OWOP Day 5

High of 66 in Chicago today, and I've got the perfect shirt for it! My teal Renfrew, made from a vintage sweater-knit (acrylic, I'm guessing), is warm and comfy. Too bad I can't capture the real color—it's incredibly rich and vibrant.

This Ginger is made from 6oz stretch denim. It's quite comfy ... and I'm glad I used stretch denim, since I accidently made it a size too small!

Speaking of sizing, I believe the Ginger is an ideal pattern for when you're losing weight. The zip is in the center back, but the only seams that change between sizes are the side seams! Since I'm in the middle of losing weight (25 pounds down, 60 to go), I'm planning to:

• unpick the waistband edgestitching
• unfold the waistband facing
• stitch 1/2" or so inside of each side seam (including the waistband and facing), tapering off before reaching the hem
• re-edgestitch the waistband

Easy-peasy!

And if you need to go up a size? You can still use your traced pattern, but add 1/2" to each side of all the pieces. Here's what mine looks like:

The main piece is a size 14, which I used for this skirt. But I realized that any non-stretch woven would be impossibly tight, so I added on the green part, turning it into a size 16. Love that simplicity!

OWOP Day 4

This week is flying by! For Day 4, I paired my rust Renfrew with my light gray Ginger. Though you can't see them well, my shoes are gray Mary Janes by Miz Mooz, and my socks have orange stripes in them.

OWOP Day 2

I loved this outfit! The shirt was my first attempt at sewing knits on my serger ... and it came out great! The fabric is some kind of lightweight rayon. I chose not to topstitch around the neckline, cuffs, and waist, because the stitching keeps coming out tight and bunchy. No idea what I'm doing wrong, so I'll have to experiment.

The skirt is a pinwale corduroy plaid, with a grid of small flowers laid over the plaid. I cut it on the bias to make version 3 of the Ginger. Had some adventures there! At first, the pattern was mismatched on the center front seam. I was able to match it properly by taking about an inch out of that seam, then using tiny seam allowances on the sides.

Source: fabric.com via Alicia on Pinterest

This skirt actually needs some more work. I somehow managed to sew the top of the zipper to the inside of the waistband (yeah, I wore it held together with just safety pin). And the zipper is fubar. I'll be using Sunni's tutorial to reinsert it properly.

I love how OWOP is encouraging me to actually wear some of my jewelry! This necklace is a vintage glass number full of what I think are oranges, orange blossoms, and leaves.

OWOP Day 1

I started the week with slim pickings! Just this one Renfrew top, which was my first experiment with knits, and two Gingers.

I'm really loving the combination of light brown and light gray here.