Decision Time, part two

I'm still stewing.
Or day dreaming.

Whatever.

The problem is that it's HOT...as in high summer...but it's August, so how practical is it to sew new summer stuff at this point? I've got about three summer projects that I'd really like to sew, but will I sew them, wear them once, put them up for the winter and then find they're OUT when I pull them back out in April?

Case in point: the 'Duro' dress. I have the McCall's version, McCalls 5137, and I have some coordinating rayon prints that I think would work nicely. But at this point, do I want to invest my time and fabric (which I love) in something that might look so last year next year? Perhaps I could make it all in one fabric and just use some piping in the seams to highlight the details...I'm thinking that Gigi (I tried to link to her site; typed everything in ok but Blogger choked. It's on the sidebar) did that on her first version of the dress...but I couldn't find the pictures that I really thought I'd seen somewhere. Anyway, it wouldn't be so 'rich hippy' from one rather muted fabric now, would it?

All the same, a better dress choice might be Vogue 2900. I've got some lovely black linen/rayon that I got from Louise Cutting at Atlanta this year that I think would be perfect for this dress. I could definitely wear it for a while, style-wise, and it would work nicely under jackets. There are a few reviews of it over at Pattern Review and I'm wanting...just a little...to make one myself.

But I've also had some teal rayon/linen hanging about for well over a year to make Louise Cutting's InTHETrenches shirt and skirt combo...and there is a slight chance that teal could be a designated choir color at some point this fall (it nearly was last year). The pattern is traced and ready to go on this one...another point in its favor. Thinking teal, I also picked up some teal slinky from Emma Seabrooke at the Atlanta Expo this year to make the Sewing Workshop's Cityscapes dress. I need to tweek the pattern just a little before I make it again, but if teal does turn up in the color list I'll need it.

I've got some lovely pink and white on black rayon batik that I got from Timmel Fabrics over a year ago to make the Tried-n-True Loes Hinse City Dress. I love the City Dress...so easy to toss on and be elegant without being fussy.

Actually, I've become a A Dress A Day fan, and that phrase has been rolling around in my head. Could I, with everything cut, marked, fused...in other words, entirely prepped...make three dresses in three days? It *would* be kind of fun to try....

But I am also chomping at the bit to get my Fashion Sewing Group 1945 Jacket traced and tested. To add fuel to that fire, Lynda C. recently asked Sewing World members 'What is your favorite jacket pattern and why?' and the FSG jacket was far and away the most popular. I've fiddled with Nancy's other jacket pattern, the 1962 , enough to have a good idea of what I will need to do to get a fitted jacket...there's just a lot of pieces in that pattern (including separate lining pieces, wonderful for cutting but adds tedium to the tracing/adjusting process) to alter. I'd need all three days to get the jacket made...and that's probably assuming I get the pattern traced and altered ahead of time. But I do have some nice linen tweed from Michael that would be perfect for the test jacket.

So...there're my rumblings at the moment. What I do may be determined by how soon I can get those sewing days on the calendar.

Maybe I'll just spend those three days cutting everything out...it would be easy to make them with just a little sewing each day after that.