Because what I really need is more fabric

My sewing stash, while not huge compared to others I’ve seen, is pretty full when you consider that I’m only 21 and have only been sewing for a few years. Probably because I so easily bow to temptation when faced with fabric like this:

I can’t even wear this shade of green, but I love it still. And how pretty would it be with this reissued Vintage Vogue pattern? I could always make it into a skirt, to avoid wearing green near my face, but I feel like this print really cries out to be a spring-time dress. I also have a sister who looks great in all shades of green, but might not like the flowers (she live in NYC, where they wear mostly black). Decisions, decisions. I really don’t want to buy it without a project in mind (even though it’s 54″ wide and less than $6 a yard!).

It’s summer time, and the weather is fine

In honor of another beautiful, summery day here in Charleston, I’ll post an earlier project that is quickly becoming my favorite dress.  The pattern is Simplicity 3875, view D, done in rayon challis from Hancock fabrics:

This picture was taken about 5 seconds before I spilled coffee all over the front.  Thank God it’s machine washable.

The neckline turned out a little more revealing than I would have liked, but it looks cute with a tank under it, so I’m not going to mess around with it any more.  I’m thinking of doing another in a nice batik, because it’s a great casual dress, and will work nicely for those hot DC summers. Also, in gauze it would make a great swimsuit cover-up/beach dress.  It also went together really quickly, with a minimum of swearing and sticking myself with needles – probably because there are no buttons or zippers (side note:  twice now, I’ve managed to sew through my own finger when applying a zipper.  I’m still not sure exactly how it happened, but suffice it to say, I was in a great deal of pain.  Good thing I believe in suffering for art).

Incidentally, I’m going to use the same pattern for my Capitalist Pig stunt dress.

Red circle skirt: Completed

This one actually only took about 4 hours from start to finish, which makes it a great project to run through on a busy weekend.  The picture can’t really do it justice, because the skirt looks much better when twirling, but here it is:

You also can’t tell from the picture, but it has tiny red pin dots, and pockets set into the side seams.  So, it scores high in both practicality and twirlyness.  Which are my two criteria for clothes at this point, so I’m satisfied.

Now, if I could only find someone to go swing dancing with me on Saturday…

Fun With Geometry

A whole shirt dress couldn’t satisfy my craving for polka dot clothing, so my current project is a red circle skirt with little white pin dots. Fabric is basic quilting cotton from Joann’s, which I got for about $3 a yard, and which has shown an unfortunate tendency to form wrinkles that refuse to be ironed.

I made the pattern out of newspaper (I find the classified section works well for this), and used the equation for a circle to figure out what radius I needed to get a waistband of the appropriate size. This is the kind of math that even poli sci majors can handle, so imagine my surprise when I finished cutting and found that the waist was about 3 inches too wide. Still not sure exactly how it happened, but I’ll take that into account next time. I ended up inserting a back seam with a zipper to take up the slack, which saved me the horror of trying to insert an invisible zipper next to pockets.

A picture of the work in progress:

Blurry, I know, but you get the idea.

Now I want to go swing dancing

I was up until 1:30 AM sewing on the last buttons, but I’m finally done with my navy blue polka dot shirtwaist dress:

The lighting is bad, and the mess behind it is worse, but the dress turned out really well.  I improvised the skirt, which is not quite a full circle, and the button placket on the front of the skirt, which was loosely based on this beautiful dress.  It also has pockets set into the side seams of the skirt (how’s that for alliteration?) for the practicality of not having to carry a purse everywhere.

I’ve already bought the fabric for my next gazillion projects, including four dresses (one novelty that doesn’t really count), three skirts and two blouses.  I’ve maxed out my desire to do complicated things like lining up buttonholes, so I’ll probably stick with a fairly simple skirt for my next project.

Nautical Style

When fashion magazines talk about how big nautical style is going to be this summer, as they do every March, they usually mean those awful white pants with buttons on the front, or the uninspired striped canvas bag with rope handles. I believe in a slightly more literal interpretation. Which is why I have designs on this fabric:

The picture is blurry because I kept toying with the size, but if you click on it, it’ll take you to a better picture (the magic of the Internet at work). For reference, those boats are about 2 inches tall – subtle it is not. I think a whole dress might be a little over the top, but a full skirt with a white sweater would be really cute. Much cuter than stupid sailor pants, anyway. Of course, I have three other fabrics to be sewn into skirts before I’ll allow myself to buy this one. We’ll see how long that resolution lasts.