It’s made from gingham seersucker.  Does that make it a tablecloth skirt?

Nah, it’s actually called a tablecloth skirt because that is what Shams called it in her excellent tutorial! I came across this tutorial less than two weeks ago and couldn’t wait to give this pattern a try. I love the way that the folds fall.

It’s essentially a square with a circle cut out of the middle, an elasticised waistband attached, and four rectangles sewn on to each of the sides of the square. Clever Shams figured it all out!

The fabric came from Spotlight about a year ago. I’ve been dying to use it but hadn’t been sure what it would work best in. I think that this is a great pairing! I used the marvellous circle skirt instructions in Nicole Mallalieu‘s book You Sew Girl for the elasticised waistband.

I did alter the measurements.  I’m 5’2″ (158cm) tall, so made the centre 42″ square and the side rectangles 12″ by 42″.  The radius of the centre circle was 5.5″ for my relatively thick waist, and the waistband was cut wide enough to encase the elastic and be long enough to get over my hips.  It fitted onto the waist hole perfectly.  This skirt is just made for twirling! It would be interesting made in a stripe as well.

And wow, if I ever needed a boost to my ego, you’ve all provided it in the comments you left on my last post! Thanks so much to each and every one of you – I’ll go back and read all of them again whenever I am feeling a little bit blue. I was really just curious as to why you read my blog, and didn’t realise that I was pretty much just asking you to flatter me! Thank you. If you want to enter to win a copy of Modern Blocks just pop over and leave a comment – there’s still a few days left of the giveaway.

Here’s another one that I made at Sewjourn!  It’s Butterick 5329, which is essentially a stretch fabric caftan, but one that narrows at the hemline and has interesting insets and side drapes.

I’m going to subject you to lots of photos of this one because I think that the shaping is interesting. From the front, with arms out:

and from the back, with arms out:

All of this gives the sides an interesting drape. I think that it works beautifully on my square/apple shaped figure, but I’m not so sure that I’d be recommending it for someone with larger hips/thighs.

I made this in size Medium, which the pattern said translated to a 12-14. In retrospect, the Small would have been fine. It comes in three lengths – top, tunic/dress and maxi dress. I made the tunic/dress, and still chopped another four inches or so from the length. The neckline is definitely plunging, although not quite to the bra band. It stays in place quite nicely though, and I haven’t found that I’ve exposed myself in it (unless Stella is tugging at my clothes, which does happen at times). I reinforced the back neckline with elastic, cut slightly shorter and stretched a little as I sewed it to the neckline. I then turned it to the inside and stitched down the back neckline hem. The elastic stops it from stretching out.

And the fabric? Just guess – mystery knit (slinky and probably very polyester) from the Darn Cheap Fabrics $2 per metre table. Speaking of which – I dropped into Darn Cheap yesterday and they have just restocked the $2 per metre table – dangerous! Apparently they will be on sale throughout December.  It was lots of fun working out how to best utilise the border print. The print runs down both edges, with the purple “clouds” in the centre. I’ll also style this with a tank and leggings, in black or brown to complement the print. I have noticed the glare of my moon tan in these photos!  I feel quite glamorous in this dress.

Pattern review over here.

When I used a panel of Go Granny fabric in my latest bag, it was actually a bit of the leftovers from cutting out this jacket.

I am so pleased with my jacket! I’ve made the pattern twice before – the first time well over ten years ago – and I still wear both jackets. I knew that it would be a perfect match to the Go Granny canvas. You can’t go past a basic jeans style jacket if you have a casual lifestyle! The pattern is still in print.

I made size 12, but petite-ed it a bit through the body, removing around an inch of length. I left the sleeves as they were, because I wear them with the cuff turned back, but they are fairly long as drafted. It’s great using jeans buttons that are hammered in place rather than hand-sewing all those buttons on.

The fabric was very easy to work with. And despite being a busy pattern that uses a number of colours, from a distance the jacket actually looks fairly muted. Well, muted for me. You know I’m not afraid of colour or pattern.

If you’re after a basic jeans jacket pattern, I highly recommend this one. And of course I recommend Cam‘s Go Granny fabric! She’s just released it in a lighter weight, like a quilting cotton – so you can really get grannified!

(Note: I don’t actually wear my t-shirts tucked into my jeans – on me, not a good look. But it showed off the jacket better for the photos. The sacrifices we make!)