State Fair Belcarra

Remember when you were a kid, and you were so excited for new school clothes, but you didn't actually wear them, because you were, like, saving them up for when school actually started?  

Maybe the excitement of new clothes outweighs the sadness of the end of summer?

Okay, I may be weird. 

(I have also recently told my own children not to wear their new school shoes out to play in the mud. That's not weird, though.  That's just being a mom.)  

This is all just a long way of saying that I have a lot of things finished, but not blogged, for the main reason that I haven't actually worn them.  Yet.

But today, I broke loose, and wore this one to the Missouri State Fair.

Sorry for the cloudy iphone pics.  The ferris wheel was a macaroni and cheese wheel, and each of the buckets were single-serve Easy Mac bowls.  See that macaroni smile in the middle? 

Part of the reason I broke this out today is that I'm unsure of it.

I liked the fabric when I bought it.

I liked the fabric when I was sewing it.

And when it was done, I thought, maybe-kinda, does that look like hospital wallpaper?

Hmm.

And that's all it took, one teeny-tiny question, to have me casting it the side-eye, trying to come up with some other mental image for this shirt.

Does that look like hospital wallpaper?

Sleeve tucks

Print-matching on the pocket like a boss. (or middle manager)

I'm not sure if it's a better mental image now to associate it with the smell of livestock, corn dogs, and lemonade, but at least we've broken through that initial wear.

The Details:

Pattern: Sewaholic Belcarra

Fabric: Art Gallery voile "Mojave Illuminated"

Notions: just thread

Time to complete: an evening, but only because this was my third version of this shirt

And since I've really got nothing new to add on construction, and because I'm in denial about going back to work on Wednesday, here are some more pictures of the fair.

Silk Belcarra

First off, apologies for the awful pictures.  It has been raining since noon, and the weather forecast calls for three more days of rain. 

Pattern: Sewaholic Belcarra

Fabric: 1 1/4 yards Roberto Cavalli silk, purchased from Kaplan's

Notions: thread

I originally purchased this fabric with no small amount of fear.  It's sik, and it's slippery.  It's also not at all within my comfort zone of print...but I'd looked at it and touched it and looked at the price tag everytime I went into the store.  On my last visit before they closed, Alan offered a discount, and I went with it.  I had no plans for it, but knew it needed to be something simple.  So when the Belcarra pattern was released earlier this year, I knew I'd found a match.

And then I went and decided to do the version with the tucked sleeves.

At which point I decided that maybe I should avoid handling this as much as possible.

So I decided against French seams.

You can now kick me out of the sewing community--I serged a silk blouse.

In my defense, (and I still stand by my decision):

a) there are a lot of bias seams here, which were just asking to be pulled all wonky

b) this silk has a twill weave, which wants to skew anyway

c) I did not want to risk having to unpick seams in this fabric

d) well, this isn't Project Runway.  You can't kick me out for that.

Will I still wear this?

Yes.

Am I happy with how it turned out?

Yes, if it ever stops raining.

Case closed.

On the sizing, I graded from a 10 through the shoulders to an 8 at the waist and hips, due to previous issues with tight shoulders.  I may have been able to get away with an 8 all over, as it is so drapey, and slighty prone to mechanical stretch, but I'm really okay with the looser fit through the top.  

Silk is supposed to be drapey.