Sew Happy Color From Head to Toe

I’ve had a little change of heart lately. It started slowly but it’s picking up steam. You might have noticed me hint at it in my previous post.

Ever since I started avoiding new clothes and sewing my wardrobe for myself (five years ago!) I shifted my thinking about what I would sew. Almost without realizing it, I moved me into a more conservative direction with what I created. I felt that what I stitched for myself had to be exceptionally wearable and versatile. This is not a bad mentality but inadvertently, I translated that to mean all neutrals and in classic colors.  When the Sew Frosting challenge came along I was surprised at how excited I was to make something and made a pair of floral pants.

Sadly, I had some fitting issues and need to go back in and do some mending on these Chi-Town Chinos (totally my fault and having mostly to do with errors in adding that glorious stripe).  I realized, however, that I would absolutely WEAR these floral pants.  I would probably wear them a lot. As my friend said when I revealed this revelation, “Florals can be a neutral!”.  Yes! They can! My life has lots of opportunities that call for color, happy color. And, creating my own low-waste wardrobe doesn’t need to mean I stick to grey, black, olive and navy. I can achieve the elegant, wearable clothes I want and still invite in lively color. I’ve always added pops of color to my me-made wardrobe but sort of felt like I had to hold back. I need more color in my life, man! So, when Katie Kortman hooked me into Sew Happy Color I was FULL ON!

I decided to create an ensemble that is sew happy color from head to toe. Katie has divided the weeks of Sew Happy Color into Red/pink ; Orange/Yellow; Green and Blue/Violet.  I have NO IDEA what this rainbow of an outfit qualifies as but I’m choosing to have it as part of the Orange/Yellow week because it was the use of orange that really challenged me and the pops of orange really add the visual interest that I like the most about this outfit. I’ve never been a fan of orange colored clothing, except rust, so I also like that I was drawn to something I usually shy away from.

It’s a real testament to Sew Happy Color that I’m even thinking about color in this way.  If you aren’t watching Katie on Instagram start right now.  She is a treasure trove of color theory information. I thought I knew stuff but I knew nothing.  She is teaching me so much.

So, here it is:

+ A Tasmyn Top (modified with a longer torso and a deeper middle slit).  This was a free pattern from Simply Sewing magazine but it is available for purchase if you buy the magazine issue.  The fabric is one print that has a border. I made the border vertical and used lovely hot neon coral topstitch thread! Gloriousness! I got the fabric on Etsy.

+ A denim Sandbridge skirt from Hey June Handmade.  I know. This looks like it’s just plain denim and mostly it is. Ever since I made one in grey twill, I’ve been wanted a simple denim version.  But, this time, I added RAINBOW bias tape to the inside. It makes me exceptionally happy. I also created a funky pocket design in yellow topstitch thread. My butt deserves it.

You might notice I don’t have topstitching on the yoke portions. I love the Sandbridge Skirt but as I almost always have to when I make bottoms, I needed to take a v-shaped chunk out of the middle back.  My body has a dramatic curve from the butt to the lower back. I knew this would make it difficult to get the VERY obvious topstitching to line up so I opted to use standard navy thread instead. I also hemmed the skirt. This denim (from Imagine Gnats) is a very stretchy denim and I don’t love the way the raw stretchy denim behaves.

+ Competing this sew happy color head to toe and inside out outfit is a pair of super fun espadrilles.  I had so much fun making this pair of shoes. They felt like such an indulgence.  I grabbed all kinds of trims, ribbons, twill tape, pom-poms and even florescent pink nylon string from the hardware store that I had on hand! I will be sharing a how-to blog post soon with details on how I made these next week. They just make my feet so happy. And, look, so much orange!

Ignore the winter white legs, please!  Spring is coming.