Sewing Summer Seperates – McCall’s M8148 Shorts + True Bias Ogden Cami

This, my friends, is how to elevate a couple of wearable muslins! With the True Bias Ogden Cami and McCall’s M8148, I have the perfect summer garments to mix and match into my wardrobe.

I usually muslin everything I make. A 6’2″ and curvy, it’s just necessary to get the perfect fit. But sewing a muslin is quite wasteful – both of my time and fabric. Enter the wearable muslin. As I practice more and more with altering patterns to my body, I’ve learned how to measure on the pattern and estimate adjustments on the paper. This skill really helps with trying new patterns from independent pattern designer – I have more comfort with working with new pattern blocks. However, measuring the paper can’t truly tell you how it will hang on your body with the amount of design ease for the style and the fabrication. So sewing that up starts with an affordable fabric. A wearable muslin is a fully finished garment that welcomes imperfection for the value of learning.

The fabrics in this outfit are practically the farthest from precious that I own. The shorts are made from a remnant I first used to sew a pair of M7726 cropped pants. With that first make a learned just how wrinkle-prone this 100% cotton fabric can be. I also learned how easy it is to sew, so it was a good starting point for these shorts I eventually want to make in linen and a special brocade in my stash. The cami is made from a bargain bin fabric I explicitly bought to play around with for pattern drafting. Combined, I probably paid less than $4 for all of the fabric in this outfit!

I’m happy with these casual separates and the colors that will go with practically anything in my wardrobe. And I’m especially happy that I took the effort to fully sew these muslins so I get more value out of my sewing time. I can’t wait to sew these again in my special fabrics and build a wardrobe around these silhouettes.

Pattern

• McCall’s M8148 shorts
  • Sewing Difficulty – 3/5
    • The PDF pattern and instructions have some errors that made it super frustrating to sew the back welt pockets
  • Fit Difficulty – 2/5
• True Bias Ogden Cami
  • Sewing Difficulty – 2/5
  • Fit Difficulty – 2/5
• I definitely will make both of these patterns again with fit adjustments

Fabric

• M8148 Shorts – lavender cotton twill from Rainbow Fabrics Kilburn
• Ogden Cami – burnt orange poly mystery fabric from my neighborhood fabric shop’s bargain section

Fit & Modifications

• M8148 Shorts
  • Added 2″ of length above the crotch at the lengthen and shorten line
  • I cut a size 14 but needed to take out the side seams to add about 1″ more to the size of the pattern
  • The pleated front is basted down early in the instructions but there’s no note to remove the basting. I decided to remove it, but next time I might want to stitch down the pleats so the front is more flat across my stomach.
  • Next time I will lengthen the zipper fly to make it easier to get in and out of the shorts. I’d also like to make it a true fly front with a zipper facing on both sides so the zipper doesn’t touch my skin.
• Ogden Cami
  • This cami is cut with straight size 10 without any FBA adjustments
  • I added 4″ to the straps as a sewing tall adjustment, but after basting I reduced that length to 3 1/8″
  • To avoid a line across my chest, I added 3″ to the length of the lining at front and back so it would fall below my bust
  • I notice some drag lines from my bust so next time I will make a small full bust adjustment

Tips

• Throw out the back welt pocket instructions for McCall’s M8148! Seriously, the pockets are too small to be worth the frustration. I recommend finding a tutorial to draft your own, or skipping the back welts altogether.
• For the Ogden Cami, I used my Stitch n’ Ditch foot to get perfect understitching. I also used a rolled hem foot to whip up this tank super fast.