Spring SWAP

Rumor has it that Spring is on its way. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and don't anticipate "Spring" weather until May or so, but nevertheless I decided to come up with a plan for my next few projects.  I've found that creating "capsules" really focuses my sewing energies.

Again, I'm focusing on dressier pieces. Jeans & a t-shirt are my day to day at home wear, and though I do have hopes of branching out, I'm just not quite there yet.

I already have all the fabrics & patterns for these pieces. The pink skirt is in progress (along with a non-SWAP tweed skirt) and the geometric print top will be finished today. I love how it turned out.  The jacket is my 'branching out' pattern. It's a woven, and will definitely need muslining (and likely alterations) prior to the actual construction. It also calls for shoulder pads, which is something I've never done.

I ordered a Brother 1034D serger yesterday & it should be arriving next week; I hope to whip out Vogue 1314 as it's maiden project. 

Red Velvet Dress and Winter 6 PAC

I was pretty excited when Steph released the Red Velvet Dress pattern. I've been looking for a knit dress pattern that had neither a pencil skirt nor an a-line. I didn't know what type of skirt I wanted, but when I saw the RV pattern, I knew it would be worth a shot.

Steph is hosting a sewalong starting on the November 11th & I'm hoping to join in.  The fabric I have picked out (but not ordered) is this fushia polka dot knit.

This dress will actually be the first piece of my Winter 6 PAC. I recently discovered the Artisan's Square forum & they host a myriad of fantastic sewalongs. This "6 PAC" means making a mini wardrobe (6 items) & is hosted each season. I'm completely going against the recommended guidelines, but they are just recommendations & the most important thing is making things that I need in my wardrobe. Here's my initial inspiration board. This color scheme is what I've been shooting for in my entire wardrobe the last few months. I'm in dire need of skirts, so that's my focus right now. I've already started on the grey Hollyburn. I'd forgotten how easy that skirt is. Unfortunately I was dumb and didn't look very closely at the fabric I bought & it's a bit sheer (c'mon Joann Fabrics-really? sheer suiting? I hate you.) so I'll also be making a slip :)

Anyway, I realize all these colors look incredibly bright when put together :) but I'm hoping for a mustard yellow for the pleated skirt, so that will -hopefully- tone things down a bit. But even though it's very colorful, they do all "go" together. That's the brilliance (not my brilliance) of picking a color scheme & building off that.

Minoru Muslin

I got my muslin all sewn up & I find myself putting it on just to wear around the house. I love it that much. It is quite fitted, which I wanted, but I'm thinking I'll need a little extra ease in my final version since I'll be using a bit thicker fabric & I'm also planning to underline with flannel for extra warmth. I'm toying with the idea of just sewing with a smaller seam allowance at the side seams.

I did make some minor adjustments that I'll transfer over to the final pattern.  Here's what I've done:

Shortened 1.5" at the hem
Raised the waist elastic 1"
Took it in at the hips 1" at each side seam (My hips are a size 4 according to the pattern measurements, rather than the size 6 that I cut out)

I'm also feeling some tightness in the back when I stretch my arms forward, which is actually really common for me in jackets. But I never associated it with a broad back.  Fit For Real People recommends cutting & slashing the pattern down the back for a broad back alteration in a Raglan sleeve so that's probably what I'll do. I just need to figure out how much to slash. I DO have a raglan sleeve sweatshirt I can measure & compare to the pattern.

Sewing mostly knits, I've never really went from fitting a muslin to transferring the changes to the pattern pieces and on into the fashion fabric. It's quite daunting :) I'm just taking it nice & slow and tackling it one alteration at a time. 

I'll also be adding welt pockets to the outside.  This is something I've never tried before so I'm really excited to delve into something new! 

I'm still awaiting my fashion fabric & once I have that in hand, I plan on sending a swatch to zipperstop.com so they can send me the closest matching YKK zipper.

Grand Plans: The Minoru

I've loved the Minoru since the first time I saw it. When Tasia released it, I bought the pattern right away. And then I started planning on participating in the Sewalong. I traced my pattern and then...

I found out I was pregnant.

And that pretty much put a halt to any jacket sewing plans I may have had. Until now, that is.

I was planning on entering the Mini Wardrobe contest over on Pattern Review, but I have doubts that I'll be able to see it through the the finish & I'm pretty determined to keep my fabric stash down to a minimum. As in, muslin a pattern, buy the fabric, sew the fabric. Lather, rinse, repeat. No stashing. Anyway, I could see myself buying fabric for all 4 wardrobe pieces & only sewing 2 or whatever. And plus also, sewing a jacket will fulfill one of the goals I've had since I started sewing. So that's cool.

Anyway, when I initially traced my Minoru, I traced size 10; my measurements ranged from sizes 8-12. Now, my measurements are in the 4-8 range. So I'll have to retrace. I'll start out muslining the size 6. I made the Renfrew in size 8 & it was a bit on the too big side, so hopefully I'm on the right track.

For the outer fabric, I'll be picking up a purple cotton canvas.  And I've chosen a leopard print satin for the lining. I plan on including a flannel underlining for additional warmth & I'll add some sort of pocket on the outside, either side seam or patch; I'll decide once the muslin is all sewn up.

My Bucket List: Sewing Style

The countdown is well underway! Our little guy should be arriving in 50 (yes, 50!) days give or take. A month and a half. Just over 7 weeks. And I have some sewing to do! I thought I'd do a blog post of my to-do list--more for me than for my readers :) but I thought it'd be fun to share.

Photos linked to sources below :) 

1. Chase Pants-Dress pants for my little guy to wear to the Convention in the middle of August. I have the pattern & the fabric.
2. Matching vest
3. Tie to coordinate with....
4. Eden Dress- The skirt portion will be made from the same fabric as DS's suit (khaki twill) and the blouse will match his tie. Shawn picked a really pretty navy blue satin for this.
5. Coming Home Outfit- Kwik Sew 2246 (muslin here) Fabric swatch has been ordered--I need to find a coordinating ribbing and zipper. 
6. Big Brother, Big Sister applique shirts. I'll probably just purchase plain t-shirts & then hopefully applique the words on them. This is "low" priority, but I do hope to get it done.
7. Diaper bag! I bought the pattern from Watermelon Wishes on Etsy. The outer fabric will be a grey twill and the lining will be a combination of Verona Teal & Dots quilting cotton. 
8. Nursing Cover- Easy nursing shawl using tutorial from The Coterie Blog. I'm so glad I found this, I have a couple different traditional nursing "aprons" and I hate them.

Well, that's quite a list!! Add in a couple more tops & maybe even a maxi dress for myself & I'll be a busy girl!! I don't feel "pressure" to get any of it done except for the first 4 for the Convention (and I should be able to finish all 4 in a week or so), and the coming home outfit (which will take a couple days, probably).  The rest would just be icing on the cake!

SWAP: The Maternity Edition

I'll admit; sewing with a plan isn't something I'm good at sticking to. There's always another project that gets thrown in the rotation, but this time I've even shopped my stash. I've tried to find a color scheme that will mix & match nicely. And by golly, I think I've got it.

 

Swatches 1-6 are for skirts. I'm going to try to see if quilting cottons will work. Two of the six fabrics are already in my stash. :) I'm not completely sold on #4...we'll see. Number 2 is my favorite as it matches virtually all the tops I have in mind. :)

1. Dena Designs Dream Right 

2. Summer Totem in Tart by Anna Maria Horner

3. Stashed floral linen

4. Joel Dewberry Blockprint Blossom

5. Lightweight stretch twill

6. Stashed solid black linen

Swatches 7-11 are solid knits for tops.  I already have 8,10, & 11 in my stash. In fact, the light blue is already sewn up (but not photographed/blogged/reviewed)! 

So that's the plan. The skirts should all be fast projects. Like an afternoon each. What I really need to get sewing is the tops. :)

Question: How many yards of thread....

......does it take to sew a knit cardigan?

Image Credit

Answer: Over 220 yards. That's over 660 feet. Longer than 2 football fields lined up end to end. That's a lot.

The good news, I guess, is that my cardigan is almost finished. The bad news is that it won't be finished until I get some more thread.  I got this 220 yard spool from my mother-in-law's stash (Thanks Mom!) back when I first bought this fabric. I anticiapted the possibility of running out since I'm using my serger for the bulk of th sewing on this project, so before my trip to JOann's I took note of the thread number so I could match it. I did not take the spool.

Once I got my new thread home, I realized it was the same number, but it was, without a doubt, a very different shade. My new shade was magenta. Not purple. There could be a number of reasons. The "stash" thread could be "old", hence the different number. The stash thread is also labeled "quilting thread", the new thread is not.

I think I have enough thread to finish the cardigan & belt, but not enough to do the buttonholes. Sigh.

Let that be a lesson to us all....take the spool or a fabric swatch to the store. :)

Sewing with a Plan

I have a ton of patterns & a fair amount of fabric yardage stashed.  And yet, I find myself browsing (and ultimately, buying) more. So I decided to take a good long look at what I have. And, really, there weren't any patterns or fabric that I forgot I had. So, that's good. I will not consider my stash out of control just yet. :)

Very rarely do I buy fabric "just because". I always have a pattern or at the very least a garment in mind for it. But as new patterns come out, or I come across new fabrics, the others that I did have plans for drop down the list of things to sew.

And Spring is coming! A lot of the fabric I bought when I was just getting into sewing is back in season. Gauze, linen, light weight cottons. It seemed only natural that I make a Spring Sewing Plan. I came up with 4 tops & 3 skirts. Plus a dress (maybe two, if my Crepe turns out, but it's not lookin' real promising from here). Here's a  quick look (created on Polyvore, again.)

Spring Sewing by Seamstress In Training on Polyvore.com

And here are my actual fabrics:  

 

I'm not really sure about the pink & black plaid. I had bought the fabric to use for something for my daughter, and so now every time I see it, I have a hard time picturing it as a "grown up" straight skirt.

I've done a muslin for the Pendrell, and I've decided to do a couple alterations--I think I'll need to take the hips in a bit. I've also sewn the straight skirt (McCalls 3830) but it turned out too big, so I'll be adjusting that pattern a bit as well. 

That being said, I think I'm going to start with the knit Cardigan. It should be pretty quick project & it will give me a fresh start. We'll see where inspiration leads me from there.

My plan may be a bit ambitious, but if you aim for the moon, even if you miss you're bound to land amongst the stars, right?? And the important thing is that I get some of this yardage sewn up...so I can buy more. :)