Project Sewn Floral Frenzy Sew-A-Long

Last year I discovered Project Sewn.  I was immediately enamored.  I participated in their community participation sew-a-long last year with the Coffee Date Dress. I used the pattern and turned it into a peplum top, blogged here.

This year knowing about it ahead of time I am really pushing myself and I have plans for sewing along with the challenges. This week's challenge was Floral Frenzy. I was going through my stash trying to land on what I would make and the bright pop of the fabric I bought on my shopping trip to Grey's Fabrics in Boston really caught my eye. 

I tend to shy away from a lot of floral prints but I couldn't resist the pop of these poppies. I decided to make a skirt and a blouse, with the poppies on the bottom and the bright red fabric for the top. I started with the skirt, with my time frame in mind.  

The skirt is my own pattern.  It was originally a four gore skirt, but to avoid breaking up the print I cut the front and back panels on the fold making two large pieces rather than four smaller ones. What I am most in love with is the pockets. I think the contrast fold back really sets the skirt apart. 

In addition I painstakingly pattern matched the pockets. I'm really glad I did it. I think it looks nice and is a sign of quality. 

For the blouse I used Gertie's Portrait Blouse pattern.  It's one of my favorite and most repeated patterns.  Making a solid top I really wanted to do some embroidery on one of the shoulders as an added feature. To give it some of the appeal of the skirt I photocopied a section of the skirt fabric.  It was a dark copy so I traced the lines I wanted to use in sharpie.

What this did was to transfer the details of the pattern onto the back of the copy. This made it easier to see the lines I wanted when I trace them onto the fabric.

In order to see the lines a little better I pinned the fabric to the photocopy and then taped it to my oh so sunny window. With the lightweight of my fabric it made it easy to see the image to trace it.

In the end I decided not to stitch the stems and leaves. I made an executive decision that I didn't need any stems trailing across my bustline. I am extremely pleased with how it turned out.

My finished garment:

I feel great in this outfit.  It's bold and it makes me happy to just have it on. The length and shape of the skirt is feminine and flirty. I'm just absolutely in love!

-Caroline

P.S.

My lovely wife would also like me to tell you that we gave this dresser an extreme makeover, new paint and drawer pulls. We really like color, can you tell?