Sew Style Hero: Shannon from Rare Device

Hello, Sewcialists! Andie here from Sew Pretty in Pink and @sewprettyinpink on IG.

Shannon, otherwise known as @rare.device on Instagram and blog Rare Device, has been a Sew Style Hero for me since I started following her a couple of years ago. Shannon is also the founder of Sew Queer, an IG account that promotes queer sewists. Shannon is inspiring, political, incredibly smart, gorgeous, and a truly wonderful person through and through. It’s my honour to call her my Sew Style Hero and my friend.

When the Sewcialist blog team decided to do Sew Style Hero as the next theme month, my mind definitely went to Shannon. Her style along with Sew Queer has been pretty inspiring to me lately. I have a few sewing projects planned that speak to my own gender fluidity and embrace my queerness as a bisexual woman.

I went through a lot of different ideas to come up with one look that embraces Shannon’s incredible style and finally decided to try out a crop top and matching skirt set.

Shannon is known for her crop top and flowing skirt or pant sets, either matching or mismatching.

I looooove the look, but I had never tried a crop top before in my life. What better time to overcome a fear of releasing the mid-drift?

I went through my stash looking for a fabric that would be perfect for the set and had just enough of a lovely soft cotton tropical flower print. For the crop top, I chose the bodice from the Simplicity 8096 dress view A.

To the Simplicity bodice, I added a band at the bottom and elastic through the band. I also added a button band at centre front and cut the back on the fold eliminating the zipper back there. The entire top unbuttons from the front and is incredibly easy for me to get on and off with my physical constraints. It’s incredibly comfortable.

I made the skirt without a pattern. It’s just a simple pleated skirt with pockets and a button band. The look above on the far right of Shannon is the look that inspired mine. The skirt is cut a bit shorter due to fabric constraints. I am also much shorter than Shannon so it actually looks the same length on me!

A big floppy sun hat completes the inspiration look!

And I actually feel incredible in this look! Crop tops are some kind of wonderful.

I love the purple buttons I got locally for both the crop top and skirt. They look great with the floral print. The skirt could be a bit tighter. I may actually put some elastic across the back after I run it through the wash once to see whether the fabric shrinks a bit. To add the elastic, I will just open up two spots along the waistband at the back and then run some 1 inch elastic through and tack it down. That should do the trick.

Thank you, Shannon, for all that you do for the sewing community. You are an amazing Sew Style Hero!