Friday, May 2, 2014

Making it work, Mabel edition !


Hi everyone !

The Curvy Colette blog tour is finished and Jenny wrote a wonderful round up post. I had a lot of fun in the process of sewing my Mabel and Moneta. It has been a great experience and it is only the start of something much bigger that will come to you very very soon !

Now ! Time for a little behind the scenes oopsy. My first attempt at the Mabel went slightly wrong. I do not have any photo to document the « before » stage, mainly because it was hurting my vanity. Now, as you saw on our posts, we all used a pretty thick knit to smoothe the curves and lumps. Well, I got a bad start, completely ignoring the idea. See, my approach was to go for a print that would take the eye where I would want the eye to go. I thought I found the perfect print : a beautiful pannel with amazing colours. Well no...



It went very wrong. The fabric was way too thin to wrap smoothly around my curves. It clung to them instead. Even if I had cut a size larger. You must already understand how sad I was... I loved that fabric but it was amost impossible to salvage anything or rip out the stitches. Due to the pannelled nature of the print, I only had barely enough for the skirt, and no leftover. I racked my brains and tried to remember if I had a pattern that would fit within the leftover parts. Nothing...



Then I started thinking that I really liked the waist peices, with the lining. Would there be any possible way to keep it ? Than I flipped it over and I had a eureka moment !



What if it became a top ! What if I did not have to rip any stitches ! Yes Yes Yes ! It could actually work ! What if I stitched my former hem on the sides, to create shoulder seems... And what if I cut armholes on my former side seems ???



It took me 15 minutes to flip this skirt into a top ! And you know what ? It worked magically... The pannel print work beautifully as a blouse. The fabric that was the source of the skirt clinginess became the reason why this top has a beautiful drape. The waist stayed a waist. The stripes along the form hem became a great shoulder line. I am so happy about this mishap turned success !









A shoe parting shot :)

What about you lovely ladies (and gents?), have you ever had a "make it work" moment? If so, it would be great if you could link it, I would love to see where your imagination led you!

28 comments:

  1. Love this top! I have a plan for a dress I made that I know I won't wear, but I haven't done it yet. Will post it to solestitch.blogspot.com when I do. It will involve new pockets and a lot of paint :)

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    1. Hi Tina, I will follow you to see what you come up with :)

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  2. It came out so freaking cute as a top, especially with that skirt! I love it.

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    1. Thanks a lot! I am super happy too! It also works with jeans and linen pants!

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  3. Ok this is the most flipping ingenious idea! You DEFINITELY get the award for the most innovative hacking of a Mabel... you should let Sarai know she accidentally made a top pattern as well!! (also looks good :))

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    1. Thanks Jenny, I just sent her an e-mail :) I keep on smiling every time I wear it...

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  4. Its just silly how perfectly that worked out...so extremely cute! Could you even have planned it that well? (can you tell me more about that skirt?)

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    1. The original pattern is called Mabel, from Colette. You can see the version that worked + all the links here

      http://quirkyprettycute.blogspot.nl/2014/04/curvy-colette-plus-size-blog-tour_20.html

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  5. amazing save! I always try to salvage failed projects... but it doesn't always work! I'm very impressed that you were able to save something that was made of such a small amount of fabric.

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    1. Me too :) I am usually quite bad at saving my fails. I am usually too upset but this time, I loved the fabric too much to not do anything about it :)

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  6. You are such a clever girl! Love that you made it work for you!

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  7. This is one of the all-time great "saves" I've seen of a likely wadder. I'm impressed!

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  8. You are a sewing genius .... The top looks great on you and totally wins the sewing inventive test. Now, just need to commandeer a wee boat to sail in your direction and take those polka dot shoes off your hands! ;) seriously, polka dot shoes *swoon*

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    1. I was actually thinking of you when I asked Mister to make a photo of the shoes :) I got them at Evans 3 years ago, for 5 pounds if I remember well...

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  9. Your photos are too funny! And that top honestly works so well on you

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  10. Such amazing outside the box thinking! It might not have been a good skirt, but that top is fabulous!

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  11. I discovered your blog recently, and LOVE what you do! This is fabulous. I have not had such a moment, but I will look for opporunities when something unforseen happens!

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  12. That top is fantastic. What a creative use of a skirt pattern. The fabric is lovely too. All my wadders just gather dust in a box.

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  13. This is an amazing save! When I first started reading, I was thinking "tube top?!" but you took it somewhere completely different! Love!

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  14. Genius! I can't believe it was an oops, it looks fantastic on you!

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  15. Never would have that of that!!! Love it!

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  16. Great that you rescued the fabric, the print looks fantastic! And I love the top, it looks absolutely great with the skirt, an oops turned into a tres beau top!!!

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  17. I love it! Hurray for perseverance- stylishly done, Ma'am.

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  18. Haha, love your expression in the second photo :))\
    Nice top and good work!

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  19. Awesome! (and the shoes are fabulous!)

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  20. Great that you rescued the fabric, the print looks fantastic! And I love the top, it looks absolutely great with the skirt, an oops turned into a tres beau top!!!

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