Merry Christmas!      

Wishing all my sewing friends a very happy Christmas!

With all my love,

Irene

Sunday outfit

Yesterday was definitely a bad face day.  I was scowling in every single picture.  Headless picture it is.

Oh, no - almost exactly the same outfit as back in September.  And the turtle neck is the same as just a few weeks ago.  These posts were supposed to show those items that hadn't been blogged before.  May-be I should rethink this.  Either I need to start digging a bit deeper in the closet, or I need better   planning on what to wear.  It's easy enough to just grab, dress and go.  Problem is - by end of season, I realize that I haven't worn so many items in my closet - not for any other reason than not taking the time to plan ahead.  And so in one way this exercise is a success.  I see that I repeat the same, or almost the same outfit all too easily.  Can't have all those other clothes feeling unwanted!
It may seem that I haven't been sewing.  Not so. Just a bit of a problem in finishing up - one does need buttons to close to be able to actually wear certain things.  A blouse, a skirt and a dress await those very necessary buttons.  Oh, and I finally started cutting a winter coat.  About time! 

Creativ Festival 2016

On Friday I had the great opportunity of going to the Creativ Festival in Toronto.  For me it was a real treat.  (I've been needing a good "outing" for quite some time.)  The venue was a different one from last year, the number of exhibitors was smaller, but I had a wonderful time.  One good thing about the smaller size - I could actually find those booths that I wanted to go back to!  Don't know how anyone else approaches "making the rounds", but I prefer to just browse and see all the displays  at first.  Then I decide what I just have to take home with me and return to make my purchases.  My only disappointment was being so sure that I could pick up the Jalie pattern for Eleonore pull-on jeans.  Turned  out, they were out of stock, so I put in my order and now I am not so patiently waiting for my pattern.

I've been a little jealous of people who meet up with fellow bloggers in person.  Never thought that it could happen to me.  But it finally did!  I met the lovely Sherri of Thread Riding Hood!  We just happened to be walking down the same aisle at the same time. 

 

Funny how you can instantly recognize someone whom you've only seen on the internet before!

Sunday outfit

Some days/weeks just refuse to go as planned.  Playing catch-up again, and I really cannot believe how late I am with this post!

Gray, rainy days do not make it easy to get nice pictures!

The skirt is Butterick 4615
- in a beige - no - let's call it light taupe (sounds so much better than boring beige) suiting.  I love this skirt.  It's a wrap, so there is no chance of inadvertent opening.  The other plus - with a quick re-positioning of the two buttons (one inside, one outside) a slight change in size can be accommodated.  This pattern is OOP, but I did spy it on several sites on the internet.

And the jacket is Vogue 1166
 in greeny/goldy/browny silk and cotton tweed.  (And this one is also OOP.)  The dress that it went with no longer resides in my wardrobe, but the jacket does seem to work with quite a few other pieces, so it stayed.

If there's any one thing that I have a difficult time letting go of, it's jackets.  They seem to take a fair bit of effort, and it's almost like throwing away a friend.  Periodically, I do worry that this or that jacket looks somewhat dated, or worn and weary, in which case said jacket gets pushed into the background until I can finally let it go.
Just curious - what me-mades do you have a difficult time letting go of?

Sunday outfit

To-day was a very crazy day.  By the time I could even contemplate pictures, it was dark and I knew that picture quality would be far from optimal.  I was also on my own for camera duty.  Nevertheless - I am determined to stick with "the plan".  And so...

The skirt was inspired by one that I saw on Matches Fashion.com.  Theirs was silk.  Mine is definitely not.  A few days after having seen the fabulous silk skirt with bold black and white horizontal stripes on the website, I was walking through Fabricland, and this black and white stripe jumped out at me.  It's a polyester knit with texture.  The price was definitely right - for an on-a-whim skirt.  And so, the fabric came home.

Doesn't everyone take pictures of their knees?

I measured carefully, marked my pleats, sewed on the waistband.  Something had gone very wrong.  The waist was far too large.  I do believe I wore it once, but it was not a comfortable situation.  Skirt hung in closet for months.  Then came an article in Threads about figuring out pleating for skirts.  (Sorry - I am not running to find the exact issue at the moment.)  Just before Easter I decided that this skirt would do well as the bottom half of "the Easter outfit".   I took off the waistband.  remeasured me, the fabric, the waistband .... in centimetres.  Did the calculations.  Repleated the skirt.  Resewed the waistband.  I think that originally I hadn't used stiff/stable enough interfacing in the waistband, and it had stretched - this being a knit - duh.  I finally had a wearable skirt.  It had its outing for Easter with a white blouse.  Then it hung unloved.  It was not a "summer" kind of skirt.  Far too heavy.  With a white top, the look certainly didn't say "Fall".  Yesterday I had an idea that this skirt could work with a black sweater, so to-day I decided to try this idea out.

 
The sweater is a Pamela's Patterns Perfect T-shirt hack in some unknown mix of fibers, but with a definite touch of angora.  (This one hasn't been  on the blog before.)
Belted with a suede tie belt.  (Belts always seem to finish off the outfit.)
Over top I wore the white wool coat.  (And yes, the pockets have now been moved higher to where they belong.)
Overall - a decidedly un-Fall-like palette, but I was nice and cozy for the nippy weather that has settled in here.
If  you want a good laugh ...  This is what I was wearing - heels and all - while mopping out the floor of the washroom in the church hall early in the afternoon.  There was a "situation" that needed to be dealt with, and apparently one has to be decked out in heels and ankle-length skirt to be up to such a task.

Sunday outfit

 Yesterday and to-day were, well, let's just say, very strange days, and so I'm a little late with this post.  And let's just leave it at that.

New skirt!  For some time (a very long time) I've been wanting to try out circle skirts/fractions of circle skirts.  If I didn't start at some time, it would never happen.  First try - the 1/4 circle skirt.  I do have a chart in one of my pattern-making books.  For some reason I found the whole thing rather daunting.  I ended up using the calculator on the By Hand London website.  Very easy.  All seam allowances calculated in.  Mind you, when I plugged in "maxi", the calculator told me that it would not fit on my fabric.  What I actually wanted was something in between their midi and maxi, so I just ignored the warning, drew my waist circumference, then used a yardstick to mark down from the waist line.   Clear as mud?  I actually drew a paper pattern.  It's huge!  Next "circle", I'll just draw a a mini and mark the hem cutting line right on the fabric.  (Less paper waste.)  A rather underwhelming experience.  I don't know what I was expecting.  Easiest skirt ever - one seam - one zipper - waistband - let hang for 48 hours - mark hem and finish.  It's essentially a bias skirt.  Very close fit through the  hip - stand tall and suck in the tummy.  My fabric is who-knows-what.  Very soft and drapey - very wrinkle-prone - probably rayon, or some combination of cotton/rayon.  The colour is a greenish grey.  This skirt is actually much more appropriate for spring/summer, but you know how it goes - just finished sewing, so must wear immediately.  After this initial outing, it can now hang in the closet awaiting its season.

The jacket is my geisha jacket from ....  can it be ... 2 years ago.  Why do I still consider this a "new" jacket?  I probably should get working on some actual new jackets!

Sunday outfit

Yesterday was grey and dreary some of the time, and sunny the rest of the time.  Of course, just as I decided it's picture time - now or never - it was gloomy.  Nevertheless ...  It has definitely gotten colder, and a coat was necessary. My Robson- never blogged, but sewn as a sample for a class.  The fabric is difficult to describe, as it's sort of "fake leather", but not really.  The plasticky coating that makes the leathery look is applied in splotches.  Main thing is - it is rain resistant to a point.  Actually a perfect sort of coat for this time of year.  I did lengthen the pattern.

And under the coat - the Vogue dress that I made back when.  With my latest quirk about skirt lengths, I find this too short, but under the coat it worked.  Dresses really do make life easier.  Just one item to pop on and you're ready to go.

A Trio of Tunics

I've been playing around with my Perfect T-shirt pattern ... again.  Trying to prove that you can fiddle around with a simple pattern and get whatever you want.  Well, that, and I wanted some knit tunics, because one of my latest quirks is not wanting to have my backside exposed when I wear jeans.  (I'm still not comfortable wearing leggings outside the house - tunic or no tunic.)  Anyway ... the first was the black tunic.  I drew a full front pattern from my already drawn tunic pattern, drew a line down at the quarter mark, decided how long a point I wanted, then joined the point to the "tunic length" sides.  I think that I also added a bit of width to the side seams.  Repeat operation for the back.  I got pretty well what I wanted.

That tunic was actually made as a class sample this past winter.

Fast forward to summer...  As I was wandering through Fabricland, pawing everything in my wake, I was stopped by this silky smooth cotton knit.  It's absolutely scrumptious.  The background is an off-white with swathes of pale creams and beiges.  Not everyone's idea of exciting fabric, but I love it.  Unfortunately, this doesn't show up too well in the pictures.  So, without much over-thinking of the matter, I cut another tunic with an angled hem.
This is the "at home" look.  When I'm headed out the door to wherever, I generally put on a belt and (depending on the weather) a scarf or other accessories.
And just in case you were wondering how I handled those angled corners on the hems ... miters.

 
Last (but not least?) is a slightly different version of the hem.

For this one I was going for the "hanging corners at the side seams" look.  There were fabric constraints, and this didn't turn out quite as dramatic a side seam as I had envisioned, and I still haven't decided whether I should just cut off those sides and make plain, straight side seams.  In the meantime this tunic gets its fair share in the clothing rotation.  It's a cotton/spandex knit - so soft that I tend to maul the hem when I'm sitting with nothing for my hands to do.  (That doesn't so so good!)

I can hardly believe that I used up fabric that I had bought in the same season.  (No addition to stash!)

And I do believe that I am finally getting the hang of positioning pictures on this blog!  (Took me a while!)