Sew What Do I Wear - Professional Edition

I'm blogging today as part of the "Sew What Do I Wear - Professional Edition" blog tour hosted by Made for Mermaids and Patterns for Pirates. 

There are affiliate links in the post, indicated by *. Should you purchase a pattern after clicking on the affiliate link, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Now first of all, I am a stay at home mom. I wear what I want without worrying if something is professional enough. Some of the clothes I wear might fall in this category, but not always. I could have easily sewn myself professional wear and it would have gotten some use here and there. But I choose to sew for my youngest sister instead. 

My baby sister is a teacher and yesterday was her birthday. I still needed to get her a gift, she loves when I sew for her, and since this is her first year teaching, she needs more professional clothes. This blog tour was fate!

 

My sister... let's call her Kelly*... loves wearing dresses. I made her the Brunch Blouse dress from Patterns for Pirates*, in a woven polyester from the "silky prints" section of Joann. 

(*Names have not been changed.)

This is the women's version of the dress I recently made for Kylie, which I blogged about here. 

The main differences between the girls and the women's version is that the latter includes bust darts and there is no need for a closure. Of course, if you sew the henley version, you are essentially sewing a closure, but it's not needed. 

I sewed the dolman version, no sleeve cuffs, dress length, no pocket, no henley placket. Basically as basic as it gets! It's a fast sew, but with the curved hem, scoop neck, shaping with bust darts and a shaped seam back, it's a flattering shape. It's definitely an instant gratification sew. With the other options included in the pattern, you could easily add more details for a different look. 

In addition to the dress, I sewed a cardigan for Kelly. We all know that it can get chilly whether your are working in a classroom or an office and a great cardigan that goes with everything is essential. 

I used the Carefree Cardigan by Patterns for Pirates and some oatmeal colored french terry.

The cardigan is slouchy and drapey and just what Kelly wanted!

This rayon blend french terry was a lot thinner than other french terry I have used in the past. It was surprisingly see through, and I couldn't use it for another project I had in mind when I purchased it. Thankfully, that's not as big of a deal with an open front cardigan meant for layering. And the rayon gives it a lot of drape, so it worked well for this project. But I think I will stick to ordering heavier weighted french terry fabrics in the future.

Thankfully, Kelly loves it and will be able to use it with lots of other outfits at work. 

Unlike me, Kelly is great at accessorizing. She also paired the dress with a bright pink scarf for a different look. I would have never thought of that. Probably because I never think about accessories! 

But even without the scarf or the cardigan, this dress works well on it's own. And it's still appropriate for a teacher. Kelly said she wore the dress to work last week and received a lot of compliments. 

For good measure, I asked Kelly to give me her best teacher face and this is the look she gave me:

But I don't think that's really it, she couldn't keep a straight face. 

I hope you enjoyed my take on sewing for professional wear! There is a lot of great inspiration in the blog tour, don't forget to check the Made for Mermaids blog to see the links posted every day this week!