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.

Happy Halloween Bats!

Happy Halloween Bats!
Originally uploaded by bethvanduzer

I made my husband's Joker costume this year for Halloween. The pants are SuedeSays (Simplicity 1948) and the jacket & vest are Simplicity 4083. The bowtie is from a free pattern from Sis Boom.

The pants pattern was so fabulous. Easy directions. The pockets were the first successful pockets I have ever done in a pair of pants. My husband actually wants a regular pair of pants in the pattern.

The jacket was fun to do. I altered the back and the front to resemble the Joker's jacket from the Arkham City game. The vest pattern was not as easy to assemble as the other two. I don't like how it was put together and would do it differently next time but the overall effect is what my husband wanted, and that's the important thing.

I used some curtain fabric from Joann's. It has the 'lines / stripes' in the suit that the Joker needed (according to my husband).