Skip to main content

Sew what do I wear - Professional Edition

This is my first blog tour!! I'm so excited to be a part of the Patterns for Pirates/Made for Mermaids Sew what do I wear - Professional Edition blog tour!
If you're read this blog ever before, you know I love wearing handmade items to work. Ever since I started sewing, my ultimate goal and dream was to make a fantastic work wardrobe that would fit well, look nice, and be well received! I believe I am well on my way. 75% of what I wear to work these days is handmade. I'm still working on getting the fit dialed in just right but each garment is an opportunity to improve.
SOS Pants and Favorite Tee


SOS Pants and Favorite Tee have been staples of my work wardrobe. If you have seen my Spring/Summer Sudoku you know that already :-) I made a couple of nicer additions for this blog tour. I wanted something a little special that would still work in a daytime work environment but elevate my looks a bit more.
SOS Pants and Favorite Tee


I'd been wanting to do a choker neck Tee but didn't want a whole new pattern for it so I hacked the Favorite tee to do it. I used the V neckline and made it like usual. Then I cut a separate choker piece and sewed it into a round and then attached it just at the back neckline. I love the way it came out. I also wanted the top to be a bit more swingy than usual so I made this adjustment shown below on another top. I just swung the hemline a little farther away from the fold and cut. Super simple!
SOS Pants and Favorite Tee

Now the moto pants. Moto pants are IN right now and I so badly wanted some. I even bought a pattern that came with it but since I love SOS pants so much, I decided to do my own hacking. It was also super simple. I drew the lines above thighs where I wanted the moto detailing and added 1/2" seam allowance and cut out the pattern pieces. I cut 2 sets of mirror images of the moto detail part and quilted it double layer. I thought quilting would stand out more if it was double layer and it worked very well! My fabric is a Techno scuba from fabric.com and it was perfect for this project. It has really awesome recovery and helps contain the thighs ;-)
This is my hacked SOS pant. You can see the pattern slashed above the knee and 1/2" SA added to each seam. 

As an apple shape, I am conscious of my mid section. I find the elastic in the pants helps smooth things out a lot. In this pair, I used 3" elastic instead of the regular 2" and that increase gave me the additional coverage for my back side. This fabric, while awesome for horizontal stretch and recovery, has NO vertical stretch and that additional inch saved me! 
Since it's fall, we can't go without a layer on top. I get loads of comments at work about how my handmade clothes don't look like I made them. I think the key is putting the RTW details into your handmade clothing and another big key is to mix them up with RTW pieces! I am still ways away from making a leather jacket with quilting. Judy needs to come out with one of these! This leather jacket completes the look nicely.
Hope you found some inspiration for professional looking clothing. Check out what the other bloggers have come up with for the Sew what do I wear - Professional Edition!



October 23 - daniKate Designs, Ma Moose

Labels:

Comments

Amy B. said…
This is fabulous, and I am totally impressed!
12:19 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Basically Jalie blog tour

Basically Jalie Blog Tour - Day 2 (This post has been sponsored by Jalie Patterns. There is  a sewalong, rafflecopter, and amazing prizes to win so keep reading! )  Majority of what I wear are work/business casual outfits and hence that is majority of what I sew. I am always looking for cute woven tops to add to my rotation. I love making tunic tops especially now that I've learned to fit them. I never liked any store bought ill fitting and stiff feeling tops especially button-downs but now that I can make them and make them to fit, it is a whole different story! This blog-tour is for basics and I consider woven tops to be part of my daily basic wardrobe so that is what I made for this blog tour. This is the Rose blouse (Jalie 3881) in a woven crepe fabric I got recently from Sincerely Rylee. The fabric is gorgeous and so easy to work with.  I chose this top because of the bow. Let's be honest, we love blouses with bows! I have never been able to find a perf
19 comments
Read more

Monster Tour

Sewing by Ti - Monster Tour It's October and that means it is time to make your little ones (or big ones!) Halloween costumes! Growing up in India we did not celebrate Halloween so when I first moved to the US and was living in an apartment, I was amazed at all the dress up and trick or treating concept. I made sure to buy tons and tons of candy because we got so many kids coming to our doorstep. While I didn't get into making costumes for me, I love making them for my kids :) My oldest is turning 14 tomorrow(already?!) and is no longer interested in Halloween and that made me a little sad. He says trick or treating is for little kids and I respect his choice in the matter. My 8 year old, however, wanted to dress up as a cat - a cute and cuddly one. She got one! She made an easy choice this year and was very involved in the designing of her costume. She is getting more and more interested in making her doll clothes and comes up with interesting shapes and experimen
4 comments
Read more

Itch to Stitch blog tour

Itch to Stitch blog tour Day 2 Sewing community is such a vast space spanning multiple continents and what brings everyone together is their love for sewing. When someone in this community is hurting, sewists all over the world come together to make it better. Our much loved designer, Kennis Wong - owner of Itch to Stitch Designs , was robbed a couple of weeks ago leaving her with no way to run her business. This blog tour is promoting Itch to Stitch patterns to make up for some of the monetary loss so she can be back on her feet and produce top notch quality patterns again! I picked up the Newport top in the recent sale and wanted to make a nice top for this blog tour. I'm also really feeling the velvets this time of the year. Stylish Fabrics is one of the sponsors of this tour and I picked up mauve velvet and charcoal ponte to make my outfit. The pinky mauve color is probably my all time favorite color for nail paint but I rarely wear clothes in this color.
12 comments
Read more