Kasey’s Vacation Wardrobe

If you’ve been around these parts for any length of time, you know I am a strong advocate of wardrobe planning.  I have shared my insights on this topic with our local sewing group, the Sewing Fashionistas, where Kasey is an active member. Read on as Kasey continues her journey to build a wardrobe that serves her well!

I’ve always been jealous of my husband – he has a wardrobe for every occasion! For work, it’s eight pairs of pants with 6 polos and 5 short-sleeve button fronts for warm weather, and six long-sleeve button fronts for cool weather. For vacation, he’s got a whole ‘nother set of shorts, slacks and long- and short- sleeve button fronts. For evening wear, he’s got a tuxedo, two suits, three pairs of shoes – one brown leather, one black wing tip and one black tuxedo – and a variety of mix-n-match ties, vests, suspenders and dress shirts. He’s got clothes for the weekend/ non-work, yard clothes, exercise clothes, a summer weight wool sport coat, a corduroy sport coat for cooler weather, swimwear, cycling gear… well you get the idea. Basically, whether he’s going on a vacation, work trip or something else, he has clothes waiting and ready to be packed.

So why am I jealous? Because I don’t have that. (Though my husband would remind me that he only has most of his separate wardrobes because I’ve made so much of it for him, including the summer sport coat!) In the past when I’ve had an event, I’ve felt like I had to scramble and scrounge and shop for weeks – and still come up empty-handed. In the now thirty years I’ve been an adult and have traveled, gone to weddings, funerals, court, business meetings, or just a fancy dinner, I have never felt I had the appropriate clothing.

I’ve been working for several years now to define and refine my silhouette and style, the fit of my clothing, and, most recently, getting my colors done. I feel like I’m in a good place (though Roz says we’ll continually reevaluate all these things as we travel through life), so I decided it was time to work on my own wardrobes, specifically for vacation and evening wear.

So what’s a vacation wardrobe? Essentially, it’s emulating my husband – that I can go to the closet and pack without having to wash everything I own and bring the things I wear around the house or around town. For some, this will seem profligate; but for me, it means having nice things to wear, that are in styles, colors or prints that I might not wear regularly, and really make me feel like I’m on a vacation.

I started planning this wardrobe in fall, because I don’t have a vacation coming up – wha…!? No, I’m not going anywhere this calendar year, so I thought it’d be the perfect time to get a whole bunch of items sewn up – no trips scheduled, no pressure! If I got things done, great! If I didn’t, no problem! There was no where to go….

So what did I get sewn? Quite a lot! Including some things I didn’t have in the original plan, I sewed: 1 pant, 1 short, seven skirts, nine tee-type tops, three cowl necks, one blouse, one turtleneck, three sash belts – and one husband shirt. I started planning in October, and have now finished in February (save my annual break in December), eighteen weeks later.

Tops

Eight new tee-based tops in bright and nautical colors, all using my Bonnie pattern (by Blue Ginger Doll, out of business.) I’ve used jersey knits, cotton spandex knits, ribs knits, bamboo knits – some still available, some long out of stock. I made boat necks, cross shoulders, cowl necks and even made a few extra-fancy with fun buttons from Roz’s offerings.

Tropical Print in Two Colorways

I used B6756 to create a blouse with peplum, and used the rest to make a skirt. If I’d had more fabric, I would have made a tulip shaped faux wrap skirt as in the original dress, but alas, there just wasn’t enough (ask Roz about my two-days-before-Thanksgiving-slight-panic-about-what-to-do-with-the-amount-of-fabric-I-had… yeah.) With careful planning I was able to get the blouse (with a pieced peplum), the sash belt (shorter than I wanted, but still), and a matching skirt.

B6756 was new for me, and I thought it’d make a nice, even fun top for vacation with its shoulder drawstrings and tulip hemline. I did an FBA on the bodice front, then extend the back bodice seams to match. The waist is enclosed elastic; I’m not sure how I feel about it, since most of my bottoms are elasticized too, but we’ll see how it wears out in the wild.

For the A-line skirt, I used K3877, and lined it with a red batiste I just happen to have. I hemmed the lining and fashion fabrics separately, both with a serged edge finish and blind hem. The pockets are half fashion fabric, half batiste, to conserve the fashion fabric, also stayed with fusible tape. The sash belt can be worn with the top or bottom, and is also interfaced with the fusible knit.

For my husband’s shirt, I used K3484, which I’ve made many times, using fusible knit for the facings, serging the edges and faux-felling the seams. I have several times now received praise on this shirt for my pattern-matching prowess – which I deserve, it took me almost two hours to do! But I’m proud of the way it turned out.

Pants

Pants and short pants! I’m not much on wearing pants, but occasionally they are a better choice than a skirt, and I wanted to expand in this area.

The first pair wasn’t too bad; Simplicity 8605, made in white lyocell twill. I really love this fabric; it has gorgeous drape, a smooth hand and a soft sheen. Even in this “paper bag” pant pattern, the fabric will let me wear them day or night. A tee for casual days or a nice top for dinner and I’ve got lots of outfits for any trip!

I’m not hepped up on the pattern itself; I don’t know if it’s Simplicity’s block, or if it’s more of a “misses” pattern, but I’m not happy with it. I took a long hard look at the pattern while I was sewing and realized I had a pant that was similar and already altered, and what I really liked about it was the sash belt… all that time spent, all I really needed was a belt! Well, lesson learned – think harder about why I like the pattern before getting it, because I may already have something that will work.

This is a twill fabric, and it wants to unravel; I serged all of the seams and edges, and used a blind hem stitch for the bottom. I also interfaced the sash belt with fusible knit, and edge stitched to keep it from rolling, as well as giving it a nice finished look.

The second pant is a short, Vogue 9008, in spring green linen. Though this is a fitted waist short, I left the waistband straight in the back so I could elasticize it instead, following directions from the book, Pants for Real People. I do wish I had used a lighter interfacing for the waistband; the pattern recommends a medium weight, which works well for a fitted band, but I didn’t think about the fact that I was cinching up the back waist with elastic. It works, but it’s not the best. Also, being linen, the fabric really wants to have finished edges; I overcast the zipper fly facings, but I think a bound edge with bias would be better. I used the serger for the rest of the seams and edges. Depending on how it wears, I may add bias binding to the crotch seam for stability.

An Anniversary Lunch

My husband and I go out to lunch every year for our wedding anniversary, and I decided to do a couple of quick TNTs for a new outfit. Since it was going to be warmer than usual that day, I chose the white rib knit in bamboo for S9717, and Lagoon Blue and White Dot Leaf print viscose twill (sold out, but similar twills are here) for K3877 (see above), an a-line skirt.

At first, I was already to tell you all about how the white rib knit shrank, starting at 52 inches, then coming out 47 inches from the wash, use a 45-inch layout, blah blah… boy was I wrong. If you have this one in your stash and you haven’t sewn with it yet, it will seem to shrink (I washed in cool water on delicate and let it line dry), but it will grow back. I didn’t take a photo of it, but when I went to put the top on to go to lunch, you would have thought a giant had worn it and stretched it out. I basically had to cut the top apart and re-sew it. It’s still a bit big, but it’s OK. Next time I wash this yardage, I’m going to steam it out gently to let it relax again. Or maybe cut before washing, we’ll see.

As for the viscose twill, considering that I was working with a 1 ¼ yard remnant, I really should have serged or zigzagged the edges to prevent fraying (twills just seem ready to unravel!) I didn’t, but still had enough for my skirt. However, if you have some of this in your stash, you may want to secure the edges anyway: the selvages came undone on one side of each end. I’ve not seen selvage do that before, but I think it just got caught up in all the other loose threads in the washing machine.

While not part of my original vacation wardrobe plan, both of these pieces work really well for it.

A Quick Top and Bottom in Black

I feel like I’m getting to the age where I go to more funerals than weddings, and should know better by now to at least have some black yardage in my stash. But, no, I do not. Well, I do now; I called Roz in a panic one Saturday evening, and she very kindly met me the next day with several classic fabrics in black: ponté, jersey knit (temporarily out of stock),  cotton stretch shirting, viscose charmeuse. I chose the jersey and ponté to make into quick TNT’s so I could get on the road that Tuesday – thanks Roz for understanding! The other two fabrics will be in my stash for future sewing. The jersey was made into a boatneck top based on my TNT tee, and the ponté was made into an a-line skirt, K3877

Skirts

Aside from those already mentioned, I used White Swiss Dot batiste (no longer available) for another breezy, summery skirt. When I pulled it out, I thought of that phrase DJ’s use about “this one being from the way-back machine…” I did buy this many, many moons ago, and I’m finally using it! My original intention was to make the skirt view of S8605, but as I mentioned before, why was I trying to reinvent the wheel? I reverted back to my TNT K3877, which I lined with batiste, and added a sash belt which is interfaced with chevron knit in white.

This was one of those new patterns I thought would make a nice change, try a new silhouette, but I just didn’t feel it. Maybe it’s McCall’s block, maybe because it’s a “misses” pattern, I don’t know. I think for all the time and energy I spent adjusting this pattern, I’d be better off taking my K3877 TNT and adding a side seam with buttons and maybe a flounce. I did though do a pattern match on the front, but it didn’t work out! An hour wasted because I was using the fold line instead of the button/buttonhole line to match the pattern. This was made all the more ironic because I first caught myself using the cutting line to match the pattern; too bad I didn’t triple check.  PSA – be certain of which line you’re using! I did briefly consider sewing the seam closed to show off the pattern match, but I got this pattern for the buttons, so I let it be. It’s actually not that far off, so it looks OK.

Evening Separates

You’ve seen the burgundy top before, in my Birthday Mini Capsule post. The other two fabrics (not from Sew Much Fabric) are oldies from the stash, and were made into another deep cowl neck, and a shallower cowl neck with matching skirt.

Between all these, plus other pieces I’ve made over the years (skirts, tops, etc.), I now have quite a collection, and no longer feel the need to rely on last minute shopping (or sewing…)!