Sylvia Sews

Preemptively planning my summer wardrobe, I realized I was a bit short on cute warm weather outfits. I started keeping that in mind as I browsed through patterns and I came across the Saguaro Set.

I know I just said I learned my lesson and wouldn’t preemptively buy patterns knowing I needed to modify them… but I did it yet again with this set. This pattern is perfect because it is still nursing friendly and I can wear my preferred bras with this type of top. My favorite and most comfortable Molke bras have only one limiting problem- how wide the straps are. Troubling for summer wear.

So, I bought this planning to extend the body of the top and make the front pieces cross over into more of a wrap style. A bit more wearable for casual daily wear that way. I don’t have a lifestyle right now where I can where a bra as a shirt, unfortunately.

I knew I had to make this in cotton gauze, for a redemption story on the dumb J. Jill coordinating set I bought last summer that was made of black cotton gauze. It was “tall” sized yet my shoulders were hulking out of it, the top was a crop tent, and the pants felt like they were just slightly past my knee to appear as terrible highwater capris. The previous resident of our house got a J.Jill catalog which is how I ended up buying it, I just really fell for the styling on the catalog models. Ugh. I sold it for 20 bucks on Poshmark at least.

Redemption plans on my mind, I ordered a red/terracotta color cotton gauze from Mood fabrics online.

I started cutting out the pattern, and Friday Pattern Co’s website had a full bust adjustment instruction and wrap crossover adjustment instructions, so it turns out I wasn’t getting too far ahead of myself with my plans. The only free wheeling was adding 2 inches to the body as shown below, and I decided to use 1.25″ elastic instead of 2″ elastic recommended on the instructions. 4″ total of elastic on my midsection sounds horrible.

This is easy to sew in theory, but of course I had to keep messing with fit stuff which greatly extends the work timeline. One egregious problem I noticed as I tried on the top mid sew was strange bunching in the armpit right next to the bust.When I looked closer at the instruction booklet, there was also a weird flop of fabric in all the model photos! You can see it in the image below. This was an easy fix , I just raised the height of the curve into the armpit, and kind of tapered back into the sleeve again. I wonder why the pattern didn’t have this design.

The pants were even more straightforward so those actually came together quickly. My only initial alteration was adding a whole 5 inches to the length. However, I still had fit to mess with in the end… There was weird bulk in the crotch area, the entire front of the pants was way too big.

To fix that, I took in the u-curve from leg to leg a significant amount (not sure if that’s the correct terminology), and it instantly solved the issue. That wasn’t an intuitive alteration for me at all. I would never have guessed that was the seam that would cause the problem. Following that fix, the legs no longer draped correctly, so I took in the inseam a bit until they laid straight down.

Pants confuse me. Just as I finished up the pants, a fitting book on pants I ordered arrived in the mail. Skimming it, I found that the issues I have are likely due to proportionally thinner thighs and legs compared to my waist and hip measurement. That adds up to me, and makes a lot of sense. Handy info for a more structured pant someday. This kind of makes me think it was the right choice to not size down- the large pants seemed fine across the hips.

And then, a complete outfit! I’m super excited about this one, you can see my results below!

I used a size large for both the top and pants in this pattern.

I have a feeling the cotton might shrink up again in the wash, so maybe these turn into more of a crop. If it hits at a weird point, I might have to take up the hem a bit more. Time will tell.

Sometimes I get so caught up in fitting, I forget that I am still focusing on improving my skill with the actual sewing part! I think my waistbands look a little wavy, and would look more professional if they were more straight. Totally forgot about the waistband drawstring so that’s not in the pants… I also should’ve bought matching serger thread for finishing my seams. Overall, still improving everything and making progress. For now- it’s good enough for government work.