Simplicity 3867
It all started when I spent 4th of July weekend at the farm and visited my friend, Kelly. Every time I saw her she had on the cutest summer top. All weekend I wore a t-shirt, same cut, many colors. I thought to myself, how hard would it be to wear a cute top instead? So I asked her, “Where do you shop? All your clothes are so cute!” She replied sweetly, “I made them myself.”

It was a duh moment for me. Kelly is a mom with 2 children, one a young baby. She runs 2 home-based businesses and was preparing to direct a Jr. High summer camp and still found time to stitch up a summer wardrobe. I was letting my excuses stop me from taking action!

It reminded me that just a few minutes a day on a project can make it happen.  I took 30 minutes one day to prepare my pattern, and cut out the fabric.  This went quickly because when I buy new fabric, I pre-wash it immediately before storing.  The next day I stitched to the point of zipper insertion.  The 3rd day I put in the zipper, stitched down the lining and hemmed it. 

I sewed for 30-45 minutes a day tops.  And in 3 days, 2 hours actual sewing time, I had a beautiful new top that fits perfectly.  It was sewn from stash–no new $ spent.  I couldn’t have shopped for a blouse in that amount of time and it was much less stressful to sew at home with children then to drag them to the store to look for mama clothes.  The stash items used cost about $4.50.

And the money it saved!  To start with, time is money.  In this case sewing was less time consuming than shopping and I saved a bunch of gas too.  I buy my sewing materials the same way I shop for food.  I buy them when they are at all time low prices and store them in my sewing pantry until I need them.  I buy patterns at $.25 (thrift store or garage sale) -$1.00 (Fabric store sales.)  Fabric I buy off the clearance rack for $1-$3 a yard.  The $3 fabric has to be VERY nice–like a high quality knit, courderoy or denim.  I am very careful when I buy fabric.  I have to LOVE it and have a purpose in mind when I buy it:  pajamas, a church outfit, swimsuit etc.  I buy my zippers from Home Sew in their grab bag packs.  You get a variety of colors and sizes and it’s 20 zippers for just $3!  (I buy rick-rac and bias tape this way too.)   Needles, thread and other sundry notions I grab when they are 50% off which happens nearly every holiday.

Then we come to sewing quality.  I used vintage dotted swiss for this blouse and to keep with the vintage theme, I finished all the seams without a serger.  I changed the construction process from the pattern instructions to allow the inside to be completely sealed with the lining.  And used French seams for all the exposed seams.  I substituted an invisible zipper for traditional which is faster and easier to sew in, and looks so much nicer when finished.  It’s hard to buy details like these.

To reduce bulk in the lining I used a tuck to fold out the fullness, instead of gathers as on the outside of the blouse.

I didn’t take any fancy classes to learn to sew.  I just used one pattern at a time.  Each thing I stitched up, I learned something new.  My years of sewing experience didn’t stop me from making a mistake on this one.  I sewed one of the shoulder straps in twisted, sigh.  It took an extra 10 minutes to fix, but I loved that my daughter’s were at my side.  They saw that everyone makes mistakes and it’s okay to grab a seam ripper and keep going.

For Carrie :).

Just a few minutes a day is all it takes!  I squeezed in another project this week in just a few minutes a day that saved us hundreds of $.  Here’s a sneak peak and when it’s all finished, I’ll have a video for you too.