Pink is Not Usually My Color (Still Not Sure That it Is)

I don't think I have much to say about this make, given that I've already used this pattern.

But let's do this thing anyway.

Patterns: Grosgrain's Simply Shift Dress, Simplicity 1690 

Fabric: rayon from Joann

Notions: stay tape, perhaps the Dritz Brand

Alterations: enlarged and stabilized neckline with stay tape, added sleeves via the Simplicity 1690 top, graded out the hips, left out the zipper, accidental curved hem

When I first bought this remnant (one yard!) my first thought was "skirt," but then I finished my microsuede Simply Shift Dress and decided to see how the dress would turn out in rayon.

I decided to add kimono sleeves and through pattern perusal I rediscovered Simplicity 1690 view C. So I very unscientifically laid the top/ blouse pattern over the partially cut Shift dress piece and cut out a sleeve (extending as far as the fabric would allow). This was all intended for a dress for The Monthly Stitch December Party theme, but I got sidetracked. In late January 2017 I decided to tackle it for my first finished project of the year.

In my musing and desire to finish quickly (ha!) I decided to completely handsew the slippery rayon with no lining. And due to my desire to try new things I decided to incorporate french seams for a clean(er) finish (thus deciding against pockets).

During the making I also added stay tape around the neckline (hole enlarged for my head, as with the previous Shift)...

...and in my inexperience using the dress form I accidentally cut a curved hem.

When dressing for church I realized that I need to make a new slip since all of mine were too long. For modesty I threw on a pair of shorts underneath (which you can see in the photos).


Thoughts during the making and photographing processes:

1. Learn how to hem properly! (I was a bit mad at myself and am slightly worried that it's more of a tunic than a dress).
2. Learn about lighting in photos. These are sadly washed out (which might actually have to do more with the background. I had trouble finding a place with good lighting and privacy!). Experiment with different backgrounds and lighting, which will be easier when the warmer weather comes. 
3. An epiphany about my hoarding tendencies. I have a tendency of being afraid of ruining things, so I avoid cutting into lovely fabric and thus when I look for fabric for a project I am loathe to actually cut into a 4 yard piece when I only need 2 yards. This makes me more willing to collect more fabric so I can avoid destroying all my pretty things. Start being bolder.
4. Part of why I'm so slow at this creation business is because at every step and half-step I reassess my plans. I'm gonna try to make most, if not the entire plan, before I make the first cut to see if I can keep the momentum going.

In the queue:
1. Falling leaves upholstery Delphine
2. Watery dots Anna
3. ?

The 2015 Sewing Assessment

Well, checking in with at last year's recap tells me I was minimally successful.

So, what changed from last year?

A. The camera woes were remedied by buying a new picture-taker: a Canon PowerShot SX400 IS affectionally named Elsa (not because of Frozen. I just like the name, watching the movie makes me restless with boredom). She's not a fancy machine, but she serves my very basic purposes of being a working camera with the burst setting and not breaking the ole bank account.

B. There are only seven blog posts in 2015, versus the eight of 2014. That comes to an average of one post per fifty-two days, with only two being actual project posts!

C. I failed the Stashbusting goal by one piece of fabric (though I'm not fully sure why I count it as pieces of fabric when everyone else measures in yards or meters. Oh, that's because of how making partial circle skirts affect what is leftover). I also added approximately ten yards to the stash, mostly with pretty strong ideas of the intended projects.

D. Projects-wise I finished two UFOs,

Homespun half circle skirt

Simplicity 2314 in khaki twill.
Oh the learning experiences!

a top to wear at The Brother's graduation,

the Sorbetto in bird printed shirting from Jo-Ann's*

the Blue Porcelain Belladonne,

and a linen skirt that will hopefully make a great summer option.

*Oh, and the dress form is a Simple Fit from Dritz (can't find it on the website or I'm just that dense). Belle came into the CD creative house from the 60% off sale at Jo-Ann's Black Friday weekend sale.


It was a slow year for creativity, mostly due to personal events and the nagging question of life direction.

Of late there have been constant reminders of my finitude as a crafter, as a thinker, as a reader, as a worker, as a person.  I have grown up in a pretty intellectual family and consider myself to be the dumb one. This is not to say that I am a dummy or I have no self-worth, but that I'm probably the least intellectual while also being the most DIY craft-minded.

I recognize that I have the potential to be more intellectual, but that means more time away from the craft projects.

On the other hand to be at my peak of happiness and production I need to be working on those craft projects.

So comes that struggle between disparate desires: crafting and intellectual pursuits.

One of my plans for the coming year is to try to find that balance.

Sew Long Summer: Fabulous Fall Skirt

So I suck at project photos.

(I was also in a hurry and feeling a slight bit under the weather, so there are those factors as well.)

Here be a submission for Sew Long Summer Fabulous Fall: a linen half circle skirt, lined in quilting cotton (forgot to get photos, hopefully I'll remedy that soon) with a 7" zipper and elastic in the waistband. All fabric and notions are from the stash.

The reasoning for this to be a transitional garment is that it is composed of linen and cotton, lovely fabrics to wear for Summer, and it's the very Autumnal brown.

However, it is also 18" long, which is 4" shorter than my other half circle skirts.

The pockets are semi-drafted (I took the pocket pattern from Megan Nielsen's Veronika, placed it over some of the pieces of linen leftover from cutting out the skirt and waistband and did some finagling) and not-quite-topstitched (I hand sew) onto the skirt. The pocket opening is edged in bias binding and strengthened with selvage to avoid stretching.

Not much else to say as this is such a simple skirt and I've already made two like it, which bored me a little, which is why I tried new pockets. I'll report later about how I rate them.


I can, and will, talk a little about the effort I put into this skirt.

Sewing is an enjoyable hobby; it's creative, relaxing, a great activity while listening to lectures or audio books, and it's a hobby that has tangible results. (Wearable mistakes!)

But it is only a hobby.

In the week before finishing the skirt I same across The Great British Sewing Bee and I half watched, half listened to all three seasons while doing a mass purge of my belongings. In the watching I became a little guilty about my messing around with sewing and decided to try to up my game a little.

I will endeavor to:
- Stitch evenly and straight
- Hem evenly
- Use the notches indicated in patterns
- Use 5/8" seam allowances (I start out well but tend to peter out to 1/4" seam allowances)
- Learn a little more about fit
- Make casings and thread elastic through them
- Gather fabric using dental floss (I tend to gather and not baste and then stitch while I hope for the best)
- and other sundry challenges

I don't have the inclination to attain great skill or technical excellence; I don't want to spend the time and energy.

In essence I don't care enough.

Sewing is a wonderful and relaxing hobby and my life does not depend on my technical excellence.

So this skirt has an uneven waistband, slightly uneven hem, and lots of wobbly stitching.

But some straighter and even stitching around the hem.

Onward.

2014 Photo-less Recap

Wow it's been a long time since I last posted!

Many things have happened since: some projects finished, my accidentally putting the camera out of commission, my kinda going off of the Stashbusting pledge, and the normal things of work and the holidays.

I'm going to try to get the camera fixed and get photos of the finished items. But in the meantime, some reflections and plans for the blog.

And just cause I'm a bit lazy and I have a thing about the simplicity of lists, here's a list of observations and thoughts:

1. I doubled my number of posts this year over last year (8 to 4!).
2. I got tired of the pressure I put on myself to follow some of the Stashbusting themes because I kept wanting to sew up things that didn't meet the themes so I'm putting absolutely no pressure on myself this year in stashbusting.
3. I will try to post once every month.
4. Last year I started working full-time (finally!), but not as I expected in an office. I work retail with a provided shirt so my wardrobe change is minimal. In the time spent working in this position I've realized that my style tends toward casual, movement-allowance garb, though it hops into office-like garb at times. I'll try to sew more items that fit in this vein.

And for some accountability and a central place to keep some lists:

UFOs to hopefully finish:

1. Khaki skirt
2. Denim Sureau
3. Red plaid homespun half circle skirt
4. Grey Burda Danielle tunic
5. Blue floral pintuck Sorbetto
6. Blue tone Partly Sunny Frock
7. [to be discovered]

A list of planned garments (with no pressure to actually sew, save for one or two):

1. One or two dresses or skirts and blouses to wear to the brother's out-of-state graduation.
2. Blue Porcelain Belladone (hopefully to be revealed this year!).
3. Sky blue Belladone.
4. Some warm flannel or flannel-like shirt(s).
5. A shirtdress for the Autumn of 1000 Shirtdresses.
6. Some skirts, dresses, and tops for Summer. 

My pledge for this years Stashbusting Challenge:

I, Laura, commit to using 6 pieces of stash fabrics in 2015.

Yeah, this post will not be noted for its beauty or its full-minded organization (how many so far have?) But it will serve for a later reminder of my state of mind around this time.

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!