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Burda Stripe Top and NOT Reinventing the Wheel

Hey guys! Check out a new Burda asymmetrical stripe top that I FINALLY finished making! 


I bought the magazine with this pattern in it over 2 years ago and while digging through my stuff, I found this pattern. I kind of yelled at myself like, "WHY haven't you made this yet?!"

Since I am playing with more jersey knit/stretch knit, this one was perfect. And the fabric from Fabric.com couldn't have been any softer, stretchier or nicer to work with! 


It sewed up really fast, but I was also really lazy with it, taking weeks in between to just hem the sleeves or bottom hem. No real reason why, aside from work being busy and I just wasn't feeling like jumping into my sewing room.
 

You can see on this side, I matched up the stripes pretty well but the other side (probably due to the scrunchiness on the raglan sleeve on the right side) is kind of a mess match-wise (below).


But no one really cares!! 

The thing is, I literally used to make ALL of my own sewing patterns up until about mid-2015. Why? Because that's what I went to school for and I thought that I should ALWAYS use my own, self-designed and measured pattern blocks, especially if I had the skill.

I thought I should always do things the hard way and I should ONLY be wearing my own designs if I was sewing anything. 

Now I realize that said thought process was quite self-limiting. There were so many things I could do/learn/cut corners with if I just used commercial patterns. Clearly, if I had a design for something that there was no commercial pattern available but I really wanted to bring to life (like the Petra Dress or the Sunrise Panel dress) then I made the pattern. 

But I REALLY made life hard on myself by ONLY making things 100% from scratch. And even then, when I made my own things from scratch, it was really all the commercial sewing patterns I used that got all the attention - 50+ likes on something I just bought fabric for and made or 12 likes on something I designed from scratch. It happened ALL THE TIME.

I really love pattern making, but sometimes it's just not worth it to reinvent the wheel if a pattern already exists and you can get what you want pretty quickly. Case in point with my high-waist 70s pants that I made last summer -- vintage Butterick pattern! 

Like I said, why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to? And yet, I had been doing that all along. I tend to do things the hard way for no reason other than the fact that it's the hard way and I want to prove to myself that I can do it. 

I also wanted to keep my skills in practice in case I finally was able to land a fashion design job of some sort (like after a decade that's gonna happen) and to have a rolling portfolio. Good idea in theory, but not a good idea if you're just going to make yourself absolutely nuts.


This fabric is super-cozy and I can see myself getting a ton of wear out of this!

Now I just need to find (or knock off/make?) a pattern for more pairs of pants like this pair of Mavi denim I have had for about 5 or 6 years now. I want them in like, 5 more colors for work!
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