I am very excited to be a part of the blog tour series "Sew What Do I Wear - Vacation Edition" hosted by Made for Mermaids and Patterns for Pirates.
Speaking of vacation, Jason and I leave this Sunday for Cancun, Mexico to celebrate our ten year anniversary. That's in just four days! I should be getting ready instead of blogging! I'm trying not to freak out. I always get stressed right before vacations, anyone else? I hope it's not just me.
Thanks to the push to sew vacation outfits for this blog tour, I have at least two outfits ready to go for our trip.
Sew what will I wear in Mexico?
I went with two off the shoulder looks. I used both the Mama Cassie and the Mama Daphne by Made for Mermaids and I will go over each pattern to help you decide which pattern you would prefer if an off the shoulder dress or shirt is what you want! I keep seeing these styles everywhere and I'm finally joining the cool showing off your shoulders club.
I haven't made anything off the shoulder until now because I was worried about the bra issue. Every time I would see a cute outfit in this style, I would admire it but think I could never wear it. But I recently had a revelation. You know how sometimes bra straps fall off your shoulders and you don't always put them back on your shoulders? At least that happens to me. Strapless bras will not stay on, but when I wear a regular bra and the strap falls down, it's no big deal. I don't know what the difference is, but I realized I could just wear a regular bra with this style of shirt and just let the bra strap lay off the shoulder, hidden by the shirt.
See?
At least this works for me. I wonder why it took so long for me to figure this out. I could have been wearing off the shoulder shirts a long time ago!
For my first outfit I made the Mama Cassie* in black rayon spandex from Simply by Ti and the Mama Lucy Shorts* in Liverpool from Pretty Posh Prints. (*affiliate links)
There were so many options to choose from in the Mama Cassie! Check out all the tester pics in the listing page* because my one shirt doesn't do the pattern justice. (*affiliate link.)
This Cassie is designed for knits. There is a cold shoulder or off the shoulder option. Right off the bat, that gives you two different looks! A peplum shirt, mini dress or knee length dress are also included. And of course, there are different sleeve lengths.
In addition to the options included in the pattern, there is a blog post on hacks to create even more looks put together by Made for Mermaids. I used the pattern piece and instructions included in the post to add the flounce.
The only change I made was to straighten the sides of the shirt instead of making a peplum. I actually simply used the shape of the Mama Daphne (which I will talk about soon) but you could easily use any t-shirt pattern you want for the side seam shape if you didn't want a peplum. I do like peplums, I just wanted this shirt as simple as possible.
I didn't make any other changes and it came together so easily! I did sew in clear elastic in the seam around my shoulders. Since the shirt is rayon spandex, I didn't want it to stretch out over time, so the elastic helps give it some stability.
To give you a full idea of what the shirt looks like, here what it looks like under the flounce. This is the short sleeved option.
The shorts I paired the shirt with are the Mama Lucy Shorts, also by Made for Mermaids. They are a very simple pair of shorts, with two different inseams and two different hem shapes. I love having a basic pattern like this I can go to over and over again.
Although they are drafted for woven fabrics, you can easily use knit fabrics for the shorts as well. I went with Liverpool fabric (which had quite a bit of stretch) and I could have easily sized down and I might do that next time. But for now I will wear this pair a lot.
For my second outfit, I used the Mama Daphne* with a rayon challis from Joann Fabrics. (*affiliate link)
Just like the Mama Cassie, there are lots of options, but just different. The Daphne is drafted for woven fabrics unlike the Cassie. You can, however, use a flowy knit fabric with the Daphne, but you couldn't use a woven for the Cassie.
The Daphne has a ruffle flounce, flutter sleeve or regular peasant style sleeve in different length options, all with the option of straps as well. If you choose the ruffle flounce or flutter sleeve, there are no sleeves unlike the Cassie. The Daphne uses elastic along the neckline, and in a waist casing if you make a dress. By contrast, there is no elastic in the Cassie.
Finally, the Daphne has different lengths as well from shirt length to mini, to knee length, to maxi and to puddle maxi.
I went with the regular short sleeves, elastic in the sleeve hem (you could also leave this out), no straps, maxi length option.
Since I used rayon for both outfits (rayon spandex and rayon challis), I'm hoping that it will help me keep cool on the hot summer days on our vacation. I'm looking forward to finding out! Sun on my shoulders in Mexico, here I come!
Be sure to check out the rest of the bloggers on the tour. I hope it inspires some sewing for you for either vacation or every day life! I wish I had more time to sew before we leave in a few days. :)
You can follow the Made for Mermaid blog to find all of the blog posts.
