Greenstyle Taylor Shorts & Modified Liesl & Co. Gallery Tunic

I finally took some more bad pictures of myself and thought I'd share them to the whole world or at least the 120 people who read this blog. I question my blogging every single time I do this. Why the heck do I do this anyway? I hope that it is helpful to see an ordinary person like myself make clothes. That is the whole point. Making is such a worthwhile activity so I hope that my awkward attempts may inspire someone else to attempt something too.

So here we go. Ugh.

I used the Liesl & Co. gallery tunic pattern to make a summery blouse. The changes are minor - I shortened the sleeves and shortened the overall length. I did a full bust adjustment and then narrowed the sides about an inch at the bottom tapered to nothing at the darts. It just felt too wide otherwise. I really love the look of it. It's sort of camp shirt meets Japanese sewing pattern. Is camping much of a thing in Japan?

Springtime photo shoots might be harder than winter because there aren't so many leaves on the trees yet so finding shade isn't always easy. I know these outdoor pics are a bit bright and I'm a little squinty but it is what it is folks.

The back of the shirt has a nice pleat. This is the most comfortable woven blouse I have ever owned. The fit and the design of it seem made for me. Nothing pulls, rubs or feels tight anywhere. It doesn't shift around and need to be pulled back into place - ever. This fabric is AMAZING. It is a double gauze from CaliFabrics    (even cheaper now I see) and is light as air. It's practically like being naked because it just floats and feels so good. This fabric is double sided with a magenta and black opposite side. I ordered 2 yards not being sure what I was going to make with it exactly, but it accidentally got left off my first shipment. A quick email, a super quick response from customer service and within days I had the 2 yards plus an extra 1 for the trouble. How nice of them. So I have about 2 more yards and can't decide what to make with it.

Are you ready to see my doughy, white legs in shorts? Here we go.

I've made the Greenstyle Taylor shorts before so I didn't question which pattern to use when I needed more shorts for this summer. It's a really great pattern - easy to sew, well drafted, curved waistband, nice zip fly with a video tutorial on the website - what more do you need? Plus it's so much faster to reuse a pattern that you already have printed, taped, traced and fitted before. I briefly considered adding welt pockets to the back, but decided in the end that I wouldn't really use them anyway and since I rarely wear things tucked in no one would even see them. One of these days I will make welt pockets just because.

For my body, the only adjustments I make to this pattern are to taper the waist in a little more. From the top of the pocket upward I draw a tapered curve taking out a 1/4" from both front and back pieces at the sides and a scant 1/2" at center back. I therefore also changed my waistband piece slightly by folding out a bit in the center and taking 1/4" off each side.

My fabric here is Montauk twill in charcoal from the Imagine Gnats shop (which is temporarily closed while Rachel recovers from surgery). It is very nice stuff too. A sturdy bottomweight perfect for shorts. The pocket linings are leftover scraps of the gray tencil cotton chambray from my Granville buttondown. Nice and  lightweight. My hips are definitely a size bigger than my waist so that's why the previous mentioned adjustments are necessary, but just to make sure there would be no waistband gaping, I tried something new and added some elastic to the back waist. So after attaching the main waistband piece and then attaching the waistband facing to that, I measured the back from side seam to side seam. I cut a piece of 1-1/2" elastic 1/2" shorter than that so that I could have some seam allowance and wind up with my elastic being 1" shorter than the fabric. I then laid the elastic on the main waistband piece and pinned to the side seams witha 1/4" overhang and stitched in the ditch from the top to hide it. I continued sewing as normal and it adds just a little stretch back there without looking like an elastic waist.

I'm about 8 pounds heavy right now while I'm coming off winter so these are a little tight in the hips. You can see the smile lines at the crotch. But they are still comfy and will be great within the next month when I get to my summer weight. At least I hope so because we have a beach vacation coming up in June so I better put down the chocolate and get serious.

And here's the blouse with jeans. A good look too and how I started off this day before I realized I could blog both at the same time. Yay me for making my mix and match capsule wardrobe work out so well. I am super happy with how it's coming together in time for the good weather. This has been the easiest Me Made May yet for me, though you'll have to take my word for it because I haven't documented it at all. The pressure of documenting took the fun out of it for me in the past so I decided to just not this year. I liken it to the good feeling you have when you do something nice for someone but you don't tell anyone. It's like an anonymous gift or something. Only I know it and it makes me happy and doesn't really need any attention.

Up next on the blog should be a couple of dresses made for Elena and her little friend. That should be a fun photoshoot I hope. The plan is to have that for you next week so in the meantime I wish you all a great weekend full of fun times with family and friends and hopefully a little faith in there too. I know that for me the best days all include a little Work, a little Pray and a little Sew.