Choir Wardrobe 4 17 and almost half a SWAP...

NEW STUFF!
 :-D

Well, mostly new stuff.  And the new stuff is not reviewed yet....I did another view on that McCall's cardigan 6844, made in a pretty substantial black RPL (or maybe PRL) ponte.  I made some Oxford pants from this fabric SEVERAL years ago; this is the last of that piece.  It's really, really nice and has held up well on the pants so I expect the same from the cardigan.

The pants are probably (at the moment, anyway), the most expensive garment in the plan.  It's another exceptional doubleknit; it's kinda tweedy and actually looks a lot like denim.  I got it from Nancy Erikson at the one-and-only time the sewing Expo stopped in Indianapolis, back in 2014.  It was a dream to sew; I actually used the pattern I meant to use when I bought it...Sewing Workshop's Helix pant, although I've modified it somewhat.  One of these days' I'll write a review and tell what I did; but I'm very happy with them.  The only fly in the ointment is that I should have used stouter elastic; with anything at all in the pockets (that I added) the pants kinda drift downward.  But that's definitely a TNT for knit pants now. The trick is finding a suitable knit...

The top has a STORY.

It was the first top I made from Simplicity 2603 (I've made something like 7 or 8 so far...) and it was originally a rather bright coral...  (original 2011 photo)------>


However, there was a laundry mishap shortly after I made it and the attempt to reverse the purple splotching, most of the color was stripped and it was left a weird yellow...with odd orange thread.

I stuffed it in a drawer, where it sat for about a week shy of FIVE YEARS.  Friday I decided it was time to DO SOMETHING about that top.

I pulled out some Rit dye... fuchsia powder and tangerine liquid...and mixed up a batch of dye, guessing (it looked purple in the mixing bucket...) and ran it through.  As you can see, it's considerably more muted than the original, but still within the coral bandwidth, so...it worked.

Am I ever glad to have that out of the junk drawer and back in the closet, although it needs a pinch of mending; it's worn fuzzy at the point where I clipped the CF notch on the band/top.  Guess the 30 minutes of agitation in the dye bath was a bit much.  I'll put a little beading or some lace or something on it cover it up.    But it's good enough for stage wear and, as we're going to be wearing coral both this month (with black and gray for neutrals) AND next month (with navy and tan for neutrals), I can use a little extra coral in the closet.

As of last night, I've made 5 garments for the SWAP plan since I left work on Thursday night, being's how the office is closed on Fridays.  I have a little finish work to do on two...hems and closures...but the other three are completed.

If I can keep going at this rate, I might just make it...

Oh yeah.  There's still a couple of days left in the 10 Year blogiversary giveaway, if you missed the post with the details...