Stash Busting and TNT's (Tried and Trues)

I have spent the first two weeks of 2014 contemplating my very large stash of fabric. I can't even remember how I acquired all of it, well mostly I can. Its called working graveyard shift and being the first to receive sales flyers in my inbox. For the record, buying fabric does not replace talk therapy and anti-depressants, just so you know.

Though, I can't deny the tactile pleasures that come with a new box of fabrics. I'm sure if I did some digging there's be research on a small endorphin rush that temporarily satisfies the mind and body. But I'm totally feeling lazy so lets just pretend I might know what I'm talking about, k? 

But what I wanted to talk about is actually sewing up all this fabric using Tried and True patterns (TNT - patterns that have already been fitted and can be made up again and again. The Hawthorn being one of my example). It was after reading Cation Design's post about continuing the stash busting into 2014 that I sat down and made a list of all the patterns I've done the work for and will probably make again. I was kind of surprised at the list. Here they are in no particular order.

Current TNT Patterns:

Simplicity 2369 Wrap Dress

Lady Skater (and a million variations)

Penny Pinafore

Colette Hawthorn

Vogue 8747 Princess Seam Blouse

New Look 6564 cropped jacket/bolero

Vogue 8701 raglan sleeve dress 

Vogue 8679 raglan sleeve knit sheath dress and a-line skirt

Colette Clovers

Cake Patterns Hummingbird Skirt

Gertie's Pencil Skirt from the book

Sewaholic Renfrew

Sewaholic Tofinos

Wow, that's actually a lot now that I think about it. I mean, that's what I thought to myself after writing it all down. But I also decided there were several gaps to fill in and made another list of patterns I WANT to become TNT's. 

TNT's To Be:

Colette Beinget

Colette Jasmine

Colette Laurel

By Hand London's Victoria Blazer

Sugar Plum by Lolita Patterns

Jalie Jeans

Sewaholic Cambie

Sewaholic Thurlows

Butterick 5859

Simplicity 1882

Vogue 8766

Which, looking at it on screen instead of my Sewisit's Notebook (Thank you Dad!) its seems like a way bigger list to tackle. I think I'm going to focus on separate for a bit. Those being Jasmine and Thurlows first. 

And here's the thing, the majority of my stash was bought with one of the above patterns in mind already, with several one off statement pieces on the back burner. Some of them have been on this back burner for years, waiting for me to level up my skills, I may not have been prolific but I certainly had a lot of DING! moments (gamer humor, i can never escape it).

I, ladykatza, in an effort to be frugal with my purchases pledge to sew with stash fabrics at least 85% of the time. I shall continue to expand my TNT pattern selection as well as use existing ones thoughtfully to make a more cohesive and functional wardrobe. 

I also want to get back to writing process posts on my works in progress so as to help other sewists along in their journey to a self-made custom wardrobe that will make them happy.  Oh, and be better about replying to comments. I LOVE COMMENTS. Seriously, I read all of them. I want to get better at keeping up with other sewcialists as well.

So, what patterns do you have that you want to make into TNT's or are already TNT's. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Take care and have a wonderful day!

Sewing Plans! My First "Official" Vlog

So the still image for this vlog is kinda hilarious. Also, I apparently I like to scratch my upper lip when I'm thinking about what to say next. Who knew? But I'm actually enjoying doing vlogs cause I can use my hands when I talk.

One note, the green denim is from Fabric.com, I forgot to add that part. I was also trying to say the red knit would go well with the gauze.

Patterns mentioned by me:

Lady Skater
Sewaholic Tofino, Thurlow, and Salspring dress.
Cake's Hummingbird
Colette's Hawthorn and Jasmine
By Hand London's Victoria Blazer

Ok, hope this wasn't terribly boring. Tell me what you have planned, please?!

This 'n' That

I'm not really sure where to start this post. Its a mish-mash of personal stuff that's vaguely related to sewing. More like it falls under the category of "domesticity".  I threw a fit of epic proportion in the last month due to the lack of consistent help around the house. We're slowly working on a system of shared responsibility that works.

 This was my long weekend week, but it felt short because the first two days were taken up by a day of liquid diet and then my colonoscopy. So two days of very much unpleasantness. I now have visual confirmation of diverticulosis and we're still waiting on biopsy results. Here's hoping for a clean report.  The doctor said he is quite sure that I do not have celiac disease, and that I might be gluten sensitive after I told him cutting back seems to help. And I have a life of no red meat and high fiber diet to look forward to. Not that hard for me.

Vogue 8701 Skirt Hanging Out

However, after those two days, Friday turned out to be an extremely productive day in the sewing arena. I managed to a large amount of prep work and I now have a pile of things to sew. About five, I think? Hopefully this weekend I'll have the sewing machines smoking, after I sleep in on Thursday.  This included cutting out a black version of the Candy Plaid dress and sewing up the skirt to hang during the week so I don't have to wait to hem it later. This is a rayon/wool gabardine blend (but drapes like crepe?) from Fabric Mart.

I also ordered the Laurel from Colette Patterns and started working on some ideas for the contest. This was one of them:

Please disregard the mess behind the dress form.

This was a drape approximate to the silhouette I hope the Laurel will provide once I change the darts to French ones. I have several pieces in my stash that could be just the right size for this. I do hope I can make this pattern work for me. I have many ideas and it would be easy for work wear. Win/Win

Other things I did this weekend included make laundry detergent, and re-arrange the linen closet so that it doesn't look like someone just shoved everything in there haphazardly. Out of this I now have a pile of mismatched/worn out sheets ready to be used for muslin or costuming. I also recovered my ironing board in fabric that makes me smile.

Fabric came to me from Mother's stash.

Oh! And I bought some water repellent cotton drill from Fabricmart to make the new Sewaholic trench coat pattern. I requested to have a copy put on hold at the local fabric shop when they come in. This stuff is beefy and will give me an excuse to break out Mom's Viking (beefy/viking... get it?). 

If I have the energy during my work days, I may cut out another Tiramisu in a lovely lavender rayon knit in my stash. My thinking on this is that I won't have to change thread after sewing up my lavender TNT blouse. Its all about efficiency.  And I have a muslin of Gertie's pencil skirt cut out. That one should be a fairly easy fit and sew.

Then I may be ready to tackle pants (trousers). Felicity wants the yellow jeans I promised her, too. And some super simple curtains for Simon's room. AND, I still have a friend's RTW jacket that I offered to repair oh... months ago.

So that's all that is on my plate. What have y'all got going? Sewing or otherwise, I want to know! Make me feel like I'm not the only one with crazy busy work load, please?

Finding Inspiration

So after my last failure I've felt a bit melancholy. Then I got my shiny new Colette Sewing Handbook in the mail.  I confess I ordered it so I could get my hands on the patterns, in particular the Truffle.  I think my favorite chapter of the book is "A Thoughtful Plan".  It ties into Colette's wardrobe challenges in really think about how to make things that work together. And knowing what works for your lifestyle and your body type. Which brought me back to what I was thinking about last post. Don't try to stick my square peg self in a round hole (or round peg in square hole? eh, whatever, you get what I mean).

And honestly, that got me to day dreaming. And poking around on Pinterest, which I'm sure everyone here has heard about right now. I stumbled up on this dress.

dress found here

Which, honestly, I was like OOO!  I love the black and white houndstooth with a pop of red.  Originally I had planned to use the below August 2011 Burda Style dress, but the sizing and instructions made reticent. Not to mention I wanted more sleeve and less... neck thing.

Please excuse blurry photo. 

wool/rayon houndstooth

 So I went looking for an alternative and found the following Vogue V8413 and the perfect rayon/wool blend houdstooth.  Match made in heaven!

Vogue 8413 View C

Now I have one thing to think about.  The other place inspiration has struck is in the form of impulsive fabric purchase.  But I don't feel one iota of guilt. This fabric screams NERD, but is posh at the same time. Pixalated charmeuse print  with random beading anyone?

I made the photo big because it totally deserves it. I've got a Laura Ashley pattern in my stash already that will be perfect for this. Its basically a lined princess seam sheath dress. 

Both of these will take a little time and a few muslins to get the fit right.  So to start I'm going to do a few knit-wear pieces that i know fit, just to feel some satisfaction. First will be this Vogue top:

Vogue 8649

In a slate blue bamboo knit.  And the second will be a pair of yoga pants out of some black sweatshirt knit my Mom left me that has tiny white high heals all over them. 

So... that's what I've been musing over when not contemplating all the crazy news going on here and abroad. Tell me, what has inspired you recently?

I don't see what the problem is...

So hey, did you know there's a sale on the Vogue Patterns site? After staring at this pattern since it came out I finally decided to buy it. What sealed the deal was the fact that this is made for stretchy stretchy knits. Since I'm top heavy the bottom heaviness of the pattern is good for me AND I think it would be a great 'fat day' dress. We all have those days, right? So in talking to one of my coworkers I mentioned I'd really like to make it out of this snake skin print.

She looked at it and was all like UM.... NO. Personally, I don't see the problem here. I think walking around looking like I'm about to shed my skin would be kinda awesome.

Revisting Old Inspiration

I admit it, I'm writing this at work. I know, I know. I'm a bad employee and setting a poor example. But honestly there's a network black out (I'm a Junior Sys Admin/Fourth Level Escalations for a LARGE communications company) company wide. Most everyone is on vacation and anything that is 24/7/365 is on skeleton crew so no changes outside of emergencies are being done. No upgrade, nothing... emergency fixes only. S0 I um... I'm testing to make sure customers can get to blogger.com! Yeah THAT'S IT! You believe me,
right?

*coughcoughshesfullofitcoughcough*

So back in Spring of 2010, which in the Fashion World (please note ironic use of capital letters) that's like eons ago, Ralph Lauren came out with this dress in his RTW collection. I just fell in love with it. He was taking inspiration from The Great Depression (these capitals are not ironic). I loved the blue with the red buttons, and the matching belt. I went in search of a pattern that would be a close match. And almost nine months later I found it. I bought the pattern on the left from Midvalle Cottage on Etsy. She has wonderful taste, especially for the 40's and 60's. And if you are in the market for vintage patterns for children, she has a lot of those too.

But in any case, I am quite pleased with this find and I am going to add it to my list of spring "To Make" dresses. This is going to be a spring and summer full of dresses for me. The pattern itself has three different sleeve variations, the short sleeved version will be the one I use. I think I might have to try the cap sleeves as well. I have the red buttons but now to find a blue print that I actually like. One that is small enough to work. And maybe I'll even be able to use some of vintage cotton thread. Not sure how wooden spools are going to work in my machine, though. I'm sure it will be OK. In any case, looking at these two pictures really brings home that there is such thing as "classic style". Taking a piece of advise from Tim Gunn (paraphrased, of course), if you want to do a vintage look but keep it modern, pair it with modern accessories and hairstyles. There's no substitute for class, that's something you feel inside.

Speaking of those vintage spools of thread, I did some stress tests on it to see if they were any more brittle than my modern poly thread. Nope, it took about the same amount of tension to snap either, so that's good.

That's all for today. Stay Fabulous!

I'm not dead yet!

But I just might be by Christmas. Well no, not really. The seasons really do effect my mood and after almost a month of the entire household having one illness after another I just wanted to crawl into bed and hide under the covers. Except a couple Friday's ago I managed to go out dancing with some girlfriends and ended up with a new friend. And a commission. Probably the ONLY kind of commission I'll take cause its a SCARF. Seriously, scarves are a strip of fabric, how bloody hard can that be?

How did I agree to doing this? Don't ask, that's classified information. But let's just say that this friend really likes Burberry Scarves, which are "HOLY CRAP $200+ FOR A STRIP OF FABRIC REALLY?????" expensive. I can get you two yards of nice cashmere for half that. But since he wanted it to be the same colors in a plaid this involved going to my favorite fabric store in downtown Atlanta. And since my niece and sister were in town for Thanksgiving I got to drag them along. (My niece looking through the shiny section. All together now, OOO SHINY!)

That's my family for you. They come into town and we go to the fabric store, or the music store (like, the kind that sells SHEET MUSIC, remember that stuff?). Or comics... Geekiness is inherited, of this I'm certain.

Anyway, I also was there to get some cotton velvet for a cropped jacket, or bolero, whatever you want to call it. But after combing through the massive table full of wool suiting weight material I found what looks to be a perfect match. Its a Pendleton Wool, very VERY soft. I was hoping that I'd have enough left to make a skirt but I'm making it double thickness so no.. no dice. But there it is to the right. They had several bolts of the stuff so I might just go back for more. As it is I can probably make a plaid skirt for Felicity.

OH, you want to know if I've been sewing other things? Why actually I did manage to make a few garments but I can't post any pictures because I don't have a way to take them myself and good lighting + me + husband at home don't happen often at the same time. If anyone wants to donate a decent camera with timer and tripod to the cause it would make me REALLY happy!

The two days before I went dancing I had an overwhelming urge to make a black and white polka-dot knit dress. I finished the dress in time for Friday night thanks to a wonderful bout of insomnia. That would be View C from Vouge8679. The dress was apparently successful since I made a new friend the night I wore it out. I also made a black double knit skirt from View E on Vogue8672. I've decided that this skirt adds +10 to my charisma bonus and must be worn with caution. I'm still gonna make more.

All the kidding aside, though, I have found myself somewhat crippled by the skirt I want to make inspired by Oscar de la Renta. Knowing I have everything needed to make the skirt while at the same time feeling overwhelmed by the undertaking has led to a lot of delaying on other projects or avoidance of sewing altogether. Friday and Saturday this week I took a deep breath and dove in. Cutting out the fashion fabric proved to be a feat of geometric proportion. But I did it and I serged the edges, got the lining pattern drafted and cut out, and also cut out the fur (fake) trim for the bottom. I will say that this is probably the nicest faux fur I've ever worked with. Last thing I did last night is trim the seam allowances and it kind of felt like I was snipping fur off of my cat. So I'll try to take some construction pictures of that and I will feel so much better once I have that silly thing conquered.

Vintage Love with a Hint of Danger

(Image Courtesy of MyVintageVogue)

I went searching for fashion photos of the war-era 40's not so long ago and I came across this amazing dress. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE it. One of my friends called it "dangerous" and my husband calls it.. well we won't tell you what he calls it. Lets just say he's all for my obsession on this one.

Now I want to copy it and make it my own. I am certainly not at that skill level where I could try doing a draped pattern. Especially since I don't currently have a dress-form. I really do want a good one though. So instead I went and started looking at The Big Four pattern companies. And wouldn't you know, it was Butterick that had a good starting base! B4343, to be exact. Lovely, isn't it? It would not be hard at all to add a strap to one side and a flowing sleeve to the other. The other beautiful thing about this modification? I can actually WEAR A BRA! I know, I know. But when you are a 38DDD, this is important.


What do you think? Can I pull this off? What color should I do? Maybe a black velvet?

The Weekly WTF: It Was the Thought That Counts?

You know how when someone gets you a present and are all proud of themselves. They wait with baited breath, glowing with anticipation at your reception. Then you open it and you're all like "WTF!" but you know that you can't show your disappointment so you put on your best face and say "Thank you so much! Its wonderful!". Because, you know, it was the thought that counts, right?

That's how I feel about this travesty. NYC fashion week made this huge deal out of having an ALL PLUS SIZE FASHION SHOW! And by plus size they mean gorgeous women in the size 12-18 range. But then they did something awful with the hair and makeup. Reading through the captions Jezebel put on the pictures, they point out that they've had a devil of a time finding good photos or videos of the event. I have yet to see it show up Style.com.

Now, I'm going to add that I believe one of the reasons that designers use such thin models is laziness. The less curves a body has, the less they have to actually FIT the model. They become ambulatory clothes hangers. As someone that is trying to hone their skills as a seamstress I can appreciate the amount of work to make an article of clothing look good on someone. But this isn't about making someone look good, its about making art out of clothing. Or at least it seems that's all some of the designers are trying to do. But if they don't want real people wearing their clothes, then why are they trying to put a square peg in a round hole?

What I saw was very loose fitting, sometimes poorly fitting clothes that were not flattering. There were a couple of good pieces. A few videos that I found had some more that might have been nice. But I didn't really see anything NEW or anything that I thought "OMG, I must find a way to make that myself!" Did I mention I think their hair and makeup people were asleep at the

wheel? I think I did.

Though in all honesty, we have come leaps and bounds in what is available both in ready to wear and in patterns for the lovely plus size ladies. After all, your choices used to be something like this: