The projects I've got lined up

I'm back again, with lots of new projects done, a camera to actually take pictures of them with, a big stash of new fabric, and several projects lined up for another trip to NYC and for summer in general.  Not that we have a real summer here in San Francisco, in fact summer is downright cold here, but I try to keep that in mind as I sew and choose things that will layer well.

Anyway, I took pictures of the new fabric that I've decided to use first, along with the patterns that I will probably use with each one.  All of the fabric came from a sale on print cotton at Fabric.com and I have to say, it's all very nice and pretty good quality.  Best of all, it was very cheap.  In fact it looks like they have a similar sale happening right now, so check it out if you're into cotton print.

This first one I've already started working on, and if it turns out ok I will post pics when it's finished.  So far it's looking pretty good.  It's on my dressmaker's dummy (I call my dummy Estelle, I don't know why, it just seems like an Estelle to me) right now, waiting for my husband to come home to help me mark the zipper in the back.  Neil knows nothing about sewing but I often force him to help me anyway because otherwise my zippers always bag out in the back; apparently I'm a bit swaybacked or something, and I couldn't adjust Estelle to match my big old ass so that I can do the zippers myself.  

Anyway.  I'm using the version with the short sleeves and collar, the one pictured on the bottom left of the pattern envelope.  I hope to find a black patent leather belt to wear with it also.  I'm a bit doubtful about this print, somehow the color reminds me of SweeTarts, remember those?  We used to get them at the convenience store that was back behind my house when I was a kid, along with Bit O' Honey and candy cigarettes.  By the way, I recently went to a candy store in Calistoga that had all that stuff and more... plus every type of saltwater taffy you can imagine and awesome homemade fudge.  But I digress.  The fabric, it reminds me of SweeTarts.  But, the purple SweeTarts always were my favorite anyway, so maybe it's ok.

The next one is pretty flashy and bright red but I like red and flashy so I'm going to use it to make a maxi dress.  Because if you're gonna go flashy, you might as well go all the way! 

I've made this pattern only once before, out of some very ugly synthetic shiny fabric for a 70s theme party.  I didn't keep that dress.  It really was that ugly. But it seemed to fit fairly well, and I also have another version almost completely made out of some green knit jersey--in fact I should hurry up and finish that up, I think it just needs a zipper--that can serve as a test version as well.  The 70s one was the halter neckline, which I'm not using again.  This one will be the version pictured on the far left of the pattern envelope.

The next one is a very nice soft thick cotton with a dark brown background--not sure if the chocolate brown color shows up as well in this picture as it looks in real life--and I love how the flowers make it sort of summery but the colors can carry it into fall.

 

I have made this Retro Butterick pattern before, out of a black eyelet.  In fact it was one of the first wearable things I ever made, and it's been extremely versatile.  I wore it to a funeral in Oklahoma in July a couple of years back, and with conservative accessories it was totally appropriate.  But then I also wore it for my bachelorette party in the Zeitgeist beer garden with a cropped denim jacket and red belt and it worked fine for that as well.  (Oh ok, here's a picture of that particular occasion.  Hook 'em horns!)

Unfortunately that black eyelet dress which has served me so well for the last few years is finally falling apart, and though I might repair it I figured it was time to come back to that pattern again.

This time I think I will try adding the collar.  The first time I made it the collar was beyond my sewing skills, and in fact the neckline gave me fits even without it.  Now however I think it will be fun to try the same pattern again since I've had lots and lots of practice since then and I bet it will come out much better.

Finally, I have this green fabric with the crocodile pattern.  

I LOVE this.  Isn't it fabulous?  I love it so much I can't quite decide what I want to make out of it.  I don't want to pick something that makes it look bad.  I'm leaning toward the same Burda shirtdress I've made a couple times before, though I wish I trusted my fitting skills enough to find something new to do with it.  I really want to sew it up before I go to NYC in a couple of weeks though, so I've gotta decide pretty soon.

As per usual, it is extremely unlikely that I will actually finish all of these in time to wear on my trip, but I intend to try.  At the very least I should be able to manage 2 of them by then, maybe 3.  Wish me luck!

Getting down to the wire

As per usual, I have been procrastinating. On lots of things, but this blog concerns sewing and knitting and such so that's what I mean here. I still want to make a lot of the stuff I'm going to wear in NYC, but we leave in a week so I better get crackin'.

Again as usual I've started to doubt myself as it gets closer to time to do something. I'm no longer sure about the items I posted earlier being the ones I definitely want or need for the trip. Now I'm leaning toward some other stuff, but I think posting it all would jinx it and just make me change my mind again so I won't go into detail until I'm actually packing--or totally back from the trip--and therefore must commit.

I do still plan to take the grey jersey dress, because it's long-sleeved and I think it may be chilly in NY next week. So that's what I'm going to make tonight. Or at least get started on. It's cut and ready to go so I don't think it will take terribly long.

As for the tunic top, I tried it on on Easter and don't like it after all. It fits weird, and I don't think I can fix it. So that's out. I don't want to make another one at least yet for fear of facing the same problems. So I need to decide what to make and take instead.

The shirt dress is also cut and ready, but I don't have all the buttons I need and I think I'm putting it off simply out of my buttonhole phobia. I need to just get over it already. There are at least 4 other things I want to sew but can't until I learn buttonholes. So I guess it's time, but I can't seem to sit down and MAKE myself do it.

I know, I'm being super-obsessive about all this. It's just my nature.

This morning I went through the enormous pile of laundry N. promised to do tomorrow, and used it as an opportunity to kind of check on my wardrobe, see if there are some things I should get rid of, and some holes I need to fill. Naturally there are lots of both. I'm having trouble letting go of things that I've been keeping with the intention of altering to fit. Maybe tonight instead of making the grey jersey, or at least over the weekend, I need to spend some quality time with my box labeled "alter these" and decide what I'm just not ever going to get to, and get to the ones that I AM going to alter right away. I should just have a big alter fest, and whatever doesn't get altered over the weekend I'll get rid of.

But altering's much less fun than making! We'll see how far these good intentions get me over the next few days.

Easter dress

Easter dress
Originally uploaded by fishbellywhite.

Twirl, lady, twirl!

N. took this picture of me on the balcony of our friends' North Beach apartment on Easter. It's the first thing I've made that I wore out to a real event, and I got lots of compliments on it. I did a lot of twirling; I'm not used to circle skirts but it was super fun.

Sorry for the crappy picture quality. I'm still getting used to this whole camera phone thing.

this is that Butterick retro wraparound dress pattern by the way. 4970 or 4920 or something like that.

Not a good sewing night

Last night I didn't have any extra work to do, and I got done with the work I did have earlier than expected, and there was nothing good on TV, so it was a good time to get some sewing done. Too bad I couldn't get anything to go quite right.

First of all, I've been working on a Vintage Vogue pattern for a dress with a sort of weirdly shaped neckline, that forms into an almost sort of triangular opening in the front, with basically 3 points. I can't find an image of it online and I don't have it handy to scan, but it looks a little like this pattern, but without the gathers on either side and straight lines, not curved. (And honestly, I guess I should be happy that it's not more like this picture... this looks even harder!) It also has an option for a collar attached to it, and I wanted to make that version since it seemed a bit more casual looking to me, and I had visions of wearing this to some outdoor singing gigs with my red cowgirl boots and red lipstick, or to summer daytime parties with footless tights (even summer is cold enough for tights here in SF) and red ballet flats.

I'm making this out of black eyelet, which I love, but that caused some problems with attaching the interfacing that was called for in the collar and in the neckline facing since my interfacing was all white and would show through the eyelet lace. So originally, I put the interfacing on some black muslin and used that for the interfacing on those pieces.

Well, I just couldn't get the collar and neckline facing to assemble correctly. It looked terrible. And at first I thought that it was because the black muslin and the interfacing attached to the pieces was just too thick and was keeping it from bending into the right shape. So I ripped it all out, and bought some black interfacing to use instead. Last night I tried to reassemble it all with this version, and it still wouldn't come together right! The points weren't clean enough, the back of the dress was sort of gathered and wrinkled in a bad way, and the collar didn't line up right.

I'm really bummed because I love this material and I don't have enough left to do an easier dress with. So tonight I'm going to rip it out again, and give up on doing the version with the collar, and hopefully I have enough eyelet to cut out the neckline facing again and this time I don't think I"ll bother with interfacing, but just use the material plain or maybe with a black muslin backing to it. And if THAT doesn't work I may have to give up entirely and just make a skirt instead of a dress.

I also worked last night on this tunic dress, Butterick 4920, that I originally saw in blouse form (you can do a blouse or a dress with it) on a couple of blogs including Stacy Sews and Cat Fur Studio. The blouse would probably get better use, but I decided to go for the dress just because I had a ton of fabric for it, a pretty and smooth dark wine colored jersey that I got at one of my favorite SF sources for cheap cheap fabric, Fabrix on Clement Street. I chose the burgundy color as a replacement for black. I'm trying to get away from wearing too much black, and since the other dress that's giving me fits is black eyelet, and I also have a bunch of black poplin for a sort of mod shirt dress Burda pattern I just bought, I needed to branch out. This color is dark and deep enough for evening or for a more somber occasion (I have a wake to attend in NYC in April, and I might wear it for that) but isn't the same old black.

Quick word on Fabrix: I love it because it's so inexpensive, I always find (metered, but still) parking when I go by, usually on Monday afternoons on my way back from therapy, and the fabric is all on huge bolts at least 60" wide so you get lots for your money. The drawback is that they have very little in the way of notions. Well, that's not totally true, since they have a lot of ribbon by the yard, and a huge bin FULL of buttons, but you have to sift through the buttons for, like, hours to find all the matching ones you need. You also really have to look for a while to find the good fabric, because it's all sort of piled up everywhere and some of it is not only cheap (as in, inexpensive) but what I like to call cheap-ass (meaning tacky and not well-made). But I love the process of digging through lots of stuff, I find it entertaining and even calming, so that isn't really a drawback to me.

But back to the tunic dress. I shouldn't complain too much because it did come together mostly pretty well, and the fabric drapes beautifully, but the finished edge on the front modesty panel neckline gapes, isn't stitched straight, and looks yucky. It's because I'm not good at sewing details on stretch knit. I think I'll have to fix it by turning it under once more and somehow blind stitching it down in the hopes that the stitches won't show.

So my bad sewing night last night wasn't all bad I guess, because the frustration just made me more determined to come home tonight and fix it all. I hope it works out. I really want to make enough items to wear mostly things I made myself on my trip to New York, so that's an ambitious goal that I can't meet if I have to keep ripping stuff up and starting over again. My next adventure: learning to make buttonholes, so I can make some blouses (one from white lace, another from a sheer black with pink roses) and that shirt dress! Maybe this weekend if I don't have to work! Ooh, and I want to make an Easter dress too. More on that later.