I managed to get my FIRST Jungle January – #junglejanuary5 – finished prior to the deadline, but my second animal print just wanted to fight with me. It is a lovely fabric – a cream, black and brown 100% Rayon Challis. Just beautiful to the touch. But as I was discussing it with Curls n Skirls I realized that it would be a perfect weight for a top, but perhaps not a perfect weight for a dress. It might need a lining. But then if I was planning to wear it in the warmer months – would I want lining?
So I changed the plan … instead of making a dress, Vogue 9202, I would make a top, McCalls M6896. I’ve made the McCalls pattern before – it was my FIRST Jungle January – with good results. Of course the Vogue bodice pattern pieces were too short. They only reached to the pink line I drew on the McCalls bodice pattern pieces. So I would have to add an extension onto every Vogue bodice pattern piece.
Like so … extensions cut and labelled for each Vogue bodice piece.
I would have no problem sewing them all together. I decided I would like a line of black piping between the Vogue pieces and McCalls extensions. If interested, here is how I joined the ends of my piping!
So how did my “save” work out? I think I successfully turned Vogue 9202 into McCalls M6896!
I considered this to be my Fail February – #failfebruary – organized by Sew RED-y, until I turned it into this McCalls top. Then I realized that almost every fail I have is either something I have reworked to avoid tossing the works, or something that was okay for someone else, but not my style, so it was given to charity.
Poor Sophie got dragged into my photo shoot! She’s the more skittish of my two cats.
Then my lovely daughter decided to show Poor Sophie what SNOW looks like. We probably get snow once a year here, the rest of the winter it’s rainfall suitable for a rainforest. So it was quite a surprise for all of us to wake up to THIS! Believe me Poor Sophie DID NOT like being outside. She was grabbing my daughter’s coat like her life was on the line and meowing that squeaky meow of her’s over and over. We let her in instantly – although after witnessing Simon’s reaction to snow, Sophie’s predicament was quite funny! I didn’t know she would put up such a fuss – when we let Simon out into it all he did was EAT the snow !
Hopefully, this will be the last of the snow and we all, Poor Sophie included, can get back to our regular lives.
So what was the last pattern you had to hack together?
Happy Sewing!
Clever you, your reworked top is a marvel. Do wish we had some snow like that! X
Thank you! I learn from trial and error! Send me your address… I’d love to mail you some of our snow! 😃👍
its lovely, fits you beautifully
Thank you!
Nice top! [You made it] lol I still haven’t got in gear for Jungle January, maybe Furry February? I’m focussing on the WIFESWAP collection for now, but just detoured into a mammoth PDF session and taped up SEVEN.
Thank you! Yes I was pretty slow this year. But I love this fabric and just had to finish it. That’s a big project you have going on there. Seven PDF’s is incredible. Well, I’ll be watching for every single one of them. You do such lovely work!
I’ve kept going: 10 done now, only 2 more to go [I think- must rummage to the bottom of the drawer] Then I want to quickly finish another shirt for the missus…
I’m impressed! 😄👍
Very pretty top! The piping was a great idea, really sets it off. Haven’t introduced my cats to snow yet… Not sure this constitutes a pattern hack, but I did successfully lengthen the sleeves of my pj top/tee.
Thank you! We don’t let our cats out unattended. There are too many other animals around, besides dogs and cats, for them to get into fights with! I think your alteration qualifies!
Mine are indoor kitties, too, much to their dismay. 😉 And thank you! Have been procrastinating making the pants to go with top….must get to it today.
Happy sewing then!
Oooh! I love it! Thank you for the tutorial on the piping!
Thank you! And Your Welcome! Hopefully it helps someone. I try to save these “tut” links on my “1000 things to do with a sewing machine” page… Just so I can refer back to them myself! 😂
Looks great Linda! I think you have to be so careful with animal print in case it looks cheap but this is fabulous and looks really classy! Good job! In other news, I have finally finished my Skirt!! I’ll be taking some photos and half term and then sharing ASAP because I am in love!
Thank you! This is a lovely feeling fabric. I had to save it! Looking forward to seeing your skirt. Tag it DESIGNIN’ DECEMBER and I will be able to find it for entry in DESIGNIN’ DECEMBER! 🎊💃🎉
Thanks for the shout out, Lovely! I was thinking dress, decided to give it a miss. Am so grateful for your help! 😘
Hey no problem! I love talking about sewing. I was thinking a dress too – it was not meant to be!
Nice remake. Once again a win. I had a sneak preview on the weekend and you finished it off beautifully. Now, as far as Sophie is concerned, you need to make her a animal print coat to wear when she goes outside. She has on her fall duds not her winter ones.
Thank you! How right you are! Perhaps that is why Sophie is not fond of going outside! 😂
What a beautiful top and such a great idea to morph the two patterns. Poor Sophie. Cats are really funny in the snow. Even though we are in Scotland and used to get literally knee deep snow on a regular basis it seems to have vanished over the last few years. Probably just as well as Mittens, our cat, hates it. Xx
Thank you! I just love the fabric. Perhaps you snow has travelled over here to us? ❄️😟
Nice save. The black piping really works to make the added length intentional.
Thank you! I’m all for reworking my projects to prevent a fail! 🙂
I really like the ruffled piece at the bottom. I know there’s a proper name for it but I’m not a Sewist. Peplum?? That’s a very cool print too. Poor Sophie. Little did she know that we get another 6 inches on top of what we already had. 🐹
Thank you! You are right. It is called a “peplum”. I don’t think any of us expected another 6 inches of snow fall. 😟 I sure she is as happy as we are that the rain is beating it down now! 😃
That is the most beautiful picture, of your daughter and Sophie! (My mind is battling to reconcile the short-sleeved top with the snow photo…{-; ) Congratulations on saving the top, even if you ended up donating it!
Thanks on behalf of my daughter and Sophie. It’s great when you can take a natural photo with a camera. She was so busy laughing at the cat’s behaviour that she forgot there was a camera aimed at her. The best kind of photo! I saw a glimpse of your #FailFebruary “dementor” cardigan. I’ll have to go take another look!