Sometimes You Need To Live Unintentional

A funny thing happened. You see, I often browse fabric just for fun on Etsy. I impulsively favorite a lot of fabrics without any real intention of buying. Like, out of 25 to 30 favorites I might eventually buy one. Maybe two if I'm feeling like a big spender. So I favorited this wild geometric wax print and thought no more about it. But later that day (or maybe the next; I can't remember) I got a coupon! A really, really good coupon. I think it was 20% off? I can't remember exactly. Anyway, within a few days three yards of this exciting fabric was in my hands.

I had to find something to go with it because I thought an entire dress out of this fabric might be a bit much. I don't often mix prints but I thought a simple print might be better than a solid black bodice. So after much searching I settled on this octogaon print. So, without further babbling, here she is:

I'm going to call this semi-self-drafted because I did use an existing pattern as a size and shape guide for the bodice but changed the neckline. The skirt is a half-circle. I spent some time thinking about how I wanted to embelish the bodice to make it look like it really goes with the skirt and finally got the idea to cut out one of the diamonds from the wax print and sew it to the upper left on the bodice.

And I absolutely love it! It's kind of far from what I usually choose. I'm generally more attracted to bright florals and novelty prints but this is so awesome and I love it more now than when I first clicked that little heart on Etsy.

Oh by the way, the Etsy shop is Waxprintslacesnmore. The shop owner is super nice and ships really fast.

OMG! Orange!

A while back when I was talking about how little I have been sewing for myself this summer Marcy practically ordered me to sew some wax print. Well, I sewed the dress in my last post first because that's what I really wanted to sew. But I did have a piece of fabric in my stash that has been calling out, "Hey! Sew me next!" It's not the only one calling to me but as you can see this one is pretty loud. (See what I did there?)

This came up on my Etsy search for "Dutch wax print" but it's different. It's not double sided and it's lighter weight and not as tight a weave as other wax print I have sewn. It's exactly like typical quilting cotton. But that's okay because I love quilting cotton too.

When I have a big beautiful print I like to keep the pattern simple so I used the bodice of Butterick 5748 and a half circle skirt (with pockets, of course) instead of the full circle that came in the pattern because I just don't want to deal with a full circle.

OMG! Orange makes me look so fat! I didn't realize until I saw the pictures. I don't really care much though. Let me tell you how much I love orange, especially with a little hot pink thrown in. Orange is such a happy, fun color. It has the hotness of red with the lightheartedness of yellow.

Just a little showing off:

Before, when using this bodice, I have cheated and made alterations on the fly which usually works out okay but could be better. This time I buckled down and did it right. I carefully measured and put the darts where they need to go and fixed the too high and wide neckline and the armholes that don't fit quite right. So it's not really Butterick 5748 anymore; it's my basic summer bodice pattern. The armholes still don't fit quite right. They're slightly gaping. I think it's because of my sloping shoulders and I think I know what to do about it next time. When I square up my shoulders in a way that feels unnatural to me the issues go away.

In the best picture of the dress I had my eyes closed but I'm going to post it anyway because this isn't about me; it's about the dress.

I'm going to wear it to a family get-together this weekend. Look out, family; get your sunglasses ready.

This 'n' That

First of all I'll get this nasty business out of the way. The spambots have found me. Well... it's only been about one a day and I haven't had one for several days but this common problem angers me way more than it should. To me it feels exactly like someone came to my actual, physical house and put a giant poster on my front porch advertising a used car dealer or something else especially sleazy. Spam in the comments feels the same - exactly! It angers and offends me. I could do things like use a CAPTCHA and ban anonymous comments but I get so few comments I hate to discourage commenters in any way so as long as it doesn't get any worse I won't do that but I really really really really hate spambots to the point that I fantasize about committing acts of physical violence against the their human owners.

And now to the sewing...

I bought some 60 inch wide cotton fabric for Vogue 9106 and I was so excited about trying it out for the first time but then I discovered that I do not have a zipper the right color and they are sold out everywhere! I put my email in at one online store to be notified when they are in stock again but who knows how long that will be. Now that I've seen the actual pieces of this pattern I kind of think I could make it out of 44 inch wide fabric. I just need to figure out how much I would need. A lot.

So I'm in between projects and I don't know what I want to make next. I like Tasha's tradition of birthday dresses and mine is just a little over a week away but I don't know. I think the smart thing to do would be to continue making stuff for the granddaughter and to "fix" some of the things I've been putting off fixing because making new things is more fun. My closet is full. I mean FULL! Overstuffed! I really don't think I could stuff a single thing more in it. Time to make a few more sacrifices I suppose but it's so hard when you honestly love everything. The old "if you haven't worn it in a year" rule doesn't work for me. What an evil, mean-spirited rule!

I still don't have any takers on my swap offer. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about those. I have never sold anything on eBay before and I'm hugely cowardly about it. I don't know. Maybe I'll just keep it all, make a dress for myself (V9106 maybe?) and use the rest to make gifts. (tote bags? throw pillows?) That's IF I don't get any swap offers. That's still open for now.

A Perfect Storm of Poor Decisions

UPDATE: THIS OFFER IS CLOSED. I didn't get any takers, which doesn't surprise me since I think only two or three people ever read this blog but that's okay. I have thought about it and I will use some of it to make gifts, possibly mother/daughter dresses for my daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

* * * * * *

This might be long but stay with me. I have something to trade but I'm going to tell you my story first.

My first poor decision was to try to recreate a look instead of moving on to something new. I love my kitchen curtains - yellow with a blue paisley-ish floral - but they're too short (and too few) for the windows in the new house so for months I've been searching in vain for a similar fabric.

My second poor decision was to make a desperation purchase. I found a Dutch wax print on Etsy that is actually not at all similar to what I was looking for but it has a yellow background and blue leaves and flowers. The yellow was too bold and the blue too dark but I was desperate and tired of searching and was sure I was never going to find what I really wanted. Well, it turned out that it's not yellow and blue; it's orange and black with just a little bit of blue. Now I know the colors you see on your monitor are not always accurate but the description on Etsy said the background was yellow so I trusted that but it is as orange as orange can be.

My third poor decision was actually not so much a poor decision as a plain old mistake. The windows are not quite as big as I thought they were so I ordered too much fabric. I bought three - yes, THREE - whole six yard pieces of Dutch wax print fabric and I really only needed two.

At first I thought I would just live with my mistake and make curtains but they are so the wrong color and I really want something more serene. I have found another, totally different, fabric that I'm going to use for the curtains. So what am I going to do with three whole pieces of Dutch wax fabric? Hopefully, I'm going to trade two of them to two of you lovely sewing people.

Here's the fabric:

If you are interested and have something you would like to trade either comment with a description and a link to your picture or send me an email to strngwoodlndcreature@gmail.com - It doesn't necessarily have to be six yards or a Dutch wax print. If I can make a dress with it - 3 1/2 to 4 yards - I will be satisfied. I prefer 100% cotton but I have pretty broad tastes as far as color and print. You can look at some of my past blog posts to get an idea of what I like.

Just to be clear, this is NOT first come, first served. It's show me what you've got and I'll decide. I will wait at least a month before deciding, possibly longer. I'm not a very popular blogger so I don't expect to get many offers but I'm hoping I'm wrong. Anyway, once we agree to a trade we can work out the details and exchange snail mail addresses via email and I will ship as soon as I have your address.

It's Finally Spring! (I think...)

I first bragged about this fabric here. Aaaand it's another McCall's 9065, with butterfly sleeves this time.

I think I might have overdone it a bit with the sleeves - like they're too big, too... out there? I'm not sure they're a good look for me anyway. In a way they are. They draw attention away from the hip area, which is always a good thing. But on the other hand, I worry that they might look ridiculous. They are comfortable though. I hate sleeves in the summer but these let the breeze in so I can wear them even when it's "too hot for sleeves." And I don't worry a great deal about looking ridiculous, obviously.

I am very pleased with it. Green and pink is an exciting color combination and I love the big flowers. I have plans to use this pattern with at least two more pieces of fabric but I am also interested in moving on to sewing dresses.

Tasha got me interested in the idea of sewing a birthday dress but I'm having the devil of a time deciding which piece of fabric would make the perfect birthday dress. Even if I were not thinking in terms of a "birthday dress" I would still have a tough time deciding. It makes me a little antsy being between projects and I tell myself, don't think too much, just start something but all the fabric in my stash keeps saying, "Sew me next! Sew me next!"

I Think I Might Need an Intervention Soon

I can't believe I did this. I bought more fabric. I'm in one of my phases of feeling a little guilty and freaked out about how much fabric I own and I wasn't going to buy any more for a while but then I saw these and I couldn't risk them being sold out if I waited until I am over my current phase.

These will be for summer of course. I did finish another shirt last week and I have a crazy cat lady excuse for not showing it off yet. It's been raining for several days and one of my cats is afraid of the tripod so I don't want to disturb him by getting it out and setting it up. (He's an indoor/outdoor cat so he normally escapes outside whenever I do anything scary.) I'm also working on another shirt this week so by the time I get around to it I might be posting two at once.