Planning new stuff!

I haven’t had a lot of time to sew, lately, but I have had time to plot and plan, and imagine lots of beautiful and useful additions to my wardrobe.

I buy fabric as cheaply as I can. As a result, I have a lot of awful fabric. Since doing the Wardrobe Architect prompts from Coletterie several months ago, I’ve been putting a lot more thought into the use of fabric I buy. As a result, I have been buying larger quantities of less variety, and editing my shopping carts (both real and virtual) more aggressively. It has been working out great! I have piles of fabrics stacked with patterns or inspiration photos, ready to be put to assigned uses.

There are a few projects in particular I am especially excited about, but because they are more complicated and require skills I don’t yet have, it may be awhile before they actually join my wardrobe:

– A casual, but structured, jacket from a stretch khaki utility fabric. I need to make a muslin first to figure out the fit, and I am debating keeping it unlined. I bought this fabric a while ago, to use for work clothes. It wrinkled horribly when I prewashed it, so badly I can’t iron the wrinkles out all the way. In pants or a skirt, this wouldn’t work, but a casual jacket, without a collar, should be fine with wrinkles. I think.

– A cotton/rayon blend knit dress. It has a draped, wrap look without having the problems that come with wrap dresses. The fabric is a solid soft pastel in a sort of greyish blue somewhere between seafoam and powder. I don’t wear the color usually, and a lighter solid intimidates me, but I’m going to give it a chance. If nothing else, it will be COMFY, and it was only $3 a yard, so I bought 4 yards to play with!

– A particular dress from a lovely rayon I bought for $2.50 a yard. The dress has a v-neck band, with the body of the dress gathered below the band and draping down, and is tied with a belt. I had enough to already sew another tank top from it over the weekend. The colors are a little autumnal, but I think they are pretty enough to wear during the summer, too.

The last fabric I am really excited about is leaving me a little anxious. I know what I want to use it for (a full skirt), but I have a feeling that it will look terribly unflattering on me, or might be, at the least, pretty uncomfortable. It is a beautiful, BRIGHT floral linen and cotton blend, so it has the weight to be a fuller skirt and hang properly. I just can’t decide on anything else to use it for. It is as if that is its sole purpose, just maybe not for me. I don’t know, yet. I also really need more of the fabric than I have to make a good skirt, but I think it may be discontinued.

Anyway, those are my longer term sewing plans. I want to do some stuff for my son soon, too, and a few quicker things for myself, including more refashions and mods to things I already own.

Me Made May

Around the internet, several sewing blogs had a month-long challenge throughout May, called “Me Made May.” The challenge was to wear at least one item you had made, every day, for the entire month. I didn’t participate in this challenge, but I realized this week that I did actually wear a lot of handmade items throughout the month. I keep finding myself reaching for items that I have made when I get dressed for the day. It is an incredible feeling. I have a lot to learn still about better fitting for me, as well as a lot of finishing techniques to make my clothes sturdier and more professional, but the fact that I like them enough to want to wear them all the time is such a great feeling. On both trips to California last month, I wore handmade items every single day. In addition to the tank tops, linen pants, and dresses being put to use, I mixed in several modified and refashioned items. Here are just a few times I photographic evidence of wearing my own creations in the month of May alone. 

With my sister and son. Tank top and pants by me!

At a friend’s wedding. I wore this handmade tank with a black pencil skirt.

The other linen pants I made, with a nursing top I made by refashioning a dress. Perfect for an afternoon with family and friends at the lake.

While it looks terribly unflattering here, and I look pretty not-put-together all around, I wore this refashioned low-back top and linen pants to a family Mothers’ Day breakfast.

One of my new dresses at Fuddrucker’s with my family.