G + G Summer Blog Tour

Caught the fever? Check out all the amazing looks in the Festival Fever line up!
Monday, June 18 
Confessions of the Pink Obsessed | Diskordia’s Curvy Sewing
Our Play Palace | Wild & Wanderful | Bellephant
Tuesday, June 19
Threadistry | Cross Stitches | Middle River Studio
Liviality | Threads of Magic
Wednesday, June 20
Seams Sew Lo | So Sara Sews | Tenille’s Threads
My Crazy Crafty Beautiful Life | Aurora Design
Thursday, June 21
Middle River Studio | The Needle and the Belle
Sweet Mama Life | Sewing Scientist
Friday, June 22
Sewing Ambi | 52 Week Sewing Challenge
Needles to Say | My Sewing Roots
So Today I Did a Thing
And special thanks to our tour sponsors!
Boho Fabrics | Sincerely Rylee | Wandering Willow Design | Aurora Designs

I'm so excited to be a part of the George + Ginger Festival Fever Blog Tour. I love festivals of all kinds and my favorites to attend are the Wildflower Arts & Music Festival, Cottonwood Art Festival,  Plano Artfest, and the Plano Balloon Festival - just to name a few. I not only sew, but I also dabble in photography, and tend to mainly attend art festivals. These are all outdoor events and you have to dress for the hot Texas heat. Check out my photography Instagram Account - Snap Happy Scientist if you want to see my work. 

One of my favorite G+G tops is the RuLo. It doesn't have a fun short sleeve option, so I was determined to make one! One of the things that I love about the RuLo is the bell sleeves and I wanted to keep that bell shape in a short sleeve, but also decided to add a cold shoulder to it as well.

For my photos for the Festival Fever Blog Tour, I went to one of my favorite spots this time of year - the Crepe Myrtle Trails of McKinney. They should have a crepe myrtle festival, but they don't. This was my first attempt to make a cold shoulder short sleeve RuLo. It didn't come out exactly as I planned. I made the cut out a little too big and just a little too much arm is showing. I'll still wear the heck out of this top - but I knew I could make improvements.

So here is my next one. Yes, it does look almost identical to my first one. And that was by choice. I really wanted a funky floral/paisley/stripe kinda print for my "festival" top to give it that boho chic feel. I got both fabrics from Wherehouse Fabrics remnant table and on the same day. These ar both jersey knits in a mystery blend. Both are made so that each half of the yard is different. So the version in the photo above had stripes going horizontal on one half and vertical on the other. The fabric below had these stripes on half and the other half was an all over paisley like print.

This time I moved my cut line for the cut out up by an inch and think I'm showing the perfect amount of arm now.

I was out in 95 degree heat with horrible humidity taking these photos while changing clothes in my hot car. So, if I look a bit red and sweaty - it's because I was. I was so ready for a big icy drink when I was done.

The best part about doing this blog tour, is that I got to do it with my sewing BFF - Sharon. Sharon made the Slash Tunic and added zippers to make it breastfeeding friendly. You can read all about it on her blog HERE.

Since most of my individual photos in this top look horrible - you get to see a few photos of Sharon and I together. This was the third RuLo I made and I made it so that I could take photos of how to make the sleeve pattern piece and how to construct the top to have the cold shoulder.

Sharon and I always have the best time we we get together and end up laughing - a lot. Here Sharon looked at me and said, "You have green eyes!" - like she'd never noticed before. My eyes are hazel and I guess the heat that day made them extra green.

Here's the one good photo of me in this RuLo. This version was made with liverpool. This fabric was also found at Wherehouse Fabrics on the remnant table.

And a final photo of Sharon and I sporting our G + G Festival Fever themed tops. We decided that we need to pick a festival to go to together.

If you are interested in making your own cold shoulder or flutter sleeve RuLo - here are instructions on creating your sleeve pattern piece and how to construct the top with the cold shoulder cut out. If you have questions - feel free to leave a comment on my blog or send me a message to my Facebook Page - Sewing Scientist. 

First thing I do when I'm hacking a pattern is add a bunch of parallel lines on my pieces to make sure I get things lined up perfectly. I knew I wanted my sleeves to be about 7" long when worn so that it hit right above my elbow.

Lines on the sleeve cap. I just needed a few below the points where the sleeve meets the bodice.

Now I'm ready to trace the bottom of the sleeve. 

I add a few small marks to indicate where my matching points are on each side of the sleeve.

Now I take the bottom of the sleeve and place it on the sleeve cap. I match them up where the width of the bell matches the width of the sleeve cap. 

Just another look at my pattern piece.

Now I trace the sleeve cap. I mark the front and back of the sleeve. Since I might want to also use my pattern piece to make a short sleeve without the cold shoulder, I go ahead and mark the notch for the shoulder seam.

As you see in the photo below, I took the piece from my first attempt and put it on top of my new one. You can see here that I did not cut the cold shoulder cutout off the sleeve completely. This was so that I could make a regular flared short sleeve version later.

My first attempt ended up showing more are than I had envisioned. This time I knew I wanted to move the cutout up an inch. If you look close - you can see that I put a notch on both sides of the sleeve that are 1" above where my previous piece was. And yes, I do keep a large dinner plate in my sewing room. I find so many uses for a plate. It's great for creating a curve when I'm pattern hacking. 

I then traced the curve created by my dinner plate. You will notice another set of notches - I started to do 1.5" higher, but that looked too high to me. I cut out my piece and then cut my fabric. 

First you sew the front and back pieces together at the shoulder.

Next, you hem the top curve of your sleeves. 

I used my coverstitch and just folded the piece under the width f my coverstitch foot, which is around 3/8".

Now I lined up the back bodice piece armhole with the back side of my sleeve. I clipped them together without stretching the pieces any.

I then clipped the front bodice armhole and the front of the sleeve piece together. Again - not stretching the pieces.

I then serged the sleeve onto the bodice and serged the open space from the cold shoulder sleeve piece.

To finish the shoulder, I then folded the edge of the shoulder uner and clipped it in place. I used my coverstitch to topstitch the entire sleeve seam which finished the shoulder seam at the same time. Technically, you only need to topstitch the shoulder section that is open with the serged edge showing, but I prefer to topstitch the entire seam for a more finished look. 

Then you finish the top as you normally would.

I hope you enjoyed my blog and will take a few minutes to visit the other wonderful bloggers participating!

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