Welcome to my new normal

I had such high hopes for my return to the sewing room! I was going to tackle the Crescent Blouse by Megan Nielsen.

I did tackle the Crescent Blouse by Megan Nielsen, but sadly it's probably going to end up a wadder. It's not a bad pattern, and if you are drawn to it then by all means do make it, but the end result just wasn't for me.

I am not a fan of exposed arms. You know, the trend where a sleeve looks like it was slit with a box cutter up the side? But I really thought I could handle the exposure of the Crescent, it seemed different than the rest for some reason.

Alas, it was not to be. I am fairly broad in the shoulders and while the rest of the blouse fit me, the shoulders were tight. This is only a problem when you choose to sew with a delicate voile that's held together at the shoulders with slim little 1/2" seams. I just pictured the whole thing blowing up on me in the grocery store. It's still sitting in my sewing room, waiting for the final buttons to be added. {I will add a photo of it on Vivienne in the very near future, which means when the sun comes up again and I can take a natural light picture for you.}

It was great to get down in the sweatshop again, though! I got organized, I cleaned up all my notions and put all my thread spools in color coordinated order. I even dragged my serger cones out of the drawer they've been in for a few years and arranged them by color as well.

So I figured, why waste all that momentum? I found myself with a free hour the other afternoon, so I flung myself downstairs and made this blue skirt.

I cut the pattern from a dress that I was wearing that day, and then decided to slice the top from the bottom in a random saddle shape. I serged the two parts back together, top-stitched the seam for a little pizzazz and added a drawstring to keep it up. I think it'll make a great runaround skirt.

And the best part is it got me back in the swing of sewing! No discouraging final results, no fit problems (other than frustration with my own shape, duh).

Sorry for the questionable photo quality, I enlisted my 8-year-old to stand on a stool and take these pictures. You get what you pay for!