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Completed: Winter Tania Culottes

I wasn’t sure if the Tania Culottes could be winterized, but they can. THEY TOTALLY CAN.

And they look really good in the process!

I made these using a piece of fabric I’ve had in my stash for a few years… it looks like wool suiting, but it’s actually 85/15 linen and silk. The silk addition is nice because it means the fabric doesn’t wrinkle. I guess it would be more suitable (lolz) for summer wear, but summertime is not suit fabric time, regardless of fiber content, as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, it’s a remnant from my local fabric store. It was pretty funny when I bought it, because the ladies at the register kept exclaiming, “WHAT is that? Where did you find that? Oh, it’s so amazing! And it’s so cheap!” and I’m all, “Back off bitches, I found it first.” I’d totally elbow someone over fabric, let’s just be honest.

Making these wasn’t much different than sewing them with cotton. There is no lining – I reckon I could’ve popped one in (there’s a short blurb at the end of the instructions on how to do this), but I didn’t have any lining on hand and this fabric isn’t very grabby like a wool tends to be. I did take in a bit extra at the side seams, since my first Tanias are slightly loose. I nipped in the side seams at 3/4″ and the waistband fit is perfect on these.

I was initially hesitant to make these up in this fabric, since it’s sorta drapey but it’s not sooo drapey like a rayon or a cotton voile would be (not to mention the fabric is much thicker), but I’m actually really happy with how the silhouette turned out. It’s so flippy and full!

I have a similar miniskirt (from American Eagle, oh lol) that I’ve been meaning to replace as it doesn’t fit right anymore… and this is a perfect replacement! The longer length means I can wear it to work, and the higher waistline means I can wear it with my cropped sweaters.

Not to mention, it’s essentially a pair of drapey shorts – so I can also wear this shit on my bike!

(O shit, I never realized how cool these tights are!)

The only blip I had with sewing these was the hemming… I couldn’t fit the bulk of the fabric under my rolled hem foot, and I will be DAMMED if I am going to sit and blindstitch all that yardage at the bottom. So I serged the edges and folded them under once with a quick topstitch. The fabric is so busy, you can’t really see the serging. And I finished my hem fast! Evening the hem out was also way easier, thanks to the stability of the fabric.

Doesn’t they look so good with my cropped Chuck? Ugh, I love this sweater so much, but the length makes it difficult to pair it up with just anything. These two, though – they are a match made in heaven.

I’m happy that I finally found a use for this stash fabric, and winterized one of my favorite summer patterns! Tanias year-round for everyone!

Oh, and check this out – my little photo companion for the day 🙂

This is Nimue, isn’t she the cutest little thing? She’s a corgi puppy – no, we didn’t adopt a pet (I wish! But I want cats. Moreeee catssssss), I was just watching her for the afternoon. She was very good, although she preferred cuddling up on the couch with me most of the time 🙂

Tags: completed, culottes, linen, silk, tania

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Categories completed projects - new

Completed: A Luscious Silk Anna

28 Aug

Hey guys. I would like to introduce you to Anna, my newest piece for the Mood Sewing Network.

So, Oona and Sonja originally planned this silk challenge, in which they both would make Anna dresses with a notoriously difficult fabric. Once I got wind of what was going on, I walked straight into that party and invited myself to be the third wheel. I can’t help it; I love being part of a Mood Fabrics sandwich. Especially when it involves Thakoon Crepe de Chine. I mean, COME ON.

So, as we all know at this point – this is the Anna dress, the newest offering from By Hand London. For mine, I decided to try my hand at the maxi version with the slash neckline, after getting good results with my wearable muslin shorter version. Since the dress itself is very simple, it was the perfect excuse for getting my hands on the aforementioned silk Crepe de Chine.

I’ve never sewn with this type of fabric before, so I was admittedly a little nervous. Would I regret my decision?

Really, though, it wasn’t so bad! The crepe texture of this fabric actually made everything a LOT easier – it gave the pieces something to “grab” onto (as opposed to being all slinky and slippery all over the place). For cutting, I did pin my selvedges together to keep everything intact, and I used a lot of pins on the actual pattern pieces as well. One protip – make sure you use silk pins; this stuff is very delicate and normal pins may leave holes! I also used a microtex/sharp needle on my machine. The fabric fed through very smoothly (again, thanks crepe, for your grabby lil hands!) and it pressed with very little fuss. I like this stuff!

Construction was very straightforward. I finished every seam with a french seam, and tackled miles of blind stitching by hand along the thigh split, sleeves, and bottom hem (I just want y’all to know that I watched the Great British Sewing Bee while doing this, and as a result I am celebrity-in-love with Patrick. Don’t tell Landon.). The facing and zipper edges are finished with pinking – I actually deliberated on this a lot, pinking isn’t necessarily my favorite seam finish, but I felt it was important that the edges were not detectable from the outside of the dress as this silk is very thin. Fortunately, it doesn’t want to unravel much so I’m not concerned about that.

I also stabilized the slash neckline with scraps of selvedge from the silk – just pinned them within a bit of the seam allowance and staystitched them down with a tiny stitch. Keeps things nice and gape-free!

“Hold the phone, Lauren – did you say thigh high split???”

Uh huh, I sure did.

Truth, I normally don’t have much of a reason in my life to wear something like a floaty silk maxi dress with a thigh split. However, it was a fun project and I am totally fine with scheming up date ideas as an excuse to give this silk lady the exposure she deserves! Do you think eating pizza in this dress would be the worst idea ever? 😉

Now, I leave you with some walking photos. What would this post be worth without a couple action shots, amirite?

WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT HOW THAT SILK FLOATS AND FLOWS.

Finally, here I am giving my best Angelina Jolie impression:

What do you think? Silk Anna yeah, or Silk Anna fuck yeah?

Psst! Mood Fabrics is running a one day flash sale for 20% off fabrics sitewide! If there was ever a good time to dip your toes into the world of silk, that would be now.

Tags: Anna, By Hand London, completed, Crepe de Chine, dress, hot damn this is my jam, maxi dress, Mood Fabrics, Mood Sewing Network, silk, Thakoon