Closet Core Elodie in the wilds of Costa Rica!

 Last week I had the enormous pleasure of going to Costa Rica for 5 nights. It was glorious!! Costa Rica is such a beautiful place and offers so many things. Granted, on this trip, all we did was stay at the resort except for one half day excursion. We just felt it was a safer thing to do during this crazy omnicron surge. 

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The resort was beautiful and not even close to capacity so we had plenty of room to be spread out. We out outside every day for all meals except for 1 and spent so much time at the pool and the beach. It was such a welcome respite from Chicago’s nasty winters.

I wore my new Closet Core  Elodie wrap dress to dinner twice. The fabric was perfect both in the tropical print and in the fiber content. It also hung up so nicely in the room and any wrinkles from packing came right out without having to iron it! (It hung for about 48 hours before I wore it)

This time of the year the sung goes down well before dinner time! So most if the pictures are taken in one of the resort courtyards or on my balcony.

I felt delightful wearing this dress!!! It fit wonderfully with no gaping, the cotton fabric held its shape so well which gave it the feeling of wearing a more vintage silhouette without having any petticoats. I loved the midi length with the slightly shaped front skirt panels. I am also quite glad that I added on the large patch pockets. They had plenty of room for my cell phone, room card, cash and my stash of pancreas pills. No need to have to carry a separate hand bag around the resort. 

On the topic of the patch pockets, I have a collection of cool shaped patch pockets that would be super fun to try on this dress! SO many ideas, so little time!!

Happy Sewing!

PS- my room was right on the Pacific Ocean and I had the most incredible sunset views every day as I was relaxing from a day at the pool/beach and getting ready to go for dinner!

Elodie Closet Core Wrap Dress for a Trip to Costa Rica!

 I ordered this fabric in the spring of 2021 and the pattern in the fall, specifically for a trip to Costa Rica that I am currently on! (Hopefully! This should post while I am there, all the Covid tests were negative and we are a go for the trip) This trip has been a long time coming. This trip was supposed to be at this time in 2021 and a celebration of my 50th Birthday and all the wonderful things in my life. I don’t need to explain to anyone why this trip never happened!  Thank you rona. 

Skip to 2022, and omicron…. Ugh, I just trusted that we were all being safe and careful and wearing masks (Chicago has had a mask mandate in place since August) It helps that I have been very careful due to the pancreatitis and not wanting to chance having my body ravaged by a virus on top of the stress of a chronic illness.  Anyhow, nothing special about this story! We are all living in this pandemic.

So… back to the dress!! Photos show an almost completed dress!!

Pattern is Closet Core Elodie Wrap dress view B- Midi length with the short sleeves. I really enjoy the patterns from Closet Core. They are thoughtful, have interesting details and a modern look. The drafting is very good and the sizing is very true to the included charts. This pattern has release darts or release pleats in the front and pleats on the back.

I made a muslin of my size from the size chart and the fit was exactly as expected. Tight across the abdomen. The design ease is only a half inch in the waist. On me this amount of ease is just not comfortable (mostly due to my pancreatitis). It is a wrap dress, so I could loosen the wrap and it felt fine but then the amount of cleavage happening was uncomfortable, I would have had to wear a camisole and I did not want that. SO I made sure to mark CF and line that up and asses the fit from there. I did a closed wedge along the front opening below the breast to get rid of some gaping and I added a half inch to the side seam for a total of 2 inches. This gives me about 2 inches of ease at the waist, depending on how tight I tie the wrap, and it feels great!

I also really like the look of the muslin as a top. If anyone is interested I just cut a length 9 inches from the waistband and marked this on my pattern. Completely makes a super cute wrap top!

For design changes I added a 1/4 inch flat piping along the neck edge. This was specifically because I really needed another 1/2 yard of fabric to be able to cut the print out the way I would have preferred. But, I did not have the leeway and I was not super happy with the print placement. So, the flat piping was a way break up the print marching across my chest. 

I needed to piece the corner on the skirt fronts lower corner of the side seam. I just did not have the fabric width for this length. I did not even bother trying to match the print. With this midi length and it being such a small portion that no one will ever notice unless I point it out!

I also added top stitching along the waistband. This was because the waistband facing, per the pattern directions, was to be slipped stitched by hand. I skipped this due to a couple of reasons. The biggest one being that this fabric is so tightly woven that even my sharpest pins had a hard time penetrating the fabric! The fabric was very stable and top stitching front the right side was done quite easily. In  another type of fabric this may not be so possible.

Of course I had to make a matching mask and key wristlet… ‘cause, why not?? Beautiful fabric! And the current wristlet was literally falling apart after 8 years of constant use!

Due to the tight weave of the fabric, I very carefully used a little dab of glue on the pockets to temporarily hold them in place while I stitched them. This is a wash away fabric glue and very easy to use. I just could not get the pins in without moving the pocket and since this is a washable garment I figured glue stick all the way!

The fabric is 100% cotton print from Core Fabrics. Nice and crisp and beautiful and I would totally purchase this again!! The selves get was super fun and I really wanted to incorporate it but I just couldn’t work it out without it looking strange. SO I just smiled and enjoyed it as I cut out the fabric!

The neck facing and waistband are all interfaced with a lightweight fusible tricot. This fabric really did not need to much extra. 

No buttons or zippers used and the only other thing were some labels from Kylie and the Machine. They are just so much fun :)

I used a Guterman thread, rPET, made from 100% recycled polyester and was very happy with it! My first time using this thread for a full garment construction. I will definitely purchase this thread again.

I used a brand new 70/10 universal needle (I did several tests due to the tight weave and this worked best) All seams were sewn on the machine with a 2.5mm straight stitch and finished on the serger with a 3 thread overlock and pressed open. 

The hem of the sleeve was done by a double pressed 1/4 inch and top stitched. The dress hem was done with a double pressed 1/2 inch and top stitched. Easy Peasy!

I finished the dress the day before leaving for the trip so I do not have any final pictures to share yet. I will be sure to get some lovely ones while at the resort in Costa Rica.

Happy Sewing!!

The Princess and I are enjoying the growth of this Amaryllis bulb that I got as a kit for a Christmas gift.

Happy 2022! Roscoe Blouse and Tunic

 Welcome 2022! 

Well, I made it through another year of craziness and pandemic and changes and well, just life! On top of that I feel good about it. Feel good about the place I am in physically and mentally even though things can be hard, they are also quite wonderful.

I did not do so great at blogging in 2021. I wanted to, I really did but life was just so big last year with so many things that I needed to attend to and blogging got put to the side. A decision that I was totally okay with. 

I did continue to sew and shared quite a few of my garments and creations on IG. As 2021 was coming to a close I realized that I was starting to miss blogging, a good sign that it was time to start thinking about picking it up again.

And here I am! Once again rambling on and on. 

I ended 2021 with a Roscoe Blouse and started 2022 with a Roscoe Tunic.  I have had the True Bias Roscoe on my wish list for quite a while and finally bought the PDF version and had it printed large format sometime during the past 6 months (timelines in the pandemic are just a bit fuzzy) 

Years and years ago I had a super cute peasant blouse and I always wanted to recreate the look. I just either never got around to it and every time I tried one on in RTW it was just a hot mess. Too much fabric in the wrong places, not enough in the right places and never in the colors or prints that I liked. So, this year I finally got back to it and I am happy that I did!

I used my iPad and my body model croquis  to do some sketching. I like this part of the creative process. I use the procreate app and use it at its most basic level. One of these days I will learn more about it. I’m sure there are tools in there that will make my life easier. 

For the first version, the blouse, I cut the size according to the pattern recommendations which put me at a size 12. I made a muslin using some recycled old garments. I am glad I did because there was way, way too much fabric at the front raglan sleeve seam. It was a bit shapeless. I released this seam and let the “extra” fabric from the upper front chest slide under the sleeve seam and reshaped this seam. An easy fix to do and made a big difference. 

The fabric used for this first version was purchased from a New Rainbow Fabrics that is local to me in Chicago. So local that it is just an easy 1 mile walk! I really liked this print. It is a little bit out of my normal palette with the pastel parts. Plus it was a stretch polyester chiffon, so really out of my normal fabric choice. But, something about it just grabbed me and at $9.99 a yard I figured I could take a chance. Boy am I glad I did!! This is NOT like some other polys I have used in the last from the big box stores. It cut sewed and pressed like a dream. I was so dang surprised! 

With this version done I decided to immediately move to another version with a couple changes. 

The size 12 I cut for the blouse is quite roomy and if I was going to make a tunic I didn’t want that much extra fabric. This time I cut it down to the smallest size plus maintained the seam shape of the front raglan sleeve. I was still worried about feeling overwhelmed by too much fabric. I had seen on some IG pictures and other blogs where people added waist elastic to give it more shape so I sketched this out and marked the waist on the pattern.

In addition I wanted the sleeves to be full length, a little fuller and elasticize at the wrist. For this I lengthened 3 1/2 inches then slashed and spread in 4 places adding in a total of 4 additional inches. 

I thought this was not exactly the look I was going for but it would be a good save if the tunic was still too voluminous and needing shape. So I cut into my fabric, a rayon print from Closet Core Fabrics in a graphic 60’s vintage print. I knew from using this fabric before, in a different colorway, that I had to cut it single layer. A very squirrelly fabric! 

As you can see in the above photos, changing to the smallest size worked out great!! No need for elastic at the waist, no feeling like I am wearing a sack! This Tunic made me happy and the colors were great. I immediately went to my fabric closet and found the perfect color knit for leggings and sewed up a pair of Helen’s Closet Avery Leggings. Sorry only bad mirror selfies!! 

Now I am very happy with this outfit!!!

For a special treat to myself I purchased the Kylie and the Machine advent calendar. it was a blast to open every morning. I used some of my new labels in these tops.

A perfect sewing end of 2021 and start to 2022! What’s next? Well, I have a list, a looong list,  that I want  to work off of that I am calling my Green wardrobe plus sewing a wardrobe for a fall trip to Morocco plus anything else that takes my fancy in between! I want to work on some harder more detailed projects interspersed with some easier ones. 

I am fully enjoying my sewing and designing again and ready to share it again.

Happy Sewing!

Princess Victoria showing off her Grinch apron made with lots of love!!