still sewing

With our move coming at me like a freight train, I am still sewing. I have found I need it to keep my sanity. I will sew until they take my pins and scissors from my hands and put them on that moving truck ;)

I love cardigans and other ways to transform my Summer clothes into Winter clothes, but I was wanting a more structured option and having seen so many cute blazer style fitted jackets out there recently, I decided to make my own. I used McCall's 6711 and just love how it turned out!

 The best part: I had this awesome black and white camera cotton in my stash. I got it at JoAnn because it just made me grin and I could not resist it! The jacket lining was the perfect use for it, don't you agree? I wanted to keep it neutral for when it does peek out, but more than that, I wanted to know there was a cute print inside my jacket :)

 The outside fabric is a cotton twill from Denver Fabrics with a little bit of stretch. I'd made this pattern once before in a suiting from a thrift store with zero stretch and the sleeves were just too uncomfortable when I bent my arms. So in this version, besides using a fabric with some give, which helped, I cut the sleeves a size bigger, lowering the arm syncs a half an inch. This version accommodates my buff arms quite nicely, hehe.

I love it and it's super comfortable!! It will fit nicely over long sleeved shirts too so it will be very versatile.

More and more of my wardrobe is hand made these days, which I'm thrilled about. The two things I refuse to sew, however, are undergarments and jeans, ha! Where do you buy jeans? I could use a new pair, but I find myself to be between sizes in many brands. I like the washes of juniors jeans, but hate the low rise. I have a muscular build so it's hard, but not impossible to find skinny jeans, which I love. We were in Gap the other day and were laughing because the thighs on the mannequin wearing their skinny jeans were literally the size of my bicep, haha! The jeans I'm wearing in these pics are from Target and I love them, but unfortunately I have slimmed down ever so slightly this year and they feel too big--I don't have to unbutton them to get them off, lol, but I'm between sizes now in Target jeans too. I'm willing to spend up to $40 or $50 on a good pair of jeans, so give me your best shopping advice!!