McCall 7160 Full Circle Skirt Pattern Hack

I just love the McCall 7160 skirt.  The drape, the fit and the swirl factor!  Since it's a GOOD thing, I thought that I could hack it into a yoga style skirt.

I've wanted a yoga skirt for a year or so but I knew it was such an easy pattern I couldn't see spending $15 from Silhouette Patterns for it.  I did see a similar skirt at Wal-Mart last week for only $8, and thought maybe I would just buy it, try it on, measure it then return it.

But I thought I would just hack the pattern I already liked and add a yoga style waistband.

First,  I copied the tissue pattern onto my brown kraft paper.

McCall 7180 Skirt Pattern Hack

Next I made four pencil lines from waist to hem.

Slashing pattern

I measured 1-1/4" and marked on either side of the penciled lines.  Cutting the penciled lines from bottom to towards the waist leaving a 1/4" hinge at the top.

Mark and overlap

I overlapped each cut piece matching up the pencil marks.  Tape the overlapped paper.  This significantly made the skirt hem narrower.

Pattern hack

I repeated the steps again and again to make a total of three different skirt flare widths.  Would you call this the slash & shrink method?

Slash & shrink again & again

Three new skirt patterns

Three different skirt pattern flares.

I am excited to have a number of great fitting skirt patterns to choose from now.

I am going to go pick a top from my closet that I like and never wear because I don't have an appropriate proportion skirt to top ration to wear.

Cooling Bands For Hot Days

Girl M. is playing in an All-Stars Softball tournament.  I don't think the league realizes it's over 100 degrees when these girls play.  Not only is is bad on the players but it sure makes the parents cranky too!

I bought two of these neck cooling bands a few years ago at Dollar Tree for a trip to the beach.  We've used them many times and I always threatened to make more............ AND finally I made 7 more.

I used some steps from this tutorial.  I would make them longer.  Maybe 44" length. And I wouldn't  sew a parallel seam in the middle of the 14" pocket for the gel.  Making it easier to evenly distribute the water filled gel to fill the entire pocket.

Each band only took 1/2 tsp of the gel crystals.  I have plenty leftover.  Guess what the family is getting for Christmas!

Cooling Bands

Easy, fast, and I am so thankful I did!  They came in handy and helped cool us off.  It was 97 degrees and there wasn't a cloud in sight.  No wind either.  Just plain old HOT!

Girl M warming up

 Sunday's game was cancelled due to weather.  A 360 degree change from the previous day!

Girl M waiting for lighting to pass

I'm off to sew something wonderful in the Air Conditioning!

Until next time...................

Bonnie

Simplicity 7243 White Ponte Knit Princess Sheath Dress

I picked a Bob Mackie navy and white jacket from the back of my closet so make something to wear to go with it.

The jacket measured 30" in length and in the Dressed to Kill Gently book by Peggy Sagers it says to keep the jacket in proportion to my body my skirt/dress needs to be only 10" showing below the bottom of the jacket.

I thought a princess sheath dress would fit the bill perfect.

I've made the Simplicity 7243 pattern many times in the past here and here and I thought why re-draft a pattern when I have a perfect fit one already.

I did change it up a little by making the dress sleeveless, used facings for the neckline and the armholes, shortened it to 40" and top stitched the princess seams.

Simplicity 7243 White Ponte Knit Sheath Dress

Princess seams topstitched

Neck facing

Armhole facings

This is such a great fit on me and I get many compliments when I wear this pattern.  It's a perfect dress to wear with the Bob Mackie Navy jacket I've had in the back of my closet for a few years.

I hope I do Bob Mackie proud.  I'll be wearing it to Church this coming Sunday.

Bob Mackie Jacket

$10.00 Dress

I also made a slip from the same pattern.  I just lowered the neckline and the armholes and shortened the length by 2".

Princess seam slip

I serged all seams with three threads.  The smaller seams helped the seams stretch.

Slip

Slip

Slip bottom hem

This fabric was great to work with.  It sewed up like a dream and with the stretch the fit is great under the dress.

$3.98 slip

I will be making more slips from this fabric in the future for sure.

Until next time...................

Bonnie

Always Room For Improvement

I recently purchased Peggy Sagers' book Dressed to Kill Gently.  I found the book very interesting and have learned many things about dressing for my proportion.  Not my width or size but what looks best on my body.

Dressed To Kill Gently

Lots of Information

The body is so fascinating.  Did you know that you are most likely have the same measurements from the top of your head to the bend in your hip/leg as you are from the bend in your hip/leg to the floor.  Isn't that amazing!  Also most women are 13" from shoulder to waist.  Who knew.   I'm normal after all!

When measuring, make sure you have someone help you.  When I measured compared to someone measuring me the difference was inches.

 I am a Type 3, I need to use shoulder pads.  Lots of vertical lines like princess seams, sheath dresses and tucking my tops in (I'm slowly working on that one).

Dressing for proportions is having your clothing at a 1:1, 1:1 1/2; 1:3, 1:4 ratio on your clothing part of your body (shoulder to knee, or mid-calf or ankle).

In my closet are a few Bob Mackie jackets I have bought but never wore because I could never find anything that I thought went with them.  Since I don't wear pants, dresses and skirts were always a challenge to pair.  After measuring the length of the jacket (30") it says that I need a dress or skirt that only show 8-10" below the jacket.  Making this proportion a 1:1-1/2.

I am thinking of a white ponte knit princess seam sheath dress.  40" long, v neck and sleeveless.  I just thought that even a yellow sheath dress........  Now my mind is working!

Until next time.............


Bonnie

I LIED! I Made Another Quilt or Two!

I know I said no more, but they were crib size!

We have a few babies expected soon at our church and a family friend's daughter had twins last month.  So really I needed to sew up 6 quilts, we'll see.............

My inspiration for the first quilt was a quilt kit I saw online at www.connectingthreads.com.  The anchors are cute but I didn't want to do applique so I substituted with three sailboat quilt blocks.

Inspiration piece

Sailboat Quilt Block

Quilt Top

Finished Sailboat Quilt

Looking through my quilt bin I found I had two jelly rolls.  One was in shades of pinks and purples and I thought that I could whip up something.

I sewed five strips together then cut them into 12" sections.

Strips sewn together

Quilt top

Quilt Top

I think I have figured my free motion quilting stress.  I like squares.  I like sewing straight lines.  Free motion stresses me.  It makes me fret.  I did my best with these two quilts but so relieved when I was done.  I don't like free motion quilting.  It's just a fact.

Walking Foot

Loopy loop free motion quilting

Quilt top complete

Crazy loops

I quilted with Sulky blendable 30wt thread.  I'm not sure it was worth $6.  It would break easily in my machine.  I couldn't see the variegation of colors in person but I did notice it shows up better in the photo.

Sulky Blendable 30wt thread

Until next time.................

Bonnie

Simplicity 1355 Jumpsuit Refashioned

Girl M brought me her Simplicity 1355 jumpsuit to shorten since she has grown 6" since I made it.  She wanted it cut to shorts.

Simplicity 1355

Back View

I am hoping that she will get the rest of the summer use out of this jumper.

Simplicity 1355-turned to shorts

Back view

I think it looks so much better.  I am thinking another one in a chambray fabric would be nice too.  We'll see.........

Simplicity 1355

Until next time.....................

Bonnie

Butterick 6838 Orange Floral Nightgown

I told you I was going to make another nightgown.  I have had this thrifted sheet for years and I knew I held onto it for "something special".

Butterick 6838 Orange Floral Nightgown

Front Yoke

Back Yoke View

My ITY & jersey knit fabrics were driving me crazy.  I had them sorted by solid and prints and each took three bins.  I went through them and sorted them by cut lengths.  Now I know which ones I can use for dresses compared to just a top.

It's so much easier to glance over and see what I have for what I want to sew up next.

Knit Fabric Sort

I'm off to sew something wonderful!

Until next time................

Bonnie