The Sewing Goatherd: Butterflies and Bows and Purple Jeans

Friday, July 16, 2021

Butterflies and Bows and Purple Jeans

I originally only intended to make one thing for the Winter Wear Designs Summer Style blog tour. The ruffley Boho Breeze dress I shared yesterday. Then I went through my fabric stash to find a suitable material for said dress and found the striped rayon that just had to be made into the dress I shared on Tuesday. While I was working on those projects, Suzanne asked if any of the bloggers would be interested in sharing a hack for the Y-back Slip and Sleep Set pattern to make this night wear pattern day wear. Ilse immediately volunteered and did a fantastic job with the initial hack! I didn't want to do the same hack she was doing, but seeing her intended hack certainly sparked my imagination and I asked Suzanne if I could have the pattern to play with. She sent it my way. My fabric stash and another WWD pattern came into play. And here is the outfit that resulted.

Now, shall we discuss the top or the jeans first? The jeans have been on my "I'll make that one day" list a loooooooong time, but the top is what prompted the actual making of the jeans.

So, I suppose I'd better start with the top.

The Y-Back is a PJ or slip pattern with adjustable spaghetti straps. To make it less pajama and more every day casual top I decided to add buttons down the front, widen the straps, and finish it off with a nice big bow in the back

To make this bow and keep the originally intended adjustability of the straps, I cut the "peak" of the back extra wide and made two large button holes in it. I made my widened straps extra long (Possibly too long, but oh well, they're pretty!) to thread through the button holes and tie in a bow!

For the button front, I added a placket width and seam allowance to the center front rather than cutting it on the fold and made a matching facing.

I really liked the zig-zag lace hem option this pattern features, so I decided to use a wide eyelet from my stash all around the hem.

This thrifted eyelet trim features two scalloped edges, so I simply surged the bottom edge of my fabric and top-stitched the eyelet on to make the most of it. With the zig-zag shape, top stitching the trim in place was definitely the easiest option!

Now I did make one mistake in constructing this top. I failed to stay-stitch the neckline, which is cut on the bias. So it stretched out and gaped horribly when the top was done.

I fixed this issue by trimming the neckline with some eyelet beading lace and gathering up the stretched out area with a shorter length of ribbon threaded through the beading and sewn in place at either end.

Functional and pretty!

As for the fabric I used, it's cotton voile I found on the clearance rack at Joann's a while back. I bought a yard of it because I really liked the purple butterfly print. I figured a yard would be just enough to make a nice woven tank top out of.

As you can see, I was right!

When I got the fabric home I discovered it paired very well with a fabric already in my stash - a bottom weight purple stretch sateen.

Then and there I decided when I made my butterfly tank top I would have to make a pair of purple skinny jeans from this sateen to go with it!

Good thing WWD had a jeans patterns - The Real Deal Jeans - and good thing I've already made it once so I know it fits me well!

Since my copy of the pattern still has all my fitting adjustments marked on it from last time I used it, these were a pretty quick make as far as jeans go. (They still took most of a weekend, however.)

I added a couple inches to the rise to get a nice high waist (There's a line marked on the pattern showing where to add height if you want to so this is super easy!) and made the pockets a bit deeper. I like big pockets! The skinny jean and wide waistband hacks were done to the pattern last time I used it.

I opted for gray top stitching with the purple, and had great fun stitching a design on the back pockets.

Decorating back pockets is always my favorite part of jeans making!

I just free-hand the design onto one pocket, hope for the best, then copy it onto the other.

This system has worked pretty well for me thus far!

So there we have it! Purple jeans and a butterfly tank top. Pretty easy-wearing summer clothes. I'm happy to have added both of these items to my wardrobe!