Stashcation: Colette’s Myrtle & A Giveaway at Born to Reign Athletics

I’m on staycation this week and am having a stashcation! What’s a stashcation?

Basically, you take this:

And plan this:

And then sew, sew, sew.

There are 20 garments planned here. I know I won’t get them all done within my staycation, but the idea is to go through your stash and plan your next garments out, as well as put those pdf patterns together and cut ahead so that you make sewing easier when you are back to work.

I realized a few things in doing this task:

1) I have spent way too much time buying fabric and not enough time sewing

2) I have way too many patterns that I haven’t tried out before

3) I’m horrible at resisting buying fabric or patterns

4) I’m just too happy with all these things to stop, but I must!

Even after these realizations, I still bought fabric at Value Village (local thrift store) this week thus breaking my Summer Stashbust 2014 pledge for the second time (the first was by buying Colette’s Myrtle pattern).

I’m going to still try to keep on task for my Summer Stashbust 2014, though, because it is important to me to use the fabric and patterns I’ve bought over the past few years. I have a wedding to save for and a wedding dress to plan out over the next year (I’m sure my lovely readers will get tired of that talk!). I’ve got to reduce my spending to save up for the wedding.

Even though buying Colette’s Myrtle is technically against my Summer Stashbust pledge, the fabric I used has been in my stash for several years. Thus, I am categorizing this as a stashbusting post.

This is no Moaning Myrtle! (Can’t resist a Harry Potter reference!) There was no crying and carrying on with this pattern or this fabric.

This was definitely the easiest pattern for me to put together. Including taping the pdf together and cutting it out, the whole dress was about 4 hours to complete and press. It was incredibly simple.

The fabric: Goodness, I can’t even tell you how much I love this fabric. It’s a woven and it incredibly soft and drapes beautifully. It’s been years since I bought it so I have no idea what it is. Perhaps a silk charmeuse, but I’m not even sure. It’s not your basic poly satin and it’s extremely luxurious. I only had 3 yards of the fabric. I made the shorter version of Myrtle and didn’t put the button tabs on the shoulders. I made a 3XL, because I wanted it to have a lot of drape in the front. In the future, an FYI for busty gals is to do an FBA on the chest or lengthen it, because the large bust takes a lot of length out of the finished garment. I’m okay with the length (I also wear spandex shorts under dresses), but it could be a couple inches longer for me.

It was my first time ever creating my own bias tape and my first time ever using bias tape! Bias tape is used in the woven version of Myrtle to finish the back sleeves and neckline. I love love love love the look. I spent about ten minutes after I finished sewing the bias tape just admiring the look.

I’m really impressed with the pattern. Except for the full bust issue, the dress is so nicely done. The arm holes are PERFECT. They don’t gape and aren’t humungous like other sleeveless plus-sized patterns. I feel like that is a huge change from the Moneta, which was verging on much too big in the armholes area. I haven’t made the Myrtle in a stretch material, though, and I can’t speak to how the armholes are finished in that version of the pattern, but they are perfect in the woven version.

As for the next stages in my stashcation planning, I am currently furiously taping together pdf patterns and then I will be furiously cutting out patterns and furiously sewing. We have some plans in the remainder of the week, but I should be able to finish some more stashcation garments, but I will be in a better position to sew in the future and I am definitely excited about that.

Now for a fun thing for my Canadian plus-sized readers:

A good friend of mine, Krista Henderson, launched a great website for plus-sized athletes, called Born to Reign Athletics, and she is doing a giveaway for a $100 Addition Elle card. All you need to do is head over to her site and answer a few short questions through Rafflecopter and you can win a sweet gift card for athletic wear or clothes or even shoes at Addition Elle.

I highly recommend this site. Krista launched a couple of months ago and this is her first giveaway.

Here is a short blurb on the site:

Born to Reign™ Athletics is about unleashing your inner strength and celebrating your power to reign over your life, your body and your spirit in a healthy way.  Created by Krista Henderson and inspired by her own experiences, Born to Reign Athletics provides information, tools and resources dedicated to motivating and celebrating plus size women who embrace an athletic lifestyle.

Now get over there and enter the contest!

 

 

 

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