• D.I.Y with Nichelle B.

    Military/Cargo/Pencil Skirt D.I.Y

    THANK YOU to everyone who came to the Ellevate Pop Up Shop on Saturday! It was so fun and I am sooo grateful for everyone’s support! I debuted “Nichelle B Self-Care” and it was a hit! Stay tuned for the launch of my website where I will be selling custom, handmade, and exclusive Self- Care products and Accessories!

    Ok let’s get into this skirt. Let me tell y’all how this process went for me…. I saw @blueprintdiy post her cargo skirt about a week before the event.. I’m like oh that’s cute, I wanna make a cargo skirt. So I start looking online for inspo. I get overwhelmed with the many different types of cargo skirts. I spend about a 5-6 days just searching through inspo pics and trying to decide on something. My indecisiveness really gets on my nerves sometimes! By this time it’s the day before the event (the pop-up shop) and I start freaking out because I still haven’t decided on a skirt and don’t know what I’m going to wear! So I went to the fabric store and just bought the fabric for the skirt.

    So I come home and continue to look at images, I’m scrolling through Google and come across this skirt…

    Cuteee right???!

     So I ponder it for a while, I searched my patterns to see if I had anything similar, I didn’t. So I pulled out S8889. I really love that pattern, the fit is great and I’ve hacked it a bunch of times. This pattern worked because pants have 4 pieces and this skirt has 4 sections. I used the pockets and waistband that came with the pattern for my skirt. You can hack this from a regular pencil skirt pattern and that is probably way easier than what I did! I didn’t have a non stretch pencil skirt pattern on hand so I had to get creative.

    I used a cotton twill to make this skirt because that was what was available at the fabric store but you can also use a cotton sateen. The only difference in the 2 fabrics (to me) is Twill has no stretch at all and Sateen has a little bit of stretch.

     The skirt has 2 darts in the back, 2 darts in the front, 4 pockets on the front, 2 D-rings in the front, waistband and a front button closure. I wanted to add more hardware and fun details to my skirt but I just ran out of time. Which is always a possibility when sewing under a time constraint. smh lol

    The fun part about this skirt is you can be as creative as you want! You can do zippered pockets, add straps, add hardware, the options are endless. And since its cargo style its almost like more is more! lol

     I also did a gusset pocket for the first time. That was cool. I didn’t have time to research different pocket techniques, so I just used the first tutorial that came up on Youtube.

    The gussett pockets came out good I just need to practice it a bit more. I do think doing gusset pockets vs flat ones make a difference on this skirt. Idk why I just think it just does something for the skirt! So in the end the Sewing Gods were on my side with this one and I’m so happy I was able to wear my skirt to the event. That’s all for my Military Pencil Cargo skirt.

    Would you make or wear this skirt? Let me know if you have any other questions!

    And stay tuned this “Go Love Yourself” sweatshirt will be available in the NichelleB. Self-Care line! As usual you can see more pics on IG @itsnichelleb.

    I didn’t realize the shadows in my pics. Sorry y’all!

    And stay tuned this “Go Love Yourself” sweatshirt will be available in the NichelleB. Self-Care line!

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  • Pattern Review

    Pattern Review #M7724

    Hey darlings! Here is my review on McCalls pattern 7724. If you follow me on Instagram you know I am participating in a sewing challenge being hosted by The Sewing and Design School in Tacoma Washington. Lately I’ve been trying to connect more with the #sewersofinstagram and the sewing community overall so this challenge was a great way to do that! The theme for April 10th was “Statement Sleeves” so I thought this top would be perfect for that because it is so different! I love the whole mismatched vibe, the two different hems, 2 different fabrics, and 2 different types of shoulders give this shirt a high fashion feel! So when I first laid eyes on this pattern I knew I had to have it!

    The only tricky part about this top was fitting the shoulder and arm pieces. I’m petite so my arms and shoulders are small. I did have to cut the sleeves way smaller so they would fit me, but I have to do that with most patterns because I’m really like a size 2 and patterns start at size 4-6. This top definitely had to be cut smaller so it could hang fashionably off the shoulder (if its too loose you run the risk of exposing some goodies lol) and I cut it smaller so that the cold shoulder sleeve would fit around my small arm and not be baggy.

    I made my shirt out of shirting fabric and I paid about $15 for both fabrics, which isn’t bad for a button up blouse. You could also make a version of this blouse using two button up shirts from the thrift store. I would suggest this top if you’re looking to step your sewing game up a notch or just try some new techniques because it features buttonholes, darts, facing, flounces, and hand sewing this top could be a fun challenge!

    In conclusion, this pattern is a winner! I would make this top again and definitely try the other views. Do you like making button ups? Is this pattern a blouse you would try? Let me know in the comments!