If you live in the Houston area, you know fall doesn’t always show up on time! Kasey decided to start her fall sewing anyway, by sewing summer-weight fabrics in warm, autumn colors. Her striped linen blouse and brick red shorts are a great combo for those “still 90° in October” days. Read on to see how she blended comfort, pattern tweaks, and lots of hand-sewing to create these breezy fall-inspired outfits.
If you’ve been in Houston for the beginning of October, you know it hasn’t felt like fall much at all. Even a few nights in the upper 60’s aren’t enough to make up for daytime highs in the upper 90’s!
I’ve had philosophical discussions with Roz over the years, about how to dress for the changing seasons when we don’t usually have more than hot, darn hot, sweltering hot, and occasionally freezing! But Roz says one way to incorporate the change of season is to use fall colors with summer weight fabrics and styles.
I was inspired by Syreeta’s post showing off her new shorts and hi-lo hem blouse. While I’m not about to be so fashion forward as to have an actual hi-lo hem, I did try to interpret the look for myself.
I started with my color palette, and chose fabrics in fall colors. The first was the Ivory/Wheat/Garnet/Red Clay Stripe Shirting in linen, followed by Sand Washed Cotton in brick red. There’s also sand washed cotton in dark garnet, but I wanted to keep to a lighter color for summer/ fall use.
For the linen I used Simplicity 9952, a very oversized, drop shoulder blouse with sleeve options. To interpret hi-low for me, when I did my FBA, I left the front hem short, instead of lengthening it as usual for an FBA. The blouse also naturally sits back further on the shoulder being so oversized, creating more of a contrast in hem length.
Ah stripes! And for me, they must be matched…. The pattern has a center back seam with a slight curve; to eliminate one area of stripe matching, I cut the back on the fold. It’s very slightly blousier than intended, but not overly so. I also closed the front bands by hand, to ensure that the stripes would match. Normally this wouldn’t matter since it’s a folded under self-faced band, but, this fabric is semi-sheer, so if the stripes were off, you’d see it from the right side – yes! that would bother me. But since it has a collar, I knew I’d be closing it by hand anyway, so what’s another 40 minutes of hand sewing?
And since I was doing that by hand, I also hand picked the under-stitching on the collar edge (I wasn’t liking the way my top-stitching samples were coming out), as well as closing the cuffs. Lots of hand stitching you say? Yes, but I got tired towards the end and used a machine blind hem for the bottom edge, after serging the edge clean.
Also, the blouse I created isn’t quite an option from the pattern; I was diggin’ on the cuffs and the tabs, but not the sleeves, so I used the bodice and the cuffs, and attached the tabs to the shoulders. (yes, the stripes match there too!)
Being linen and wanting ravel at the slightest touch, I did French seams where I could and enclosed the edges everywhere else. I had thought I would do it up on the serger, but I was concerned the seams would pull out since the linen was so lightweight.
For the sand washed cotton, I made shorts from V9008 (OOP) – first used here in spring green linen. I chose the pleat front version in a Bermuda length.
On the spring green shorts I created an elastic waistband; I decided with this pair to go back to the fitted, shaped waistband. While it’s OK, the back seam is doing something hinky, I think because I altered the pattern to fit a straight waistband so I could elasticize it… but it’s not that big a deal, and in fact, I think it’s more the firmness of the fabric than my back seam alterations.
Speaking of fabric firmness, a lining fabric for the pockets and waistband probably would have been better. I used self-fabric, and while it worked fine, the stiffness is noticeable. I thought I was getting away with not using interfacing… yeah, maybe. I think if I do a firm fabric again, I’ll go to the trouble of using a lining material.
As for V9008, I don’t know what I did last time for pocket construction, but the instructions with this pattern are – odd. I just followed the pattern, which gives a side seam pocket, but you go back halfway and topstitch the front pocket area… not the best method I think. I much prefer the “sports pocket” method from the Palmer-Pletsch book, Pants for Real People; you can topstitch the front pocket edge, and hide the ends in the seam allowance. And it’s much easier to manipulate on the machine.
Aside from the funky pockets, V9008 is a great pattern; I found it easy to fit myself and will use it again. As for a firm fabric, a slimmer version might be better, such as view B.
Buttons for both projects are in rosewood; they’re from my stash but still available. And now some tips on buttons – !
I normally make a big cross with my chalk wheel to mark my button placement; but chalk wasn’t staying in place long enough on this linen. I used a washaway marker instead, but didn’t want to make big X’s, just in case it didn’t wash out (it did.) So I marked the perpendicular distance with a pin, then lined up my button under the foot
Also, if your buttons seem loosely sewn on, you may have accidentally engaged the shank maker. Have a look at the photo below: see the little clear plastic stick? Push that back and your buttons will sew down tighter.
And last button tip: when you’re sewing on your buttons and can’t find the last one, check your buttonhole foot – you probably left it in there.
When my husband saw me trying on my shirt, he asked if it was a swim coverup. It’s not, but it certainly could be! The linen would dry pretty quickly, and it’s roomy and long.
As for what else to wear with them, I thought my white lyocell twill pants would be a good option for an afternoon or casual evening option.
Enjoyed your article. Great tips and photos always lend added clarity.