recent sewing

i mentioned previously that i'd been trying to get a bit further into sewing - especially with my uncommitted fridays. in august, i had someone come in to walk me through sewing with a pattern. her name was kristen & i found her via craigslist; she lived in my neighborhood & only charges $100 for about 5 hours of assistance & tutoring. she forced me to take my time & pay attention to the details of the pattern, as well as explain parts/instructions i didn't understand. we made a pair of black flowy pants (aka new look 6896) & i can say i know how to add an invisible zipper, pleats, pockets, darts & a waistband to projects. i'm not sure this means i'll change my ways & only sew from patterns, but i'm sure i'll make a few more pairs with this pattern to get used to it before adding these things to my own projects.









the next project on my list (for weeks now) was to refashion a men's shirt. plaid seems to be all over this fall & i new it was time to get it done. this one was kind of a disaster, but i'm fairly happy with the results. i started to follow this tutorial, but couldn't handle the puckered sleeves. here's how i ended up handling it:

1. detach sleeves using a seam ripper.
2. use a shirt that fits you to lay over the men's shirt - use as a pattern & cut shirt appropriately.
3. Sew the sides of the shirt until 6" from the bottom (if you choose to do a split on the sides).
4. if straight along the base of the shirt cut into the edges to create rounded sides.
5. iron hems along the sides & the bottom of the shirt, sew using a straight stitch.
6. reinforce side seam where it splits.
   
7. turn sleeves inside out & sew a seam creating a more fitted arm.
8. pin right sides of each sleeve to the armhole in your shirt. mine happened to be the same circumference (dumb luck?!)
9. using a straight stitch, attach sleeves to body.
10. for a final touch, i added to 2.5" darts to the mid back for a better fit.
    

it all seemed sort of haphazard & i'd probably take a bit more time on the next one, but it's the perfect weekender shirt or might look cute tucked into a wool skirt.