Biting the Photographic Bullet

At the outset, I would like to thank each of you who left a comment on my last post, as well as those who may have read and sent positive thoughts without a written comment.  Your thoughts, sympathies and good wishes were (and still are) extremely helpful in getting through a difficult period.  It is hard and unreal to think that Mom is no longer here to talk with, ask questions of and share with--especially with regard to our love of sewing, both garment and quilting, which Mom handed down to both me and my sister.  Although I find that I often still have those conversations with her in my head while I am going about things.  I must say also that it was rather heartwarming to know that I was missed in the blogosphere.  And then I went and disappeared again.  sigh.

Now, where were we?  I believe I last left you with a photo of the fabrics I had pulled from the collection to use in a summer 6-PAC grouping of garments a la Stitcher's Guild.  I did get five out of the six pieces completed (I just never felt the need for the lightweight jacket and stalled out on that one) and found them to be quite perfect to wear this summer.  But when it came down to writing a post on the garments, I kept putting it off.  And putting it off.  And putting it off.  Why?

Because one of the pieces is a pair of pants.

We all know that things can look lovely on a dress form.  But then we all think to ourselves "yes, beautiful, but how does it fit?  What does it look like on you?"  You can only show others the fit and flattery (or not) of a garment by showing how it really looks on you.  This is most especially true with pants.  So, I've decided I just need to bite the bullet and start photographing myself wearing some of the garments I make.

This is difficult for me.  I am a large person.  At least, larger than I would like to be.  Nothing brings that home to me more than seeing myself in a photograph.  But you can't just pin a pair of pants to the front of a dress form or hang them on a hanger and expect anyone to be able to see what they are or how they look, or be able to determine if this is a pattern they might like to try out themselves.  And, to me, that's part of my purpose in blogging about what I make--to encourage others to try the patterns I find so fun to make and wear.  So here we go.  Biting the photographic bullet.

Let's start off slow with dress form pictures of the tops and skirt.  The skirt is just my basic straight skirt--a tube of fabric; one seam with a slit opening in the lower seam and an elastic waist.  With only one seam, the slit can be worn to either the side or the back.  This is a natural colored linen.

The first top is OOP Vogue 8582, the Marcy Tilton top with the side drape.  On this one, I cut it with the drape on both sides, but folded the corner of the pattern down, so that the drape is at a lower angle than the original 90 degrees.  The fabric is a gorgeous rayon/lycra knit from Marcy Tilton.

Hopefully, in this photo you can see what I did with the pattern.  The pattern piece on top is the original design lines, with the drape cut to the side at pretty much a 90 degree angle from the side seam.  The bottom pattern piece shows how I simply folded down the upper corner of the drape to achieve the lower angle.  I really like this look!

The second top is McCalls 6566, view C, made in a rayon batik from Fabric.com.  This loose, drapey look may not be the most flattering to me, but this makes such a cool and comfortable summer top that I kind of don't care.  It's hard to see the design detail in this fabric, but I love the slightly gathered lower panel in the back.

The third top is my pattern-morph of the bottom of Vogue 1261 with the top of the StyleArc Adele Top.  For this top I used a oatmeal colored rayon/lycra knit I found at JoAnns.  The color was perfect, but the knit was a little thin to use single layer as a top without showing the world pretty much everything.  So I double layered the front and back body, cutting the upper layer a couple of inches shorter.  The sleeves are single layer.  I love this look.  Unfortunately, the fabric developed a little bit of waviness in stitching the lower hems which didn't want to press out nicely.  Instead of taking the time to rip it out, thereby thoroughly exercising the more colorful side of my vocabulary, I have chosen to like the way it looks with the waviness.  It's a design detail.  Work with me.

This is how I wore this top to work one day with a pair of Cutting Line Designs Easy, Ageless, Cool pants (not part of the intended 6-PAC).

Apparently I need to remember to smile when taking photos.

The pants I made for the 6-PAC were Cutting Line Designs Discover Something Novel pattern, using the same natural linen as the above skirt.  

Love these pants!  They are fun to sew, fun to wear and extremely comfortable.  And it's like Louise Cutting designed this crotch curve just for me.

The back of these pants hang pretty well for me.

I added pockets to the side seams because I am lost without pockets to put my keys in.  I forgot to take a close-up of the pocket detail.

It's a little difficult to see, but I'm very proud of how straight and centered that side seam is!

And one last one with the Vogue 8582.

So.  There it is.  That's me.  I guess that wasn't so bad after all.

I will be doing a more thorough post on the Discover Something Novel pants--I have made several pairs because I love them so much.  And this weekend I made the new Marcy Tilton skirt--love love! So I'll do a post on that and on the latest Lynn Mizono dress that I also finished up this weekend.  Plus several items from previous times that I still want to post about.  That all should keep me busy for awhile.  

So what have you all been up to?

I Thought I Had a Plan--What Happened?

So now that it's September, Labor Day weekend and the symbolic (at least to me) end of summer, I thought I'd finally write that post about my summer sewing plans.  At least this way I can both tell you about what I want(ed) to sew this summer and also give you an immediate update on my progress.

Progress on the Plan:  Not much.

I think I've said it before.  I'm just not a summer person.  I don't enjoy the heat of summer and I find it difficult to warm up to (heh, heh) the fabrics and clothing styles necessary to survive the heat.  However, this summer I wanted to try to be more organized and thoughtful in planning some sewing that would help me build a more cohesive, interesting and fun to wear  summer wardrobe.  So late in May (very late in May), when it finally appeared like summer might actually arrive in Montana, I started pulling fabrics from the shelves.  I just grabbed whatever was there that was summery in weight and color that I thought might be fun to get sewn up in the next couple of months.  Surprisingly, the fabrics I pulled, when piled together, worked as a group much more than I expected.  I seemed to have subconsciously pulled a core of grey and white (and a little black of course) with strong accents of bright green.  From there, there were segues into some neutral linen colors, some rust/browns and a bit of turquoise.  I also came across a striped linen scarf with some of the same colors.  The photos below show the grouping of fabrics I threw together.  Much more than I knew I would ever get through during the summer, but plenty to chose from as I went.

I thought "okay, now I'm ready to sew that thoughtful summer wardrobe."  Then I promptly pulled out a fabric that was not included in my grouping and made a shirt.  Sigh.

This is a rayon challis border print I got from Fabric.com several years ago.  I just love the print and have been wanting to sew it up for quite awhile now.  (I wish I could have avoided the twinning of the print at center front, but was limited with fabric.)

Fabrics like rayon challis (when you can find the good stuff with good prints) are my favorite for summer tops because they are so lightweight and cool to wear when it's hot out.

I like loose fitting, kind of floaty tops for summer and this is a pattern I use often when I want to let a fabric carry the day in a garment.  It's adapted from Lois Ericson's pattern Layers & Layers.  I used the little top shown in grey under the vest in the middle of the lower row on the pattern cover (Jacket B), with a few adaptations, including changing the neckline to a V-neck.

I create a cut on, fold-over placket for buttons/buttonholes and finish the neckline with a bias binding.

After finishing the black border print, I promptly made another one out of yet another fabric not from the "Chosen Ones."  This is another rayon challis from Fabric.com.  These two tops I made in a longer tunic style to take advantage of the border print and because I sufficient of the batiky challis.  I often vary the finished lengths of this top pattern depending on the fabric I'm using and the look I want to achieve.

And then I kept going with other fabrics not within the plan.  A striped rayon knit from Girl Charlee made up in Vogue 8881.  This was less successful than I had hoped.  The long front and back seams pull oddly a bit when worn and I haven't gotten around to seeing if I can resolve that issue.

Next, a camp shirt in a fun cotton print of a cartoony undersea scene.  This is Cutting Lines Designs Easy Ageless Cool pattern.  I like to always have a "go to" camp shirt pattern in my arsenal and this is a good one.   I often come across weird prints that just tickle my funny bone somehow and I think a camp shirt is a good way to use those kind of prints.

Inevitably, another Sewing Workshop Liberty T-Shirt in a rayon knit print.  I actually have two pieces of this knit, one obtained from Fabric.com and the other from EmmaOneSock.  I think I also saw it briefly on Marcy Tilton's site.  It is a beautiful print and I have worn this top often this summer.  But it wasn't in the Chosen pile.  Sigh.

I do have more things that I have sewn up this summer, including even a few from the "Chosen Ones" fabrics.  I hope to get them on the blog here soon.  Even so, I did not get as much sewing done this summer as I had hoped.  My sewing room faces directly west.  As a result, it becomes miserable to be in after about 3 or 4:00 in the afternoon unless you enjoy sewing in a steam room.  So I just didn't spend as much time in there as I wanted to.

Now that it's officially September, I'm craving some autumn sewing.  I know that we will continue to have warm days for awhile, so I'm going to start with lighter pieces.  At the moment I have another Vogue 8499 Marcy Tilton skirt under the needle.  But those wools are starting to sing their siren songs.

Wool--what a wonderful thing

I guess it's a lucky thing I live in Montana, where wool is wearable (perhaps even a necessity) for at least half the year, if not more.  Or perhaps it's because I grew up in Montana that I love wool as much as I do.  Either way, I love me some wool fabric and I love sewing for the fall and winter seasons.  I recently received a length of wool herringbone weave fabric from FabricMart in various lovely shades of brown, tan and russet.  I ordered it thinking it would become a jacket, but when it came, I knew it also would be fabulous in a skirt.  Hmmm.  Did I have enough yardage to do both?  I've spent weeks toying with different patterns trying to figure out how to get two garments out of this piece of fabric.  Then, just after Christmas, Carolyn on Stitcher's Guild posted two beautiful coordinating sets of tops with sleeveless jackets she made using Cutting LIne Designs Anything But Ordinary pattern.  I promptly slapped my hand upside my head and said "Duh!"  Sleeveless!  Then, being a shameless copycat, I used the Anything But Ordinary pattern to make my sleeveless jacket.  I used Vogue 8435 again for the skirt.

I didn't make these pieces intending necessarily to wear them together.  Considering the recent discussion on the Cutting Line Designs thread at Stitcher's Guild, perhaps I shouldn't be caught dead wearing them together (LOL).  Looking at the pictures, however, I kind of like them together.  Any thoughts?  (And sorry for the crappy indoor lighting in the pictures--the color of the fabric is a little less red than appears in these photos)