SEW SUIT UP!

Hey everyone, I am finally back on the blog! I have been feeling uninspired and anxious and just a bit of everything since December of 2019. I have said multiple times that I am not starting my new year until February 2020 because I needed some time to recover and here I am. I am feeling much better after a birthday sewcation which I will write about in another blog. THIS BLOG; however, is all about the SPONSORED challenge that I hosted that also helped me stay afloat through this all. 

Back in December, Tea from @crumpetsteaandsewing (IG) decided we wanted to collaborate and the subject of a suit challenge came up. I was hesitant at first but Tea reassured me that I would be just fine making my VERY FIRST suit, and I was. The point of this challenge was to have everyone start the new year with a new challenge and walk into the new year looking like a boss. I came up with two suit looks that I totally love thanks to this challenge. This was the first challenge I have EVER hosted and it was my first time EVER making a suit. 

For this challenge, I made two looks. One using a beautiful brocade from Minerva and I can’t really talk much more about that one BUT I did create a second look using a blush ponte knit fabric. You can find the Minerva look on their website once it comes out on their blog (keep track on my IG, I will be posting when it comes out). 

For my second look, I used two patterns to create the look. For the pants I used Simplicity 8649. I really loved how flirty the flounce view looked so I decided to go with that. Originally, I thought my flounce was too thick but once I saw it in action, I fell in love. This pattern is super easy and quick to make and I recommend it for beginners. I did not have to make any adjustments which I loved and the pants were a bit loose fitting which I did on purpose. I did add a band to my hem line because the pants were going to be shorter than I was expecting. I absolutely love the look that the band gave the pants. These pants did not turn out how I envisioned but they turned out just as good!

For the blazer, I used a McCalls pattern for a cardigan, M7476. I saw this pattern during an online pattern sale on the Mccalls website and thought about how view C would be perfect to make a suit with the blush ponte knit I had in my stash. While the challenge did have fabric restrictions, ponte knit was one of the approved fabrics for the challenge. This is a learn to sew pattern and has very thorough instructions and it was super quick and easy to make. I really love that this can be used as part of a suit but it can also be used as a cardigan with jeans or a skirt, it is extremely versatile. 

Originally I wanted to style this with a neon shirt and matching sneakers because we all know how much I love sneakers but I decided to just go with black. I paired this suit with a black top and black shoes to make it pop. I really wanted to blush ponte knit to be the focus of these photos and I think I really achieved that. I have to say that I felt like a boss in this suit for sure. I believe that the only change I would make would be to lengthen the leg and to go one or two sizes down for both the pants and jacket for a closer fit. 

I hope you all enjoyed this blog post. I would like to ask you to drop a comment and subscribe to my blog and also FOLLOW me on Instagram for sneak peeks and updates! If you participated in #sewsuitup I would like to thank you so very much for making my FIRST EVER challenge happen! See you all on the next blog!