No Fear... of Horizontal Stripes

Actually, looking at the pictures, maybe I should fear horizontal stripes. Yes, they definitely do make me look fat but I don't care; it's comfy and kinda cute and I love it anyway.

I spotted this polyester knit fabric at Walmart. I don't often buy fabric there but I always look and once in a while they have something nice. After I got it home my original plan changed. For some reason I suddenly just had to make it with integrated sleeves. I'm very happy with that choice.

I have actually worn it in public once. (gasp!) I think it looks pretty good with this very old velour jacket.

Colorful

This will be quick because I don't have anything very interesting to say about this make. I originally planned to make a different kind of top with this fabric but I really love it and I wanted to make something I know I will wear a lot and that is...

... another New Look 6963! I shortened the sleeves a bit on this one.

And it's finally warm enough to wear short sleeves. At least in the afternoon. This month as been crazy so far.

Early Fall Top

Here's the fabric...

And here's the tunic...

It's a McCall's 9065 with the same changes as this one from last year. I love it. This olive green is one of my favorite fall colors. The fabric was just two yards from the deep stash. I was originally going to make a different kind of top but I'm really loving this pattern.

Goal: Sew fabric that I have had for 2+ years at least once a month (or 12 times this year) 9/12

(Yeah, I know... not doing so good on the using new patterns goal.)

Another Simple Top and August Angst

This is the other piece of fabric that I bought at the same time as this and I did the same thing with it except with a V-neck this time. (Headless shot this time because I'm feeling too lazy this morning to take 50 photos so I can maybe get one in which I'm not making a weird face.)

I love it. Like the other one, it is so comfortable.

Oh, by the way, did you want to see progress on the house? We now have floor joists, including the front porch.

It feels like things are moving along faster lately. It's starting to feel like we might actually manage to finish this crazy project.

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This is that time of year when I go, "Nooooooo! It can't be August already! I'm not ready for summer to be over!" I like warm weather, I love wearing cool, breezy summer dresses. I haven't sewn as many dresses for myself this year as I had planned to. One reason is that I sewed a lot for my granddaughter and that's great. It's so fun to have a little girl to sew for. But there are other reasons. My closet is full! So far I can always manage to stuff one more dress or blouse or tunic into it but it's so hard to find anything in it I keep wearing the same half dozen dresses.

This summer has been weird. It was hot for a little while but we have also had a lot of days that are almost like fall. And then there's our air conditioner situation. Late last summer our central AC stopped cooling. I wanted to get it fixed one more time but my husband said no, let's just get three window air conditioners and we can donate them after we move into the new house. They work okay but they're very inconsistent. Sometimes it's 78F so I turn it down just one degree then half an hour later it will be 72F, which feels very cold to me. So I haven't been wearing my dresses as much this year, which makes me sad and not very motivated to make more.

The spare room where my cutting table is didn't get one of the air conditioners so most days it's too hot to be in except very early in the morning so I haven't been cutting as much. And that's just purely a matter of motivation. I do wake up early and I could force myself to stop wasting time in the morning and get to the cutting before it gets too hot but the main thing is the lack of motivation to make more dresses that I probably won't wear much if at all.

I did take a few things to Goodwill about a month ago. While I was going through the closet to find things I could get rid of I found a blouse that I thought I had taken to Goodwill years ago. Now the logical thing to do would have been to add it to the things going to Goodwill this time since I didn't even know I still had it but I was so surprised and happy to find it. I have actually thought about it a few times and wished I hadn't given it away so to find that I hadn't... Well, of course I kept it.

My closet in the new house will be twice as big but no doubt I will over-fill that one within a year. [sigh]

Amazing Colors

A few months ago I had some less than enthusiastic thoughts about Girl Charlee fabrics. So why did I go shopping there again? Well, here's the thing. We're building a house. Now when most people say, "We're building a house," they mean, "We hired a contractor to build us a house," but we, my husband and I with occasional help from sons and brothers, are hands-on, DIY, literally building a house ourselves. And it's getting close to 100F these days so I need some more cool clothes to work in. I have plenty of old t-shirts but it is too hot for anything with any sleeve at all or a high neckline and I have only two sleeveless knit tops that I have been wearing for working on the house which is, honestly, enough but I thought it would be nice to have a couple more in case I wanted to put off doing laundry for another day or two.

Girl Charlee always has good prices on knits and given my purpose for these it doesn't really matter a lot if they come out less than presentable. The fabric I chose is a cotton/modal blend. I have had no idea what modal is but that's what Google and Wikipedia are for. It's a type of rayon. (groan) What is it with Girl Charlee and rayon? They need to rename the company Girl Rayon. But anyway, this is different. It turns out, it's a very nice, smooth, surprisingly stable, easy to sew knit.

Well, I have babbled enough. Here it is, finally.

OMG! Look at those colors! And the fit is good. It's not twisty or wonky in any way. Now I'm thinking this is way too nice for construction work. I almost exclusively wear dresses in the summer (except for working on the house or in the yard, obviously) but this would go great with a cardigan for cooler weather and there are so many colors I could pair it with.

I used a t-shirt pattern, Butterick 5215, left off the sleeves and adjusted the arm holes so they wouldn't be so gaping, and lowered the neckline. (I could have lowered it even more.) I made narrow facings for both the neckline and arm holes.

So now what am I going to wear for working on the house? Well, screw it. I'm going to go buy several modest sports bras and just work in those and cargo capris. Did I mention that it's been getting up to nearly 100F here? (It's supposed to be above 100 this weekend.)

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BTW, the house is post frame construction, which is more tornado and earthquake resistant than conventional construction. We have both here. It might look like not much has been done since the last picture I posted of it (back in January, I think it was) but we have actually done a lot of work. Most of the work so far has been up above, on the roof and the second floor. You wouldn't believe all the little details of roof construction!

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.

The First Summer Blouse

Finally, I have actual new photos of an actual new thing I sewed. Yay, me! First of all, I swear the two halves of the front are perfectly even. This happens every time I try to take pictures of a blouse. And, even aside from that, overall, it's not a great picture but... [Stop apologizing for the lousy pictures, Lynn.]

And here are the two patterns I used. I love a couple of the collars on the old McCall's pattern but that was several sizes ago so I used this Kwik Sew pattern and reshaped the neckline to fit the McCall's collar. I like the way it turned out and I'm going to do it again.

Both this fabric and the buttons I originally bought to go with something else. The buttons are from Create for Less, which is a great store for buttons and other notions but their close-up images could be better so when I wanted buttons for something specific I ordered several different styles of button that I thought might work. These are the ones I didn't use but I loved them and I'm so happy I finally got to use them. A similar thing happened with the fabric. I ordered this to go with another print and ended up deciding to use something else for that project. It's a smooth cotton; the "texture" is just printed.

I think it would actually go better with my black jeans. Anyway, I like it and I think I'm going to be wearing it often.

The Laurel Burch Tunic

Back in October I blogged about being tempted by this Laurel Burch fabric. Well, not long after that I bought it and another Laurel Burch fabric.

In person the floral fabric doesn't seem as insanely bright as it does on the eQuilter website. Bright colors always look brighter on a screen and I knew that but I was so dazzled by the image that I didn't think about it. It's also a lighter weight fabric than typical quilting cotton so I thought about buying more of the floral and making a summer dress with the dark fabric as trim or a collar or border or something. But I decided to go with my original idea. (I hate flash pictures and I really freaking hate timer pictures.)

I did a bit of pattern hacking to get this look. I used McCall's 6076 shirt pattern, laid the center front line on the fold and lengthened and flared it out a bit and I used the sleeves from an entirely different pattern. I gave it a seam down the center back, a single button in back and a side zipper. And, of course, dresses and tunics must have pockets.

At first I wasn't sure about the result. Is it too weird or goofy looking? Did I make a fashion faux pas? But I wore it on Christmas Eve, with black leggings instead of the purple ones you see here. I think I liked it better that way - with the black leggings. I got compliments from my sisters-in-law and they're more fashionable than I am and my husband liked it a lot so I guess it's okay. Actually, I like it too. I hadn't worn leggings before, mainly due to the lack of tunics with pockets but now I'm planning more tunic and legging outfits. Mostly for warmer weather though. I was slightly cold all day when I wore this even though it was nearly 60°F. "Fleece lined" leggings are not as warm as advertised. (Or maybe it was just me; I was just having a cold day.)

Summer to Fall

At first I was thinking of this as "one last summer top" but this would be great with a cardigan or light jacket, which makes it perfect for the kind of weather we are having right now: 50° (F) in the morning and 80° in the afternoon.

This is New Look 6963 and one of the 2-yard pieces that I bought back in July. (Which seems much more recent than it is) I don't have much more to say about this other than, I love it. The color, the really cute sewing notions print, and my current favorite shirt pattern. This one's a win. (The print being almost perfectly matched in front is a complete accident.)

The "Chartreuse Is a Neutral Because I Say So" Top and the Problematic Orange Skirt

Okay, no stalling; here it is. I won't say don't laugh because I know you will anyway. Or at least I hope so. It's better than, "What the...?!"

First I have to talk about the skirt. I made it years and years and years ago. It actually started life as a dress. I can't find the pattern. (i.e. If I took the time to look for it right now this wouldn't get posted until August.) It had a square neckline and pin tucks in the front, no waistline. I had made one other dress using that pattern and the neckline was too wide and the armholes too big. I tried to fix the problems on the second try but it still didn't come out quite right.

So I got this wild idea to turn it into a skirt. And I love it. (though I would rather the dress had turned out better.) The length is a little weird - longer than my usual mid-calf length but not long enough to be a maxi. It's a bit longer than I intended and I've thought about shortening it but I actually like it just the way it is.

But the only top I had that would go with it was a white blouse. It looked okay but I really wanted some choice besides white. I don't wear white very often because I have a deep-seated fear of clothing disasters involving massive quantities of barbecue sauce or blueberry pie filling. Yes, I know such a disaster would equally ruin a green blouse but... well, you know... it's a mental thing. So anyway, this lovely skirt has been hanging in my closet for years, rarely worn but not forgotten.

Then I got this crazy idea that the color this skirt needs is green - a crazy green that doesn't even match the little green leaves on the skirt. The pattern is Kwik Sew 3511. I had made the version with the collar a couple of times but this was my first time making the scoop neck version. It's a bit deeper and wider scoop than I'm comfortable with. It's not indecent by any means. It doesn't even reveal any cleavage. It's just that I feel like I have this vast expanse of glaring white chest. The only solution, of course, is big jewelry. This two-strand wooden bead necklace is the biggest I have. I think it works okay but I feel like I could find (or make) something better.

So, it's a little crazy but I like it. I am so going to wear this in public and if I end up on PeopleofWalmart.com so be it.

Two Purple Things

This is another New Look 6963. I have been sort of stuck on this pattern lately and I really need to move on. I am going to make at least one more but not right away. The fabric is the last of three pieces of cotton shirting that I bought several months ago when Denver Fabrics had a sale on it. I was going to use a different pattern for it but after thinking about it for a while I knew I really wanted it to be another one of these.

I wanted to find the perfect purple buttons for it but past experience has taught me that a search for The Perfect Buttons usually leads to frustration and a long delay in finishing the project. I happened to have these light blue ones already and when I held one against the fabric I liked the way it looked so I used them. There's a certain kind of satisfaction in making something completely from the stash.

I must be honest; I'm not thrilled with this shirt. I mean, I don't really dislike it but I'm not excited about it either. It is comfortable though and perfect for what I intended it to be, just a casual everyday shirt, and I know I will wear it a lot.

I also made the slacks last week. (I'm trying to school myself to not say "pants" because I know that means something different to our friends in the UK.) I started out with McCall's 6173 but I've modified the pattern so much I don't feel like I can claim it's that pattern at all anymore. The fabric is a cotton/spandex twill. I made them a little bit looser than normal because the stretch is very slight. (I'm all about comfort, you know.) They have a side zipper. I like side zippers, not just because they're retro but also because they leave the front smooth. No funny looking ridges or lumps under your t-shirts.

I already had two pairs of purple slacks but I had issues with both of them. One was made of a "stretch" twill that had so little stretch it was practically imaginary and they were not comfortable. Also, the specific color of purple was not quite right to match any tops that I have. The other pair was a baggy, pull on style that I didn't really like except for the color, a kind of subdued or "faded" purple that went with a lot of different tops. Aside from that, the pockets were too shallow for my Galaxy S5. This is of utmost importance. So, one pair to replace two pairs. That's a win. And the color, which you can't really see well in this picture, will go with several of my tops.

Summer in January, Jungle January That Is

UPDATE: OMG! How rude of me. I forgot to include a link to Anne, lovely and witty hostess of Jungle January. Sorry, call it a senior moment.

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Whew! I made it. I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't get this simple blouse finished and photographed by the end of January.

The fabric is from eQuilter. (sold out, apparently) This print is a perfect copy of the pelt of the famed, elusive peacock leopard of the jungles of the planet Kepler-442b. Go ahead and laugh. You'll feel silly for doubting me when NASA finally gets around to sending a probe and it sends back pictures of the beast. [ahem] Anyway...

Seriously, even though it was listed as a leopard print, to me it looks more like butterfly wings. Either way - fantasy cat or exotic butterfly - it belongs in the jungle.

(You can click the pictures to make them bigger. I'm still getting used to the new Blogger and I didn't know "medium" was so small.)

This is a "frankenpattern". Mostly it's New Look 6078 because I love the fit but I used New Look 6598 as a guide for changing the neckline and the front facing. The fit in the armhole and shoulder area is not quite right. This is the first time I've made this as a sleeveless top. Overall though, I love it and I'm going to wear it a lot when the weather warms up for more than just a couple of days.

I took this picture (tripod and self-timer) about an hour ago. It was nearly 70 degrees and it's getting warmer. This is typical January weather here in Oklahoma. Two days from now we're expecting freezing temps and snow which is also typical January weather in Oklahoma.