Spring Suit

One of these days, I will remember to take "before" pictures to show you what I started with.  I am not used to photographing my work as I create, so it is taking me awhile to remember to photograph the steps of the project, rather than just the finished product.

All that to say, I began this project with two pieces of clothing.  One was an ankle-length, sleeveless dress, made out of navy crepe.  It was my sister's old dress; she had made it, worn it a little, then moved onto different styles.  The fabric itself was in almost new condition and had a lot of wear left in it.  The other was a blouse of my great-grandmother's (we called her Granny).  Granny's blouse was a linen-look type fabric, a white background with small navy flowers scattered over it.  When Granny passed away, my sister had kept the blouse, because she liked the fabric and it reminded her of Granny.  However, the blouse posed a unique problem.  It did not have set-in sleeves, so it was hard to come up with something to remake it into that would be stylish for a girl in her 20's.

As I have been through the "stash" lately on a repeated and regular basis, I came across these two fabrics again.  Suddenly, I had an inspiration.  Why not make a short sleeved spring suit set out of the navy and a sleeveless dress blouse out of the floral?

I was very pleased with the result.  The skirt is Simplicity 4951; a simple A-line skirt with a band.  I have used this pattern multiple times and am always pleased with the result.

The top was Simplicity 4123, an It's So Easy pattern.  I added a zipper down the back; this makes it easier to get the blouse off.

 

The jacket was Simplicity 4230.



I used look "B," but instead of a cuff, I simply sewed the tucks in the sleeve.  I thought it made the jacket look classier.

Other than that, I stuck to the pattern. 

The suit is now in a shoebox, wrapped in brown paper, with my sister's name and college dorm address on it.  I took it to the post office this morning, so hopefully it is safely on it's way.  Shhh...don't tell her!