This March and April so far have been far more productive than the previous few months, sewing wise. I chose this new make to wear first on Palm Sunday, even though we had church at home (so thankful for technology!)

I have a lot of new pretty gray fabrics to use, so that will likely be a theme this year. This one uses some cotton jacquard I got from sewvintagely.com when it was on sale a while back. So far I had only seen polyester jacquard, but this was a whole new ballgame! I highly recommend. It was amazing to use – the ease of quilting cotton, but with better drape and a more sophisticated sheen. It does fray terribly, so I was grateful for a serger to finish my seams. 

I've been inspired by the lovely outfits Donna Reed wears on The Donna Reed Show recently, so this was definitely influenced by her style. I had the idea for the bow at the neck from one of her dresses on the show.

Gray goes with everything, so I wanted to make a 2 piece suit that I could mix and match. I used the pattern for a skirt from a mail order dress pattern, with a pointed yoke. In retrospect I wish I'd made it a plain suit skirt since the jacket covers up most of the detail, but it still works well enough. Of course if I wear it with a tucked in blouse, the yoke will be visible.

I used a 1950s jacket pattern I'd tried years and years ago when I was a sewing newbie. It was a terrible make, ill fitting and with mismatched stripes in all directions. So it was high time to do a better version – and I discovered how much I like its simple, classic style, especially the double darts in the back. Yep, it's a bit wrinkly after wearing it all morning…but that's life!

Doing it with short sleeves and dress style buttons gave it more of a formal 2 piece dress outfit instead of a suit, which is what I was looking for.

I used some white embroidered dot fabric I'd thrifted a while ago for my contrast. The yardage has the dots, and one edge has a wide decorative border. I've been hoarding it for a while, so I finally decided to use a little bit of it for this project. I cut the bow to have the border at each end, and cut the collar and cuffs from the dotted section.

I made the bow removable – it's just safety pinned on each shoulder. So I can easily take it off and unbutton the top button for a more casual look. Nothing better than having two looks in one!

This type of outfit will work well during at least 3 seasons. I went classic and accented it with black and white for this photo shoot, but it would have a different flavor and coordinate well with so many other colors as you can imagine…pink, lavender, navy blue, emerald, etc. I will have a lot of fun wearing it this spring and summer, pairing it with different colors.

This was one of those projects that went together pretty smoothly, with just enough challenge to keep interesting, and no real frustrations. I did have to unpick the skirt yoke after the first try, and do a lapped seam instead, but otherwise everything went well and I enjoyed seeing it come together. 

Speaking of black accessories, I got some new shoes from Rocket Originals, and they are my new favorite! I wore them all day and they remained comfortable. They are so classy with their patent leather trim stripe and the wrapped ankle strap – a perfect blend between a more formal heel and a more casual wedge. I also have them in another color way, and I'm sure they will get a lot of wear (and probably appear on the blog more than once!)

I was hoping for a dressy, easy to wear, mix-and-match outfit that I could button up and go with – and it was nice to find all those goals met successfully. Not every sewing project turns out as hoped for (like the last one), but this one boosted my confidence again and started off a sewing mood that resulted in quite a few finished garments I'll show you over the next little while. 

It might not be quite Donna Reed, but close enough to make me happy!