Leopard, mustard, and pink/purple

  One of my life mottos is "when in doubt go with leopard print." I think leopard goes with stripes, flowers, polka dots, plain fabric, basically everything. You can dress it up for an Old Hollywood glam look or dress it down with a t-shirt. I love leopard print in case you couldn't tell ;) I think the next step in my obsession will be to have some spots tattooed on me. Not joking.


Ok, ok, let's back up. According to Funki Fabrics (where this fabric is from) this is technically "panther." It's a panther velvet that I will probably continue to call leopard because I'm stubborn/delusional/annoying? Anyway, I think that Funki Fabrics markets themselves as mostly dance and swimwear, however their fabric can definitely be sewn into other garments. Speaking of which, did you see Tasha's fun dress?  Funki Fabrics was kind enough to give me two yards of this leopard panther fabric and I wanted to go Tasha's route and show you that you aren't limited to sew active wear garments just because that is what is primarily made with them. Make what you want!


This fabric pairs perfectly with the Colette Patterns Mabel skirt. Man, when I bought that pattern I had no idea what I was in for. I think this is my fifth version of the skirt and I have plans on sewing more. Each and every time I make version three. One would think that I'd want to branch out and try a different style, but if it's not broke... right?


The blouse is the Thread Theory Camas blouse. It is a pdf pattern and normally this is where I would insert some complaint or rant about why I hate pdf patterns, but this one went together fine, so I'll keep my mouth shut today. Sewing went fine too until I got to the placket. Don't mind me and my placket sewn on the wrong way :/ I realized it after grading, clipping, and and stitching down both sides and finding that I didn't have any extra fabric to redo it. To compensate for the weirdness I had to move the buttons up a bit. It looks off, but I'll probably still wear it. I'm going to make the pattern again, but try making it correctly.


The fabric colors are fun though! They bring me back to the days of Myspace. Remember Myspace? I remember customizing my page into this color combo and also making my top eight into a top sixteen. So cool ;) Anyway, both fabrics come from The Fabric Store in Los Angeles. Justine showed me this pretty linen knit, something I have never seen before, let alone sewed with. The mustard is a merino knit and not itchy at all! Whenever I start a sewing project I always test my stitches on scrap fabric and this time was no exception. However, the linen knit was finicky and even though the test stitches looked fine the hem looks a little wonky. The merino knit wasn't the best for the yoke, unfortunately. It is a touch too bulky where the neckline pieces come together.


The good news is that it was great for a Linden sweatshirt! Errr, sweatshirt turned t-shirt since the mustard merino is definitely not sweatshirt weight. The black sleeves are made from a cotton jersey from Mood Fabrics.  I don't have much to say about Linden since I just blogged about it a couple of weeks ago, but, yep, I like this pattern. No changes were made from the original pattern pieces other than not including the sleeve cuffs. For my first version I complained about the neckline being too big, but in this version it's not at all. I'm thinking that my ribbing must have stretched out when I was attaching it to the neckline. Womp womp.

I don't have anything particularly exciting go say about this McCalls M6360 legging pattern either. Jeeze, I'm a boring blogger! I've made it a few times now and other than taking in the waist by half an inch there haven't been any other changes. The pattern is one of those quick instant gratification sews, but the fabric is what makes the leggings special. It's the same fabric that I used on the skirt and since it's a velvet stretch it feels a little fancier than my usual everyday leggings. Is that strange to call leggings "fancy?" Fancy or not, these are going to be worn a lot! The four way stretch is comfortable enough that these could be worn to yoga, but I want to keep these as my out and about leggings :)


This is off topic, but I haven't had a chance to reply to the comments in my last post and I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful messages. It's a bummer that a lot of us have been in similar situations, but I got a lot of good advice from you all and for that I am very thankful. xo