Choir Wardrobe 01 27 13

I haven't deliberately been not-blogging this year; this has just been a slow start for me in a lot of ways.

First, I was sick and could not sing.  Last week (the 20th) I finally got my voice back and made it to choir (oh, it was lovely to be there again), but my high school girls class has changed from meeting at 8 AM to meeting at 5 PM, so what used to be an available afternoon/evening is now more or less chopped.  If I work on the weekly data entry in the afternoon, so that I have some work ready for volunteers on Monday morning, that pretty well takes over the day.  So, while I sang last week, I didn't manage to get a photo or a blog post.

I did a little better this week...I did remember to get the photo.  But it's taken me two days to get it posted.  I can see I'm going to have to be a little more intentional...or just cut myself some slack and do the weekly choir post at the first available moment.

Anyway.  The colors for January were black, gray and royal blue.  The jacket is an old RTW purchase, worn mostly to supply pocket storage.

The top is the funnel neck from the Sept 2010 Burda magazine...which I apparently have never reviewed.  Hm.  It's from the yummy bamboo/lycra jersey that Fabric Mart had for a while; I have a good bit of that leftover but haven't matched it with a pattern yet.  It worked great for this top.

The skirt is probably about 9 years old; it's a Loes Hinse Swing Skirt, made from a polyester burnout velvet.   This skirt fit better when I made it about 15 pounds ago; but with the elastic waist and a pullover top I figured I could get away with it being a little more, um, fitted than it used to be.  However, I didn't figure on the attraction of the panne velvet to the bamboo jersey and the skirt crawled up the inside of the top...something I didn't realize until I went to change clothes.  The actual length on the skirt, without being all velcroed up inside the top, is about 2 1/2 inches longer.

Fortunately the jacket camouflages the lumpiness from the creepy crawly skirt. ;-)

I can't always substitute a dress/skirt for the standard blue jeans, but this skirt fit the color scheme so well that I could get away with it.

On another topic all together, the initial parent meeting for the Spring musical was tonight.  I'm delighted to report that we have a real, experienced, designing costume mistress.  I will be sewing multiples of things.  The show opens in late April, which is a good thing.  There are 49 kids in the cast, and most of them will have at least two costumes.  That's a lotta sewing, and it's gonna start in earnest in about two weeks.

At least I will have blog material again.

On the Board

First completed item since back in September...is a skinny scarf.

But SOMETHING is better than nothing...I'm willing to start small...

I had some gorgeous velvet/lame burnout fabric that I used for one of Loes Hinse's vest patterns something like three years ago and had a 3/8 yard remnant left over.

I hemmed and hawed over it; pulled it out of the cabinet and looked it over and then put it back more times than I could count in the past 3 years.  I knew it would have to be a scarf, but it wasn't wide enough to make a decently long scarf.  So I knew I'd have to seam it somehow and I was just not willing to commit, fearing I'd make it look lumpy and home made.

Today I decided I was tired of it taking up space.  A scarf is always sorta rumpled up and twisted anyway...right?

So I tore it in half crosswise, seamed it into one long length and then folded it right sides together and stitched up one short end and the long edge, then I turned it right side out and pressed it lightly and hand stitched the other short end closed.

And it's a scarf.

It's' almost too long for the width, but I can wrap it extra and make it work.  

And it's out of storage and into the closet.  Woo hoo! ;-)

The Cast List is Up

...and the Flute Player is in the chorus of this year's High School Musical, 'The Wiz'.

Which means yours truly is cast in the costuming crew.  Should be interesting.

2012 Stats

So, yeah...here are the plain, unaltered stats:

Fabric In: 97.875 yds
Fabric Out: 37.375 yds
Last fabric purchase: 11/29/12
Garments made for me: 17
Garments made for other family members: 4
Home Dec Items: 1
Wadders, er, Unintentional muslins: 1
"Donations" : - 0
Muslins: - 1
Miscellaneous Church sewing:
10 metallic mesh knit 'Chain mail' hoods
2 Blousey laced-front linen shirts
Team effort: Um, 10? Bias-bound tabbards

I did a bit of volunteer sewing, so I guess that adds up to more than the  fabric out total shows, but still...that's sad.

So, basically, I am putting myself on a fabric buying freeze for a while.  There's no sense in buying more to put in bins; the bins are full. 

Unless, of course, I manage to crank out some garments and make some room.  Then...well, we'll see...

But I've already got 3 yards in for this year.  I won three yards of a lovely light grey wool crepe from the lovely, talented and very generous Rhonda Buss  .  Actually, I'm fudging just a bit, because the package actually arrived late in the day on Dec. 31st.  I just didn't let myself open it until the first, so it is on this year's tally instead of last year's.

I know, I know...pitiful, right?  But I did maintain 'under 100 yards in' last year.  Barely.  By fudging just a wee.

Anyway, My Dear Darling Sweet Baboo gave me a sewing gift for Christmas:  a copy of Elizabeth Allemong's European Cut manual.  I've skimmed through it already...wow.  Even if I never take all 38 measurements and do the graphing-style pattern draft, it has already opened my eyes to some fitting tweaks...and I love that the illustrations for the measuring instructions use a figure that is not a size 00. I'd really like to draft slopers from the instructions but...yeah, that time thing.

Oh, my manual is even autographed,  and came with a letter of encouragement.  I really hope I get to work on it.

Off to bring the sidebars up to date...Happy New Year, everyone!