Separates Made With Minerva

I was gifted this fabric from Minerva.com recently. It’s a stretch cotton sateen. It washes and dries well and is super easy to sew. I enjoy using fabric like this for outfits like what you’ll see below, because it’s a medium weight that makes garments look fantastic! The patterns used for this outfit are out-of-print (OOP), but you can easily achieve a similar look with a button up shirt and a skirt. So, this post is about my separates made with Minerva.

Top: McCall's 2094
Skirt: Vogue 8295
Separates made with Minerva fabric

What I wanted was the look of a dress, but achieved with separates. Although I do plan to make a shirtdress (and I considered it for this fabric), I wanted more options. With a print this bold, I figure I will give myself the opportunity to break this up.

Top: McCall's 2094
Skirt: Vogue 8295
Belted separates Minerva fabrics

In the photo above I am wearing this belted. That’s a good way to break up the print and add some visual interest to the outfit.

M2092, V8295 top and skirt belted (wide), minerva fabrics separates

In the photo above, I’m wearing this with a wide belt. It’s just a different look rather than the other leather belt.

If you’ve never used this type of fabric, it has a bit of stretch but I think it stitches up beautifully. It’s great for things like this because it allows the garments to have some structure.

McCall's 2094 top made with Minerva fabrics

This shirt pattern is pretty much my go to for this style of top. It has 8 variations, including sleeveless.

Vogue 8295 skirt made with Minerva fabrics

I love the wide band on this skirt pattern. It has some length variations as well. There are also options that are more decorative. Here is a previous time I sewed up this pattern (you might need to scroll down to get to the picture of the skirt). Overall I’m very happy with how this turned out. I love the versatility of this outfit. I can wear it belted or unbelted, tucked in or out, and split the whole thing up! If you want to add some options to your outfits, especially if you want the most from your sewing time, you might want to consider sewing this way. I hope you enjoyed this post on separates with Minerva fabrics. I’ll leave another link below if you want to look at this fabric (or any others they have).

Minerva Jardin Cotton Sateen — https://www.minerva.com/mp/1247273/jardin-stretch-cotton-sateen-fabric-blue&variant=1247262

McCall’s 8178 Dress Pattern

I bought this pattern in one of my recent pattern hauls. It’s funny because I almost didn’t buy t because I thought the pattern would be “too young” for me (whatever that means). But, I really like the style and ease of wear that McCall’s 8178 dress pattern offers. I’m glad I did get it. As it turns out, this is one of my favorite dress patterns I’ve made in a while.

Honestly, this dress started out as a wearable muslin. But, the result turned out so well that now it’s just my dress. I used a quilting cotton for this. The dress does use a lot of fabric. There are 10 godets that have to be added. Those godets are what give the dress skirt its flare. Sewing the godets is easy but a bit time consuming.

The three versions in the pattern of the McCall’s 8178 dress are: sleeveless, 3/4 sleeve with contrasting godets or 3/4 sleeve with matching godets. Clearly, you can make whatever combination you choose. I think a short-sleeve version for summer would be great! I would make the sleeves more of a bell-type sleeve rather than just short. That would look good with the flare of the dress. As you can see, I made my dress from all one fabric.

The dress goes together pretty easily. The pattern is for woven fabrics. Since there’s no zippers, etc it goes over the head.

The only change I made to this pattern was to lengthen the bodice by 1″. With this change, the seam hits closer to my waist. There is elastic in that waist seam. The only thing I would do differently the next time would be to add in-seam pockets. Since this originally started out as a simple muslin, I didn’t think to add them. But, next time for sure!

Springtime Favorites (Old and New)

Now that the days are getting longer here in the mid-Atlantic region of the US and the sun shines more often, I can’t help but think Spring. So, I wanted to share some of my springtime favorites, which includes patterns and some previous makes. While we all love getting new patterns, if you’re anything like me, you have plenty of patterns that may never have even been taken out of the pattern envelopes – LOL! This post will show some of those (purchased in previous years and purchased last month).

Years ago, I made this skirt using Vogue 8295. I actually featured it in a blog post back here.

This is a fun look that can be casual and comfortable as well. I used an older pattern to make this, but I like to share ideas for patterns you may already have.

One of my favorites is this jacket pattern. McCall’s 6172 is great for a classic jacket. I’ve made this twice already. The bright, sunny yellow is my favorite because it’s such a happy, springtime look.

M6172 jacket and M7906 skirt — McCall’s 6172 jacket and McCall’s 7906 skirt

And that skirt has also proven to be a favorite as well. It is McCall’s 7906. I intend to make this again, maybe in a solid (corduroy would be a good option).

As far as new (or newer) patterns are concerned, I’ll show you a couple of those to help you get your creative juices going.

I bought this stretch cotton sateen recently along with several packs of pink buttons in order to make a dress. I had this pattern (Butterick 6674) that I think will be a perfect match for the fabric. The dress might need to be lined since the fabric is a bit thin. Honestly, I haven’t made a dress in a while and I’m looking forward to having some for summer, especially.

A “moto” jacket on my list of things I want to sew. I bought this pattern right after it came out.

While I don’t want to use a glitter fabric for it, I might be able to find something suitable in my own fabric stash. This pattern has pockets which a bit different from a previous make. I might give this one a try.

I hope I have given you some ideas on projects you might want to tackle for yourselves. These are just a few of my springtime favorites. Although I’m not really working off of my list, I find that I am actually making progress. I have been able to check some things off!