Cecilia's Suits: Part 3

Aaaaaaaand I'm back! With more suits! Did you miss me? (Catch up here and here)

I just adore the buttons on this suit. Absolutely my favorite.

I discovered I have a severe dust allergy while pulling all these suits out to take pictures. There's definitely some cleaning in order before I can work with these.

And the one and only non-suit in the collection...

Check those shoulder pads. I might just cut them out and wear the shirt as is.

There was also this belt that looked like it matched the above pants:

Well, that's that! We've reached the end of the suits, so look forward to posts about what I used them for.

-Taft WK 

Pink and Gray Striped Tunic For Mom

I'm such a good daughter. Especially when I'm getting paid to make clothes for my mom. It really only makes me a better daughter (I hope Mom is reading this...)

I made a tunic for her several months ago, which she loved, so now there's more! 

For this one, we dropped the neckline (same as my Halloween dress) and added 4 or so inches to the bottom. 

This fabric is (surprise!) from Fabric Outlet, picked up during a (surprise!) 40% off sale. I know you're all shocked every time I say that.

And I got the stripes to match up perfectly on the side seam! I'm so excited!

We love Fabric Outlet because of their fantastic prices and sales, but now that I'm making clothes that are supposed to last longer, the seams are outliving the fabric. The knits we purchased there are pilling very quickly, so I was wondering if anyone had suggestions of where to find well-priced, quality knits in San Francisco? (Our next thought was Britex, but that's waaaay too expensive for us). 

-Taft WK

Cecilia's Suits: Part 2

Ohhhhhh, get pumped! I've got more suits from Cecilia for you today! (Don't know what I'm talking about? Get caught up here)

I really liked the quilted texture of this hot pink fabric. 

Cecilia's grandma had these suits custom made from a brother-sister team in Florida. The two were immigrants (I feel terrible that I can't remember what country they're from), but settled in Florida and started their own tailoring company. These suits that they've made are absolutely incredible and have obviously lasted a very long time. 

I can't get the picture to rotate in here, but there's the label for ya. 

Cecilia said that her grandma made her own clothes until she was successful enough to buy her own custom suits.

Alright, my lovelies. There is one last post with more suits before you can see what I've been making with them.  

-Taft WK 

Black Half-Circle Skirt

For those of you out there who understand the true horror of junior year at a college prep high school, you'll know exactly what it's like to have hardly any time left for your hobbies. What with 3 Honors classes, costumes for the fall play, a shop class and discovering Gilmore Girls and 30 Rock on Netflix (nope, not ashamed to admit it), sewing unfortunately spent some time on the back burner last semester. I was only able to find little pockets of time here and there to make small projects. 

This one is one of the better ones (meaning, one that was rushed and therefore didn't crash and burn). 

My dog, in a fit of excitement when I got home one day, clawed my favorite flared black skirt and kind of wrecked it. I loved it so much that I still wore it a few more times, but finally had to admit that a dog-clawed skirt is not a good look. 

So, I ignored homework one weekend and made myself a new one! 

The fabric is the same as the fabric used to make the dress in my Halloween costume. I love love love it! It's a thick knit; stretchy but still with some body. 

The hem is folded twice because I don't have a machine that does that really cool hem that's always on t-shirts. Man, I don't even know the right name for it, which makes me feel like a total scrub. However, the twice-folded hem gives the skirt a great shape. See? Take that you fancy-tshirt-hemming-machine-thingy-once-folded-contraption....I still feel like a scrub.

This is an improved version of the completely failed beige striped half-circle skirt you all saw a couple months ago. Instead of cutting on a fold so there was one seam (see? Rushed = Crash + Burn), I cut two pieces so there were side seams and it was much improved. The waistband on this also worked really well - didn't even need elastic! Can't even tell you how much I love this fabric. 

And the back of the skirt...

Here's to all you juniors, trying to hang on to your hobbies this year. 

-Taft WK