I’ve sewn quite a bit in the past few months, but just haven’t blogged about it much. I’m going to try catching up, so bear with me. Let’s start with the Halloween costume I made for my daughter.

Claire LOVES penguins. Emperor penguins are her favorites, but she likes the Humboldts at the local zoo. Her favorite cartoon character is Pingu. Naturally, she wanted to dress up as a penguin for the holiday. Kwik Sew came to the rescue with a very cute pattern for a Penguin/chicken, No. 3630.

Pattern Description:

Penguin/Chicken Costume

Pattern Sizing:

XS(4-5) – S(6) – M(7-8) – L(10) – XL(12-14)

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Yes, except I forgot the bow tie. Oops

Were the instructions easy to follow?

Yes, the instructions were clearly written and easy to follow.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

It’s super cute and the size range is nice.

The only thing I did not like was how shallow the hood was. I suppose it was drafted that way to prevent to hood from falling forward and making it difficult for the wannabe penguin to see; however, it tended to fall backwards so the face wasn’t visible. If it were just a touch deeper, it would have been better.

Fabric Used:

Fleece. My kid was the warmest one in our trick-or-treating group. It was COLD outside.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

None.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

Sure! It’s super cute and she got a lot of compliments. Plus, she discovered you can store extra candy in the wings when her bucket started to overflow. haha

Conclusion:

Great costume; easy to make; a real winner!

I didn’t sew a costume for my son. He took on that challenge himself.

He designed and created a Wolverine costume all by himself. Mama is so proud.

While I was working, I had little time left for sewing, but that didn’t mean I gave up on fashion altogether. I decided to take a different approach. Instead of focusing on the skill-building in clothing construction, I focused on styling clothes. I thought it would be an easier task, but it’s proved challenging to style outfits in a way that was both modern and interesting.

I’ve found a lot of guidance on a fashion forum called You Look Fab. One of the inspiring members there, Ornella, sets up weekly challenges for herself, which help her figure out how she can work with certain elements in her wardrobe. A few of the YLF members, including myself, decided to play along during jacket week. Here’s the series of outfits I came up with. Most of the clothes were commercially made, except for the denim jacket, the grey t-shirt, the lime t-shirt, the red shell and the full black skirt.

Day 1: Knit jacket with belt.

Day 2: Black wrap front jacket over my new satin dress.

Day 3: Military-esque jacket over bright lime t-shirt and wool plaid skirt with ruffles.

Day 4: Chanel-style boxy jacket. I intended to wear this with a pencil skirt, but I couldn’t finish sewing it in time. I’m not crazy about the fuller skirt with this, but thought it was worth a try.

Day 5: The plan was I would wear my home-sewn denim jacket with skinnies and a scarf; however, I wasn’t sold on this dark denim with black pants. Not to mention it was seriously cold and rainy outside, so I opted for a sweater.

And, oh yes, I chopped off all my hair. My husband isn’t exactly smitten with it, but I am enjoying the change.

More sewing will be forthcoming since I’ve unexpectedly found myself with more free time. For some time at least, I’ll keep posting “what I wore” type pieces as I explore new ways to style my garments. Suggestions are always welcome!

Recently, Hancock Fabrics had a sale on Butterick patterns and I immediately went for 5559, a Maggie London design. I loved the creative placement of the tucks.

Underneath many of those tucks are the darts that give the pieces a nice shape. It’s very clever!

My first version turned out ok:

It’s very, very snug, even after I let it out as much as I could with the seam allowances I had. If I decide to do it again, I’m going to add extra wide side seam allowances to allow me to tweak the fit better.

I had a difficult time lining up the tucks along the sides, but through much seam ripping and re-sewing, achieved a tolerable result:

Job-related exhaustion left me in no state to wrangle with lots of pattern alterations, so I didn’t bother to do my usual petite adjustment for the bodice. I’m fairly sure that would have cleaned up the mess in the back fit:

However, since this is such a body-conscious dress, I will almost always wear a cardigan or jacket over it at work, so that fit issue isn’t one I’m going to fret over right now. Maybe next time!

Knit dresses are great for work. They are almost as comfortable as pajamas and don’t wrinkle. You’ve got to love that.

I would have paired this with heels, but I had hurt my toe pretty badly the night before and could barely walk. Comfy shoes were the order of the day.

I miss reading blogs and sewing! I hope I get back into the swing of things as I adjust to my new schedule.