Neue Mode 23347 Minus Sleeves... Oops, Plus Other Sleeves

I hate Neue Mode patterns. First of all, I hate that they do not include seam allowances. Yeah, I know, some sewists find advantages to it, like you get to decide how big of a seam allowance you want - for example, 3/8 instead of 5/8 or whatever, but I'm used to patterns that have seam allowances. So I'm spoiled. I am what I am. They also do not come with instructions, which generally isn't a problem for me but I like to have them "just in case."

Other than that, I suppose Neue Mode 23347 isn't really bad. It was easy enough but as I was cutting it out I kept thinking, "Why did I even buy this pattern; it's going to turn out to be just this shapeless, sack-like thing." And honestly I really don't remember why I bought it but I suppose it didn't turn out terrible.

My original intention was to make it sleeveless but that didn't work out. The pattern doesn't show a sleeveless version and I could see from looking at the pieces that the armholes would have been huge. I cut them a lot smaller but they were still indecent. The really disappointing thing was not that I didn't get to have a sleeveless tunic but that, other than being too big, they were the first perfect armholes I have ever made - no twisting, no puckering. [sigh]

I didn't have enough fabric left over for sleeves but fortunately I was able get more. I made them loose for comfort. I also added pockets because, Must Have Pockets! I'm actually not sure yet how I feel about it. I need to live with it for a while but it's comfortable and I think I'm going to be okay with it.

And now on to the leggings.

These are McCall's 6173 which is sized totally wrong. If I had made them exactly according the pattern, in my normal size, they would have fit like palazzo pants. Seriously. Okay maybe not that bad but definitely like loose fitting trousers. I took them in about two inches at the inseam and they're still too loose. They're also too long but that's my fault. I was afraid of making them too short.

I can fix them easily enough but I was impatient to move on to the next thing so I'm going to wear and wash them a few times and see what happens and then maybe I'll fix them or maybe I'll just pretend it's a deliberate fashion statement.

Inspirations and Temptations

Not a lot this week but you can always find something inspiring or tempting, right?

First, look at what Carolyn has done with stripes. And notice that perfect stripe matching on the side. I'm not a big fan of straight shift type dresses for myself but I like this idea and I'm thinking there must be some way I can adapt it to something more my style. Maybe just a tunic, but I'm not abandoning the idea of a dress of some kind.

I sort of have dresses on the brain lately, as in "When, oh when will the weather finally warm up enough to wear breezy summer dresses again?" The weather has been strange this year. It was warm back in February. Now, not so much.

~ ~ ~

I almost passed by this one without taking a good look but, fortunately, something made me stop and look at all the pictures and read the whole thing. I'm so glad I did because just look at all that hand applique work! The whole thing, not just the applique, is sewn by hand.

I have actually had it in mind for years to completely hand sew a garment just to say I've done it. I actually enjoy hand sewing and I think the blanket stitch is fun to do but I don't know if I will ever tackle anything that elaborate. But doing something with a lot of applique is tempting, so... maybe.

~ ~ ~

I just discovered Dandelion Drift. I must admit I was initially attracted to the name since, as I might have mentioned before, I have a bit of a thing for dandelions. And, going past the name, it looks like I might be finding some inspiration there from time to time, such as the colors in this room decor

~ ~ ~

I have mostly been avoiding temptation lately but of course there is always something tempting in eQuilter's What's New section. (Nope, not advertising for them; I just genuinely love them.) My little girl heart is so in love with this ballet print but my responsible grown-up self (spoil-sport) keeps saying, "Shush! You know we probably wouldn't wear that because it's just too pretty and we have way too many quilt ideas already and the husband would never let us put that much pink on the bed anyway."

Here's one that's completely different and more likely to turn into something wearable: this large scale floral. Those flowers are nine inches across! I'd love to see a wider view of the fabric but this is something I might take a chance on.

White Skirt

I don't wear white very often. In fact, I avoid it. I have one white blouse that I made because I felt like everyone needs a white blouse but I rarely wear it. The reason is that I am a bit of slob at the dinner table. No matter how hard I try to eat like a lady there's a better than 50/50 chance that part of my meal will end up on my clothes so when I think of wearing white or pastels I have visions of clothing disasters involving red sauce or blueberry pie filling. Nevertheless, I recently got a notion that I "need" a white skirt. I started thinking about it mainly because of the "seafoam" or "aqua" dot fabric in the second pic in this post. It's going to be a top and I was thinking about what I would wear with it and decided that it needs a white skirt. Well, I haven't made the top yet because it turns out that I don't have enough for the pattern I wanted to use so now I'm trying to decide which other pattern I want to use. Anyway... on to the skirt.

White things are hard to photograph. I took about 20 or 30 pictures, on different days, indoors and out, and most of them came out with a large, blank white area where the skirt is supposed to be.

I made it to look like a favorite RTW denim skirt that I had ages ago. It has elastic in the back.

I almost always go untucked but I wanted to show the whole skirt. In real life I will always wear it like this or with one of my shorter (high hip length) tops.

The fabric is just a medium-light weight twill from Wal-mart. I wanted it to be something that is not precious so I won't be afraid to wear it. It was reasonably fast and easy to make and I can always get more white twill so I will wear it.

Inspirations and Temptations

For a long time I've been thinking I need a weekly feature and even knew what I wanted it to be but I've been hesitant to start. In "real life" I am exceptionally good at keeping to schedules and commitments (you might even say obsessive) but online it's a different story. So, instead of a "weekly feature" I'm just going to call this a "randomly recurring feature". Here we go...

~ ~ ~

First, from Advanced Style (I'm going to only post smaller versions of other people's photos. Follow the link to see it full size.)

Overall, this is not my style at all. I like the look on other people but for me the long, loose, flowy business doesn't seem practical for my life. Also, nobody around here dresses like that. Not that that would bother me, especially; I probably dress weird anyway, but this just seems totally alien to our region.

What I can take from this is the colors. Orange, red, rust, turquoise, and a bit of green. The leggings and a more me-styled tunic? (whatever that is) I don't know when I'll get around to it but I'm definitely keeping this combination in mind and I will be looking for these colors and similar prints.

~ ~ ~

And landscape print dresses!

You know that thing they do on TV with the ray of light from heaven and angels singing, "Aaaahhhhhhh..."? Well, when I saw Roisin's blog post it was kind of like that. I have been seeing and loving and being tempted by big landscape prints but I always think, "What can I do with that?" and since all I can think of is a quilt that I would get around to finishing in maybe 15 years I, sadly, move on. So why didn't I ever realize how perfect and lovely a landscape dress would be?

Roisin always inspires me with her use of wild and crazy prints. I'm always attracted to novelty prints but sometimes timid about using them, especially larger prints. I love that there are people out there to inspire me to do what I always wanted to do anyway.

~ ~ ~

And here is temptation to which I have already given in:

If you have decided that you are absolutely not going to buy any more fabric for a while DO NOT go to Fabric.com (or any other fabric retailer) "just to look". How could I possibly resist fish paisley? Fish paisley! How awesome is that? I already have a black and white paisley dress. Just normal paisley, of course, but still, I thought I should do something different with this one so I bought the black on white polka dot to go with it. I'm thinking that will be the bodice but I haven't decided on all the details yet.

I love colors; I've never seen a color that I thought was too bright but there's something very appealing about black and white too. I've seen it recently here and here but I can't honestly say those inspired me this time. It was definitely the fish paisley.

~ ~ ~

And this pattern:

This one has been tempting me for a while. I already have at least a dozen patterns that I haven't used yet. But I finally decided to get it. I'll make this one soon. Really.

~ ~ ~

And a couple more: Anna has found a blouse pattern with hem facings. I'm generally not a fan of facings but that seems like a really good idea for curved hems.

And a temptation I will definitely not give in to: Oonaballoona's bright floral print trousers. She's got the booty to rock those things; I do not. But, for me, maybe some print leggings with a modest tunic? I don't know. I'll let that one simmer for a while.

OMG! X-Rated Fabric!

I am, by today's standards, the kind of person whom many people would consider a prude, but I am not without a sense of humor so I'm going to share something indecent and possibly shocking, but hopefully funny.

I also tend to be oblivious to a lot of things that make other people gasp and snicker so in spite of the text of this tweet I had to stare at the picture for a couple of minutes before I saw it. And now I can't un-see it. (Yes, I could put the picture here and save you the trouble of clicking but I'm not going to because I don't want it on my blog. Prude, remember?)

The scary thing about this is, if I had seen this pillow or the fabric in a store I might have thought "What a lovely blue and white floral," and bought it without realizing. Note to self: always examine complex prints carefully!