Sew, What Do I Wear? | P4P & M4M Blog Tour

Welcome to the continuation of the Sew, What Do I Wear blog tour, hosted by Made for Mermaids and Patterns for Pirates! I hope you’ve been inspired by all of the lovely ladies who have posted this week so far (see bottom of the post for links!).

In case you are just now joining, the theme of this blog tour is focused on helping you decide what to sew/wear for all of your holiday events. For my post, I chose to sew an outfit to wear to a fancy-ish party, like Christmas or New Year’s Eve. Thinking ahead, I would totally wear this on Valentine’s Day too!

For my look, I sewed up the Mama Quinn top from Made for Mermaids and SOS Knit Pants from Patterns for Pirates.

As you can see, I used a stretch velvet for the Made for Mermaids Mama Quinn top, while the pattern actually calls for a woven fabric. Other than taking in the sides a tiny bit, I didn’t have to alter the pattern at all in order to use it for knits. And honestly, I didn’t even really need to take in the sides, but I did it because I wanted a bit more of a form fitting upper bodice. Since it’s accounting for wovens it is drafted a little on the looser side.

I assembled the front using a facing as specified in the instructions, but I finished the back with a fold over elastic, which I also used for the straps. So overall it turned out great! Fold over elastic can be a bit of a pain, but I don’t mind working with it too much. You just have to make sure you are stretching the elastic a little as you stitch it on. At the end you get a nice decorative edge if you choose a contrasting color, which is a nice bonus! Speaking on contrasting color, I also added a small band of lace at the bottom for a delicate touch.

For the pants, I used the P4P SOS Knit Pants pattern with FAUX LEATHER! I am so excited about this fabric. I was just looking for regular stretch leather but instead I found this gorgeous stamped/patterned version.

Full disclosure, this fabric was not easy to work with. The serger was fine, but my sewing machine absolutely hated it…mainly because it is pretty sticky and the feed dogs wouldn’t pick it up so it didn’t want to stitch along. The main issue with this was topstitching…but with a lot of coaxing, a new twin needle and some crying, it finally worked. Just don’t look TOO closely. 😁

The only issue with this fabric is that it doesn’t hav ANY vertical stretch, so I probably could have increased the length a bit. I may go back and add a higher waistband as it is. So if you’re looking to buy faux leather, make sure it has at least some vertical stretch along with the 40% horizontal stretch required as per the pattern (this fabric had plenty of that!). Even though it’s not technically required it would be more comfortable.

I am really pleased with how both of these pieces turned out! I’ve never owned leather pants before and can’t really say that I was planning on it, but when inspiration strikes you’d better listen to it. I’m excited to wear these this winter to add some spice to my wardrobe when it gets so dull and cold outside.