Summer Sewing

My last post, Me Made May 2021, only had one week of photos.  Yes, I participated all month.  But I had a graduating senior and it was incredibly challenging to work, get him to and from senior activities, and find time to photograph daily outfits. Still, it was a lot of fun to participate and even my husband was impressed that I wore a Me Made outfit every day. 

Since it's June, time to move on to the next project, summer sewing!  And as always, it's ambitious!!!

I first heard about Every Day Style podcasts from Whitney at TomCatStitchery on YouTube. Like many sewists, I tend to sew what I love...which means often times I'm left trying to make my items work in my everyday wardrobe as they often don't have coordinating items that go with them. She posted her spring capsule and I really liked how it all pulled together.  There were even suggestions for accessories, which I liked.  So when summer capsule was announced, I jumped on it.  You can read more about it here. 

One thing that really appealed to me was pulling existing items from my wardrobe and sewing to fill in the missing pieces.  I am not a minimalist and I have a ton of clothes that I love. So pulling in pieces I already own to form easy every days looks was such a huge bonus for me.  So after determining what I already have, I started looked at what was missing and that started my sewing plan.  Here's what I've come up with so far:

The first thing you may notice is the color palette. I really liked that she showed how to swap out colors that may not work for you but still go with the capsule. Huge bonus as one of the colors is something I would simply never wear. The Saffron yellow is still a step outside of my comfort zone, but when I looked at my pinterest inspiration boards, it was clearly a color I've been drawn to this past spring and now summer. So I decided to include it. 

Next I decided to only use patterns that I already own. Again, this Every Day Style is not designed for sewists specifically. You get all kinds of links to purchase missing items (and I definitely did this with accessories!!) and links to everything are included. But I wanted to approach this from a sewing perspective. And I have SO many sewing patterns, I don't really need more. It was actually really fun to shop my pattern collection for my missing items. There are actually 36 items she suggests for the total summer capsule and surprisingly, I had quite a few pieces.  I then narrowed what was missing to what I could reasonably sew up. So here's the Summer Sewing list!

1. White Denim Skirt - I love a good jean skirt and this is what I interpret this to be. I have the Itch To Stitch Danube Denim Skirt and the Glissando Skirt.  The Glissando ended up winning because I wanted to try this as a button fly and I already have the denim buttons I want to make it look more like a denim skirt. I'm using a pearl white twill from FabricMart that I bought in the spring. I'm actually 90% done with this skirt, just unpicking the waistband that I somehow messed up (sigh)
2. Casual Dress - I've been wanting to try the Love Notions Breckenridge Henley for awhile, and decided this was the perfect casual dress. I can see it dressed up with navy flats or espadrilles (I own both!) or more casual with my white Keds and a jean jacket. I had two yards of a mystery knit from Walmart that's white with navy blue stripes and decided it would be a good choice for my fitting muslin. Not only did it turn out PERFECT, but I really love how the fabric looked too. I even got my stripes to match perfectly!!  So this one is done and I will blog about it soon.  And it's everything I was imagining it to be!!
3. Casual Romper - totally stepping out of my comfort zone because I want to wear rompers, I just worry that I look ridiculous in them!!  I think the Made 4 Mermaids Megan Romper is very much style and is the only pattern I actually bought for this capsule. 
4. White Dress - there is a LOT of room for interpretation on this one. Ultimately I already know I love how the Chalk Notch Marcel pattern works for me and it has the flowy, tiered look that I want for summer. Looking at all the capsule pieces, this will work well and was an easy decision!
5. Olive Knit Top - I have a beautiful piece of olive knit lace that I got in a scraps box from KnitPop. Since it's less than a yard (I think I have about half a yard!) I wasn't at all sure what I was going to do with it, but knew it was going to be something because it's a beautiful remnant. The tank from Love Notions Summer Basics is perfect and I have exactly enough.  I haven't decided if I'm going to self line it with an olive cotton/spandex knit or make an olive cami to go under it, but this definitely what I want.  The tank is already cut out and ready to sew up!!
6. Striped shorts - again, there are a lot of shorts patterns in my collection. But bottoms can be challenging for me from a fit standpoint. I do have the Allegros from Love Notions, and I've successfully made a pair, but I'm not in love with the waistband on that pattern. Ultimately I've decided to use the Seamwork Miller shorts pattern. I wanted a pull on short and I love that the self fabric belt on this makes it look more paper bag waist, which I feel is really on trend this season.
7. Navy Linen Pants - I have so many pants patterns. I really had to think about the style of pant that I find to be the most flattering on me. I really  like an elastic waistband ,but I don't always find it to be the most flattering on me. A flat front waistband reduces bulk (my mid section is my problem area!)  So I chose the StyleArc Fifi Pant, which is a pull on pant, flat front, and elastic back waistband. It really checked all the boxes for me.  The navy linen is on order!
8. Beyond Basic White Knit Top - at first I thought I might do the Love Notions Vivace Dolman in a white knit. I love that top and have made it a couple of times now.  But, I also remembered how much I loved the Hot Patterns Fast & Fabrulous La Strada T-Shirt. I hated putting the pattern together, but it's already done and the neckline is lovely. It will look fabulous under cardigans for other seasons.
9. Square neck top - this is a very on trend style for spring/summer as well.  I have already made the StyleArc Clementine and it turned out beautifully.  But I'm really trying to use patterns I haven't sewn in awhile or are recent adds to my collection (sigh, even if it means a fitting muslin) so instead I chose the Itch To Stitch Chirripo top. This is one of the few items that I'm not sure what fabric I'm going to use, so it will probably be sewn up last. I'm also not sure if I'll make it sleeveless or with the flutter sleeve. I prefer a slightly longer flutter sleeve that what is shown with the pattern.  I should probably print the pattern out and play with the sleeve as it may require slightly more fabric than the pattern calls for. 

So there it is!  These are the only pieces I'm committed to sewing up.  If I have time, I might add a few more (it took me two days to write this post and the olive knit top is now almost done so that's three of my nine!) but I'm fine with buying a few pieces as well. Again, as I'm not a minimalist, I'm bound to make other things this summer that don't go with my capsule, and I'm 100% fine with that. 

Are you participating in the Every Day Style Summer Capsule?