Cattitude Wiksten Tank

Surprise, surprise! I made another Wiksten Tank! (It’s my fifth one, if you must know.) This one is a little bit different. My crazy cat lady dress yielded some leftover yardage, so I decided to try out color blocking. There wasn’t quite enough of the Cattitude print for the front, so I just extended the coral Jewel print over the shoulders to compensate. The technique I used was made up on the spot: I connected a large strip of the coral Jewel print to the Cattitude print using a French seam, laid down the pattern piece on top of the joined fabric and moved it around until I liked how it looked. Then I proceeded to cut and sew the tank top as usual.

I knew I was on the right track when I tried on the half-finished garment and showed it to my three-year-old daughter. She jumped up and down, shrieked with glee and demanded her own kitty dress. I don’t know about you, but I call that success.

This shirt is one of my favorite handmade garments, because I made do with what I had on hand and ended up with something that I will actually wear and enjoy.

Spring Top Sewalong and Me-Made-May

I don’t know what it is about Spring that makes me want to sew garments, but it does. After a brief respite following my semi-failed Catnap Dress, I am once again excited about sewing my own clothes. It doesn’t hurt that there are currently two online events that I’d like to participate in: the Spring Top Sewalong, which encourages the making of garments and Me-Made-May, which encourages the wearing of handmade items. They dovetail nicely, as during the first event (April 14-May 11) I can make tops to wear for the duration of the second event (May 1-May 31). In fact, this weekend I started a Wiksten tank out of my Catnap leftovers. Yep, that’s Wiksten tank #5 for this girl. I really need to branch out, as reflected in my Me-Made-May pledge:

'I, Rachel of Snippets of Sweetness, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavor to wear one handmade garment each day for the duration of May 2014 and to make one garment in May 2014 out of a new-to-me pattern or fabric type.'

From my current stash of fabrics and patterns, I have two choices for my new-to-me garment: a modified Staple Dress shirt out of voile, or a Taffy Blouse out of quilting cotton. The voile shirt is the top candidate at the moment, as I suspect I will have better luck with new patterns in the future if I’m comfortable with a wider range of fabric types.

I will post my finishes here on the blog, but feel free to follow along with my progress on Instagram (@snippetsofsweetness) or Flickr (@snippetsofsweetness!).