This has been a busy week, but I managed to fit in some sewing. Last Fall, I had planned to make two pair of pants with coordinating blouses. I was interested in V8831 because of the princess seams and cowl neckline. Lately, cowl necklines have been appealing to me. Also, this pattern is a custom fit pattern. Since I had success with V8649, I thought I would try another Vogue custom fit pattern.

 

For my pants,  I used OOP V2931.  I have made these pants before.  Out of all the pants patterns I tried so far, I like this pattern then best. It gives me the best fit. During the week, I worked on dark navy wool pinstripe pants. Their almost complete except for the hemming.

Now, let me tell you about my moment of truth while making V8831.  I cut the pattern out in a taupe lightweight rayon jersey.  I purchased the fabric from Fabric.com last year.  I was planning to pair it with a dark brown  wool herringbone.  Things were going great and the momentum was right on. I knew I would complete the blouse over the weekend.  Then it happened.  While I was trimming a seam, I cut a hole in the body of the back.  I couldn’t believe it and my exact words were  “are you serious?”  I almost felt like crying, because I didn’t have extra of the fabric.

I had a 10 minute pouting session and decided to place it aside. Then I looked for another piece in my stash.  I had been looking at a mauve wool blend knit in my stash to pair with the navy pants.  I wanted to use it for something different, but decided to use it for this pattern.  So, I started the process again, this time taking more care with trimming.

I cut the blouse in a 22 in the top with a D cup and 24 in the hips.  My word, this ended being too big.  I had to trim it down quite a bit.  I ended up with a 20 in both the top and hips.  I thought maybe the pattern ran big, so I checked patternreview.  No one reported it running big.  So it could only mean one thing, I lost inches.  Hooray!!!  I hadn’t notice while making my pants because I made them to fit a little snug for future weight lost.

 

Well both my pants and blouse are almost complete.  They just need hemming.  Here’s a peek.

 

Now, I got to thinking about how much I had to take in on the blouse.  Then it hit me, that was the solution to fixing the taupe.  The amount I had to take in on the back might cover the cut.  I’ll see how it works out this week.

 

So the plan is finish both blouses and pants. If all goes well, I will have pictures and formal reviews at the end of the week.

 

Next on the list is V1329.  I going to step out of my comfort zone on this one.  Instead of using solid colors for the color blocking, I going to use this mint and black wool as the contrast with a black wool as the base of the dress.  I have made the pattern adjustments.  Next is completing the muslin.