Now Mending

It's that time of year - time to shift out-of-season clothes to a guest closet. And with that shift, I automatically evaluate the clothes I wear most and those I never wear at all. For me, it's fun to see if I can alter the ignored pieces so that I want to wear them again. It's typically some detail I add or subtract. And the details are often the most interesting part of sewing.

First up is my one and only Blouse Perfected, a terrific pattern from the Cutting Line Design. Now why haven't I made that again? It has all those wonderful details found in men's shirts. The fix in this one was easy - one of the buttons was broken. So I replaced the buttons and put the others away for another project.

I love dresses. On other people. Or so it seems. These two are based on a pattern from Indygo Junction, a dress with lovely deep side pockets. Both are linen which is wonderful to sew and to wear. First I added cap sleeves to the blue one and then I changed the angle of the side seam to curve in, just slightly. I do think the overall proportion is better on me with these two changes:

I also added sleeves to the black one, this time 3/4 length sleeves with a draw-string at the hem. As with the blue one, I reshaped the side seam, so that it angles in, rather than out. Now I'm thinking it might be fun to add a draw-string to the cowl collar edge too.

The Hadley shirt from Grainline Studios was last. I actually wear this top a fair amount but noticed that the sleeve hems end in the same horizontal line as the shirt hem. I don't need horizontal exaggeration, so I shorted those to bracelet length. This was not at all dramatic but I enjoy these sewing details. Don't you?

So now I'll never, ever throw away remnants from old projects.