Just a T-Shirt

I like it and I don't. I like wearing it but I don't like the way I look in it.

I used a Butterick t-shirt pattern. (Can't remember the number; too lazy to look it up) I made a facing instead of the neck band because neck bands often don't work out well. And I lengthened the sleeves a little bit.

The fabric is a cotton/modal blend from Girl Charlee. I always feel like I'm taking a terrible chance when I order from Girl Charlee because some of their fabric is very poor quality but some of it, like this one, is very nice. I love the cotton/modal knit and I haven't seen it anywhere else.

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.

Transitioning to Spring

I took at least a dozen pictures of myself (tripod and timer) and every single one of them was out of focus. I should try again, maybe wait until it's warmer and take outdoor photos, but I am impatient to get a new blog post up so here are the two best ones and maybe later I'll update it with a better photo.

It's another New Look 6963 and I love it. It's funny... I wouldn't say hunter green is one of my favorite colors but every time I put on something that color and look in the mirror I think, "Yes, this really works for me." I love the tiny floral print. That makes it perfect for spring even though dark green isn't usually a color associated with this time of year. I was originally thinking of using pink buttons but I didn't have any that were the right pink in my button stash and I didn't want to wait and these marbled green and black ones seemed to go perfectly with the fabric so now I'm glad I didn't have the right pink.

I do want to say something about this fabric. It's a digital print, which I guess is supposed to be sort of a big deal? At least it's priced like it's a big deal. I will be generous in my thoughts and try to believe that there is probably something about the process that makes digital printing more expensive and they're not just charging extra for the supposed coolness factor. Of course, I waited for a 40% off sale and bought this and another digital print. I don't see any difference between them and any other cotton print but that's not a bad thing. Just sayin'.

I do have one pet peeve about it: the selvedge is over an inch wide. And the total fabric width was only 43 inches so there's slightly less than 42 inches of usable fabric width. It wasn't a problem with this pattern but I still feel a little cheated and ever so slightly pissed off.

Anyway, here's the evidence and you get to see the sweet little print.

Online Fabric Shopping

I noticed some discussion, here and there, of online fabric shopping so, since I have considerable experience in that area I decided to share some thoughts and links.

I can't remember the first time I bought fabric online. I had said that fabric was one thing I could never buy online. I have to be able to touch it but maybe I needed something I couldn't find locally or maybe I read a recommendation on a blog and decided to take a chance. Whatever started it, I soon became hooked on online fabric shopping and now it feels like practically my only option.

I live in the boonies. The nearest major fabric store is in Tulsa, an hour away. I live about 12 miles outside a small town where there are two grocery stores, a Walmart, a Lowes, and about a thousand antique shops. (Okay, I exaggerate a bit.) And one small quilt shop. So you see, my local fabric shopping options are extremely limited. Online shopping was made for me.

I am hesitant to buy certain kinds of fabric online. I am confident buying quilting cotton because I know pretty much what I'll be getting. I have bought a lot of stretch denim and stretch twill online and I'm sometimes happy with what I get, other times less so. And I have had really bad luck buying knits online. There are just too many variables - weight, stretch, recovery - and even if a site gives ounces per yard and percent of stretch it's still impossible to tell what you're really getting. I have bought fabric that seemed like a good weight - like 10 ounces per yard - and it turned out to be much thinner than I expected.

Anyway, here, in no particular order, are some of the online fabric stores I have purchased from.

Fabric.com - Huge selection of fabric, good prices and you can get swatches of some fabrics, but not all. There are good search options too so it's easy to find what you want.

Denver Fabrics - Great selection of fabrics including some hard to find. I have ordered a lot of stretch twill and some cotton lawn from them and I've generally been happy. Some of the "stretch" twill I've purchased has been nicely stretchy but some has had barely any stretch at all. This has been one of my frustrations. Denver Fabrics seems to be an outlet store. If you see something you like don't hesitate. It will be gone tomorrow.

Girl Charlee - This is where my fear of buying knits online was confirmed. I bought one piece of cotton/poly knit that I was very happy with. Most of the other fabrics I've bought from this store have been either acceptable or disappointing. And it's really hard to find anything specific. For example all jersey knit is listed together so if I want 100% cotton I have to look through page after page of fabrics, clicking on each one only to find that most of them are cotton/rayon blends. However, if you like rayon blend knits (I do not!) this is your site.

Spandex World - Some very nice cotton spandex knit (as well as many other spandex fabrics) and they will send swatches. Unfortunately, shipping is beyond ridiculous. I don't really blame the store for that but I really hate to buy fabric when the shipping charge is more than the cost of the fabric itself.

Nick Of Time Textiles - Great selection of cotton spandex knit and sweatshirt fleece. (and many other fabrics but those are the two I've purchased) They send swatches. Same complaint as with Spandex World - shipping costs more than the fabric. If you're buying a huge quantity of fabric you can sometimes get a deal on shipping.

Rocky Woods Fabrics - Specialty outdoor fabrics. Windbreaker nylon, including waterproof nylon, Cordura nylon, canvas, wool, neoprene, mesh, ribbing, and lots of different camo fabrics.

Hemp Traders - A hemp store, not a fabric store but they do have hemp fabrics. I bought some of their 55%hemp/45% cotton knit and I love it. Must buy more!

Extra Special Fabric - Western theme quilting cotton, plus a little fleece, faux fur and a few others. This one is located in Guthrie Oklahoma, on the far side of the state from me but I have been there in person once and I ordered from them twice, I think. When I ordered they didn't even have an online order form; I had to place my order by phone. I don't know if that has changed. Excellent fabric and service though.

eQuilter.com - I have saved my favorite for last. Absolutely the most beautiful cotton prints anywhere! The website is super easy and fun to use too. Fabrics are organized by theme and you can also search by color. Mostly quilting cotton of course but they also have some flannel and yarn dyed shirting.

There are also a lot of fabric sellers on Etsy but this has taken me a lot longer than I expected so I will save those for another time.

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.

Two Fabrics

I wasn't going to post about these fabrics until I made the tunics but I'm hoping to get some feedback, about the second of them especially, so here goes. These are both from the same Etsy shop that I mentioned before.

First, I have washed this one but not ironed it so it looks a little wrinkly. I suspect that it's going to be one of those "wrinkles are a feature not a bug" fabrics anyway.

I love the colors in this one. Naturally, they don't look quite as deep and rich as they do in person. This is going to be another McCall's 9065. This is bold but actually a pretty typical print for me.

And now it's Crazy Time. I wanted something a little crazy and "out there" so after days of looking and thinking and seeing my first choice (which actually, in retrospect, wasn't especially out there) sell out, I chose this. (I think my other half is going to have words about this. He's not really into crazy.)

From top to bottom in the photo is nearly the entire width of the fabric. It's oriented differently than I expected but that doesn't change my plans. My original plan to was to center one of the shapes - I don't know what to call them, wavy columns? - vertically on the tunic but which color, the pink or the red and teal? Then I thought, maybe I don't want to center that shape after all but rather have the zig-zag space between them run down the center, more or less, and the more I think about it the more I'm liking this idea.

I'm excited about this fabric and was going to sew it right away but now I'm thinking it might be best step back and let it simmer for a few weeks. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Marcy Told Me To

WARNING: The first part of this is a little bit political and possibly controversial so if you don't want to read that sort of thing just skip down to the good stuff.

There was a discussion a while back at Oonaballoona about African fabrics and whether it is okay for white people to wear them. Short version: Marcy said "Go for it," so I did.

I have been attracted to these fabrics for a long time - the bright colors, the bold, unusual prints - but I have been hesitating. In some situations being a white person (especially one from redneck country) can be a little uncomfortable. Yes, I know, I know... my life is good; I have nothing really to complain about. But still. I don't want to offend anyone or make anyone else uncomfortable and sometimes it's not completely clear what is right. I think the Internet makes us all a little more sensitive in both good and bad ways, or maybe "aware" would be a better word for it. Thanks to the Internet I have been made aware that there is a such thing as cultural appropriation. Sometimes it's clear what that means; other times it's a little more fuzzy.

As Marcy pointed out, the fabric in question, Ankara or Dutch wax prints among other names, has a very mixed cultural background. That got me to thinking, there are other, more commonly used fabrics, with designs that have been "appropriated" from other traditional cultures, batik and paisley for example. (BTW I came across this amusing page (at least it amuses me) telling us that we're all going to Hell for wearing paisley.) These designs and others have been popular for so long no one even thinks about their origins and whether or not we "should" wear them. We are nervous about African fabrics because they are new to many of us and we first became aware of them during the Internet era.

If you think about it, almost everything we think of as American originally came from somewhere else and that's somewhat true of Britain as well. I believe that incorporating elements of other cultures into our clothing and home decor can show respect and admiration. I know not everyone will agree and that's something else I wanted to address. One of the mistakes many of us make in regard to Others is thinking of members of any given ethnicity, religion or any other group you want to put people into, as being all the same, having all the same opinions, etc. Learning to think of all people as individuals first would help us in a lot of ways.

* * *

Okay, here's the good stuff:

The pattern is Butterick 5748, one of two that I'm currently obsessed with and can't stop making over and over again. (I was going to take pictures outside this time but it's been raining for two days and I didn't want to wait.)

Ugh. It is nearly impossible to hold one's face in a normal looking smile when taking timer pictures.

To be honest, only the bodice is B5748 and that has been modified. The skirt as it came with the pattern is a full circle but I used a self-drafted half circle with pockets instead. The bodice has a high, wide neckline, which I do not like so I always change the neckline and since I cut it freehand it comes out a little different every time.

Here's one more. I like this picture even though it's a little dark. You can see the actual length of the dress better in this one.

UPDATE: Oooo! I almost forgot the most important thing. I love it. Of course I love the pattern, obviously, but I really love the fabric. It has a nice lightweight but sturdy feel and the colors are great.

Soon to be Useful

A year or two ago (maybe longer; I can't remember) when the Hancock Fabrics in Tulsa had their going out of business sale I bought 3 pieces of cotton interlock knit. I originally planned to make t-shirts and only bought one and a half yards of each but later I decided it was too heavy for summer wear. Mornings have been cool lately so I was inspired to get out that fabric and make this:

I used this Butterick pattern, view D.

I wasn't sure I had enough fabric but I decided to lay out the pieces and see and it was just enough. It was very fast and easy to make, only two pattern pieces since it has kimono sleeves. I didn't bother with the button and loop because I doubt I would use it. I faced the neckline and front edges with wide bias tape.

Here it is with jeans:

The other two pieces of knit fabric are pink and orange. I don't know if I will make exactly the same thing with them but I'm very tempted.

It's HERE!

Look what came in the mail yesterday.

The top fabric in the picture is the purple fabric I wrote about in my last post. I am absolutely thrilled with it. The colors in the picture are reasonably accurate but there's a subtle quality that just doesn't come through in a photo. Anyway, love it and will sew it soon even though it's going to be a summer dress and fall is rapidly approaching. But that's what they make cardigans and tights for, right?

The other piece was an impulse buy. I can never resist a colorful paisley. It's from a different Etsy shop and even though it came from Florida both pieces arrived on the same day. This one will probably sit in the stash until next spring or summer.

A Confluence of Fabric Love and Tragic Events

I normally don't need any encouragement to go fabric shopping but I am currently in a "OMG! I have SO much fabric; I can't buy any more right now" phase. Add to that a little political uncertainty about what is acceptable for an old southern white woman. But I would have gotten around to the African fabrics eventually, maybe in a year or two. But I had to go and shoot off my mouth (or fingers) over at Oonaballoona and Marcy (as well as another commenter) encouraged me so I suddenly had to obtain a piece of African or Dutch Wax Print fabric as soon as possible!

I had been looking at a couple of fabrics at eQuilter.com but when I went back there they were gone so I looked at Etsy and found hundreds. I have been looking at and favoriting fabrics for days. I added about 20 favorites. I want to narrow it down to only one or two. So hard! Finally, I woke up yesterday morning and just knew which one it had to be and, as always when such a decision comes to me, in my heart it was already mine. A lovely print in shades of purple with some big fan-like shapes. But then I realized - the seller is in Houston. No one in south Texas is going to be shipping anything anytime soon and I feel a bit guilty even thinking about something as trivial as fabric shopping when millions of people are now homeless.

But, for me at least, life goes on and in a few days I will decide on a different fabric. Or two. I'm thinking about making a shirt for my brother-in-law as a thank you for being so helpful to us. Besides the purple, I have been especially attracted to fabrics with a lot of red and yellow. But those are not all so I don't know. Hopefully another fabric will speak to me in the next few days.

* * *

UPDATE: I kept checking that Houston-based Etsy shop (HouseOfMamiWata) and this morning there was a note saying that she is open! She is traveling to Austin to ship orders. So of course I went ahead and ordered that gorgeous fabric. Also ordered another piece from a different shop and I might even order one more. (I'm incorrigible.)

August Sewing Thoughts and Plans

It's the middle of August! Can you believe it's the middle of August already? Every year around this time I start thinking back to early spring and all the things I was excited about sewing then and all my ambitious plans. This year I have not done well at sticking with plans. I'm not terribly concerned about it. I got distracted by some other pretty fabrics and made a few things. I also altered and remade a few old things to make them more wearable and I made a few dresses for my little granddaughter, some of them using small leftover pieces of fabric. Oh, and a couple of shirts for my husband. (Zero chance I can ever get him to model them.) So really, not a bad summer so far.

Still, I'm a little disappointed that I haven't gotten around to this yet:

Or this:

I also have this set of companion prints that I've been thinking about.

I'm not going to go to the effort of photographing all of the fabrics I'm thinking about right now, just one more because I'm seriously thinking this might be next. Or I might make another shirt for my husband; I don't know. (Right now I'm working on another lovely little dress for the granddaughter.

I have had that piece for several years but just recently got freshly inspired.

The good thing about living in Oklahoma is that summer weather can last a month or more beyond the "official" end of summer so I still have time to sew these and more. I think what I am most disappointed about is that I haven't worked on a quilt this year. I started a quilt top that I had hoped to have nearly finished quilting by now but I've barely started sewing the top so I might spend some time working on that. I have so many quilt ideas. The hard part of that, for me, is getting the top done because I don't enjoy that as much as I do the quilting.

So how have your summer projects been going?

Oops and Nice Recovery

I don't have a before picture. I photograph almost everything I make so I thought surely I had to have a picture of the dress somewhere but I didn't find one. Here's what happened. It was a simple A-line dress. I loved it, mainly for the fabric. I have a bit of a thing for ladybugs, you see. But it had a couple of problems so I didn't wear it very often. One problem was that the arm holes were a bit too small. Easy to fix, right? Well, perhaps I am a bit overconfident at times. When I got done "fixing" the arm holes they were way too big.

So for a while I pouted and tried to think of a way to fix them again. But the armholes weren't the only problem. The pockets were too small to be useful (I made it before I got a smartphone.) and I don't wear A-line dresses much anymore. So I decided to give it up and make something out of it for my granddaughter.

It's McCall's 9227. I lengthened the skirt because she's tall for her age but I might have lengthened it more than I needed to. I think it will be okay though. She often wears longish dresses and not just the ones I make. I will get to see her and give it to her this weekend.

Now I have just one problem: I no longer have a ladybug dress. I can't not have a ladybug dress. Must go fabric shopping.

* This was actually a while ago that I made this and I already have something else to show off but who knows when I will get around to it.

* * * * *

UPDATE:

It turned out to be a maxi. She loves it. Here she is watching the eclipse, wearing the dress and her dad's welding mask.

Happy Flower Faces

I don't have just one favorite color (at least not one long term favorite) but I must say, the color orange makes me ridiculously happy.

I liked the way this dress turned out so well that I did the same thing with the bodice on this one. The skirt though, is just a plain gathered skirt. It looks much longer in the picture than it actually is. It's just a bit below mid-calf.

And the faces? Here are the faces. I like that only a few random flowers have faces.

Here's the back of the dress. I am addicted to these scoop back dresses.

Before I made the dress I made this bolero or "shrug" as the kids are calling them these days. It's cotton voile with embroidered flowers and I sewed lace trim around the edges, just about an inch in from the edge.

I'm not 100% thrilled with it but it's okay and it might occasionally be useful. Hmmmm... I wonder if it meets the Congressional dress code.

One more thing - the shoes are Clark's Cloudsteppers and they're amazing.

Finally Sewing a Favorite Fabric

First, the fabric:

Isn't it fascinating? Vintage sewing machine and notions ads and corset ads! I love it. I have had this fabric for several years, maybe as many as ten. It doesn't seem like that long but time has a way of getting away from me. For a long time I was indecisive about what pattern to use. I finally decided on two patterns and here is the result:

The bodice is Simplicity 1803, view C and the skirt is Simplicity 1882. I eliminated the front bodice seam and notch and adjusted the neckline for my narrow shoulders. I lengthened the skirt to my preferred unfashionable length and made it slightly fuller. And I love it! It's not perfect but it's a pleasure to wear. You know how some clothes just feel right? This!

Here's a pic showing off the pockets. They're my favorite thing about Simplicity 1882.

It feels good to finish something that has been in the stash for so long. Now I'm ready to move on to some more recent and more colorful fabrics that have been speaking to me lately.

Fabric I Honestly Did Need

I went to the little quilt shop in town yesterday. It and Walmart are the only local places to buy fabric. Strangely, I managed to leave with only two pieces of fabric that I needed to go with fabric I already had.

The upper left fabric, I bought from eQuilter.com. I had originally intended to make a long sleeve tunic so I only ordered 2.75 yards but it is lighter weight than I had expected and I immediately thought, "light, breezy summer dress!" I could make a dress with only two and three-quarter yards but it somewhat limits my options so I thought about it for a while and soon decided that animal print would be the perfect thing to go with it. I bought two and half yards of the animal print, way more than I needed, because it was the last left on the bolt and it was 30% off if I bought it all.

The upper right fabric is also from eQuilter and also only 2.75 yards but for a different reason: that's all they had left. I always planned to use it for a dress and knew I would need something to go with it and so, the pink pin dot. I might make this one next. The weather has been horrible lately and I need to sew cheerful things.

Fabric Lust

Somehow I always end up desperately wanting fabrics from three different online retailers at the same time. And Denver Fabrics is having a sale so it might actually be four. Husbands don't understand these things. They don't understand how you can have seven medium size plastic bins full of fabric, plus almost as much stuffed into the closet in its original shipping packages, and still need more. Yes, need. I needs it.

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...

Ideas? Opinions? Tips?

I have this medium-heavy "stretch" twill fabric that, in fact, has hardly any stretch at all. Six inches of fabric (crosswise) stretches to maybe seven inches. I was going to make jeans but I must have a decent amount of stretch in my jeans and trousers so now I'm thinking about making a skirt. The problem? I want to line it and I don't know what kind of lining to use. Should I look for something with the same amount of stretch or should I just treat it like a non-stretch fabric and have a non-stretch lining?

* * * * *

More info: Here's the pattern I'm thinking of using, view C, the middle one. (Butterick 6418; I meant to capture the entire envelope in the picture but I missed.) It's an old pattern, 3 sizes too small but I'm confident in being able to upsize it it.

And this is just an idea I have right now. I had a black one like this years ago and I loved it but now skinny skirts are a little outside my comfort zone especially ones that are open to mid-thigh. Still, at the moment I'm really liking the idea. (By the way my fabric is bright pink.) I would always wear it with tights, thus the need for a lining so it won't cling. The fabric is heavy enough that it might actually be okay without a lining but I would hate to get it made and discover that I should have lined it.

Thoughts?

Happy Colors

I love this shirt! In this shirt I shall go forth into a world overwhelmed with grays and browns* and spread light and happiness wherever I go, even if it's only the happiness of getting to say you can't look at me without sunglasses.

Here's a close-up of the fabrics. The colors in this photo are reasonably accurate, at least on my screen, except the yellow, streaky fabric is a bit more orangey in real life.

The main fabric was a two-yard piece I purchased at a local quilt shop. For a long time I wasn't sure what to do with it. That store always has a lot of one and two yard pieces that always tempt me. They usually end up being sleeveless or short sleeved tops. I can't really remember my thought processes with this but after having it for a few months I somehow decided it needed to be a Simplicity 1538 so I went back to the same store to look for the contrast fabric. I originally wanted something predominantly the sort of harvest gold color in the main print but I didn't find anything like that and settled on this bright orange-yellow. I'm glad I chose it because I love the way it turned out.

This is the second time I have made Simplicity 1538. It's a good basic shirt pattern, relaxed fit but not sloppy. The sleeves are a little longer than I like. Somehow I always end up with sleeves a little too long or a little too short. They're also a little bit too loose at the cuffs but, overall, acceptable.

*The grays and browns of nature haven't taken over yet. It's been almost as warm as summer here and the grass and foliage are still ridiculously green for November. I'm not complaining.