Peasant Top Attempt #1

Hey! This is Megan and I used to room with Kelli in school. I was so excited when Kelli told me about this little group! I set out to make Top D, but as you can see, it ended up being Top D sans sleeves. I tried it on after sewing the yoke on and realized that I would have to wear a shirt under it. This, along with my trepidation that the sleeves might not fit my not-so-skinny arms, and the knowledge that puffy sleeves do not often mix well with broad shoulders, led me to fore go the sleeves and just hem up the arm holes. I have sewn only one other clothing item in my lifetime; pajama shorts in middle school and they did not need to "fit". Since I agonized over every step I was unsure about (23 out of 23 steps), this took me about 10 hours, minus dinnertime, some disappointing March Madness basketball, and the PBS Masterpiece movie.

Next time I will know to make the yoke smaller, take it in on the sides, and run the gathering stitches in the yoke a little longer. The did not want to stay gathered at the edges of the gathering seams. I did shorten it 3 1/2" and will probably lengthen it next time 1/2"-1". I tried taking a strip of grey fabric and running it across the chest like an obi and that was really cute so someone adventurous wanting to really modify things could try a fat strip across the chest with straps rather than a yoke shaped top.

I had some problems getting things to line up despite cutting and sewing meticulously - particularly sewing the tops of the straps together - which led to each strap having one small pleat and two asymmetrical straps. Don't look too closely me or the shirt - I didn't get the tripod out for this photo so you get a dark room and me leaning to try and be in the frame! Overall, I was just pleased that it looks like a shirt, that it fits fairly well, and that it doesn't fall apart when putting it on!

Fabric Choice

I'm really excited for this top because with baby #2 on the way in 6 months, I think this will be a great transition shirt as I grow. Today I got my fabric and was planning on atleast cutting it while Rebecca napped, so I wanted to kick myself when I realized I hadn't washed it before she went down. So now I'm blogging about it instead. My only reservation is the fabric is really sheer so I got some white lining which means I'll have some extra work to do. I really like the lace finishing on the bottom, though, so I think it'll be worth it!

Peasant top #1 done

Once I started cutting out my fabric yesterday I got addicted and couldn't stop. I think from start to finish it took 3-4 hours (while watching tv). I am very happy with this pattern. I went down about 2 sizes from what I would normally sew in a pattern and it fits perfect. The only alteration I made was shortening it by 3 inches. I think that with my next one I will shorten it a little less and maybe take in the sides a bit.
My only reservation is my fabric choice. The bold print is even more bold than I expected. But I think that if I pair it with some skinny jeans, ballet flats and maybe even a cardigan (to tone it down) it will look great.




I was also thinking this would be a perfect pattern to lengthen and make into a dress. Pair it with a thick belt and it would be a perfect summer dress.

fabric choices

Yesterday I spent over an hour at Joanne's trying to choose my fabric for this top. I was constantly pulled towards the silky, flowing summery fabrics, but knew they would be horrible to try and sew on my 1980's hand me down of a machine. So I decided to stick with more structured fabrics and fight the "looking like a tent" problem. I went with a bright and bold geometric cotton for my first one and then a thin gray linen for a second top. I am so excited to get started. I think I will cut them out today.

links to already made McCalls 5388

I found a few other's who have already made this top. I thought you might want to take a look and see their reviews and tips.
Here are the links to the blog's or flickr:

fresh stitch
dei's delights
curly crafter
lucinda
sew color me fun
creative reveries
anne:made
kambybolongo's
summerland creative
lindamade
bess erin
ellierichellie

McCall's Peasant Top

Hello All!
This is Michelle, Emilie's sister in Law. I'm really excited about being welcomed to this fun blog. I love sewing, but can never bring myself to sew unless I have to. So, this will be great for me! Ok, here we go. I sewed the spaghetti strap top out of the 4 because summer is coming and I basically never go without a cardigan. It was a pretty fun and easy pattern. I did a size smaller than my measurement called for, and it was still way big. I had to take it in a few inches on both sides. As you can see it's still pretty big, but I love it anyhow. I love the way it hangs. I did pleats instead of gathers. It only took about an hour and a half after cutting everything out. I plan on making the other one with sleeves out of a tone on tone black plaid organza. Again, I'm so excited to sew with you all!

What to buy for project #2

If you look on the back of your pattern or click here and look at the instructions you can find out how many yards of fabric to buy for the top you choose and your size. It will be anywhere between 1 3/8 and 1 7/8 yards if you have 45" fabric and 1 yard and 1 5/8 yard for 60" wide fabric.

Fabric recommended by the pattern are: Lightweight Fabrics Such as Cotton • Cotton Blends • Challis • Gauze • Double Georgette • Cotton Knits • Jersey. Additional Fabric may be needed to match stripes, plaids or one-way design fabric.

As a side not I would say that if you are a less experienced sewer I would stick with non stretchy and non slippery materials and go with more of a cotton.

I made a similar peasant top last summer and highly recommend getting a thin fabric that will somewhat flow. The more the fabric gives the less you will look like a tent.

When choosing a size take your measurements and compare them to the ones on the back of the pattern. It will most likely be larger than you expected. That being said, all of the reviews I read on Patternreview suggest going down a size because the pattern runs very large.

You will also need the following notions:
1 spool of matching thread
1 Package of 1/2" Wide Single Fold Bias Tape
Top D - 1 Yd. of 1/4" Wide Elastic
Top C - 1 1/8 Yds. of 1 1/2" Wide Pre-gathered Crochet Type Lace Trim, 7/8 Yd. of 1 1/2" Wide Pre-gathered Lace Trim and 3/4 Yd. of 1 1/2" Wide Pre-gathered Eyelet Trim.

2nd Project

Hopefully most of you will be able to finish up your bags over the weekend. We are going to go ahead and get going on our second project - a peasant blouse. The pattern # is McCalls 5388 and it will be on sale this Thursday-Saturday (March 19-21) at Joannes for $1.99.

Here are a few peasant tops I found in retail that might inspire you and give you ideas for making it a little unique. (click the image to make it larger)



1. Anne Taylor - $54.50
2. Loeffler Randall - $275.00
3. Tracy Reese - $300.00
4. Anthropologie - $58.00
5. Forever 21 - $19.80
6. Anne Taylor - $24.99
7. Macy's $39.98
8. ING - $28.50
9. Gap - $28.00
10. Kennith Cole - $79.00
11. Michael Cors - $109.50
12. Macy's - $69

I found most of these through shopstyle and eluxury, my new favorite sites. They are great places to get ideas.

More to come later today: what to buy.

second bag

I sewed my second bag yesterday. I wanted it to be a bag I could take with me to church so I decided to make it a little bit larger than the other one and just get one bag out of my fabric instead of two. I used a fabric grocery bag as a pattern for the size, but otherwise constructed it just the same as the first according to the instructions. I think that is why this is such a great pattern. It is extremely customizable to different shapes and sizes.
I wanted to do something a little different so I added the stripes. The jury is still out on how I feel about them - they turned out a little more beachy bagish than I had intended.
The finished dimensions for this bag are about 17 inches tall and 15 inches wide.

kitschy aprons

Shelley from Kitchy aprons emailed us photos of her bag. I really like her idea of using leftover fabric to make a little tag or wallet to hang off of the handles. Her is a photo of her bag. You can see more detailed photos of the bag on our flickr group. - presser foot - of coarse.
click here to go to our flickr page. - hopefully we can all start uploading our photos there.

You can learn more about Shelley through her site: www.kitschyaprons.com.

Shelley had the following comments about making the tote bag:

Hi there.

I found your blog on twitter and love the concept. I also loved the bag, so I had to participate. It worked out well for me. I had just cleaned out my stash and just hapened to have a stack of upholstry fabric sitting there on my ironing board (because it always seems to double as a table/shelf) waiting for an idea of what to do with them.

I found the instructions pretty easy to follow and learned something new along the way. I'd always wondered what exactly a "fat quarter" was! It took me about an hour and a half and I made a little phone pouch to match too. The only challenging part was self-inflicted becuase I chose striped fabric that I needed to match up at the base.

Everything came out well and I love the final product. However, if I made another one (I probably will) I will make it with longer straps. I'm a mom and need to be able to keep my hands free, so I'd prefer one with long enough straps to wear it on the shoulder.

Looking forward to the next project!

-Shelley

two down

i completed my second tote today. as you can see i added a little to the width of the bag (3inches), a stabilizer to the bottom, and a little bling. i love doing a remake of a project because i feel like i can have some fun with it as the stress of "what do i do next" has already been conquered. there will be no mistaking who's tote this is, especially with my initials plastered across one side.

i used cheap plastic crafting grids to create a firm bottom to the tote. it is hidden in between the shell and lining.

zebra done

I finished my first bag as well. Like Rian, it turned out a lot smaller than I had expected. Much too small for a church bag so I am going to use it as my knitting bag. Since I don't do a lot of knitting it is just the perfect size. I may decide to do my next bag bigger. We will see. Otherwise I am super happy with the way it turned out and it was really easy to make once I got started.

one down

it took about 2 hours, but I got this first one finished. a couple things you should know:
1. The cutting diagram kelli did is off a little, unless you want the tote for french bread the squares should be cut as 13"x14" for the top fabric and 13"x15" for the lining.
2. the bag is smaller than i imagined. the finished bag is 11 1/2" tall, 9"wide, and 3" deep. my Real Simple magazine can fit down into it with out being seen, but I wish it were a little wider, maybe 2 or 3 inches.
3. i modified the handles, because my top fabric is cotton and too flimsy, so instead of folding the 3 1/2" fabric in half and sewing it, i cut the handles out of both fabrics at 2 1/4" x 13", sewed the cotton to the duck cloth and turned it inside out and top stitched. I used a half inch seam allowance to catch the salvage in the top stitching for extra reinforcement.
But, overall I think it's cute and was pretty easy to make.

fabric today, cutting tomorrow

i was not as good as shauntel at sticking to the "use up the fabric I have and not buy additional fabric unless it's going to be used with old fabric to finish a project" -goal. The herringbone fabric was mine, but I did buy a second set of fabric to make another tote..or two. I mean, if I'm going to make one it doesn't add on much more time to make another 3 or 4 at the same time. right? honestly I want to make at least ten, but I'll limit myself to 3 or 4 for now. they make such cute gifts. I can just picture a hooded towel in a coordinating color rolled up inside one of these fabulous bags as a baby gift or maybe some bibs. or what about a new magazinetucked in with some sunscreen for a summer birthday girl. as you can tell, there is no end to my fabric loving madness. here's the fabric for the first 3 or 4.

cutting fabric

This is what your pieces should look like once you have cut out enough for one bag:
(I already cut out one wrong oops)

fabric decision

One of my goals this year is to use up the fabric I have and not buy additional fabric unless it's going to be used with old fabric to finish a project. So, I had these two upholstery fabrics already (a fabric store went out of business and I stocked up)



So I went out to try and find some fabrics to match. And although there were so many stylish fabrics I was tempted to buy to make this tote, I stuck with my goal and came away with these sets




Step one complete. :)

Questions About Interfacing

I purchased upholstery-like fabric (as shown below) and after pre-washing it seemed more flopsy-mopsy than I wanted. I really want this bag to almost stand up on it's own and have a hefty bit of structure. I am wondering/considering adding fusible interfacing the the wrong/hidden side of my main top fabric. I have only used interfacing once before and I am a bit cautious.

Do any of you more seasoned sewers have an opinion about if interfacing might be a good idea to use in this project to add stability? Any help would be appreciated.

Here's My Fabric

I will use the floral as the top and the stripe as the lining/accent. It looks a bit checkered here, but is simply tone on tone green stripes. I bought these at JoAnns and it only cost $15 for enough to make two bags.

Now that I have the fabric I am 10 times more excited than I already was. I can't wait to get started!

My Fabric

I bought my fabric yesterday. I couldn't decide on one, so I got two options. I can't wait to get started. One is a hemplike canvas for the top and a rusty orange/red linen for the lining, and the other is bright yellow canvas for the top and a zebra print linen for the bottom. Has anyone else gotten their fabric yet?

Buying your fabric

I went out to buy my fabric today and was a little confused by the materials list given in the instructions, so I wanted to explain some terms. First of all she mentions that your main fabric should be a fat quarter. I'm not a quilter so I had no idea what that meant. Here is an illustration/definition:

fat quarter: A 1/2 yard of fabric that is cut in half between the selvages so you end up with a piece of fabric that is approximately 18" by 22".

so if you had a yard of fabric the following dark yellow region is the fat quarter.



So when you are buying your fabric you will most likely just buy a 1/2 yard which will give you two fat quarters (make a second one as a gift.)

Her instructions call for a fat quarter used from a 54" wide fabric. A lot of fabric comes in a skinnier 44" width. If you buy the skinnier fabric you can either make 2 skinnier bags or cut the fabric down to 26" wide and make one bag with some leftover scraps- it just depends on the look you are going for.

So here is what you need to buy:

1/2 yard of main top fabric
3/4 yard of lining/accent fabric
thread

Project # 1 : Modern Tote

For our first project we thought that we would start with something simple and chic - a modern tote bag. The tutorial is free and comes from the very talented Cicada Daydream blog (who hand prints that amazing fabric).

To see the tutorial click here.

We thought that because this is a pretty simple project it should only take about two weeks. So go get your fabric (and preshrink it). I would recommend that your outer fabric is an upolstery fabric or something of the same thickness such as canvas if you want the bag to stand up straight on it's own.

Please post any comments, questions, or photos of the process. I can't wait to see what fabric everyone picks.