Choir Sundays 09 #36

This month's colors: Black, purple and/or silver w/blue jeans.

I finished the Vogue cardiwrap yesterday so I thought I'd wear it today; it's from a very lightweight and semi-sheer rayon/lycra jersey. Didn't think I could manage a stand-alone top from it, but it worked well for the cardiwrap...I can't imagine how heavy that drape would be in a thicker fabric. I've got on my Vogue 7604 sleeveless shiny silver rayon blouse under it and the new Coldwater Creek Bootcut jeans.

I do have to say I think I tightened the tie a bit much for the photo...it looks better a little lower. My photographer doesn't do styling...he just takes the picture... ;)

Petard Fabrication

The three kids doing Compleat Works are going to need leggings...we haven't definitely decided on colors yet, but they will be bright solids like purple, yellow, green, or red, depending upon which color of Chuck Taylors we find to fit the kids...the leggings will be the same color as their shoes.

But I have been visiting all my usual supply houses, and the colors of the season appear to be muted and muddy. Nice clear colors such as we will need for this show are hard to come by. I was despairing.

Then I had a Brain Flash...we could buy white knit and dye it. Get the fabric, cut the leggings out, then dye 'em and sew up up with thread that matches after the dye job.

I dunno what those leggings will sell for at a dancewear shop, but I'm willing to bet I can make 'em a bunch cheaper.... ;)

A Dress in an Evening?

I spent the evening at Miss R's house (she is the Costume mistress for the fall musical), doing a bit of sewing for the musical, which The Actor is not in. But, well, they need help. And if I help the muscial parents...maybe they'll help the drama parents when we do MacBeth next spring.

Anyway, she had some patterns that needed to be morphed together to make a 50's looking dress, and after we talked and discussed what we needed to do I took the bodice from Simplicity 3673, the midriff from McCall's 5319, drafted a half-circle skirt that was about twice the width of the waistline so it could be gathered to the bottom of the midriff, cut it all out of some expendable polished cotton and basted it all together on her sewing machine.

It's a 14...the size I could make without tracing/cutting the pattern...and there are a couple of girls that it will possibly fit. Miss R's daughter, who will not be wearing a dress from this design, was close enough in size that she could put it on for evaluation (wish I'd thought to take my camera!). We all decided it was pretty cute and would work for the purpose. Miss R will take it to school tomorrow and see what the director thinks of the shape; the skirt is not as full as the concept picture showed, but to get a full circle would use tons of fabric. TONS.

There are 17 girls who will be wearing dresses from this design. So, yeah, a half circle will mean a huge savings over a circle.

Haven't done any sewing yet for the drama one-act, but I've logged in three hours for the musical. ;)

Choir Sundays 09 #35

Well, this is the best of three poor photos today... I was slow getting around this morning and had to wear my glasses; it was late before we got home after church and dinner and kids' puppet practice; I'd had a tangle with a door while carrying a nearly full can of Coke and was wearing a good bit of it; and somehow the hem of my jacket got hiked up and nobody noticed. Oh, well, keeps me humble, right?


Anyway, this month's colors are purple, silver and/or black w/blue jeans, so I wore my Lee bootcut jeans with a Christine Jonson's Basewear 2 top in a purple/black print cotton/lycra jersey from EOS that I made about 4 years ago and Loes Hinse's Bistro Jacket that's also about 4 years old, in a herringbone rayon/poly suiting from Hancock's.

Four years. I dunno if that means I've made good classics or if I need to get back in the sewing room in the worst way.

Or both. ;)

An' It's the Pirate Shirts to the Rescue!

Ahoy! Tis International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and, in honor of said day, 'tis me practice to link to me personal favorite of all me pattern reviews, Butterick 4486. But, actually, 'tis a timely notation, as Compleat Works will be requirin' th' actors to wear some blousy-type shirts. An' Oi just so 'appen t'ave three such shirts in me 'ouse from different times what we've 'ad to be piratey in our attire.

So, thanks t' the very same shirts, Oi'll loikely not be sewin' new ones fer th' show, savin' meself twelve-fifteen 'ours fer other things.

'Tis jolly good, Oi'd say!

Here we go: One Act Competition

I had the first official meeting this afternoon w/the director and cast of this year's competition one act, The Compleat Works of Shakespeare (Abridged(Abridged)). We just discussed a little bit what we're looking at, and Mr G sent home a copy of the DVD for me to watch so I can get a better idea of the required costumes.

Oh.My.Gosh. That is one hysterical production. A bit ribald in places...but, so was good ol' Will.

But, the good thing is that the production has a pronounced improv feel to it...so the costumes look very thrown together as well.

There are only three people in the cast, and I'm thinking of some things in my own costume wardrobe at home that might work, as well as some things that I know are in the costume shop from previous shows I've been involved with. There will be some sewing, to be sure, but mostly it's going to be scrounged up.

I'm breathing just a *little* easier ;)

A - Hemmin' away...

Well, the very first thing done on the Simplicity top is hemming the overlap, so the double needle went into the machine.

And, since the double needle was in the machine, I decided to hem the cardi-wrap and call it finished.

Only there's about 2.3 miles of edge to hem on that thing. Working 10 - 15 minutes at a time, I *might* get the edge pressed up sometime tomorrow.

Plus I'm not terribly happy with the way it's looking. I didn't alter anything except for length (because I didn't quite have enough fabric for the whole front point...I shortened it 8" so it would fit on my fabric...), and the armsceye/shoulder/upper arm doesn't look terribly good. I didn't want a snug fit, since this is a top layer, but I think I should've taken the shoulder down and raised the armsceye a bit anyway. Doesn't help that my machines don't much like sewing this and I'm dealing with a plethora of skipped stitches, which makes the seams look kinda wobbly.

But it's really drapey, stretchy fabric, so I'm hoping once the edges are finished and I can put it on and arrange it *just so*, it won't be too bad. We'll see...

I Goofed

So, after I finished the purple shirts, I changed the thread in both machines to black and proceeded to work on the cardi-wrap. Got it to the point of finishing all the edges and set it aside until I put double needles in the machine and picked up my rayon matte jersey Simp. 4076 wrap top, which is intended as a knock-off of a poly matte jersey top I saw at Coldwater Creek.

And I discovered I had missed cutting a piece; in my enthusiasm, I didn't notice that the neckline actually has a band finish. I thought it was just a over-wide topstitching. Anyway, I didn't cut the band. And the scraps I have left are not nearly enough to get one.

So, looks like I'm going to be using my lycra-knit strips as a facing. With a 1/4" seam allowance. I think that'll work....

Fabric In. Again.

Ok. The Flute Player is going to need new black pants for concerts...last year's are not EVEN going to reach her ankle bones.

So I had to have more black fabric. And Ann at Gorgeous Fabrics just happened to have stretch wovens on sale last week. So I got some black cotton/lycra sateen for pants for The Flute Player. And me. And she sent an extra yard, so I may make myself a black vest out of it as well.

And, you know, no piece of fabric can make a trip alone, so I ordered some white cotton/lycra stretch satin that Ann suggested for a wonderful men's shirt. I can always use a wonderful white shirt, so I thought I'd have one. However, when I opened the box, I was surprised at how substantial that fabric is...it's nearly a bottomweight.

But. The short Coldwater Creek snoop shopping trip yielded some pretty substantial tailored cotton/lycra satin shirts hanging on their racks. So. I'm thinking I'll have a nice, substantial, very dressy white shirt. Eventually.

Two down

If I can get my thoughts coherent enough to share, I'll post about the women's conference on the faith blog. Here, I'll just say...wow. Paradigms shifted.

But My Sweet Baboo and I had other duties today, so we weren't in choir. So I got to wear whatever I wanted to church today. ;-)

I actually wore something I never thought I'd wear to church...the six yard skirt. That skirt was never meant to be a fashion item...it was strictly for comfort in a specific situation...long car rides.

But, I got the idea to pair it with the new Coldwater Creek jacket. And, you know, it worked. I even got several compliments on it.

Hm. Maybe I should check the stash for another six-yard chunk of cotton fabric...

Meantime, sewing a few minutes here and there, I managed to finish the purple shirts, so the thread has been changed and I'm on the black things now...

Patterns in...

So Hancock's had a Labor Day Sale.

And I needed some thread for the projects I'd just cut out.

Before I went, I checked the patterns that were on sale and grabbed my on-going list. Vogue patterns had been on sale for 3.99 each for three days; by Monday afternoon, of the five patterns on my list, only one was still available in my size.

No matter. I'm looking at it just for inspiration : Vogue 1117. I have some marvelous black silk sateen that I got from Louise Cutting at last year's Expo that is waiting for a perfect Little Black Dress pattern. I think this is it. Now the perfect LBD pattern just has to wait on me to loose ten pounds or so...although I'm somewhat surprised that this pattern is only rated average in difficulty, with all those inside corners and a full lining. It's pretty intimidating. But, ooo la laaaa, won't it be fabulous!

I picked up a couple of Simplicity top patterns, too: 2852 and 3624. I'm looking for some tunic-length knit tops that do not have the dreaded maternity-look and I'm hoping one of these will do the trick. However, I believe both of them have reviews in which they have been treated as maternity tops. :/ On a skinny little thing w/no tummy, I don't think these would be a problem. Unfortunately, that description hasn't fit me since about 1990...and I wouldn't have agreed to it then. We'll see.

I picked up a couple of patterns for the Flute player that might or might not get made up; one needs some adjustment to make it workable and the other is borderline cutesy. Not sure I would've gotten them if she'd've been with me to veto, but, well, they were two bucks each and I grabbed 'em. 2665 is a junior-sized pattern that I have overlooked because of the cheesy hot pink hot pants outfit, but on closer inspection it has a cute top in it...and if I changed the zipper in the pants to ANYTHING but that icky exposed version they wouldn't be bad. 4106 is still a girls-size, but I think the gathers on the top would make it work for a small junior, too. I like the tunic...

Finally, I picked up a costume pattern. Don't laugh...it's the Jack Sparrow costume for kids, Simp. 3644. But, if we *ever* do Scrooge again, and if we *ever* costume Scrooge's childhood properly, this is exactly what we need for the shirt and vest those late 18th century boys would have worn. And those are hard to find in kids sizes. So I grabbed it. Just in case.

Didn't go near the sewing machine today; I hope to do a little sewing tomorrow but that will be it for the rest of the weekend. Our women's conference begins at church tomorrow night and it's going to go all weekend.

I'm really looking forward to it...it's gonna be good. ;)

The changing of the thread...

That's all I got done in the sewing room in a day that started at 4:40 AM and is still going at...11:16 PM? I was home long enough to change the thread on the machines. At least I'm ready to start sewing...when I can catch a few minutes.

Minute progress is still progress.

Check the Queue

I did some pretty major cutting over the weekend; I managed to get 3 Jalie tank tops, a black rayon matte jersey Simp. 4076 wrap top (inspired by the Cold Water Creek perusal), the currently popular Vogue cardi-wrap from a soft and semi-sheer black jersey, a pair of wool-lycra blend Oxford pants and a linen Stars in Heaven tunic cut out for me, and a couple of knit tops cut out for The Flute Player. I expect to do some costume work for the drama magnet competition one-act, The Compleat Works of William Shakespear (Abridged (abridged)) and I've got to clear all of my sewing/cutting paraphernalia out of the sunroom for some repair work, so I wanted to have a few things cut and ready to sew when I can catch a few minutes. I hoped to get the muslin cut out for the Burda jacket, but I didn't get that far.

However, all of those are 4-hours or less projects, so I *think* I can get through them fairly quickly...even if it's just fifteen minutes at a time.

I just have to re-evaluate my personal conception of the meaning of 'quickly'.

Choir Sundays 09 #34

This Month's colors: Purple, black and/or silver w/blue jeans.
I'm wearing my Loes Hinse Bistro Jacket from a black poly/rayon herringbone weave suiting, my grey poly/rayon jersey blend variation on the funnel-neck view of Textile Studio's Monaco Shell top, and my new bootcutjeans purchase from the 'snoop shopping' trip...all 45 minutes worth...I managed to squeak in at Coldwater Creek last week (more on that next week).

And, um, just for the record, I finally took the kitty to the vet for the first check up, just to make sure our little foundling was a healthy cat and, um, turns out it *is* a girl kitty. Yes, I feel quite sheepish...Fortunately, 'Frisco' is a gender-neutral name, eh?