The Sew and Tell Project

Wow! Our little blog is hopping this week! Today is my turn on the Sew Caroline Weekend Style Book Blog Tour!

A couple months ago the fabulous Caroline Hulse of Sew Caroline invited me to participate in her Weekend Style blog tour! Of course I agreed! I had already received my pre-ordered book and fallen in love with the projects! The book is just beautiful to spend an afternoon reading through and planning. Within a few hours of receiving my copy I had my first pattern printed, taped, and sewn.

Because I ordered a copy, I am giving away the copy I received for participating in the tour to one lucky reader! Make sure you read my post and enter.

Did you catch my first two projects from the book in this post and this post? I didn’t think making a pile of Tilly Tees would do the book justice although it is one of my favorite patterns in the book. Katie loved hers, too!

For the blog tour, beautiful Caroline sent me some of her gorgeous Art Gallery voile print from Happy Home. Big confession: I am very picky about woven tops. I prefer knits most days. Trying the Larchmont was stretching my style preferences in a VERY awesome way.

The Larchmont is a relaxed fit woven tee with dolman flutter sleeves and a locket closure in the back. It is a VERY simple sew with flattering results. I added 1.5″ of length to the pattern for my height but I probably didn’t need to if I choose to style it with a skirt or shorts.

I had my supplies out to make the simple locket closure in the back, but before I attached the bias neckbinding, I slipped it on over my head. Because I had no difficulty getting it over my head, I skipped the locket closure making this a lightning fast sew! Don’t you just love the subtle shape of the sleeves?

Next confession: Sewing bags has always been intimidating for me. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use some of Art Gallery Fabrics gorgeous canvas though to make a Pool Tote. I will definitely be making more of these totes in the future. The technique for  making this bag was fully-finished with minimal fuss. I consider myself a beginner at bag making. Because we usually just swim at home and live about as far away from the beach as you can and still live in North America…. I skipped the clear vinyl pocket and mesh interior pockets and made this an every day tote. A girl needs a cute bag to take to Quilt Market right?

My only suggestion for this project is to lengthen the straps 6-10″ depending on how big of a handle drop you want. As you can see, I can still wear it over my shoulder. I might pick apart the lining at the side seams and insert tabs and D-rings to make a removable cross body strap before my trip. I also did not purchase enough interfacing for this bag so it only has 1 layer of interfacing which is why it is a little slouchier than the sample in the book.

Finally, I loved my Larchmont SO much that I just had to experiment to see if I could make it in knit as well. I sized down one size and gave it a go. I think it turned out pretty well and will look great this summer for hanging out and transition well to fall with cozy leggings and a sweater.

I used a beautiful print from Katarina Roccella’s Lavish that has been in my stash for about a year.

I definitely recommend this book. With 15 beautiful patterns that you can print and sew as many times as you want, it is an excellent value for both beginner and experienced sewists. I had a lot of fun choosing and sewing patterns to fit my style and my figure.

Make sure you enter below to win your own copy OR head right on over to Amazon here to buy one today!

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