Not my UFO

 A great big thank-you to everyone for the very kind comments left on my last post.  Life has changed and will continue to change.  For the moment - we go on as best we can.
Just because I wasn't reporting on the sewing, doesn't mean that sewing didn't happen.  It's the best way I know to really "switch off" my brain.
Can anyone beat a 40(?)-year-old UFO?  Just wondering if I'm the only crazy one who cannot stand seeing a project that isn't finished, even if it's not mine.
This one is my aunt's.  She'll be 90 in a few months.  I never knew her to sew.  I remember her knitting, crocheting, embroidering - but never sewing.  At some point she must have taken a sewing class, or at least began to take a sewing class.  This blouse was all cut, marked - every seam line marked with carbon and tracing wheel - even mostly basted together by hand.  (Every pattern piece has my aunt's name on it, which is why I assumed that she was in a class.)  The copyright date on the pattern in 1970, so I'm assuming that all this work happened shortly after that  date.  Everything was stuffed into a bag, survived all these years and several long distance moves and ended up at my house a few years back.  I promptly tossed it into a corner and forgot about it - until I was moving the sewing room.  The fabric was still good.  Seemed as though it would still fit.  Why not put the blouse together?

The only things missing from the cut pieces were a collar and a back facing.  Luckily there were scraps, and I cut the View 4 collar, though I did cut it down some.  It seemed awfully large by to-day's standards.  The back facing I replaced with a bit of seam binding.  Don't like full facings on blouses anyway.  Well, that's one less UFO in my pile.  It did get a wash once the sewing was done - after all those decades stuffed in a bag, I figured it needed a wash.
Funny thing - when my mother took the blouse over, my aunt couldn't remember ever having started it. 

Just to let you know...

This morning I bullied my way through that post on the house dress, determined not to let on about what's really happening in my life.  Just now I sat down to scroll through some of the progress that others are making in their sewing, catching up on who's wearing what in September, and I realized that I really cannot concentrate on anything at the moment, much less leave comments, etc.  My heart is crying, because my father passed away last night, and I'm finding it difficult to even type this - somehow, when you write something like this, it actually makes it real, and at the moment - reality stinks.  So - I will do what I have to do, get through what needs to be done for the funeral, etc., and I apologize for not commenting and answering, though I will most probably be browsing on your blogs from time to time.  My father suffered for a long time.  He deserves to be at peace now, but somehow that doesn't make it any easier to accept the fact.

It's a housedress!

Another pattern that I actually managed to sew in the same year that I purchased it!  Another DKNY that I thought would make an easy-breezy summer dress, having first seen other people's versions.  It's been done for a while, a little bit of time lag before it was photographed, and then some more time lag before I managed to get around to this post.  At some time I will get everything working in sync.  Without further ado - my version of V1236.

Not only was I intrigued by what I saw on other blogs, I also saw something similar in a magazine in a much fancier fabric.  Possibilities....  This fabric was inherited, but for at-home wear, I thought it would do.  A wearable muslin, of sorts.  I cut a straight 8, but had to take in a fair bit under the arms, which made for much smaller armholes, but it works fine on me.  The only other "alteration" that I did was at the neckline - I only took a 1/4 inch seam, which raised the neckline a titch.  Oh - and my tie belt is a bit shorter than the pattern, because I ran out of fabric.  Now that it's done, I really have no motivation to make another of these.  I suppose that in a fancier fabric it would make a rather comfortable "going out" dress, but at this point I really have no need of another one of those.  And if I were to make this up in silk, I would probably opt for something like an obi belt instead of the plain tie.  All in all - it's a house dress, which is just fine.  Only one slight problem - the width at the hem is a little tight.  It hits me right above the knee, which, as far as I can tell, is where it is supposed to be.  I have to be careful even with such strenuous activity as getting in and out of the car, which doesn't make this the most practical dress in my wardrobe.  Well, it's pretty well the end of warm weather now, so this dress will be going into hibernation.  Next summer I may have to reevaluate.  It might become a tunic.  This brilliant idea came to mind, as I was heading out the door, noticed that my half-slip was peeking out the back.  Not wanting to take time for a complete change, off came the slip, on went the leggings that I recently made - and I didn't have to embarrass myself in public.  So then came the idea to shorten the dress and always wear it with the leggings.  (Will leggings still be "in" next summer?)  That will happen next summer, if it happens.  Or perhaps I just need to make a new, shorter slip.

Some of you are already into fall sewing, making lists of what to make.  I still feel as though I'm playing "catch-up" with my summer sewing.  May-be I'll just call what I make in the next while "transitional", and not worry too much, so long as I make some progress.  My samples for sewing classes need to get done ASAP.  When and how all will get done, I do not know, but it will.