Summer Wardrobe Capsule Sewalong Fat Girl Style hehe

Hi, everybody out there in blogville! *waves excitedly

This summer, I have decided is the summer of me. I want to feel better about myself and what better way to go about it than to completely make myself over into the person I feel like inside? I felt overwhelmed by this project almost as soon as I made the decision lol. Luckily for me, I saw this blog post.  Becca Duval of Free Notion made it her mission to help women everywhere understand the capsule wardrobe idea and make it less overwhelming. Hats off to Becca, everybody! yay! Thanks, Becca!

I wanted to chronicle my journey from baggy ass men's undershirts and  blue jean cutoff shorts to .... however I end up looking. Vague is good, right? lol No, vague is NOT good when it comes to dressing right for our bodies and coloring. After 45 years, I am done hiding my body. This is the year I get to wear pretty clothes that fit!

The first thing we did as part of the capsule wardrobe process was to purge our closets and select 3 items that we kept and list WHY we kept those items. I kept...you guessed it... my white men's undershirts, Walmart skinny jeans and really old, paint spattered blue jean cutoffs lol.Why? Because I can hide behind them! They gotta go.

Notice the whole where the back pocket connects lol keepin it classy 

Obviously I need to make some radical changes. How do i go about it? How will I know what will look good on me? Free Notion helped again! we did a wardrobe analysis. It sounds fancy but all I really did was decide what holes I needed to fill in my "wardrobe" (all of them!!). Then I needed more information about MYSELF....dun dun dun....the great unknown. 

Step 1 was to determine my body type. This is the Body Shape Calculator that I used. I'm an apple or oval shaped person. No big shocker there. It's pretty obvious to see that I carry my weight in my midsection. Some of the characteristics of an apple body shape are:

• Rounded shoulders
• hehe flat booty
• Nice legs
• Full belly
• Average to big ole boooobies (sorry, i am NOT mature).

Yep! That's me, alright!

Step 2 was determining a color palette!  haha It was really hard because you want to choose colors that you like to look at instead of colors that are likely to look good on you. THESE are the colors I have chosen. I think they'll transition well into fall. I've also added lime green because I think i might love it.

Now, dear readers, you are all caught up with me on my summer capsule wardrobe sewing odyssey. Next time, I will come back with a list of patterns that I've chosen for my capsule and you can hold my hand while I try to look attractive and put together! 

Women's BundleUp Blog Tour

OMG OMG can you believe they picked me for the Women's BundleUP Blog Tour? hehe They surely did and boy oh boy do i have some awesomeness to show you!! I tried FOUR of the patterns in the bundle! Fluffy girls gotta represent, am I right?

This bundle has so much to offer for every shape. The first design that I tried was the Jocole Ladies A Line Shift Dress. It's fitted with darts at the bust and a zipper in the back. It flatters my body shape in the most joyous way imaginable. Since it's a Jocole pattern, it uses her standard 3/8" seam allowance, the pattern is beautifully drafted with long illustrated instructions that include both photos and line drawings as well as a quick guide for those who prefer brevity in the instructions or for impatient people like myself.

I feel very much like a lady when i wear this. Very Jackie O! I even made myself a little purse to go with it.

I also tried Filles à Maman Clemence Shorts and the EYMM Essentials, both a pretty bold move for a fluffy lady but I'm a fashion pioneer so I went for it. Allow me to just take a moment to GUSH about the EYMM Essentials. I made the cami with the extra support band. It's pretty AND I don't have to wear a bra! I did change the pattern a bit because of my size and...well....because I knew I'd be making this blog post lol. 

I made the skirt portion just a little gathered to try and hide my mid-section. I think it worked pretty well. I didn't expect to fall in love with this pattern but I did. It's great. There is, literally,  an option for every body....even mine.

These are my Clemence shorts. I chose to leave the scallop off because i felt that it would draw attention to my midsection. With that being said, my shorts fit really well and I cannot believe I made these snazzy shorts! I added lace at the hem. It was my first Filles à Maman pattern and I am terribly impressed. 

My Clemence shorts in all their glory

EYMM Essentials Cami

I love these pieces and I can't wait to wear them all summer long!










Last, but certainly not least, I made the Bluezette dress by Love Notions! I chose the wrong fabric and the wrong style for my body and somehow... IT STILL LOOKS AWESOME! Here, judge for yourself:

I am a huge Love Notions fan. The pattern was well written and super easy to follow with so many fantastic options. Next time, I'm going for the tulip skirt with the blousey bodice or no...the circle skirt with the fitted bodice. There's just so many different things you can do with this dress!

Every one of these patterns was fun to sew and make me feel beautiful when I wear them!  If you don't believe me, check out the rest of the blog tour:

Getting Involved is a Good Thing

I love to sew. It's absolutely the most fun, creative, exciting and interesting thing about me. I can take an idea and make it a reality. Is there any greater gift?

I started sewing about a year and a half ago when I bought our house. I loved it.  I became involved in the online sewing community on Facebook. The ladies were so nice and wanted to help me learn. Oh it was fantastic. I loved my sewing groups and I loved learning new things. I met some very good friends and I met some not so nice people, too.

Pretty soon I discovered that there are huge cliques in the world of Facebook sewing. I really, really wanted to be one of the cool kids....but I'm not. I admin'ed a couple of very large groups and it was fun for a while. It was very dramatic and everyone was always trying to get the better of everyone else. I couldn't even tell you how many paranoid BFF groups I was dragged into. Sounds ridiculous but it's true.

I'm a straight shooter. If I think a thing, you will know it. I can't BE a sell-out because I am incapable of supporting a cause I don't believe in. I'm full of honesty and integrity and people don't necessary like that.

My abilities as a sewist (I intentionally choose the amalgam of sewing and artist, because it IS art) have dramatically increased and I feel that there is nothing I can't do with the pattern pieces I already have. What's left for me in Facebook sewing? Unnecessary drama. Unnecessary pattern expense. Unnecessary wasting of my time that would be better spent sewing or playing with Little Bub.

I don't condemn Facebook sewing, but I think that I no longer wish to be a part of it. It discourages me from being creative. I don't need negativity in my life. I am looking for the chance to create and to grow. It seems like at this point, I would be better served to focus on creating the beautiful garments that make me so happy. Getting involved is a good thing, but maybe so is taking a step back.

This is why I sew. I want to make beautiful things for my beautiful child to laugh and play and grow up in. This is real life and I REALLY want to ENJOY it, don't you?

Opening an Etsy Store

I tell you what, opening an etsy store is hard. There's 10,000,000 zillion billion things you have to do.....aaaand then there's no guarantee that anyone will like your stuff. I'm really worried about that. I am TERRIBLE at failure. lol

The first step was getting my sewing up to par. I've worked really hard for months. There isn't much I can't do. I'm going to be making a dress, the Jenny by Scientific Seamstress/Sisboom, this very week so that I can teach myself a new technique. I'm totally going out of my comfort zone on this dress in both technique and style. I'm kind of excited to make it.

Then I had to figure out who I wanted to sell to and for. You have to know who you're talking to. I'm choosing plus size ladies. We don't get many choices. Mostly I have casual wear now but I'm going to be dressing things up a bit in the very near future. Big girls should get to look pretty, too! I want to lol. I'm also going to feature items for little girls. Hmm. Kinda seems like a no brainer. I want to sell to people like me only with money to spend on hand crafted clothes. lol

I had to sew up samples. That was the fun part :)

Jocole Mix & Match

EYMM.com Piko Top

I arranged for photos. It's impossible for me to take a decent selfie. My friend Kim White took the photos. She doesn't have a business but she certainly has the talent.
These may be the two best photos of me ever taken. I'm pretty far from photogenic. Thank you, Kim. Please accept this gratuitous plug for the business you haven't started yet!

I started my Etsy shop. The "Grand Opening" will be sometime today. I did a lot of research on this. I read everything Etsy published and  I talked to the ladies in my Facebook sewing group, Sew & Tell. Those ladies are sharp and they know how to do business on Etsy. Etsy gave me the first 40 items free so I plan to use them. Today I will upload photos and add tags.

This is all pretty exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Wish me luck.

It's done! We run an Etsy shop now!

Hibbadoray

the Jocole blog: Knit for a Princess!

Today I am tickled pink to show you a post that I wrote for the Jocole Blog. I'm pretty impressed with myself lol. Check it out and let me know what you think! Be sure to show Jodi some love!
 
the Jocole blog: Knit for a Princess!

New Beginnings and Some Back Story

Two weeks ago I quit my well paid job as a Network Engineer to pursue my dream of raising my tiny girl myself.  It's going to be quite a journey and this seems like a good way to chronicle it.

I...am nobody special. Six years ago I found myself pregnant and alone and unemployed. I had NO idea what to do with myself or my life, I just knew I was about to be responsible for this tiny little life and I better not jack it up! I went to college. I got my MCSE and I got a good job. I started off at the bottom. $30,000 per year for doing remote tech support. It was GREAT! Exciting and fun. I was good at it and customers liked me so I excelled.

Promotions and raises came. I bought a house when it came time to send my precious baby to school. And I worked. And worked. And worked. And I paid people to watch this precious girl for me while I worked. And I felt like my own life was screwing me over. I wanted to be with my daughter and not pay people to raise her on my behalf. No matter how much I did it wasn't ENOUGH because I was so busy making a life for little Bub that I wasn't enjoying what I was building.

I had money. I had a house. I had a solid future. I was miserable. The only time I was happy is when I was with my tiny girl or when I was sewing. So I quit. I gave it all up to telecommute for $10 an hour. I'll be opening an Etsy shop here right away to help support us.

So what's this blog about? Sewing. Raising little Bub. Living life. The pursuit of happiness and the American dream lol. The things that REALLY matter. idk for sure what they are just yet, but I'll keep you updated.

Wish me luck.