Three High Street inspired looks I want to sew this summer…

Hunting around on the high street and scouring Pinterest and Instagram for (yet more) sewing inspiration is one of my favourite things to do. I have a whole board saved on Pinterest for sewing inspiration (you can follow me here if you’d like to) and I tend to save looks and outfits that I’m inspired by on Instagram too.

Today I thought I’d share with you three looks I’m loving at the moment and how I’d like to make my own garments this summer, using this inspiration.

A blouse with a frilly collar….

Ah collars, they’re everywhere at the moment aren’t they and I’ll admit to having been pretty skeptical of this sweeping fashion statement when it first came out but now I’ll happily admit to wanting to jump right on that bandwagon and create my own. There are loads of amazing patterns out there at the moment which would fit the bill perfectly but rather than buy another sewing pattern just yet, I’m going to attempt to hack together a version using a few patterns I already have in my pattern stash. Namely The Avid Seamstress The Blouse, The Evelyn Dress by Simply Sewing and I’d love to try to use the sleeves of the Davenport Dress by Friday Pattern Company considerably shortened. I’m going for the vibe of this beautiful blouse by Love and Roses which I think I might have to purchase anyway whether my hack works out or not…

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A(nother) pair of floral wide legged trousers…

I absolutely loved this picture posted by Anthropologie, mainly because I just can’t get enough of the florals and trainers combo at the moment, and have been totally inspired to make another pair of Safiya Trousers by Tilly and the Buttons from her book Make It Simple. I have but one floral viscose pair which I made culotte length and I absolutely love them and wear them A LOT so another pair has always been on the cards. I want to use a very similar fabric I have in my stash to that in the picture, this black floral sunflower print viscose from Stoff & Stil. I did consider making the dungarees version of the Safiya but I think I’ll get more wear out of them as trousers and if I have enough fabric I might consider making an Ogden Cami by True Bias or a so that I can wear them together as a kind of faux jumpsuit or separately if I prefer. I can’t wait to get on with this one…

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A good old pair of paper bag waist shorts…

I absolutely lusted over these shorts when I saw them on the Sezane website earlier this season and have been dreaming up a way to recreate them ever since. There are a lot of paper bag waist shorts patterns out there but the one I plan on using is the Gabin Shorts and trousers pattern by Apolline Patterns, I absolutely love French style (hence my love of the Sezane website) and for me this pattern is the one that looks as though it ticks all of my very fussy boxes. Plus I really want to recreate the whole outfit Estelle is wearing in her Instagram photo below, isn’t that just beautiful? Apolline patterns only come with a few English options and unfortunately the Gabin pattern isn’t one of them so I’ll be relying on Google translate and her helpful but also very French YouTube channel to help – I think it’ll be worth it if they work out…

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So those are three makes that are top of my list for summer 2021, I’d love to know in the comments below what you’re hoping to make too!

If you’d like to watch my YouTube video talking through all of these plans too, you can do so here.

Thanks for reading…

Until next time, happy sewing!

Sally xx

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