Tag Archives: Pleated Skirt

Style Crush: Melissa McCarthy

So I’m probably the last person in the world to start watching Gilmore Girls! But start watching it I have. And I love it (no spoilers please, I’m on season 3!). I’ve loved Melissa McCarthy since seeing Bridesmaids – unbelievably I’d not really seen her in much before that – and it’s fun seeing her earlier in her career. Like most other people, I think, I thought she stole the show in Bridesmaids and I’m glad to see her career has gone from strength to strength. I’ve just looked it up and she was nominated for an Oscar and a Bafta for Bridesmaids!

I also love Melissa McCarthy’s style. She can totally rock a leather dress. And I really want the leopard print shoes! (not sure about her hair here though….)

(image source)

I reckon this outfit would be fairly easy to replicate and would be a great choice for holiday parties this year. Sequins are always a good choice for Christmas! There are loads of tunic tops and leggings patterns so you could totally use your go-tos to copy this.

(image source)

I really, really love this outfit – the pleating on the skirt is great and it makes it a lovely shape. I’m digging cocoon-y shaped things at the moment. I love the simplicty of the blouse with the lux fabric. This could totally work for a work outfit, if you work in a fairly smart office.

(image source)

I definitely think pink is her colour, so I love this photo.

(image source)

This dress is quite simple, apart from the embellishment around the neck, but it looks great because it fits her so well. Again, I think this would be easy to replicate, maybe with the Colette Dahlia.

(image source)

I like this dress too, expecially styled with bright blue shoes! It’s pretty much all about the fabric, this one.

(image source)

I’m a huge fan of blue (as you’ll probably know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, or know me in real life!) so I love this. She does seem to stick to fairly simple silhouettes and showcases great fabrics and embellishments, which is probably why I’m drawn to her style – I love a shift dress.

(image source)

Having just said that, though, check out these sleeves! I think I may seriously have to copy this dress. I love the pleat on the skirt and the fabric – I’m loving pink at the moment. I think I could use one of the tutorials from Rosie Martin’s book to copy these sleeves, probably adding them to a dress pattern……though I don’t know which one! Any ideas?

(image source)

Speaking of pink……I love, love, love this jumpsuit! I’m glad they are still kind of in fashion as I’ve been meaning to make one or two for aaaages so fingers crossed I’m not too late!

(image source)

And speaking of jumpsuits. How amazeballs is this!? I love it all – the pleats, the leather and it has POCKETS!

(image source)

I do love yellow – mostly mustard on me, but all shades on those that suit them. I think I chose this photo because of the combo of her happy face and the happy dress. I like the nude underlayer too.

(image source)

I like the fabric and the style of this dress. I like the reddish-corally colour in the pattern and the cut of the dress looks great on her.

(image source)

I really love this lace top – again it has excellent sleeves. I think this might be the same skirt from the outit higher up with the silver blouse. I’ve still got some of my navy lace left over after making my dress for a wedding, so maybe I’ll copy this top!?

(image source)

I picked this photo because I love the colour blocking. I think it could be easily achieved with any shift dress pattern – I have the Colette Laurel and I think it could also work with Tilly’s Coco, and she even has a tutorial on her website on how to draft a contrast yoke.

(image source)

She can also totally rock a gown on the red carpet – though I like that most of the outfits I found and liked are a bit more edgy and rock and roll. Also weirdly both gowns I picked out are the same very pale pink colour!

(image source)

I like the textured fabric on this one particularly. And it’s pretty similar to the By Hand London Alix dress so I think I could rip it off!

(image source)

One of the other reasons I love Melissa McCarthy is because she lanched her own fashion line. She is certainly not alone in doing this in Hollywood but she did it from a standpoint of body positivity and trying to make clothes for women of all shapes and sizes. I read a quote where she said some days she wants to dress really girly and other days like a rock star and she had stopped being able to dress how she wanted on the high street. So she launched a label called Seven7. (Side note, this is why sewing is awesome, you can make any clothes you want to wear :D)

I really love this spangley skirt.

(image source)

She actually studied textiles at university and was going to go into fashion as a career….before having an amazingly successful acting career!

(image source)

I particularly like the top Melissa is wearing in this photo. And I like the spotty sweatshirt-y top on the left.

(image source)

I really like the fabric she used in this top. And how happy she looks 😀 I think I would look that happy if I had adorable dimples and a fashion line and a Hollywood film career!

(image source)

Save

Fabric Inspiration: Wool

Leave a reply

After the (modest) success of remaking my wool skirt into a cape, I’m hankering after making more things from wool……perfect time of the year, right!?

In looking for photos as research for this post, it occurs to me that wool is a really versatile fabric. You can make all of the below things from wool – skirts (pencil, pleated and circle), dresses (wiggle, fit and flare, and maxi) and, of course, coats and jackets.

I like this skirt because of the fabric – I like the black lines that perfectly line up with the pleats.
(image source)I can’t resist anything blue pretty much, so I love this one!

(image source)

This skirt is from the 60s (which I think is why I was drawn to it) so it shows that wool is also hard-wearing, and lasts a long time. As long as the moths don’t get it!

(image source)

I like how this one has the pleats starting lower down so it’s smoother over the hips, which I assume is slimming.

(image source)

When I was first thinking of a post about wool, I assumed it would all be black, brown and other dark colours, but I was wrong! Electric blue, olive, turquoise and pink. Lovely.

(image source)

The pencil skirt is a classic garment to make with wool. I particularly like this grey one – I think it’s the styling (and the model’s legs) that makes it particularly awesome! If only I could wear heels for more than 5 minutes at a time……

(image source)

We can add mustard yellow to the colours of wool available!

(image source)

If you read my blog regularly, you’ll know I like masculine, boxy styles (as well as 60s styles), so I love this grey wool coat/jacket.

(image source)

More mustard yellow!

(image source)

Coral is definitely a colour that is one of my new favourite colours, and it seems to be in several high street shops at the moment, so it’s obviously one of the colours randomly picked for this season. Anyway, I like the combination of a sort of girly colour and a masculine shape of coat.

(image source)

The wiggle dress is a classic to be made of wool – they make me think of Joan from Mad Men.

(image source)

Since I like the 60s, I do enjoy a black dress with a white collar and cuffs. The babydoll style is obviously a classic of the 60s and it’s starting to grow on me.

(image source)

Ah, Pierre Cardin. Lovely!

(image source)

I love this lime green cocoon-y dress with the blossom embroidery. It looks so Springy! It’s making me want the weather to finally warm up.

(image source)

I like this wool, the black with speckles on. And the shape makes the wool look really modern.

(image source)

Who knew you could make a maxi dress from wool!

(image source)

This is a great green too, and I actually like the bow – normally I don’t like things that are too fussy, but I’ll make an exception for this one!

(image source)

When I do next sew with wool, I really have to make a coat for The Boyfriend. I promised to in January, but then we decided to move and now it’s almost Spring so it seems like a silly time of year to make a Winter coat! Have you sewn with wool? Outerwear or ‘inner’ wear?

Save

Bright Yellow Butterick Skirt

10 Replies

So I finished this skirt about a month ago but it took until today to take more photos (after the original set The Boyfriend took weren’t great). I bought Butterick 5285 because after watching Mad Men, I really liked the look of Peggy’s pleated skirt and blouse combos, especially this one:

And after trawling all the pattern makes, Butterick 5285 seemed the best fit of the ones still available. I made view B, which has pleats but not stitched ones (because I was too scared to make stitched pleats). I tried to buy some mustard yellow fabric to totally rip off this look, but my local shop didn’t have anything mustard so I went for bright yellow. I’m not kidding, it’s really bright!

The pattern came together really easily, and I really like that it has pockets. I’m totally going to use those pockets in other patterns which don’t have any as I find it really annoying not to have pockets. The only hiccup I had was (somehow) sewing the side seams on the outside. I’m going to blame getting a little confused about the pockets (this is the first time I’m made something with pockets in), the fabric not having an obvious back and front, and me being really stupid. The annoying this was that I had zig-zagged all the seams and around the pockets – luckily I’d zig-zagged the seams apart otherwise that would have been a real ball-ache to unpick.

I had one other slight issue – somehow I puckered one of the side seams, probably from having to re-do the whole thing!

Excuse the selfie-style photos. Also, the colour looks really washed out here, weird. I fixed this by unpicking (again!) the side seam underneath the pocket, and a little of the hem, then re-sewing it so it looked straight, which left me with an uneven hem. So I just re-hemmed that bit to make it look straight by taking up more on the side where it was now lower….if that makes any sense?

I made a straight size 10 as that was the size closest to my waist size, and I figured that was the only bit it was important to fit to. I cut off 7 cm from the length and added a button to the back instead of a hook and eye (as I had buttons but no hooks and eyes). I used a bit I’d but off the waistband as the button loop. I’ m not totally sold on the length – I wonder if going a bit shorter still might make it look less frumpy?

This is a pretty good representation of how bright the yellow is! Also, check out my (relatively) neat slip stitching!

I think basically, this is a really easy pattern but I made several stupid mistakes. I’m already planning to make another one in bright turquoise, but I can’t decide whether to make the gathered version or the fixed pleat version. Any suggestions?

(I don’t know why I’m standing with my feet so far apart – odd!)