottom waistline raw edge (normal SA is 5/8″). The back bodice was a perfect fit across the shoulder blades on me.
I did some additional hacks to the pattern to make it uniquely me! First off, I shortened the skirt pattern pieced by 1” and then hemmed the skirt with a 2” SA instead of 1 ¼”. I really did not want the dress to be too long on my legs.
The last modification I did was to switch out the original sleeve with the sleeve from the Brynn pattern, M8035. The sleeve has a smaller sleeve cap yet is still billowy. To duplicate the length of the original sleeve, I shortened the new sleeve pattern piece 5”. I kept the sleeve band pattern piece from the original sleeve. So overall had a similar feel but the sleeve cap is not as full.
I want thank Michelle for asking me to join the Style Maker Fabric Blog Tour!!! I absolutely love the fabric and look forward to making more Spring items with the fabric I bought from the shop. Oh and guess what??? They are doing a special US shipping deal, only $5!!
Be sure to follow along with all the makers by checking out Style Maker Fabric Instagram Page each day!!
Until next time!
-Alexis
My Sweet Sunshine Studio Blog 