Essential Greenstyle Wardrobe Blog Tour - Day 2

Hi!  Thank-you for checking out my stop on the tour.  I'm pretty new to this blog tour thing, so let's hope I can live up to the post yesterday by Stephanie of Swoodson Says.  If you haven't checked her post out, please do!  She made some incredible outfits!!

I'm really excited to show off the six pieces I made for the tour, and here they are:

So before I start, I want to say this... I am NOT a skinny girl. I am working on a very slow weight loss journey, since due to injuries when I was active duty, I can't really do much by way of exercise.  Anyways, a lot of the time I get really frustrated and discouraged with clothes.... store bought clothes rarely fit right, and when I find something that does I wear it until it falls apart.  Being part of this tour made me really nervous at first -- did I REALLY want everyone to see my pictures?? And then I realized, that YES, yes I do.  Because we aren't all small, and we are just as beautiful as the smaller sized girls and we deserve to look good in our clothes too -- so a huge thank you to Angelyn of Greenstyle Creations for giving me the chance to feel pretty and show off the awesome plus size fit of Greenstyle!


So let's get started... First up, my Laurel... Done in the dress length, but with the shortest bodice length, so its more like a long tunic - which is just what I was going for...

I did the front and back pleats, because let's face it, my butt is too big to skip the pleats! The pockets were a must as well.  The leggings are store bought from Walmart, and the best part... the fabric used?  A cotton/poly blend knit that I got from the local goodwill for $1.99.  I wore this out to the park today-- and had two different moms ask me where I got it.  Total win.

Next up, The Amy's.  There are two... First, because my waist is a bit smaller than my hips, I wanted to check out the waistband and get the size right before I did the full skirt... so I grabbed this 50% off dress from the Goodwill, folded it in half, and put the pattern on top and moved it till it reached the point of the skirt where it was as wide as the top of the pattern... worked out sort of perfectly length wise... and all I had to do was get the waistband right and add it to the top - I left the skirt hemmed as it was...

So now I had the fit of the waist right, and a really cute skirt as well... I cut the next one from a Joann's Apparel Knit, that was just too pretty to pass up during my shopping day.  The waistband of both skirts is from the poly/cotton blend ribbing that Joann's carries.  I debated this a bit, and decided I didn't want to mess with the flow of the skirt an left it unhemmed.  But with the weight of the fabric and the stretch of the waist, I ended up cutting my skirt at the XL line and the waist from the Med line (yea, that made me feel SO SKINNY!).

Little man said "NO!" when I asked if I could take the picture alone, so wave to Connor.  This skirt... so soft..  I am going to wear it all the time.  And the flared shape makes it flow so nicely and minimizes the hips! It also is a little forgiving size wise -- so the XL skirt fit my size 16 self rather well. 

Next, the Lacy tank..  I actually did a muslin of this one before the original and it has quickly found its way into the PJ rotation, since all I did was finish the neckline on it (the arms and hem are raw and its kind of see through lol)  But I got the size right -- this fits really true to size, like all of the Greenstyle patterns I've sewn, but I knew I had some clingy fabric and was a little worried about it accenting the tummy *too* much, so I ended up cutting it between the XL and 2XL.  The fabric is from The Fabric Fairy, and is a really yummy soft and slinky rayon modal fabric.  I decided I wanted to make it a little different, since I was afraid the all-over print might be a little too much. The black is a jersey knit. 

Color-blocking!  So much fun.  I measured from my underarm to just over one side of my chest, and added an inch to cover the seam allowances.  Then I attached a strip to a bigger piece of the black, folded it and cut the front pattern piece out.  I debated hemming this one, but decided on the rolled hem to to keep the flowy look.

And up last, but certainly not least, the Aspen Pants and the Centerfield Raglan T-Shirt.   The Aspens are made from Stretch Demin from Joann's with a really fun *pop* of Happy Raindrops cotton/lycra from the Bamboo, Hemp and Reprints custom fabric group for the yoga waistband.   So as I said above, my hips are a bit wider than my waist.  I wasn't sure how the fit was going to work with just the small stretch that the pants had, so I went with my hip measurement and cut the whole pants out on that line... heehee

Not so flattering... but, the hip was great. So I laid them down, right sides together, on my cutting mat, and took some measurements... length from ankle to knee, length from ankle to mid calf, and length from knee to mid thigh.  Then I winged it.. (sort of).  I knew the general shape I was going for (basically the picture on the pattern cover), so I started at the hip, went in a little down to above the knee, straight through the knee, and flared back out at the calf. I'm really excited with how they came out.  Finding pants that fit right when you're shaped like this is horrible.  I am so happy with how these look on, that I already cut out another pair to make this weekend. 

And I paired them with my Centerfield Raglan, which I saved for the end for two reasons.  One, I made it with my second yard that was graciously donated by The Fabric Fairy.  It is a gorgeous light pink with lavendar toile, cotton rib knit and it's sitting in my wishlist now so I can get more to make Inara a dress with it once I get to the next 50 item splurge day.  I did this one with  the curved hemline and short sleeves using this *awful* purple knit that I had left over from a shirt for Inara.  Okay, so its not awful really, but it has these shiny sequin-stud things on it and both my sewing machine and serger were unhappy sewing it.  But it just went so perfectly, that I had to do it.

This is at the end also because last month when I tested the raglan, I really loved the fit, but I had just started this weight-loss journey, and decided that this shirt was going to be my "progress pattern."  So I am making one each month until I get to where I want to be.  So here is the exciting thing... this one is a size XL, last month's was a 2XL.  And it fits great.  Now to get my lower half to catch up, lol. Though, I do think these pants fit well across the back too. 

So there it is... 5 patterns, 6 awesome wardrobe pieces... and me, I haven't bought new clothes for myself in over a year... possibly longer, so on a thrifty budget (did you notice that?), I now have new pants, two new skirts, a tank, a t-shirt, and a tunic, all of which I will wear regularly, and make all my friends jealous with.

So stay tuned for tomorrow's post from Shwanta, who is considerably more stylish than I am.   And another huge thank you to Angelyn... I feel pretty in these well fitting, well written, easy to sew patterns.. Thanks for thinking of us larger gals with your patterns!

Before you go... enter the giveaway courtesy of the lovely ladies at Greenstyle Creations, PurpleSeamstress Fabrics, and The Fabric Fairy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to all of the sponsors of the Essential Greenstyle Wardrobe Blog Tour:

Greenstyle Creations

The Fabric Fairy 

Purple Seamstress

And our wonderful bloggers!  Please visit their blogs this week to see their Greenstyle Creations:

April 7, 2014 Swoodson Says

April 8, 2014 Keep Calm and Carrion

 April 9, 2014 Shawnta Sews

April 10, 2014 Becca Duval Photography

April 11, 2014 Blogs Like A Mother