every-single-day

Bootcamp Here I Come!

I have already told everyone who might read this blog that I have been given a 5 day retreat to Kripalu entitled Bootcamp for Goddesses.
Now! Am I excited or am I excited? Both!
Not being able to afford the additional expense of a whole new wardrobe, I have decided to sew some new outfits for this retreat. The pants pattern is my own, modeled after a pair of pajamas that I love.
The top is Simplicity #5198. I beaded the top with matte finish lime green seed beads to bring the border color of the pants into the top. Here is a detail.

I was supposed to get the Butterick 3385 pattern for the sew along, but I didn't like how it pucked at the lower front, and I tend to think that they should work out the quirks in a pattern before selling it to the general public.
I don't usually sew from commercial patterns, more often than not I cobble together a pattern from this and that and make up my own sewing rules as I go. Now, WHY do they tell us to sew a 5/8" seam and then trim the seam to a 1/4"? Am I dumb? Don't I know how to sew? And if I didn't, wouldn't it be better to learn to sew a 1/4" seam in the first place?
So, about the Simplicity #5198 pattern: I like the construction of this little top. My only issue is that the v-neck is way lower than my own sense of modesty can handle. In the photo I am wearing a camisol type bra, I could have sewn a small piece of lace in the V, but didn't have any black lace that I liked in my stash. I am considering ways to modify the pattern so that I am totally happy with it the next time I sew it.