The Plantain Muslin... Ivory Knit and Cornstalk Suede

Here it is! My first attempt at Deer and Doe's Plantain.

 (Yes, the bookshelf to my left is mostly full of stash fabric. Heh heh... uh oh).

I am not much of an elbow patch person, but as I unexpectedly loved the pleats in the Belladone skirt 

I was quite willing to see if my opinion could change (still deciding)... 

...and it didn't hurt that the pattern is free... Thanks so much, Eleonore!

   

The main fabric is an ivory rib knit.

The elbow patches are a polyester suede.

(Yes, a woven on a knit.)

I spent a bit of time stressing over this. I really wanted to use suede for the patches (my traditional conception of elbow patches) and I really wanted to use all stash fabrics, so I decided to 

blast possibly good sense and give it a whirl. 

It also helped that this is my wearable muslin of the pattern.

(Accidental photo of elbow patch. Sew them patches on lower next time...)

Oh, and in other bits of happy news, I used a sewing machine for the first time in one of my projects!
I know that sewing machines are old hats for most people,  but I started without a
machine, started with needles and pincushions and some vague ideas of how this all works.
I enjoyed (still do) the simple and mostly mindlessness of handstitch after handstich
while listening to a nice lecture or audio book.
It is relaxing, I don't have to worry about a machine stitching through my hand,
and I have such control over the stitching.

But now that I've tried a machine. It is not as intimidating as it once was, and it stitches far faster
than I ever could.
There will be more machine stitching in my future.

The majority of the seams are sewn via machine, a few by hand (and with a stay tape), and I didn't
finish the sleeves and hem because I liked the raw edges.


A new garment to celebrate a good pattern, a fun challenge, and stashbusting!

Basic Facts:

Pattern: Deer and Doe's Plantain

Fabric: ivory cotton rib knit and cornstalk polyester suede

Notions: stay tape


Fabric History:
2 pieces of rib kit under a yard in length, acquired at different times at least a year ago.
Probably intended for a sweater.
Polyester suede acquired perhaps two years ago, intended for gloves.

Stashbusting Piece Count: 2 of 10 

Garment Count: 1 of 12

Projects Dump and Some Trajectory

I have some previous projects to post, one from February or so, and others from this Summer (I am in the Northern hemisphere so it is Fall/ Winter where I am). I also want to officially note the purpose of this blog. To a certain degree we wonder if there is a reason to put another blog out there, when there are so many excellent ones out there put out by far more talented people than ourselves (special order or any attribution of a particular word to a specific blogger). So I'll note a little justification for my taking up a little space out here on the internet.

Here we go.


First: Here follows a small stream trickle of projects that I have completed this year, but not blogged about. In fact, I'll say little about them because the constructions were not overly fraught with frustration or anything particularly new or probably helpful for the sewing community to know about.

Two Sorbettos: one is a poppy patterned linen, and the other is a blue cotton batik. Both are so sheer that I wear a tank underneath (a tank for which I raised the backs of the neckline on the patterns. I also added two inches to the batik version because the linen version was too short for my taste). The Sorbetto is also the pattern for which I met bias tape finishes, which I now love!



*shudder* The wrinkles.

Cotton batik... so pretty.

 

Both Sorbettos are from remnants (there was a time that I was all I would buy, so there is a lot of remnants for me to sift through). These projects were finished ages ago.



Gathered Jersey Skirt: two remnants gathered on a loop of elastic that I should not have repurposed because the elastic seems stretched out and the skirt droops around my hips. Either that or the fabric is too heavy for it. We'll see if I find the inclination to fix it. As I entirely handstitch I get very annoyed at having to unpick my work. Actually, everyone is that way.... so I'm just like everyone else...

Back when I was experimenting with using mirrors outdoors to get project photos.

Items three, four, and five/six of my stashbusting. Mission accomplished. Let's see if I can use up (or make dents into) six more pieces before the year is out.

Second: trajectory.

Because many bloggers do I shall state my intended purpose for this blog:

To document sewing progress (maybe one day I'll work my way to using a sewing machine?), and how the handmade garments fare (I've seen so many beautiful creations and only occasionally hear that those creations met unhappy ends because of poor fabric choices or construction or an incident with the washing machine), and perhaps some general crafting (outside of fabric, perhaps with other mediums, words, and/ or possibly pictures). I would also like to write some musing posts about crafting and blogging.

I'm trying to set a trajectory for this blog, but as I am one of those people who learns as I try to do it, it'll change and grow as I grow. In a sense this is a throwaway post because I have pictures for another project that I need to put up, but this is also an important post in that it is part of my education as a blogger.

Keep crafting!