Making a new outfit for Easter has been a tradition for me ever since I was little. My mom would make a beautiful, frilly dress (that poofed when I twirled, of course), often from a Daisy Kingdom pattern, like the ones below (the pictures don’t do them justice, but you get the idea of the poofy skirts and puffed sleeves 😉 ) :
Once I began sewing for myself the Easter dress tradition continued, with only a couple of years where I wasn’t able to make a new outfit for myself. I’ve been looking at some Threads magazine back issues that I got for Christmas, and they’ve been inspiring me to get a little more adventurous and try adding some design variations to the garments I want to sew. I began thinking about an Easter outfit. My initial thought was to make something that would be a little warmer than a summery dress- maybe with 3/4 sleeves. Then I considered my sizable wardrobe of dresses and decided that a suit instead of dress would be a good idea. I made a black blouse earlier this winter and it completed a three piece outfit (skirt, vest, blouse) that I was finally able to wear, and it was fun to have a put-together outfit that isn’t a dress. Now, don’t get me wrong here: I LOVE LOVE LOVE dresses. I have ever since I was little – I used to wear dresses all the time when I was a tot and I still love them. I usually prefer making them to skirts and blouses anyway because it’s less work and you have a complete outfit. However, I do like the look of jackets and skirts, and I have been feeling like branching out in my sewing lately. Thus, my intentions are to make an Easter suit for myself.
BUT…..what shall this Easter suit look like? I have been envisioning different things in my mind, trying to come up with a little design variation from one of my Threads magazines that I might be able to add in without getting in too far over my head. I was thinking something with a straight-ish skirt and adding a godet variation in the back instead of a slit, and a feminine, vintage-feeling jacket, tailored with either 3/4 or short sleeves (Easter is not always very warm in New England!). I was thinking of something in a light plum purple or lavender – or maybe one with accents of the other. This morning I went on the Simplicity website to hunt for a suit pattern since none of the ones I have are what I’ve been picturing (which is quite sinful, since I have a plethora of sewing patterns. But I continue to buy them unashamedly when they go on sale, because you never know what the styles are going to do in the future). Long story shorter, I found these two patterns (one of which was haunting my memory, influencing my thoughts) on Simplicity. They are Threads patterns so they already have delicious details built in, and if I were to attempt to add something in I think it would be on the skirt. Here are the two patterns:
  
I love the silhouettes of both patterns – the cute springy skirt of the top one (I’ll call it the “pink pattern”) the straighter skirt of the bottom (the “blue pattern”). They fit with the individual styles of the jackets so well. I love the pleats on the front of the blue pattern (and there are pleats on the back of the jacket as well, which was one thing I was envisioning- some kind of back detail) and the shape of the collar, but I also love the rounded short sleeves of the pink pattern and the shawl-type collar, as well as the seams that add definition at the waist (you can’t see them in the front picture but you can see them in the line drawings below)
 
I’m not sure which one I’ll do yet (or which one I’ll start with 😉 ) but I thought it would be fun to document the process of coming up with an Easter outfit this year. I feel like I’m leaning towards the pink pattern, but I do love the other one too. My next step is to find out when the patterns are on sale at Joann’s and see what I find for fabric. I want to give myself plenty of time to get this done. I might base my decision on what I can find for fabric and buttons to go with either pattern. Orr, maybe I’ll just start looking at vintage patterns on eBay and see what I fall in love with on there. 😀 Any thoughts? I’d love to hear them!
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