The Ella Hepburn Combo

When the challenges were announced for June, I told myself that I would only be entering the first week’s dress challenge as I didn’t own any other Indie patterns. Well…after completing the first challenge, I just couldn’t resist entering the separates challenge too!! I didn’t have the time to order paper pattern so I took the plunge with ordering a couple of pdf patterns for the first time.

I’ve never been great at matching separates, especially skirts, so I wanted to stay away from making another skirt that would just sit in my wardrobe. I quite fancied a pair of shorts in the hope that I would be able to wear them more.

I then talked myself out of taking part as the only fabrics I had in my stash were 3 yard lengths, which I had bought for dresses. I didn’t really want to be cutting into them for smaller items and they didn’t match at all so I couldn’t really make a top with one of the fabrics and shorts with another…they just wouldn’t have looked like an outfit at all! After spilling my dilemma to a friend, she suggested that I made both items out of the SAME fabric (bought at $1.60 a yard from Joanns!) to have a jumpsuit effect!

So the search for patterns was back on and I headed over to Indiesew to browse their selection. I ended up choosing the Ella Top by Liola Patterns and the Hepburn Shorts by The Pattern Emporium.

Hepburn shorts
The shorts have 4 options; I chose the elasticated play length option. These are pleated at the front with a flat waistband piece. The rest of the waistband is elasticated, which gathers the rest of the shorts. I decided to be slightly daring and opted for a contrast waistband. The construction was relatively simple – seams sewn, waistband attached & elastic inserted. I changed the 4cm hem to a 1″hem so I had a tiny extra bit of length.

Ella Top
I really enjoyed making this as the construction was completely different to anything I had done before. One shoulder is French seamed, then the neck and arm hole binding was completed before the other shoulder and side seams were stitched together! Crazy! I did actually find the the bindings were easier to apply this way but it did make one of my shoulder seams quite bulky. The lined yoke is a lovely feature and makes this feel like slightly more advances; I used the fabric I had used for the waistband on the shorts for the yoke & bindings on the top. I did get slightly distracted when sewing the neck binding of so I missed some of it when topstitching it back – oops! Nothing a second row of topstitching couldn’t fix though!

This outfit was completed, from purchase to completion, in an afternoon/evening. I love the final look and it is lovely to wear. I like that I have the option to tuck to the top in or leave it out, and I love the fact that it has a slight 60s vibe to it too! Both will be made again…maybe even in matching fabric. 😀