Made by a Fabricista: Wool Top and Skirt with Embellishments

    

When Fabric Mart asked for volunteers to make some garments from wool, I jumped all over it.  I love FM's wool.  There's always a great selection and the quality is great!  What more can you want?  

For my skirt, I used a brown/black/tan/multi wool & poly blend tweed suiting.  You can see that fabric here: Boucle Tweed-Suiting.  This has a slight metallic thread running through it which is always a bonus in my book.  

For my top, I used a wool jersey, which isn't available any more, but here is another good option... Sweater knit 

The patterns I used are both from Vogue.  I was so smitten with this one from Vogue I simply had to try it.  I wasn't able to find a zipper the right length, so I improvised and made this decorative one work.  I like the slash of sparkle.  

Yes, the pattern does call for the sleeve length zip, but I put in the shorter zipper and stitched up the sleeve seam.  It works.  I really love the heavier sweater knit for this.  Plus, after some flat pattern measurements, I knew this would fit well.  I made only one alteration and that was to lengthen the bust curve. That's it.

Here's the pattern I used for the skirt.  It's OOP now but I am sure there's something similar somewhere.  It's a mock wrap and I thought ripe for embellishing.  

                                                                                                                                                                                 

For the skirt, I knew I wanted to embellish it a bit, so I found some wool roving. This is basically wool in the raw that I laid over the fabric, and simply stitched down using regular sewing thread and a flower motif.  I practiced a few times prior to putting this on my skirt.

 The photo above shows the roving as it comes from the package and then the large motif I stitched.  I like how these colors compliment the tweed of the skirt.  The hubby thinks I should have used different colors, but he isn't wearing this, I am.  Right?

I feel like a boss with how well my invisible zipper went in. 

 I like this outfit.  It was fun to embellish both pieces.  Now I have something I can wear together as well as separates.  

Thanks for reading!

Sue from Ilove2sew!