A New Year -- Still Trying to Fulfill Last Year's Goals

Last year I vowed to limit my fabric purchases and sew more from my stash. The first half of the year was not that successful, especially with a trip to France and a couple sewing seminars offering fabric. I ended up sewing a little more than I purchased which is much better than other years, so I guess it was a semi-success. However, over the past six months I have not purchased more than 10 yards, so the fabric addiction is definitely under control now. As far as I am concerned, linings and interfacing still don't count towards to the stash. Recently the last remaining Fabric Place store closed this November. This is sad, but since I only use Joann's for thread, notions and patterns, it will be easier to keep the fabric purchases under control.

For 2009 I truly do want to sew from the stash. There is no excuse since I have enough fabric to make at least a couple dozen SWAPs plus more. I get inspired when I go through my fabrics, the problem is just getting beyond the inspiration point and actually matching fabric to pattern, then fitting, cutting, fusing & sewing. I find the sewing part easy, it's getting past the fitting stage.

I still haven't started the black suit jacket mentioned in my November 1 post, but hope to get going this month. My old black suit has seen better days since it's six years old. I need a new black suit. In fact, I really need a lot of new suits. The black one is a starting point and I want to plan from there.

As for the Great Coat Sew-along, I finished my vintage jacket, but the tweed coat is still a UFO. I actually cut out the coat & lining, and fused all the underlining and interfacing last September. It had been sitting ignored in my sewing area until last Tuesday when I actually started working on it again. My old winter coat is still serviceable, but I would truly like to finish this new coat. My plan is to spend the next two days working on it. We'll see how far I get. It will get finished eventually, since I don't like have UFOs hanging around.

In 2008, Pattern Review had a thread on the message board to set a goal of one garment a month. I managed to average sewing two a month plus a few home dec projects and Christmas gifts. If I can at least do that again this year, I will be happy. If I exceed that, I will be ecstatic.

So my goals for this year are:

1. Sew from the stash.
2. Sew two garments a month.
3. Post on this blog more often.

Also, my husband and I are planning to go to France again this April. Last year's clothes will work again since we plan to be there the exact same time as last year. But it would be nice to have a few new pieces. Now I need to go check out the stash to see what will work in April.

Phew!

Just because I have been lax in posting lately doesn't mean that I haven't been sewing. In fact, I have sewn a lot since mid July, and much more than usual. I just hope I can keep up the pace which will help reduce the stash and increase the wardrobe which desperately needs updating. With one exception, all fabrics came directly from my stash and have been residing there for at least a year and some are four years old. Here's a quick rundown.

In July I made a couple short-sleeved shirts from Cecelia Podolak's The Classics Fearless Shirt #106 making one from cotton and another from a silk print using the convertible collar view for both. I was pleased with the results of these two shirts and made a couple more during October using the two-piece band collar and the long sleeves with cuffs. I realize that the two long-sleeve shirts appear to have different length sleeves, but both were cut from the same sleeve pattern on the same day no less. The white is a very drapey rayon and the light sage is a pima oxford cotton. Different fabrics just react differently which I will keep in mind the next time I sew up this shirt. I also cut down the size of the oxford cloth shirt cuff by an inch and will do this to all other versions of this pattern.

Next up the Loes Hinse Sweater Set. I have sewn the cardigan at least five times before. This is a quick pattern. I added vintage metal buttons which came from my aunt's button stash and may also have even belonged to my grandmother. These buttons could be anywhere from 50 to 100 years old. This set goes well with the La Fred Iris skirt below and the shell looks nice under the La Fred Maia Jacket. The fabric is a rayon speckled knit that was easy to sew.












In August, Pattern Review had a Lined Jacket contest. I had made the La Fred Maia Jacket three years ago, but mistakenly over fitted it. It looked great on me as long a I did not move. Also, the fusible interfacing bubbled and did not look right. I so wanted to wear that jacket since I loved the style. Well, by entering the contest, I got the motivation to plug away at this jacket again, made a new muslin to refit it, made several fitting changes, including lowering the bust which evidently had fallen in the last couple years. But I am so pleased with the end result and then went on to make a matching skirt from the La Fred Iris Skirt pattern in the a-line view. This skirt was so easy to fit. The suit is made in a herringbone weave linen. I used fusible interfacing in the jacket and underlined the skirt with silk organza. I spent August on these two items and other than cutting out other projects, sewed nothing else.

Since I had such success with the suit, in September I decided to make another one, but in wool. I had bought this wool a couple years ago from Michael's, however, this suit was not what I had originally intended to make with it. But I am so pleased with it and have worn it as a suit or just the jacket with a pair of dark grey pants several times already. Again, I underlined the jacket with fusible weft and the skirt with silk organza. This time I made the pencil skirt version of the Iris Skirt. When I went to the PR event at Sawyer Brook, I picked up Bemberg lining and buttons to go with this suit.

Next up, a couple of Loes Hinse Bianca Sweater tops. I had originally made one from another fabric for my trip to Paris last spring. I really liked the way this top looked on me and it is so comfortable. So I made one top from a speckled dark brown knit from my stash (which is not showing up as dark in the picture) and the other from a lovely black rayon knit I purchase at the PR/Sawyer Brook event. Both tops have seen a lot a wearing in the past month. I wore the speckled one to Sawyer Brook and the black top looks great under the grey suit.

Then on to two more blouses. I had originally made the Loes Hinse Italian Blouse when it first came out about eight years ago using a rayon jacquard. I loved this blouse and actually wore it out. Last year I came upon a similar rayon jacquard and purchased it with the intention of duplicating that blouse which I did do in September. This blouse is not fitted, but has a lovely neckline and looks great under suit jackets. Now to find another drapey fabric in different color to make another one. There must be something in my stash.

The second blouse is a silk georgette I purchased at least four years ago at a sewing expo. It has a lovely drape, but was not the easiest fabric to cut and mark. I ended up using spray starch to stabilize it and that worked out quite well. I had actually run the fabric through the gentile cycle of my washing machine and even machine dried it to get the shrink factor out, so water spotting was not an issue. I will definitely use the spray starch again when I have a wiggly fabric such as silk georgette. The pattern I used for this blouse was Vogue 7063 which I had purchased with this fabric in mind. The front has a hidden placket. I used more decorative buttons on the sleeve cuffs and flat black buttons which are hidden under the placket. I cut down the size of the cuffs by an inch which I think looks better with a drapey, sheer fabric. This blouse also looks great under the grey wool suit.

Last of all, I finished one of the coats for the Great Coat Sew Along. I spent June and July fitting this pattern and cut out the fabric in August along with the fabric for the other coat I plan to make. In September I started and finished this coat which went together in less than a week. The only changes I made to the design were I shortened the length and made single welt pockets rather than welts with flaps which looked too dated for my taste. This jacket has only a single button, so I needed to find something that made a statement. I found a two color carved horn button which gives the jacket a little pizazz and I love my choice.

So what's up next? I plan to make another suit, this time in black double crepe using a Vogue Claire Shaffer jacket pattern. I'm not sure about the skirt yet, but it could be another Iris skirt. I plan to line the jacket in a silk animal print I bought at Metro textiles last year and use buttons I bought at Tender Buttons that same weekend. First I need to fit the jacket, so that is I how I will probably be spending my time this week.


Tomorrow, I plan to meet with a couple sewing buddies to fit pants using Palmer/Pletsch patterns. I have been reading the book, watching the video and preparing my pattern all week. Hopefully, by the afternoon tomorrow I'll have a pants pattern ready to be cut out in fabric.


Last weekend we attended an ASG convention in Hartford where Pati Pletsch was the speaker. She was an inspiration and such a nice person. She truly wants to help people sew well fitting clothes. Recognize the jacket?

Great Coat Sew-Along

I have made all my winter coats for over 30 years and have no desire to purchase a rtw one. I have found that the coats I make are much warmer, last longer and of course, fit better. Because of past success in sewing coats, I have joined the sew-along started and run by Marji. When she first came up with this idea on her blog, I thought what a great idea--anyway I could use a new winter coat. Sewing one before you actually need it is an even better idea. In the past, I've started my winter coats in November, maybe not as bad as December, but I put myself under a time constraint.

My biggest problem was deciding on a pattern. I have a few in my pattern stash, but nothing looked right for the fabrics I had. I scoured the internet looking for the perfect pattern, checking out all the newer patterns, but also looking at all the vintage pattern sites. Then I kept changing my mind about which fabric to use since I had a couple choices in my stash. Back and forth I went. As for fabric I have a wool tweed in different shades of grey and brown, but also I had just purchased a beautiful taupe wool/cashmere coating in Paris. I finally decided that the taupe wool needed a really special pattern. Since I could not find any pattern at the moment which I felt was worthy of this fabric, it was to remain in the stash until the perfect pattern came to my attention.

So for my coat I chose the grey/brown tweed which I purchased from Emma One Sock last year. This fabric should be easy to work with as tweeds can be very forgiving. I still need to get lining, but should have that within a week. I'm still looking for buttons, too and can't decide if I want to make bound buttonholes or machine one. I think I will make both--a test bound buttonhole and a machine buttonhole--to help me decide. I also love topstitching, but think it might be lost in this fabric. I'll have to test that, too.

As for my pattern, I wanted a coat that just hit the top of my knees so it would look good with both pants and coordinating skirts. I finally settled on Vogue 7978 which should be easy to fit. I'm making the grey single breasted coat which I feel will look great in this fabric. This week I plan to start working on the pattern fitting and preparing my fabric.

Well, some ladies are making more than one coat. That was certainly not my original intention. But, hey, I had this marvelous vintage pattern and some lovely green wool I purchased from Emma One Sock (again!) which would work out great for a short coat. So if I can really get my act together, I plan to make the little coat shown in orange on the pattern envelope. I still need to find a great lining and single button for this, too. Maybe in the near future, I will tackle the suit to wear under it. But for the time being, I think this will look great with pants if I make it a little shorter.