Growing up as a girl with some extra meat on her curves I never had the opportunity to experiment with fashion like some of my peers. I always felt limited by what I viewed as acceptable dress for a big girl and covered my curves with ill fitting men’s pants and hooded sweater’s. As an adult I still have my moments of self doubt when I try out a new silhouette or style but in the many years since my high school days I’m happy to say that I’ve developed my own personal style full of color, leg baring skirts and curve hugging jeans.
With that being said this outfit is dedicated the curvy teen I once was, who believed she was to big to wear short gathered skirts, bright colors and tuck in her shirt.
Top- Burda Style #141 from the 8/2010 magazine made from a stretchy polyester, Self drafted skirt gathered skirt made out of quilters cotton, Cardigan Target, Wedges Steve Madden, Belt Torrid.
I find the trick to wearing styles that are widely considered plus size unfriendly has everything to do with fit and proportion. I’ll go into more detail on how I got a flattering fit on my gathered skirt in a later post. For now lets talk about the top.
For this top I used Burda Style #141 from the 8/2010 magazine. I had been dying to try out Burda’s online patterns and figured but was unsure about having to print and assemble my own pattern sheets. I figured a simple pattern would be best for my first Burda project and I have to say I’m in love!
The only changes I made to the pattern was to widen the hips to make room for my wide booty and 2 inches to the overall length. The pattern came together pretty quickly and I so simple I didn’t even bother printing the instruction sheet. Its perfect for beginners or for those time were you want instant gratification.
Cardigan from Torrid; Burda Top; Skinny Jeans from Torrid
Overall I’m really happy with this top, I’m already planning a couple more variations to go with all my cardigans and jackets this Fall/Winter!
My sewing machine was sadly very silent this weekend and have nothing new to show you guys except for some sassy new tights that I picked up at Target for the bargain basement price of $2.50!
![IMG_7652[1]](http://thecurvystitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_76521_thumb.jpg "IMG_7652[1]")
Im really loving tights this season, their such a cozy fall staple I cant resist them! I’m definitely planning on splurging on a couple more pairs soon.Hopefully by then I’ll have a few more me made skirts to top them.
Anyone else feeling the tight love with me right now? How’s your fall sewing going?
She may not be perfect but she is finally done!
I’m not going to lie this cardi gave me a heck of a time starting from the fit. The fit was entirely off! I knew from the picture on the pattern envelope the finished garment measurements that their was a ridicules amount of ease. To compensate I cut a size smaller but still ended up with a cardi that baggy in the arms and way to boxy.
Shapeless top? Put a belt on it!
I also attempt to give the pattern my own flair with a puffed sleeve and ended up with something that looked more like a puffed arm pit, so not the look I was going for! Thankfully I had picked up over 5 yards of the pink jersey at Michael Levine Loft for less then 2 bucks a pound ( amazing I know!) so I was able to go back to the cutting table for round 2.
Am I happy with it? At the end of the day yes. This was my first time ever working with a knit fabric as well as constructing a garment entirely on my Serger so that alone is a huge success for me. In totally this one garment took up a whole weekend worth of sewing time for me (2 hours which was dedicated solely to threading my Serger) but I got some much needed practice on my Serger and ended up with a passable sweater to layer over my darker fall pieces. That alone makes the time worth it.
What new techniques have you tried out lately? any horror stories?
The Weekend is over and I’ve been a busy girl working away in my sewing nook on my first project for Colette’s Fall Challenge.
![IMG_7522[1]](http://thecurvystitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_75221_thumb1.jpg "IMG_7522[1]")
Yes that’s my computer on the stove….
I’m really excited to show you my first! I’ll be posting some pics tomorrow but for now you can see a sneak peak in the pic above. This was my first time working with Jersey and constructing a garment almost entirely on my Serger, it was definitely a struggle but im pretty happy with the finished results.
Anyone else spend their weekend sewing?
…but not a stitch in sight
As I mention in my previous post that I’m still undecided on patterns to attempt during the challenge, so to help me narrow down my choices I spent this afternoon picking through my stash of fabric for just the right pieces to bring my palette to life.
Unfortunately the only outcome from my picking was a giant pile of fabric on our bed and slightly peeved hubby (sorry honey, I love you!).
For now I’ve managed to narrow down my choice to about 10 fabrics. All the fabric below were purchased either in Downtown LA or Joann’s Craft and none were over 7 bucks a yard. yay! for coupons and bargain hunting!
Now that I’ve narrowed my fabric choices its time to start sorting through my pile of possible patterns. For now I’m planning to make up Simplicity 2154 view A (the cardi) out of the dusty pink knit as my first project. Oh and before you start wondering whether I’ve lost my mind by making what for most of the country would be considered a spring cardigan for fall, the misters and I live in LA so light weight cardi’s are the perfect stay warm option for fall!
Hopefully I’ll be able to set some time aside this weekend to work on the project, on top of this being my first garment sewn on my serger (!) I’m also planning a slight sleeve adjustment to give the cardi some oomph. If all goes well I plan to post a simple sleeve modification tutorial next week along with pics of my finish cardi!
Anyone else finding themselves overwhelmed by their fabric and pattern choices?
So I’m about two weeks late to the Colette Fall Palette Challenge party but I don’t care. I big puffy heart love Colette Patterns they make me giddy and excited about sewing and I want to stuff my fall wardrobe full of new piece inspired by their new fall patterns.
Sources from L to R- Lucky magazine; Anthropologie; Orla Kiely; Colette Patterns; shoppingthetrend.com; Teen Vogue; Orla Kiely; i-love-ewe blog; alexandragrecco; A Beautiful Mess; Anthropologie.
For about a year now I’ve been obsessed with a capital O with the color chartreuse. It’s shameful how often I wear my sad little chartreuse cardigan so I really want to build a fall wardrobe around the color. Being that its fall my usual go to combo of Tiffany blue and chartreuse is a no go so for my mood board I darkened it up and went with a dark navy. What goes better with navy then blush pink and cream? Nothing really add in a dash of moody grey and you have a top notch color palette if I do say so myself.
I’m still kicking around my fabric and pattern choices so I’ll share those as I go but I can say this I’m going big and planning to crank out 5 new pieces- a cardi, 2 tops and 2 dresses. Pretty ambitious for a novice garment sewer like myself but I got nothing to lose and who cares if I don’t meet my goal right it’s not like I’m being graded on this!
Any other novice sewers out there going big on this challenge?
Hello! My name is Vee, that’s my hubby Jess and this is my new blog the Curvy Stitch!
The Curvy Stitch is dedicated to my love of all things sewing, crafts and pretty things. Here you will find my adventures in sewing for my less than svelte physique, a little bit of home dec sewing (my first sewing love!), random DIY loves and a whole lot of inspiration! I got some big plans for this little blog so I hope you stick around!
*Photo by Heidi Ryder
Cardigan from Torrid; Burda Top; Skinny Jeans from Torrid![IMG_7652[1]](http://thecurvystitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_76521.jpg "IMG_7652[1]")
![IMG_7522[1]](http://thecurvystitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_752211.jpg "IMG_7522[1]")
