3 Amnesties from Last Summer’s IPM

I love this amnesty idea because my sewing projects always get away from me.  I’m not much of one for New Year’s resolutions, but I’m striving lately to 1) schedule a little time each weekend to sew, and 2) quit starting 5 projects at a time, so I don’t have 6+ month-old UFOs.  Over the semester break I took some time to finish these off, so here are the results!

First up are two variations on the Sew Over It Anderson Blouse.  It was part of the 9-5 Capsule bundle and I had intended to enter this, along with the Alberta Street pencil skirt and the Salt jacket, but I ran into some sizing issues and didn’t finish them in time.

For both I used the same satiny polyester blend from Jo-Ann’s.  I cut the first one as a size 12, which what the size chart dictated according to my measurements.  I knew it was meant to be blouse-y, but wow, was it huge!  The whole thing, especially because I had made it in white, was giving off a very Seinfeld-puffy-shirt vibe.  The sleeves made it worse, so I decided to leave it sleeveless by making a wide bias tape to finish it.

Tucked in is not too bad:

This picture is making me think I should peg this skirt a bit…but one thing at a time!

But shortly thereafter I took it in by about 3 inches on each side.  It almost works as a top now.  I had finished the bottom edge but I’m thinking maybe I should add some sort of stretchy bottom band so it will also look fine untucked.

 

Still pretty voluminous, though.

I already had the sleeves that were supposed to go on this shirt (and I had already done the cuffs and everything), and they weren’t so terribly large, so I decided to cut another bodice.  I went down 3 sizes, and this was the result:

 

But let’s talk about the skirt for a minute.

It’s the Lindy Petal Skirt from Itch-to-Stitch, which could have been a contender for the “I’m the last person to make X” theme, since it’s a free pattern and has been made up so many times.  I had this stretch woven remnant from Britex Fabrics in San Francisco that I thought would be perfect for this.  The plan was to pair with one or both of these Anderson Blouses; I was envisioning this Katharine Hepburn/English Patient sort of thing:

I did grade between sizes and added a side zipper, but otherwise I followed the pattern.  I think this one turned out really well, and it’s already become a wardrobe staple.

But as for the English Patient dreams?  Well, there’s one problem…can you guess what it is?

How about now?

So, the Anderson Blouse (this is the 3-sizes-smaller version) leaves you with so much extra fabric for tucking that it’s made me look slightly pregnant.  I’m not pretending I don’t have a little bit of paunch, but in comparison:

Well, then.

Maybe eventually I’ll find the right bottom for these tops.  I’m not mad at the way they look under a jacket or tucked into a less form-fitting skirt.  But I’d still only give the pattern a 5/10 because, even with the planned flowy-ness of the design, the sizing is just bananas.

10/10 for the Lindy Petal Skirt, though.  That one is a gem.