Sewing the Wrong Season

Everything about this fabric says FALL! But it also kept saying "Sew me next! Sew me next!" I tried to resist. I spent lots of time going through my sizable stash trying to get inspired by something more appropriate for mid to late winter or even early spring but this burgundy leaf print is all I wanted to sew.

I used New Look 6963 view C with sleeves from a different pattern. I've sewed it like this a couple of times before and I really like it. It's comfortable to wear but has just a bit of shaping, thanks to back darts.

I love it but now I'm over fall and I'm getting interested in sewing for spring, the prettiest time of year.

Late Resolutions... No Wait, Let's Not Call Them That

I don't make New Year's Resolutions so I didn't even think about it at the time everyone else was making their resolutions but now I have thought of two that I want to try. Except, I think I just want to call them goals, not resolutions.

#1. At least once a month I will sew a fabric that I have had in the stash for two years or longer. I decided to make this a goal because in 2017, especially the second half of the year, I kept finding "shiny" new fabrics that I absolutely had to buy and sew right away. This one should actually be pretty easy though.

#2. I will use at least four patterns that I already own and have not used. What, only four? Yes, only four. This one will be the more difficult of my two goals. I have about half a dozen patterns that I use over and over again and some fairly large number of patterns that I have not used at all, the oldest of which I bought in the 1980s. I like finding new patterns but making myself use them for the first time is hard.

* * * * *

Here is the first of my Goal #1 makes. I have had this fabric for a fairly long time, maybe as long as ten years.

I am a woman of varying moods. Sometimes I want to look like I just graduated from clown college; other times I'm in the mood for a sweet little print in sensible colors.

For a long time I was indecisive about what pattern to use but I finally decided to go with my original plan which was New Look 6078. That's one of my TNT patterns but it has been quite a while since I last made one.

I don't like the front band on this pattern so I always make it with a standard front placket from a different pattern or a simple self facing as I have done here. I also usually leave off the Peter Pan collar. Something was not quite right this time. The fit seems looser than my earlier versions and it is definitely not because there's less of me. But I like it. It's a good, basic top for my more "sensible" moods.

Stashbusting goal: 1/12

2017 Hits and Misses

We sew because we want unique clothes that suit our own personal styles. We sew because it's fun. And we sew because we cannot resist buying more fabric and we have to do something with it. Inevitably, some of the garments we make will be loved, others not so much, and some are loved but for sometimes inexplicable reasons rarely or never worn.

Here are some of my hits and misses of 2017. I'm not going to rate everything I made in the past year, only the biggest hits and the definite misses.

Hit: The Klimt tunic

Definitely a huge hit. I've worn this one a lot, most of the time with black knit trousers though.

Miss: The purple drapey thing

I have not worn it at all except to try it on and take this awful picture.

Hit: The pink rose blouse

Totally love it! Unfortunately, it suffers from Too Pretty to Wear Syndrome but I am going to try harder this year.

Hit: More pink roses

A huge hit. I love it and wore it several times even though I mostly wear dresses in the summertime.

Miss?: The yellow and pink floral dress

I don't know... I like it. At least I like the colors but I just didn't wear it. I think I don't like the loose fit although I have other dresses from the same pattern that I like and wear a lot.

Hit: The cute control panel shirt

I actually wore this one more than the roses tunic made from the same pattern.

Hit: The vintage sewing ads dress

I wore this one a lot last summer.

Hit: The happy flower faces dress

I'm calling this one a hit because I love it but I have only worn it twice. Both times I spilled something on it. The stains came out, no problem, but it has made me a little "gun shy" about wearing it.

Hit: The little ladybug maxi

A huge hit for my granddaughter. She loves it and wore it a lot before it got too cold. It was pretty big on her so I think she will get to wear it again when the weather warms up.

Hit: The bright floral dress

One of my favorites of all time.

Hit: The sparkly little dress

Another one I made for my granddaughter. I don't know how much she has worn it but she seemed to like it when I gave it to her. I'm calling it a hit mostly because I love it.

Hit: The purple Dutch wax print dress

I think this is my favorite thing of the whole year. I haven't worn it much yet because I made it so late in the season.

Hit: The red and white flannel tunic

It finally got cold enough to wear this. Love it! So comfy and cozy.

Hit: The brown, teal, and orange tunic

A relatively recent make but I've already worn it several times.

So that's it for 2017. Not a bad year sewing-wise. Onward into 2018.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention, I also made about half a dozen shirts for my husband that were mostly hits but getting him to model them is never going to happen.

A Sweet Little Blouse

Nothing I wear can be honestly described as "little" but that's how I'm thinking of this one - "a sweet little blouse."

I love this fabric with its little roses on a pale pink background. I used some half inch clear buttons that I had in my button stash. I used to only buy buttons as I needed them but I'm finding that having a button stash makes life so much easier.

The pattern is Kwik Sew 3511, which I have used several times. This time I cut a facing for the hem and that worked out so much better with this curved hem. I could never get it to look quite right before. The fit of this pattern isn't the greatest and I know I should try harder to fix it but it's okay and I'm lazy and not very good at fitting.

Anyway, I love this blouse and I'm going to wear the heck out of it this spring and summer.

Too Precious

In Felicia's blog post and in the comments there is mention of fabric that is "too precious" to use and finished garments that are too precious to wear. I rarely have the former but sometimes do have the latter. So I thought I would share a few of my "too precious" garments.

I don't think I ever blogged these first two. The color in these pictures is awful, especially the first one. It has been raining so I couldn't take pics outside. The ceiling light has CFLs that are supposed to mimic the color of incandescents and they ordinarily seem pretty close but in pictures they really throw off the color. But anyway...

This fabric features several of my favorite things: music, tea, and roses and the colors are fantastic - a sort of faded red-orange, peachy pink, ivory, with little touches of sea green. The complicated print has opera posters, fragments of musical scores, writing that I can't make out (possibly poetry? Or is it love letters?) roses, and the words "Tea for Two". I absolutely love it and I only wear it about once a year.

This next one is both beautiful and sentimental for me.

I bought this gorgeous fabric about six years ago and sewed it almost right away. I knew my mom would love it too and I was looking forward to showing it off to her but I didn't get the chance. Now? It doesn't really make me all that sad anymore but I still don't wear it except maybe once a year mainly because the fabric is just too gorgeous. I sort of wish I had used a different pattern. This one is okay. It used to be my favorite shirt pattern but not so much anymore.

Here's one that I made and blogged about last summer

Since it's still relatively new I'm not really sure if it's going to be "too precious" but I'm leaning that way. When it gets warmer though I am going to try to wear it and all of these too precious things more often. Here's one more in the category of "might be too precious," originally blogged about here.

What is it that makes something too precious to wear? It's love and fear. Really, really loving a garment and fearing that something terrible will happen to it. Besides just simply knowing that the more I wear them the sooner they will wear out, I have visions of clothing disasters involving barbecue sauce or blueberry pie filling. I worry that I will be in an accident and they will have to cut my clothes off of me, which is silly because in that case I would have a lot more to worry about than just my clothes but that's where my mind goes. But I have all these other clothes that I wear every week, that I have worn dozens of times without ever having anything at all happen to them so why worry? Why not enjoy the clothes I love the most. I'm going to try. I really am. I keep telling myself that but maybe this year...

Very Red

My camera has a problem with red. Whenever I try to photograph something red it ends up looking like just a solid red blob. I only managed to get one kind of okay but not really good picture.

I don't often sew solid colors (except for trousers) but solid colors can be useful and this intense red is such a fun color. The fabric is cotton. And I'm sure you notice the cute heart shaped buttons. I have 7 of those left over that I can use on something else!

The pattern is McCall's 6076.

Not very exciting, just looking at the envelope but I've used it several times and it always looks better on me than it does on the models (if you'll pardon the bragging) The one change I made here is the sleeves. The originals are straight and huge at the wrist and about 3 inches too long so I shortened and tapered them. I also shortened the body about an inch. I love the result. Perfect for Valentines Day or any other day. Red and hearts are appropriate almost anytime.

Something for Warm Fall Days

Just a really quick showing-off of my latest:

This was a two-yard piece I bought at a local store. I used New Look 6078 and modified the neckline and used sleeves from a different pattern. I love the colors in the fabric. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but it has a lot of gold metallic in the print. I like this pattern a lot too. I've used it at least a dozen times.

Blue and Pink

This sweet and lovely fabric was the oldest in my stash by a couple of decades.

It was a leftover piece. I bought it in the late 80's and made a dress. It had lace trim and buttons that looked like little pink pearls. It looked like an Easter dress for a giant four year old, which, actually, was sort of the look I was going for. I loved it but I always felt self-conscious wearing something so traditionally pretty so I only wore it a few times. It hung in my closet for 15 years while I gained two sizes and finally, regretfully, I gave it up to make room for more wearable things.

I had slightly over a yard and a half of the fabric left and for all those years I have been trying to decide what to do with it. Finally, here it is: *

I used the same collar from the old McCall's pattern as this blouse but this time I put it on New Look 6078. And I love it! It also feels really good to have finally done something with that old piece of fabric. It helps to justify my pack-rat ways.

Here is a closeup of the collar. I still need lots more practice doing scallops. I'm not totally thrilled with the way they turned out but overall I'm ecstatic about this blouse. (The buttons are actually a much lighter pink than what it looks like in this picture.)

*The skirt is this one