Friday, April 04, 2008

Fun First Friday: A Year of TNT

It struck me that it might be fun to do the 'what would you...' kind of thing on a regular basis, so I'm sort of playing around with the idea of doing this on the first Friday of each month...

But the question for this month is:

You have to move for one year to a very small space that does not have access to retail or internet pattern sources. You have only room to take 12 TNT patterns with you. So, what patterns would you take to meet any wardrobe needs in the next year?

I had to make my list twice; I lost it the first time! But here's what I came up with...

Pants:
La Fred's Daphne Pant; These are good pants for wearing under long floaty tops; they also make great capris. I modified them to have a waistband and pockets.
Vogue 7881; Claire Shaeffer's contour-waist pants (I added a pocket to these, too). Very good, very basic pants when an elastic waistband is NOT indicated.
Loes Hinse's Oxford Pants I've tweaked these to almost perfect, and I've done some modifications with them, too. I think I could (in fact, I'm planning on it) make a decent pull-on shorts pattern from them, and I *believe* I could, in an pinch, turn them into no-side-seam pants if I needed to for some reason.

Skirts
Straight skirt: Kwik Sew 2581. This has options for pleat variations in three lengths; I could get several very different skirts from this if I needed a serious skirt.

Flared skirt: Cutting Line Designs Farewell to Arms. This is a beautiful, easy-to-wear, easy-to-make skirt. I modified the pockets so that they were free (not stitched to the skirt front) just because that's my preference, but I love this skirt. Bonus: the envelope also contains patterns for an unstructured dress and a pull over top; I have used the skirt portion of the dress before as a straight skirt and it worked well, too.

Tops: This was a hard category to choose. I ended up with mostly knit tops; I don't have a good supply of TNTs for woven shirts at the moment. But I have:

Cutting Line Designs In the Trenches. That's a shirt that can be easily modified w/ sleeve length and trim details variations. It looks pretty, well, trenchy as illustrated, but if you look past the drawstring and the back shield, there's a very nice basic shirt underneath. Oh, and a bonus here...a pegged skirt, too.

Loes Hinse's City Dress; I know, I know, that's a dress pattern. But I've modified the bodice into a very nice little scoop-neck shell and made it a bazillion times. It's a good basic. And, the bonus is, I've got the unstructured dress as well.

Jalie 2005 Choice of T's; Of course.

Jalie 965 Camisole and T. This is the best knit tank I've found...it covers everything and looks great as a base layer under about anything.

Kwik Sew 2948 Twin Set; my favorite KS pattern. I love-love-love that set.

I've only really got one TNT Jacket:
Vogue Today's Fit 8043; I *think* I could modify it a bit for variation if need be (I already have one done...). But the boxy Chanel style is timeless, so it should fill a jacket need ok.

Finally, a dress with some shape:
Vogue 8379; the DVF knock-off wrap dress. I still need to make that up w/my tweaks, but I'm pretty confident they'll work.

There are other patterns that I wish I could take, but they're not TNT yet so they don't qualify. But I'm pretty sure I could get a year's wardrobe out of those...assuming I wouldn't need a MOB or MOG or other Special Occasion outfit.

But, hey, I bet if I got creative enough, I could maybe even pull that off with the little jacket and the shell top and a straight skirt...in killer fabrics... ;)

So! There's my picks! If you want to play, post your picks in your blog and leave a link in the comments and we'll all come look!

And if you're not ready today, you can list your picks tomorrow....

10 comments:

  1. OK! Here's mine: http://rustybobbin.com/blog/?p=913

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  2. Mine too! :)

    http://jemimabean.blogspot.com

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  3. Great topic! I'm working on my list...

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  4. I'm still thinking! I have to cover four seasons of clothes with a temperature difference of 100 degrees between winter and summer. That can be pretty hard!

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. I only have six. You can see them in today's entry on my blog.
    (sorry about the deleted comment above this one; I goofed)

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  7. What a great question! I have the perfect scenario to think about this as I am going to an island for vacation 4 days. while I am there, I am going to ponder this. I keep telling my DH that I am bring my laptop and sewing machine with me just in case I don't want to come back. One can dream, right? But being on an island will put me in the perfect position to think of this while I meditate to the sounds of ocean waves. ;)

    Seriously, I can understand the internet break. I have had to take a forced one this past week and I feel I am missing out on everything. But I hope you at least continue to post your entries even if you can't keep up with everything else. You are coming up with some really good questions here! I have been lax in keeping up on my entries, and that is something I hope to change when I get back.

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  8. sorry - I had one more thought. This question could be a real eye opener. I am equating this to Tim Gunn's basic 10 things for a wardrobe. You are forcing us to think along that line. I like this. It will be interesting to see everybody's list.

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  9. What a timely question. This is more than empirical for me, this is a real dilemma.
    I need to work on this.

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