Dusting off the Pattern Stash with Beignet

8.14.2014

OK dish, how many patterns do you have in your stash that you've never sewn up?  10's, 20's, enough that you're getting a bit shifty eyed right now? What you want me to answer my own question?  Well I'm gonna have to plead the fifth on that and ask that you direct any further questions to my lawyer Esquire Froggie. Meanwhile I'll be throwing patterns in the air and cackling. Mine all Mine!!!

I was "making it rain" with patterns the other week when the Beignet pattern landed on my head and I though, "Skirt pattern gooood, must sew."  Now this baby has been in the stash for at least 2 years, maybe more.  I probably bought it because some other blogger made up a cute version....as you do. Then realized I'd never tuck my shirt in to wear it and threw it in the back of the pile.  But segue way to 2014 Heather who is all about Nettie bodysuits and tucking things in willy nilly. Short-waistness be damned, I'm making a Beignet skirt.
Recently there was a twitter conversation about buying fabric with plans and how those plans get changed. Now I'm not a planner. My buying technique is "OMG I must have this to hoard and occasionally pet. It can not belong to someone else!" This works great with fun prints, but when it comes down to buying basics I "usually" have a plan. (Have been known to go bat shit crazy over wool.)
The plan for this stretch cotton was a Springy pair of Thurlow trousers. Mmm yeah, I can still picture it in my brain and it looks good. If only pants fitting is wasn't still my Achilles heel.  I spent a solid month trying to get Thurlows to fit and ended up with nothing but 5 muslins too tight in the backside. Curse you ginormous butt!!! Two Spring seasons later this fabric was still in the stash and I had to sit down and seriously reconsider my plans. Did I want to go through the cycle of pants fitting hate right now?  No.  How much wear would a pair of spring pants get anyway?  Maybe 2-3 weeks max? Now a skirt, that could get a whole lot of wear during hot weather.  I waffled a bit until Froggie pulled out the pair of matching wedges and whispered, "Dooo Itttt." One must always follow the advice of their spirit animal/sewing helper.
Wow, can I say this pattern is time consuming?  Totally worth it, but for some reason I had the thought that this was going to be a "quick skirt project" in my head. Days later I was bemusedly wondering why this sucker wasn't done yet. Crap, I need a lining....sew, sew, sew.  Belt carriers...where's the stupid quick turn? Wait I have to sew 12 buttonholes? Burn a sacrifice to the sewing goddess!!

The sewing goddess must have been pleased because only 2 buttonholes had to be ripped out and resewn. Then she reminded me that there were two packs of self covered buttons in the stash.  Sweet! Froggie approves the self covered button.  One more pack of buttons had to be purchased to complete the skirt. Other than that all the materials were in the stash, including thread/interfacing/needles and such.  I like to think of this as a 4 dollar skirt and giggle like I'm clever.

Pattern
Colette Beignet

Fabrics used
Light weight stretch cotton sateen for shell - purchased from Emmaonesock last year.
Polyester silk like blouse weight for lining - inherited from my grandmother's stash.

Pattern changes/alterations
I sewed a straight size 10 straight out of the envelope. No Fitting Changes at all. I have never typed that sentence and fully expect a catastrophic event to occur.  Watch out for raining frogs unless they look slightly furry and prepared to hem clothing.

Confessions/Advice
- I did move the buttons away from CF about 1/2" more than the suggested placement.
- Was going to skip the lining but decided with all the facings it was a better idea to have one to keep everything in place.

Husband Comment
"I like it. It's the color of the Florida Marlins uniforms.....well until they changed them."

My Final Thoughts
Confession - Wasn't sure that I'd like this pattern on me until it was completely done. When I put it on the first thought that popped into my head was that I needed to make another.  The second thought was, "Sure thing, but not back to back. Go sew a quick project first."  Ahhh good advice. I'm still 100% sure there's a denim version in my future. Won't that look cute with fall tights and boots? In the meantime I'm going to wear the crap of out this one with my Nettie bodysuits. Just give me a hand when I fall over next to you in these wedges.  Maybe I should invest in a pimp cane.

54 comments:

  1. That is so cute! Also, expect me to come up and steal those shoes. :-)

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  2. This is lovely and great, and you definitely need a denim one! What would you call this shade of green, anyway? Anne is knitting me a sweater this fall, and this is the colour I want... I just can't think how to describe it! (Other than, obviously, carrying a picture of you in this skirt around the store while I buy yarn! Which I will do. 'Cause that won't be creepy at all! ;)

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  3. Totally loving the skirt on you! The colour is f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s & the self-fabric buttons make it! :-)

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  4. love those covered buttons. any tips? i had a total fail on them recently. and a denim version would be perfect!

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  5. So cute! And yeah...I have somewhere around 100 patterns hoarded away from years of JoAnn sales......some of them are approaching vintage (25 years is classic for cars, so why not patterns?).

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  6. I love this so much! I want to see your denim version when it's done.

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  7. Very cute! I've made a couple of Beignets, and you're right, they're definitely not quick projects... but hopefully they'll last forever and get lots of wear! :)

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  8. That skirt is fabulous on you, love the green and I want those shoes!

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  9. OMG, your husband comment made me laugh out loud for an inappropriately long time. I love when man brains just take total left turns and veer off into crazyland.



    Please tell me you were actually making it rain with your patterns.

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  10. I love this: the colour, the fit, the covered buttons - everything! Give it a year and you'll find yourself making another one - your memory will have faded significantly and you'll have forgotten the pain. A bit like childbirth! And I agree with the others, please let it be denim! x

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  11. When I saw all those buttonholes, I thought OMG is she a glutton for punishment? Then Iwas jeolous! The skirt looks wonderful on you. I may make one sans the front opening.

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  12. I do love the color! I have this pattern in my stash, but haven't sewed it up yet either. I'm not sure how many other patterns I have that fall under that heading, but it's a lot...

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  13. I have pretty much the same system when it comes to shopping for fabric. Well, almost. Half of it is "pure determination, I'm going to the shop to get this specific fabric in this much yardage because I want to make this pattern" then after I get that, I go all "shinyyyyyyy saleeee" and end up with another 10 yards of fabric in the shopping cart. Today I just bought 7 new patterns, so that puts me up to 20 patterns in my box I never sewed. And on the other hand, the Anna dress already got 4 makes. GO FIGURE. But this skirt is tremendously cute. I like separates, I feel more accomplished when I sew a top or a skirt, because I can get done so much quicker. I still hate sewing buttonholes though, and I need to get over it soon. Love your blog. :)

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  14. So nice! Those button holes are what would stop me in my tracks. A denim one would be great. Pattern stash...well mine is no secret since pinning all 160 of them on Pinterest! Yikes...

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  15. Super cute! I've had this pattern lurking in my stash for about 2 years too. You are making me think I should pay a little attention to it. ;)

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  16. Pretty! I love the self-covered buttons! And the color--and the matching shoes!

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  17. i've always loved this pattern and yet i still don't own it. might have to change that... i love yours!! ugh, 12 buttons is just cray cray! i'd totally put fewer in cuz i'm lazy like that ;-)

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  18. Oh, yah, my unused pattern stash has got to be around 30 patterns. I like your process - maybe I'll throw some up in the air and see what lands on my noggin! A denim Beignet sounds like just the thing - how often does a pattern fit straight outta the envelope and look this good?

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  19. It's really cute and I love the colour. A fall denim one with boots will be awesome too!

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  20. so cute - i love the lining & the perfect match with your wedges. lovely for the last stages of summer and the lining will make a perfect segue into Fall too. beautiful make! Can't wait to see the denim version too :)

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  21. Great skirt, love the vibrant green and fabric covered buttons. I have about 600 patterns, and I'd say I've barely sewn 100 of those so I fess up to having lots I've never used! Most were bought from op shops for 10c or 20c, but there are still a few bought brand new that I haven't used yet. Something to do with my aspirations being bigger than my reality!

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  22. Cute! How great that you didn't have to make any changes to the pattern, too.
    patterns in my stash that I haven't made? ha ha ha ha....most of them. i just can't find the fabrics that match the images in my head. And there's not enough hours to make and do all of the things that i want and still be able to do the blah things that I have to do like feed the family.

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  23. Thanks Lori, I might give you the shoes with a blessing. My knees think they are the devils work.

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  24. "I know her, I swear!" So I pretty sure the color was labeled as emerald on the EOS website. I feel like seafoam might be close but a little more green, rather than a blue/green.

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  25. Thanks Claire. I wish this color was sold to us home sewers more. It seems to have been replaced by mint, boooo. Froggie really did a good job on the buttons for me.

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  26. Jo, I first used Gertie's tutorial for the buttons here, http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2010/02/covered-button-tutorial.html. Gathering the fabric circles seems to work a lot better for me.

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  27. Thanks Kelli. JoAnn sales are my weakness too. It's too easy to grab something you only kind of like when it's 99 cents.

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  28. Thanks Sarai. I might be starting the denim one sooner rather than later.

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  29. Thank you Carolyn. Not sure why I thought a lined panel skirt with lots of buttons was going to be quick. LOL. Must have been a bit crazy that day.

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  30. Thanks Lori, Froggie might hook you up with those shoes if you show up with some goodies.

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  31. Haaa haaa! I asked him for a comment and he said the, "I like it" part and then stopped. I was thinking, "Damn that's boring," when he started up again about the baseball uniforms. It's gold Jerry, GOLD!


    I've had the patterns land on my head before because the bins are stored up high.

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  32. Thank you Jane. I think you're right about the memory fading. How else would I continue to try to fit pants. LOL!

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  33. Haa haa, thanks Karen. I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment. Happily the button hole attachment on the Bernina is a lot less temperamental than the one on my old machine. That can't help with me lining stuff up improperly.

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  34. Thank you Becky. It's a lot easier to buy patterns then sew them up sometimes. Even I want more hours in the day.

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  35. LOL. Anita, you made me laugh with your fabric shopping description. Why not get some sale fabrics too, more fabric is good. You're doing really well if you only have 20 patterns that you haven't sewn and some of them are new purchases. I tip my hat to you. :)

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  36. Thank you Margo. Buttonholes are going better on the new machine since it's not on it's last leg. But I do get a little stressed out having to sew them. Zippers are much less stressful!
    All your patterns are on pinterest....might have to take a look.

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  37. It's cause I only started sewing a year and a half ago ;)

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  38. Thanks Marrie. Beignet feels really great after you get it done. All that lining is work but does make the skirt feel luxurious.

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  39. Thank you Alice. I fell the same about self- covered buttons. They feel "expensive". :)

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  40. I can see you wearing this pattern, no problem Lisa. I'm sure you could get away with less buttons if you spaced them out a bit more.

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  41. I'm impressed that you even have a number in your head about the unused patterns. Really should count mine to sober myself up.


    Things never fit me straight out of the envelope! I made an muslin and was surprised that it seemed to fit just fine. Thought something horrible would happen with the real version. :)

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  42. Thank you Heather. I wish this color was easier to find. Fabric goddess hear my prayers! hee hee

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  43. Thanks Kate. I do like having that nice lining inside now that all the sewing is done. Hooray for clothing that can transition into another season.

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  44. Thanks Kristy. Wow that's a lot of patterns but I get it since most of them where dirt cheap. You just have an extensive library, that's all. :)

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  45. Thanks Bobbi. We really need to have more time for sewing. Where are those robots to feel our family? Bring on the patterns!

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  46. I also have this pattern languishing in my stash, I may have to make it a 2015 sewing goal, especially hearing that you didn't have to make any pattern alterations...thats a sewing holy grail I'd love to encounter!! And I can so relate to your pattern and fabric purchases- all the pretty things, must be mine- ugh and I'm trying to teach my two year old that sharing-is-good!

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  47. Thank you Elizabeth. All the pretty things!!! My almost 4 year old had started saying, "Let's buy a lot of stuff," when we go into stores. I may have to set a better example.

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  48. Thanks Vicki Kate. :) It sounds like your beignet was a hit too. I won't tell froggie what you said, but I'll give him an extra cookie.

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  49. LMAO! This is probably one of the best posts I've read in a long time. "Maybe I should invest in a pimp cane." Love it! You just landed yourself a new follower. ;)

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  50. Love this skirt! The lining is just beautiful, too.

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  51. LOL. Glad I gave you a good giggle Moyler. Can't help but think a pimp cane would be super practical. Keeping me from falling over, and I could use to to prod my toddler along.

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  52. Thanks Maris. Froggie gave me some lessons in being cute.

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  53. Thank you Laura. Funny how this turned out so well when I thought the style wasn't going to be me.

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