Fall Sewing - Silhouette Patterns Sunny's Top

My new favorite pattern line is Silhouette Patterns.  I have made a few things, that I don't have photos of, but I do have a photo of this - Sunny's Top - since my teenager used me for her High School photography class.

The shirt is super simple to sew together and with the B,C, D cup sizing already built into the pattern there is no need to fuss with a FBA! 

There is an 'undershirt', a tank top underneath the layers of fabric.  The tank top has the dart sewn into it.  The only edit I made was to add two inches to the top layer (yoke) to make sure my chest was appropriately covered.  

You can watch a video from Peggy Sagers with variations of how to sew this shirt HERE. 

Simplicity 1716

Simplicity 1716 is my new favorite shirt pattern. I have made five of them with $1.99 / yard fabric from Fabric Mart Fabrics. (three of the five happen to be shades of green - not sure how that happened) I used Sharon's pivot-and-slide FBA method and have to say - the shirts fit fabulously!  I was going to stop making them but (1) we are supposed to get more snow again next week - so it's still cold here in New England and (2) ummm - how did I only sew with the greens? Must get a few other colors into my closet.  (3) the blue one is not wearable - I cut the fabric the wrong way so the stretch is going the wrong way.  Sigh.

I haven't hemmed any of the sleeves yet.  I'm trying to decide if I want to put a contrasting color on the shirt or not.  I'm thinking I'll just hem them and be done with them.  I'll put the remainder of the shirts on Wanda and post photos on Flickr.
 
 Best part - I received my Travel Smith catalog and saw the same shirt (sleeveless) for $89.  Mine cost way less. 

Simplicity 4076

Simplicity 4076 is a great pattern. This is the 4th shirt I have made with the scoop neck and gathering in the front.  There are only 5 pieces (two of them are the sleeves).  I couldn't find my directions but after sewing up four other shirts from a different pattern before this I was not afraid.  Well, not afraid of anything except the neck binding.  

I used the technique in this video from the Threads website and it came out better than the shirts I had the directions for.  The fact that the fabric cost $1.99 and the shirt was created in less than an hour makes it even better.

Wanda is modeling my shirt since my sewing room is 83 degrees (up in the attic / no air conditioning) and I can't even imagine how big my hair is or how red my face is and do not want to subject that image to any of you reading this blog.

4 for the 4th

Since it is finally warm in New England I decided it was time to sew up some short sleeved shirts. 

 
For Christmas I bought myself some $1.99/yard knits from Fashion Mart Fabrics.  I bought one yard of five different knits. 

 

Four of them I sewed up into Jalie 2794, a sweetheart top with cropped sleeves.    



I doubled the size of the neckpiece / binding. I won't do that again. I thought it might look cool.  It's just annoying me how the back of the shirt lays - so, back to the original size for the next time I sew this shirt.

 

New Bathroom Curtain

In July we will celebrate owning the same home for 11 years.  Since I am 99.9% positive we are never moving (until we retire or I win the lottery) I decided to finally start making curtains.  I started in the master bathroom.  As you can see - the curtain that has been hanging in there is, um, gross?  grody to the max?  has outlived it's usefulness?  

And - *tada* - here is the new version.  

Love it. Love the pop of color. Love that there isn't a water stain running across the middle of it.  Love that there isn't lace falling off of it.  

I did raise the lower curtain by 3.5 inches - just to make sure that anyone that walks by the window indoors is covered by the curtain and not giving a free show to the neighborhood.

The stripes are busy and bold so I was unsure if I should add a trim.  Thoughts?  Leave the curtains as is or search for a just right trim?

I am making roman shades for the majority of the other rooms and need to shop for supplies tomorrow (oh - and Joann's has Simplicity patterns on sale for $1.99 starting tomorrow. Yee Haw).