Mini-Wardrobe progress: Week 1

Well, we're one week into the Pattern Review mini-wardrobe contest, and I have been steadily executing against my planned 5-piece wardrobe:

Planned 5-piece mini-wardrobe

 

At the end of my first week, I haven't made quite as much progress as I would have liked to at this point, but I've at least put a dent in my wardrobe plan.

Over the weekend, I did mange to finish my HP Daytona hoodie, made from a white cotton-lycra jersey:

HP Daytona Hoodie

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my dress form isn't padded to my current measurements, so that's why the hoodie looks big/baggy. Trust me, it fits as well as my last Daytona hoodie and will be a great addition to my summer wardrobe.

I've started work on my McCall's 6966 maxi-skirt, and wow, was that a pain to cut out. It's cut and pieced together now. I still need to sew the side seams and add the yoke/waistband. Here's the front half, draped over my dress form:

McCalls 6966 WIP

Now, you'll notice that much to my frustration, the stripes don't entirely line up. I'm not sure if this is by design or a drafting issue, but that's just how it is with this pattern. Check out the envelope photo--the stripes on the model's skirt don't match up exactly, either:

McCalls 6966 envelope picture

I think this is by design. If you lay your pattern pieces out on your fabric according to the pattern piece markings, the stripes will meet at different angles. This layout will give you the zig-zagging stripes that you see in my skirt and the envelope picture, but it won't give you nice, neat chevrons, if that's the effect that you're going for. The detail-oriented part of me is irritated by this, but in reality, I think it will be a nice, wearable skirt, and I doubt if my husband or any of my coworkers will care that it has zig-zagging stripes instead of chevrons.

I just haven't been able to put in the sewing time that I had hoped I'd be able to this past week. It's a lot easier to get up 30 minutes before everyone else in the house than it is to get up 60 minutes early. I am trying to grab 15 minutes here and there to pin or stitch a seam, and that seems to be helping. My big concern is not having enough time towards the end of the month to properly muslin, fit, and construct those ikat pants in my plan. My current game plan is to get my other four garments finished by the 20th, which will give me 10 days for the pants. If I don't have everything else completed by then, I'm switching to plan B for the pants, which is to do a drapey rayon challis track pant in a fun print. The backup pants will still be very on-trend for this summer, but should need much less time for fitting and construction. I'm keeping an eye out for the right challis, but if I don't find it and do need to fall back to that plan, I have a gray and black floral print that I can use.

From the looks of everyone else's blogs, it looks like everyone else's wardrobe plans are coming along nicely! I can't wait to see the final storyboards/photo shoots!