The self-skirted leggings and some Spring-ish tops

An early crafty post this week…

Oh, how I love to find things that camouflauge imperfections.  Like my non-existent and slowly falling arse.  I saw this idea, on etsy I believe, of adding a long fold-over piece to a pair of yoga type leggings.  Wow, great idea Whomever-you-were!  That is perfect since I really would like some coverage on the butt area. 

I used a pair of leggings I already owned for the pattern, and just cut a really long waist panel, making sure that I sewed it so that the seam would be inside once turned down.  This fabric is a super soft lycra french terry.  So comfy it’s almost criminal. 🙂

Then I had to make a shirt to match, and luckily I had some fabric to chose from.  I know!  Amazing really!!  

The first one I made was the blue “tester”.  You may recognize this fabric as I’ve used it before for a long-sleeved shirt.  This one I tried to do a wrap-ish-kinda-shirred-at-the-waist-to-disguise-the-tummy shirt.  Instead of doing shirring on both sides, I did pleats on one side, which is similar to a long-sleeved top I purchased from CAbi last year.  Only it ended up too big, therefore making the tummy appear too big.  I am holding fabric a bit here in the picture.  It’s wearable, but not the most flattering.

Next, I didn’t do the pleats at the waist and made it a bit smaller.  I just can’t eat a large meal when I wear this one.  I do like it and will wear it.  Plus…it only takes about an hour to make one.  Bonus!

I’m sure it will become a staple shirt for work during the summer.   It is made of a nice soft lycra material.  There are so many versions out there for these types of shirts.  You guys don’t mind if I make 10 more just like this, right?? 😉  This is perfect to wear to work with a light cardigan in the summer.  I have to wear a cardigan in the summer in my office since it is freakin’ cold in there with the a/c.  Once you get outside you need to extricate yourself from the layers, of course.

Next is another shirt I made kinda using the pattern above.  I just made the front a scoop neck, and it is actually two layers in the front.  It was pretty thin material, so I wanted it a bit more sturdy to not show “lumps” quite so easily.  The neckline has two layers of ruffles.  The bottom layer is a single layer and I used the white selvage edge for it.  The top ruffle is doubled up, and I sewed them in between the two front pieces.  I really like this shirt, too. 

I am submitting these shirts into Made by Rae’s Spring Top Week.   Nevermind on that.  They don’t want watermarked photos in their pool, so I’m just not going there.  My watermarks are not huge, and I’m not advertising for anything.  I don’t like not having watermarks on my photos on Flickr.

I am still going to have a post for Crafty Tuesday this week, too.  I just had so much sewing to show, that I thought I would get them out in a few posts.  I have twirly skirts and a tutorial coming up for Tuesday. They are already on Flickr if you want to look at them early. 🙂

**It was Sunday morning with no makeup…thus the headless close up shots. 😉