It's time...

... to refocus on my 2010 Sewing Resolution #whatever: to do more sewing and less fabric shopping.

I was sooooooo very very good for all of January and February, then lost all inhibition about clicking "proceed to checkout" buttons somewhere around March 1st.

I thought as of last night that I was done for awhile. Until I fell for two Hot Patterns designs today: the Kyoto Skirt and Marrakesh Pants. I made the mistake of watching the videos about each garment, which totally convinced me they would be so flattering and wearable and comfortable and all-round perfect for my very boring casual lifestyle that I'd be insane not to order them immediately and sew them up. From stash of course. I have a nice lightweight taupe chino that will be perfect for one or the other, although alas not for both. And a lightweight, slightly stretchy, very drapey, very dark olive twill of some suitable kind. And lots of prints. It's not like I'd have to buy more fabric to make them.

Anyway, I'm going public with it: I intend to survive the next 120 days without buying any more sewing patterns or fabric. (Thread, notions, and interfacing allowed for projects in progress if the stash does not provide.)

That means starting RIGHT NOW through August 5, if I counted correctly.

Those of you who know me well can go ahead and chortle yourselves right off the couch, but I really intend to follow through this time.

I'm tempted to throw caution to the wind and go public with some kind of statement about how many garments/projects/UFOs I'll also complete in that time (to meet the "do more sewing" part of that resolution), but I think I've been rash enough with my promises for one day. I'll simple aim to astonish myself with my productivity in the sewing room, how's that?

Another Linen Top

I'm slogging slowly forward on this Mini-Wardrobe Challenge over at PatternReview.com, and was all set to finally make something from some gorgeous stretch rayon in my stash. Until I realized that there was just enough -- maybe -- of the turquoise linen left over from making MWC garment #1 to make a simple tank top.

Inspiration credit goes to this top, with which I am much enamored, although I'm past the age where spaghetti straps in public are a good idea. Isn't that ruffled hem adorable?

Unfortunately, the Japanese pattern book it's made from is not among those on my shelf, and I don't have time to order a copy of it. Plus, I'm supposed to be making this challenge from stash, fabric and patterns.

Once bitten by this image, making a linen tank for my second MWC top seemed essential. Plus, it would use up that fabric. Which is a lot more appealing to me this week than putting a scant yard-ish size piece back in the stash. This is supposed to be the year of sewing from stash (and finishing UFOs, not that I'm doing spectacularly in either department, yet, but it's only April, I've got time). Plus, a sleeveless tank would be a nice counterpart to the long-sleeved Patricia tunic, and maybe even fit into a THEME for the challenge, which has so far been lacking. (More on theme later.)

I rummaged through the pattern stash, which yielded a couple of items that could be easliy altered into sleeveless tank-ish tops, but alas, not from the limited piece of fabric I had left. So I self-drafted one, very loosely based on a linen pull-on (no buttons or zip, yay) JJill top that fits well through the bust thanks to armscye darts.

So I copied that, sort of, adding to the length (aiming for lower hip area) and whipped up a quick muslin. Yikes. Okay on the top part, but wow, did I underestimate what would go around my hips with any kind of ease. So now it's more trapeze-ish in shape.

Then I trimmed the neck (very slightly gathered at center front) and arm edges with bias strips cut from the Anna Maria Horner "Guest of Honor" fabric left over from making my office curtains. So far so good. On to the ruffle. Which turned out not to be such a good idea. The cotton print is huge scale, and I planned a deeper ruffle to show just a bit more of it. But a gathered length of wider cotton, even quilting weight, was too heavy for the very lightweight linen. (Took a pic, but it was a dud.) So I cut the ruffle off drafted a straight lower border and went with that. Super-narrow double-turned hem, top-stitched at the seam.

It's okay, but not quite as super-delicious spectacular as I'd hoped. Which is about normal for my semi-experimental sewing. I'm happy with the fabric combo, though, and although there is still a yard-ish size length of the GofH fabric back in the stash, it was fun to use some of it for a garment purpose. Probably I'll make a simple skirt from the rest, but no tackling that until I've completed (or given up on completing) this mini-wardobe thing.

Finishing the white denim skirt is next. It's been hanging in the sewing room closet for a week, waiting for me to give it a waistband and a hem...

I'll post photos of me wearing this stuff when I have complete outfits to show off. Which will be sometime within the week if I'm going to make the challenge deadline.

Patricia Tunic #1

Finally, one garment done for the Pattern Review Mini-Wardrobe Challenge. Which means I'm behind schedule, but I'm probably delusional to think I have any chance of finishing four garments in a month. It's nice to have gotten something done, even if garments 4,3, and/or 2 don't happen on time.

That pink spot at the neck is a fake tag made from a random print from the scrap bin, because it's fun and bit silly, both of which are good things in my world:

Pattern is the "Patricia Tunic":

Thanks to Angie for bringing this one to my attention not long ago!

I made the same option as shown on the pattern cover, with long, contrast-faced, bell sleeves and contrast facing at the neck. I've been wanting to make a tunic for some time, and the princess seaming on the front of this pattern appealed to me, along with the design possibilities implied by the sleeve and neckline facings. Here's a line drawing I extracted from the PDF file:

As you can see, I took some liberties with the facing line. This pattern overal seems to be designed with ease of use for a beginning sewist in mind, hence the nothing-challenging neckline facing line. There are a number of "I made this!" photos online which encouraged me to go with this pattern, but I gotta say the facing looks too bib-like in many renditions. So I redrew it with some nice curves.

I like Jennifer's fabrics but my main purpose for making a tunic (any tunic) was to use the blouse-weight turquoise linen that's been in my stash for several years now. It was one of the first fabics I purchased when I decided to try sewing my own clothes, and I still hadn't done anything with it.

Funny how I didn't remember, until I was cutting the fabric out, that I've never sewn linen before. Fortunately, although tricky to cut perfectly (it's lightweight, and a bit wriggly to handle; a good candidate for rotary cutting, but I don't have a large enough matt for that), it is a dream to sew.

The contrast facings are a Kaffe Fassett print. You can't imagine (or maybe you can) how many fabrics I've pulled from the stash as I pondered, repeatedly, over many months, what would go best with this linen. I'd have gone with this one from the get-go, and saved myself a lot of pondering time, if I'd realized I had enough of it. I thought I had only the one scrap, which was plenty for the sleeve facings and back neck, but not the front. Serendipity came to the rescue: while I was looking for something else I came across a second largish scrap, just enough for the front facing! Yay!  (Erm, yes, my stash is a little untidy. I'll tidy it up one of these days months years.)

I called this post "Patricia Tunic #1" because I'm quite sure I'll make it again. I have some cotton lawn to use up, and more Kaffe Fassett prints.

But first I need to do some more sewing on this mini-challenge (it would be nice to get at least two garments done), and write up a review of this pattern, which is mostly good but man, have I got one HUGE (or very small) peeve to snipe about...

obsessed

They warned me. "It's addictive," they said, and "I can't seem to stop," but did I listen?

It's all American Idol's fault. And Biggest Loser. And our DVR. There's just sooo much TV to sit through on a Tuesday night, so I was poking around the sewing bloggiverse last week looking for some kind of hand-sewing project to work on while in couch-potato mode. Preferably one that would use up some if not most of the Kaffe Fassett prints in my overflowing "charms and strips" drawer. I didn't have anything specific in mind, other than no way was I ever going to make a cathedral window anything ever again. One pillow cover was enough of that for me, thank you.

So I poked around and came across a blog mention (and then another, and another) of English Paper Piecing, specifically hexagons, and specifically the "Grandmother's Flower Garden" layout, and it was exactly what I was looking for. I have fond memories of napping (decades ago, in another century, when I was a child) under a very traditional genuine-from-the-1930s GFG quilt actually made by my Great-Grandmother (surely, musthavebeen, 'cause no way did Grammy every sit down and hand sew a quilt!), which is still somewhere in my Mom's house, though now in tatters.

So I printed up some sheets of 3/4" hexies and cut them out and started turning scrap fabric into smaller scraps and basted away and then made some flowers. And a bunch of green hexies that will be leaves. The pic above is most of what I've produced since last weekend, when the obsession began. I don't know yet for sure what these will become, or whether I'll use that pink "Anemone" KF print as the background or not, but I'm very sure I'm officially hooked on making these little cuties during TV time. It's the perfect lap project, and I just can't seem to stop.

BTW: I'm also close to finishing my first garment for the Mini-Wardrobe challenge, so hope to have  a pic and post on that by the weekend.

Almost beginning

So the Pattern Review Mini-Wardrobe thing starts today, and I've finally accomplished enough from the non-sewing list to feel I've earned some project time. I'm poised to start cutting the white denim skirt. But I haven't begun.

Why?

Because it's almost 4pm, an hour when my body can move around fine if I don't expect too much from it (like a vigorous workout) but would rather be lounging on a deck chair, and when my brain has called a time-out. A little light reading might happen, but staring into space from said deck chair for a half hour or so is the more likely option.

If I go with the flow of my enthusiasm for starting a new sewing project right now, this minute, the chance that I'll make some utterly irredeemable and thoroughly avoidable mistake is around, oh, 96%.

I've learned from experience to STOP SEWING immediately as soon as I make two consecutive small errors, or one largish one. An even better idea is to not even attempt anything involving fabric and scissors at what my internal clock thinks is naptime.

Just typing up this confession of why I have not begun has used up what little remains of my brainpower. I could make this post more interesting with a hyperlink or two, or a photo of some kind, or a clever naptime image, but that's just too much work.

I'm going to go lounge now. Will return when something closer to progress has been made.

Mini-Wardrobe Storyboard #1

Sewing thoughts this week have centered around what I could make for the upcoming "mini-wardrobe" challenge over at Pattern Review. It requires sewing 4 coordinating garments (for 4 "looks") in a month, which might or might not happen, but I'm looking at this as motivation to get crackin' on using up some stash. Here's what I've got in mind so far:

For tops, at least one knit, maybe two. If I do the McCalls, I'll shorten it to tunic length, use the solid as contrast trim. The McCalls isn't designed for stretch knits, so I don't know if it will work, but I know how I can find out:

For bottoms, I'd love to make a pair of "summer-weight" pants from my teal chambray (which I'm more likely to wear in the winter here, when a chilly day is 72 degrees; given my sewing speed it's not too soon to start them now for wear in the fall). The Vogue skirt from white denim is the kind of thing I wear every day for errands-runs to the Post Office and health food store. The knit tops will go nicely with both:

That's today's plan. It's subject to change (hence "storyboard #1"). I also have a blouse-weight turquoise linen that would play nicely with this group, so I might make the McCall tunic, if I can cut the contrast neck band from what's left of the chambray.

I know I already said this, but hey, look: it's ALL from stash! (fabric, patterns, I even have thread/zippers, etc. on hand)

How awesome is that?

Cheaper than a fabric binge...

...but didn't I say I wasn't going to buy any more patterns until I'd sewn up some of the untouched ones I already have? Aren't I supposed to be catching up on UFOs???

Oh well. Too late now. I've done so awesomely well at not buying even an INCH of fabric so far this year, I guess I had to succumb to something. I have not had (much) time or (any) inclination to sew since XMas (inspired and busy with other, non-sewing projects for now), but it seems my imagination is moving back in that direction, as I have recently found these to be irresistible. (warning, long list of pics coming up)

In my defense, these Burda's were all half-price, a sale that does not come along very often. I picked them up when I took my machine in for an overdue day at the spa early this month:

This one's 7658: key features; loose skirt, cut-in shoulders front and back. Both are great for warm weather and the shoulder cut is a good look on me. The skirt style used to be, when I was a little slimmer. Will need to muslin this, and may tinker with the skirt or franken-pattern.

Burda 2938: Fodder for planned epic pants endeavor. The Palmer Pletch ones I've been trying to tweak to fit have been a nightmare, so I'm inclined to start all over. Some day. When I get my courage back. Key features: narrow waistband, wide legs, side zip (no fly front!). I think this is a better, simpler style to learn pants fitting with:

Burda 8082: simple top with just enough detailing. I see huge TNT potential here, hope it works out:

So, I didn't feel too bad about those, but then, this morning, I lost control again at the Vogue sale. Upside of indulgence: these were all either $5 or $5.75, an even better deal than the Burdas.

V1026: Badgley Mischka. I will most likely attempt a casual version in linen or lightweight denim:

Vogue 1090: Michael Kors. I've been tempted by and waffling on this one since it came out. Love it, but "6 inches above the knee" is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too short for my age (plus I'm taller than Vogue's fit, so have to add length anyway). Love the details, but suspect the pocket treatment may make lengthening tricky. I have a bright blue lightweight linen that might be perfect for this, but don't know yet what I'd use for the contrast.

Vogue 2949: No idea yet what approach I'll take to this, but I'm intrigued by the possibilities. May start with fleece or even flannel to make a toss-on layer for cool winter afternoons on the deck?

Vogue 7608: Another pants option. Maybe I just like seeing a woman closer to my age modeling these.

Vogue 8422, for View B, if I ever get around to sewing knits. I won't start with this one, but hope to work up to it.

Vogue 1123: Anne Klein New York, for the dress. Not entirely convinced this will work well in my size/on my bod, but love the seam detailing and suspect it will facilitate fitting tweaks. This is likely to gather dust for quite some time, but I look forward to playing with it "someday":

The jacket has possibilities, too, but I like this OOP Oscar de la Renta better:

I put this in the Vogue shopping cart without realizing it's an OOP: $25, yikes. Found it on ebay for less. This is a good "city" look for me (and what I look like in my mind, although not so much in the mirror these days!), so a possible option for mainland travel wardrobe. I am in no way "fashion forward", preferring to find a style that works with my shape/height/taste/lifestyle, and stick with it. I'm still figuring out what that is for "over 50" life in Hawaii, but can see a tropical version of this for when I need to step it up a bit.

I remember looking over this jacket pattern a long time ago, and deciding it was well beyond my very meager, untested sewing skills. I'm still far from "expert" but am closer to being ready to give it a go. I have a length of spectacular purple ikat silk, a gift from a friend who travelled to Indonesia EONS ago. I'd really like to make something from it, and have had jackets on the mind. The straight lines of this one I think will be good for that fabric. This is still a "far future" project, but I might inch my way into muslining it, a little bit at a time, in between other things.

So, there you have it. More patterns I don't have time to sew up right now. I'll take them out from time to time, though, and fondle them, and think dreamy sewing thoughts...