May 2013 – Page 4 – skirt as top

it’s giveaway day at sew, mama, sew!

i’ve decided to do a little spring cleaning and free up some space on my sewing room bookshelf, while helping to build YOUR sewing book library all at once. i’m giving away both of these beautiful sewing books:

Amy Butler’s In Stitches (see table of contents and more info here)

– OR –

Anna Maria Horner’s Seams to Me (see table of contents and more info here)

i will randomly select TWO winners. the first gets their choice of either book – leave your first choice in your giveaway comment. the second gets the other book! fun fun! both books are spiral bound with beautiful color photos and an envelope with full size pattern pieces included, and both are in like new condition.

they’re chock full of fun projects for home, gifts, self, quilts, you name it.

Giveaway details:

Giveaway is open until Friday, May 10th at 5pm PST
Winners will be chosen at random and will be contacted by email and announced on the blog.
Open to US residents only (sorry, these books are heavy!)
Void where prohibited

{GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED – WINNERS ARE ANNIE K. AND ALISON, WHO HAVE BEEN CONTACTED BY EMAIL}

~~Here’s how to enter:~~

Leave a comment on this post telling me which book you’d like to win: In Stitches by Amy Butler, Seams to Me by Anna Maria Horner OR either one!

Additional entries – PLEASE LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH:

Follow my blog and leave a comment telling me you do so (Bloglovin, email, still haven’t moved from Google Reader, your pick).
Like skirt as top on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you do so.

three maximum entries

Good luck and thanks for entering!

*This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook or Bloglovin. We hereby release Facebook and Bloglovin of any liability. No purchase necessary. Prizes will ship within 7 days of the end of the giveaway. skirt as top takes no responsibility for packages lost by the postal service. Giveaway starts Monday May 6 and ends Friday, May 10 at 5pm PST. Once the giveaway ends, winners will be chosen at random and contacted within 24 hours by e-mail. This post will be updated with winners’ names. Winners will need to respond within 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen. Giveaway is void where prohibited.*

this is the “wearable muslin” for my scoop top, after i graduated from using my husband’s old t-shirts as muslins and cut into “real” fabric. once i saw that this top worked and i had the fit and construction down, i cut into my Britex tissue knit and took the tutorial photos. i had posted this one to Rae’s Spring Top Sewalong flickr group but didn’t have time to blog it before it was time for KCW and then time for my two guest posts to go up.

what i’m saying is, sometimes blog post timing is weird.

anyway, it’s made in a purple rayon jersey from JoAnn, which wasn’t super expensive but is super soft with a really nice drape. the fabric was just finicky enough that my machine ate it a few times until I pulled out Jess’s tissue paper trick for the hemming, which worked like a charm! first time a double needle has really worked for me too, so that was fun.

it has the pocket that i include in my pattern, and i ended up angling the placement in the final version since this seemed a bit crooked. i also played with the hemline a bit after the shirt was already sewn, so the hem has a bit of a “don’t look too close” situaish going on. probably not noticeable to anyone but me though.

it’s really comfy. probably the comfiest shirt i own. annnnnd yes i’ve definitely worn it as a pajama top. i just love it so much! it’s like something i’d actually buy in a store, you know? big accomplishment over here, i’m still waaaay too jittery about self-sewing (but trying very hard to get past that, because wearing clothes i’ve made is incredibly rewarding).

my necklace is from rare bird on etsy – husband actually spotted it on my pinterest board and got it for me! good man. thorough.

oh hey, did you see that Anna made a scoop top?! it looks so awesome! it’s crazy to me that someone else could make a wearable top from my pattern. it’s like when i sewed my first skirt for Em and had this irrational fear that it would fall apart at the seams when she wore it. i just designed this top to fit ME so well, it’s pretty cool to see it fits other gals too! guess that’s the beauty of knits though, eh? 😉

i’ve seen a couple other lovely versions popping up on instagram and in comments too, and it makes me so happy you guys are giving it a whirl. this has been a fun “dip my toe into patternmaking” experience. i also want to give a huge THANK YOU to Melissa of Melly Sews and Blank Slate Patterns, who got me going on Illustrator – she offers a full class on it which she talks about here, and the first lesson is free! if you’ve always wanted to learn Illustrator but don’t know where to start, start there. it’ll blow your mind.