Sew Recreate The Look 23

Fashion is a little like a revolving door, isn’t it?  Trends keep going round and round and designers and creators are often inspired by each other. In the sewing community, inspo is everywhere! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a sewist replicate a look off pinterest, or sew up a pattern in the same fabric as another sewist… shoot, I’ve done it too! Which leads me to this week’s post all about the #SewRecreateTheLook23 challenge being hosted on Instagram by jenlegg_teescreatives and sosewdressmaking. This is the third year the challenge is being hosted, but it’s my first time joining in. From what I gather, the aim of the challenge is to take a look  you’ve spotted somewhere or on someone and attempt to recreate it. Pretty cool, huh?

I recently discovered _threadsofvintage_ ‘s handle over on IG where Pam, the owner, shares her love of thrifted vintage finds. Y’all, I just LOVE this woman’s style! She is so chic and stylish IMO. I’m kinda obsessed with print mixing, but this girl ups the anti and doubles the dosage with ease, I tell ya. I mean, you ever thought about mixing black and white zebra stripes, with cow print AND a large scale, colourful floral? I bet not!  Just typing it sounds kinda messy, but Pam did and SHE FREAKING NAILED IT!!!!! Clearly, this is all my opinion but I feel like her vybe can hold hands with my vybe. As the old folks say round here, ‘mi spirit tek she’. Fr. Fr. 

Anyhooo, pinned to the top of her page, was a reel featuring this look 👇🏾

Aside from the fact that the colours were not MY colours, I loved the look and immediately knew I wanted to try to dupe it. The wheels in my head kicked into overdrive and I sat at my desk, mentally running a check of my fabric inventory, to see if I could make it work. I remembered I had a large print floral Ankara that I bought from afriqueclothingstore sometime ago and thought it would be perfect for the skirt. 

Side note: orange is not my colour, has never been my colour and will never be my colour but pink surely is! Ask me how I know. Well, my colour analysis confirmed it. If you ain’t sure what colours suit you, and you wanna get a colour consult, the YourColorGuru Mother’s Day sale kicks off tomorrow, May 1^st! If  you use my code 💕UNSEWCIAL💕you can get 20% off any service of theirs. Trust me when I say, it’s a great investment!

Now that’s clear, let’s get back to this recreation!

The Pattern

When Chalk and Notch released the Evelyn skirt pattern, I think last year, I passed on it for no particular reason. However, when I saw Pam’s skirt, I was instantly reminded of this pattern and thought I could hack it to get a similar end result. 

Evelyn is a high waisted skirt with a sexy side split. There are two length options, mini and midi, as well as a choice of buttons or an elastic back waist. I thought view C, the elastic back midi, was the closest starting point for my recreation, so I went with that. Evelyn is designed for woven fabrics and is available in a size 0 (a 25”waist) up to a size 30 (a 49” waist). It is recommended for an advanced beginner, and having sewn it up myself, I’m thinking maybe even an adventurous newbie could handle this pattern. 

Fitting Fundamentals

Based on my waist and hip measurements, I sewed up a straight size 14 of this pattern. The only fit adjustment I made was a ¼” hollow hip adjustment, which has the effect of removing ¼” length at the side seam, tapered to nothing at the CF.  

Tell me, have you ever worn a skirt, or a dress that swings inwards from you hip area and sorta pools at CF? Well, this happens to me! After much trial and error, I finally figured out  that too much length at the side seams was causing the fabric to cave in (on MY body). I don’t notice it in gathered skirts, but it sticks out like a sore thumb for me in pencil and A-line type skirts. Since my discovery, everytime I make an A-line or pencil skirt, I’ve performed this adjustment with success. 

If you’re unfamiliar with this adjustment and want more information, I’ve saved a highlight over on Instagram demo-ing how it’s done! 

The Process

To get this pattern to work for the sewrecreatethelook challenge, I lengthened view C’s skirt  (and corresponding facing pieces) by 12 ½”! When hemmed, the finished maxi skirt hits me just at the ankle. Perfecto!

There are 3/8” seam allowances included in the pattern, which is different from the Big 5 patterns which use a 5/8” seam allowance. The smaller allowance means less wastage (when cutting out the pattern and later finishing the seams), but it also makes adjustments ‘on-the-fly’, a little more difficult. Thankfully, I did not have to make any further adjustments to the skirt [considering I skipped the toile], and my insides are beautifully finished with a pink swirl thread from Maxi-Lock! 

The only real draw back about this pattern IMO is that it does not have pockets. I much prefer an anchored side seam pocket over unanchored ones, and because this pattern has elastic wrapping around from the back to the side front of this skirt, I omitted pockets. I did not want to add any additional bulk at my already-too-big waistline. Next time I make this skirt (and there most definitely will be a next time), I think I’ll just add in some side pockets cas’ that’s better than no pocket at all!

To complete my look, I paired my finished skirt with vogue 9320, a lil’ crop top I made a couple years ago, and pulled a RTW pink blazer from my wardrobe. The blazer is not as cropped as Pam’s, and I think she’s wearing a bralette with her skirt, but it’s the closest I could have gotten, with what I had available. 

Final Thoughts

I cannot tell y’all how pleased I am with the final look as a whole. I really think I did this recreation justice and I’m glad I embarked on this challenge. When I tell you I dropped every.other.thing so I could get this done on time, just believe me! 

For my photography sesh, Hubby and I went up to Garibaldi hill {which more accurately should be called Garibaldi MOUNTAIN}. Hear joke: when he volunteered to photograph this make and suggested the spot, I was a little hesitant. I had been to Garibaldi before [though quite a loooonnnggg time ago], and it was the middle of the day when sun a bun dung country! Harsh sunlight, and fashion photography don’t really mix… at least it hasn’t in my experience. When I aired my concern, he went on to explain that they had built some look out point blah blah blah… and in the end I just went with his flow. Guys leme tell y’all…

Kristen – 0

Micah – 1!!! 

A he fi tek win. Easy so, because I am so freaking pleased with my photos. Hahahaha. I swear my camera roll is bursting with soooo many ‘good’ ones, and I had a hard time even narrowing down a few for this blog post! Chuh, why can’t it ALWAYS be this way?????

Anyways, today is reveal day and I’m excited and eager to see everyone else’s entry. If I’ve awakened your curiosity, head on over to IG and search the hashtag #sewrecreatethelook23.  Just before you go though, what do you think of my recreation?

Gotta luv ya and leave ya…

Until next time,

Xoxo

Kris