fabrics

One step forward two steps back

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The weight of the next project hangs around my neck. Sigh, sewing shouldn’t be so stressful! So I’ve decided to go fabric shopping. Again!

You see, since I’ve started reading other people’s sewing blogs, I’ve realised the errors of my way. I get my fabric fixes mostly in NYC. So splashing out on expensive fabrics is the norm. In fact, on my last trip the cheapest was $7/yard. And that was for China Silk, good mostly for expensive lining or lingerie. Most are at least 3 times that. Hence my reluctance to make anything, especially as fitting is not my forte.

So I got three options on the table at the moment.

Option 1…

Finish the T-shirt block that’s a bastardization of Burda 2011-06-120. I chickened out with the pattern. Comparing the pattern to my store-bought T-shirts the pattern always won in bagginess, even with the looser-fitting store-bought T-shirts. So I’ve decided to take 4+” off at the hip and waist, 3+” off at the bust, raise the underarm seam / shrink the arm hole, shorten the bodice, and scoop out an U-neckline. So by the end, it bears little resemblance to the Burda original. I’ve got a fabric picked out – actually a tiny scrap I got from someone else. As expected, it curls a bit at the edges and grain isn’t straight. I’ve just got starch to sort out the curling. So it is ready to go. But rather uninspiring.

Option 2…

Perfect a basic sloper with the aid of Connie Crawford’s Patternmaking Made Easy, then figure out what modifications I’d need to make for each of the pattern brands. Once done I imagine I’d be able to churn out projects after projects like a well run Chinese Sweat Shop!

But gosh, it seems like an awful lot of effort to get there, and I’m not sure my web-conditioned attention span could cope.

Options 3…

Do as all you lot do – pick a pattern and just check the fit with really REALLY cheap fabric. That would of course require shopping for more fabrics!

So much for whittling down 191 pieces of fabrics. All of my recent projects bar one failed to diminish that pile. Frugal me managed to use the bare minimum so that I can squeeze yet more projects out of the scraps. So the current count remains. Maybe minus one – it’s awfully hard to keep track of that many pieces!

I’ve got a couple of patterns in mind already. Both Vogue Donna Karan. Both  inspired again by you lot…

So why these two despite everyone saying the patterns are rather difficult to understand, let alone alter? Well, that’s precisely the point. If it’s almost impossible to alter I’ll have no choice but to just make it without fretting about perfecting the fit first. But that of course hinges on using cheap fabric that I won’t regret messing up. Hence the need to go fabric shopping again.

See there is always method to my madness!

So I’m tending towards Option 1 while finalising plan for Option 3.  I’d imagine it’d take me a while to figure out where to get dirt cheap fabric in London / UK that isn’t utterly revolting. (Sorry, I can only go so low, the NYC snob that I am at heart! 😉

Taffeta no more

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If I thought yesterday was bad I had seen nothing yet. Almighty has arranged a catastrophe for today.

Which idiot sewn the pocket to the back???

A side seam pocket that swings to the back…

Damn seam slippage

waistband seam slippage…

Pouff in all the wrong places

…& worst of all a skirt that’s puffy in all the wrong places for my not-quite-petite-but-still-too-short frame.

That’s after I courageously attempted fabric painting free hand & lovingly added hand embroidery to the said damn skirt!

Wasted effort

golden plum blossoms

Flight of fancy

& birdy want some

And I thought I was being so clever! Sigh, never ever tempt Fate.

I suppose it doesn’t look too bad on the dress form. But all that swish sure makes one feel wide. (And actaully the dress form’s me + heels I can’t walk in.)
Tafeta skirt back

This was the original plan for the tafeta, acquired…

Original plan for the tafeta - CdG top

Plan A – CdG top S/S ’88

…well, if the inspiration was that ancient, so must be the fabric. (I actually have lovely silk chiffons that the moths have gotten to first.)

So anyway, I went for Plan B instead as Plan A with its butterfly wings isn’t practical in damp squib Blighty. And Plan B is…

+

Which probably used to look something like this:

Ich liebe bier gern?

It was a vintage German drindl skirt, which I got at Canal Jeans
(remember them anyone? SoHo has so gone down hill. Bloody Bloomingdale! How uncool!)

Anyway, with no cleavage to boast I dropped the wench look for this…

…and got so much more mileage out of the skirt that I thought I’d try it again. Perpetual sewing novice that I am I hadn’t factor in the difference in drape. Doh!

Will just have to make the best of it (with minimum effort – I’m not loving tafeta no more) and hope to get more than one wear out of this Heidi Take 2 skirt.

A room full of fabrics & nothing for a black coat

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Gingham Dress Inspiration

Gingham Dress Inspiration

So, disaster struck.

I was about to go out in a recent creation – take 3 of a black & white gingham dress, inspired by this old clipping…I think it was NY Times Sunday Magazine. The proportion is better third time around with slightly lowered waist. But the fit is still rather dodgy – fitting is not my strong suit. Neckline gaps rather scandalously. But I digress… }:-)

Gingham Dress Take 3

Gingham Dress Take 3

So going out…I had no coat to match. I have only 4 of different weight – lack of closet space discourages hoarding of  coats (though not of fabrics & clippings apparently!) And they’re brown and brown and green + brown and one coffee stained beige trench. Shock horror. No black coat. Who’s ever heard of that. I really needed one in black.

That’s when disaster really struck. You would think with a hoard of 191 fabrics there would be something suitable. But no. Nada!

So, dilemma: do I shop for yet another piece of fabric?

(As it turned out, I didn’t really need a coat after all. It was boiling hot. File this under crazy London weather.)