The Walking What?

So because I spend way too much time on Facebook I became friends (well more like stalker) of Becca Duval.  I've checked out her blog before and was extremely intimidated by her creativity and skill.  Not to mention she's super cute.   Check out her blog- you'll become a stalker too.

Anyway through the group she started on FB for Capsule Sewing- which I swear I'll actually do one day- I've become more of a stalker than I was before.  And I was introduced to another super talented lady, Katie Lee.  She may be what I want to be when I grow up.  Check her blog out too!

What that little love fest brings me to is the invitation I got from Becca to join their Sew the Show FB page.  I cannot imagine a more perfect pairing for me- TV/Movies and Sewing!!  Love it.  Now I don't have to bug my husband with analysis of TV shows he couldn't care less about or my sewing which he grins and nods about.  Yeah!!!  Of course there is a blog with all the great stuff you can check out too- Sew the Show.

The way things work is that every month there is a new theme and everyone is encouraged to sew something inspired by or from the movie/show.  The October theme has been- appropriately enough- The Walking Dead.  For those who are still in the dark about this show its about the zombie apocalypse and airs on AMC.  Yeah thats about all I knew about the show at the beginning of the month.  My sister in law is obsessed but it never seemed like my kind of show.

As it turns out I was wrong.  I started with the seasons on Netflix and went on a crazy zombie binge!  It was more than a little funny to my oldest when I told him how the youngest had freaked me out one night walking around in the hall moaning.  I'd woken up ready to fight him off!  So of course that has led to the oldest two children zombie walking around the house at night.  Heaven help me when these kids hit their teenage years.

Even after binge watching I wasn't really on board to sew anything.  Most of the wardrobe consists of drab colored skinny people clothes.  At least thats what I call it.  Lots of half tucked loose but slim fitting shirts, olive green pants, dirty denim.  Don't get me wrong they all look great and I'd guess bright colors would be a little hard to wear when you're trying not get noticed by zombies and washing your clothes infrequently.

Yep, dirty slim fitting clothing.  Great for their world, not so much my style.  So no, no plans to sew for this show.  Of course as things go, one thing leads to another and here I am.  At least I'll be getting there in a moment.

A review for Jalie's Eleonore Pull-On Jeans popped up on my news feed and I fell in love!  I needed them.  So pattern in hand I bought some stretch denim fabric to make a muslin.  Funny enough the fabric was olive green.  I was half way to my Walking Dead outfit!  I already had an olive green cardigan I had made last year.  Even better, 2 drab colored layers down.

First I'll talk about the Jalie Jeans.  Love them!  These are my tester pair so I do have some adjustments to make.  I also made a tester pair for my daughter- another great reason to buy Jalie, sizes from 2 kids to 22 womens.  These pictures were taken after I'd spent most of the day chaperoning a first grade field trip to a Fall theme park on a lovely warm, very warm fall day.  Oy!

I definitely need to size down the legs and am going to bring the front waist down as it keeps folding over with wear.  The fabric doesn't have as much recovery as I'd like so it tends to bag and wrinkle.  Still I'm loving them, these will become a wardrobe staple.

The last piece in my TWD outfit is actually the coral colored shirt I'm wearing above.  I know, coral not a dirty, drab color.  Well I have been wanting to copy this shirt for a few years.  Its starting to show wear, not too bad but enough that I'm not sure it has too many more seasons left.  I love it though.  Its a shirt I can pull out in cool or warm weather as the fabric is really light.  It has long sleeves with a roll up tab for the weather changes.  I've worn it when I was up a few pounds (like now) and down a few.  Plus it has this faux henley look- bonus that it has no buttons!    (Becca had pointed out that they wore a lot of henley style shirts in her post on sewing the perfect placket.)

The basics of copying the shirt were simple enough.  The core of the shirt is a simple t-shirt.  The collar, placket and gathering are what take it up a notch.  I had this light weight navy heathered knit from Girl Charlee's Knit Fix, it was the perfect weight for my top.  Maybe not as drab a color as TWD but enough for me.  I did actually have to pull out my seam ripper and redo the gathering and cover as they were initially too high.  I think I might be growing as a sewist.  I would have just let it go before but I really wanted this shirt to be perfect.  

I do love how it turned out.  The fit is exactly like the original.  I love it in the blue.  I didn't bother with the sleeve tabs as I'm not sure how this fabric will hold up.  Plus I did poke a teeny, tiny hole when I ripped up the gather cover.  Its not noticeable but I suspect this shirt won't last too long.  Luckily I have a pattern and can make myself a whole wardrobe of them!

When I started this post this morning I was going to say that I would likely not wear this outfit as is but the pieces were great in my wardrobe.  Well, either from laziness or comfort, I've worn this outfit all day!  I can't wait to make more of both patterns. 

Now for the Walking Dead portion of this post- so I don't disappoint Becca.  With my cardigan I'm ready to fight off the hoards!