Choir Wardrobe 04.23.17

A rather chilly, drizzly day today...wearing the blush pink that was so overwhelmingly worn by my fellow choir members early in the month as being in the mauve range, with black and, um, near-black.    McCall's 6844  cardi (still unreviewed; hm, I've made it 4 times now, I should review it...lol..), black ponte; Vogue 9057 relaxed fit T, blush pink rayon/lycra jersey, also still unreviewed Sewing Workshop Helix Pants, 'black denim' ponte knit.  The cardi was just warm enough for the quick little walks across the back parking lot so I could skip the children's ministry check in bottleneck between services.

I'm coming down to the wire on the online Master's degree work; got an email last week from the folks who are adminning the  group  seminar/correspondence classes they're doing at church  for undergrads through the same online institution.   She said that they'd been in touch with West Coast, who have told them I'm nearly done, and invited me to participate in the 'graduation' ceremony they're hosting next month...if I finish that last class.  I was surprised; I didn't think anyone was tracking it.

So guess what I'm going to be working on for the immediate future.  But it is the last class.  And my calendar is *fairly* open this week.  My original, personal goal was to finish by the end of April.  I just *might* make it.  At the very least...I should finish by the first weekend in May.

Then I am going to attempt to catch up the long-neglected housecleaning.

Then I can see about making myself a badly-needed SWAP wardrobe. Which of course, will be too late to be a participant in this year's contest.  But at least I can make up my own 'rules' ...LOL.... ;-)

Choir Wardrobe: Easter 2017

Confession time:  I bailed on the lace.  I had a pattern out, working it over, to make a long vest.  Now, I think it would have been...ok...but it was a make-do and my heart wasn't in it.  And I was making it up as I went...with very little time...I think it was a disaster waiting to happen.  So I folded up the lace and went stash diving.

And found a tweedy linen that I bought from Michael back in...2003.  Now, I hadn't exactly forgotten about it, but I had misremembered the color. I thought it was a peachy pink, but it turned out to be completely mauve and a great color for this month.

So I pulled it out, grabbed the New Look Jacket pattern I used for last year's SWAP (so SWAP is influencing me, even if I'm not working on a SWAP collection), tweaked it a bit and used 1 1/2 yards of the tweedy linen on an unlined, single-layer jacket.

Which I finished after church on Saturday and wore on Sunday.  There still being two more Sundays in April, I'll likely wear it again soon.

So here's what I ended up wearing for the three days of services we had for Easter, with the colors being mauve (a range of dusky pinks and lavenders) and black:

 You will notice (now that I've pointed it out) that I have a STRIKE THROUGH on the WIP list on the sidebar...a UFO bites the dust!  I started this pinkish shirt back in September of TWO THOUSAND TWELVE, which was the last time we wore anything close to mauve in choir.  I didn't finish it before the end of the month...it was down to hem and buttons/buttonholes but there was something odd about the front.  Then I gained weight.

I thought several times about finishing it and putting it in the good will bag, but I never got around to it.

Lost a bit of weight earlier and, lo and behold, it closed.  So I fixed the weirdness on the front neckline...or at least most of it...and finished off the shirt.  Probably not going to get a lot of wear, but...hey, finished is finished.  And it works for this month.  So I wore it Friday with the often photographed striped modified Loes Hinse Oxfords and the even more often photographed Burda Style 'westcoat'.








 For Saturdays' service, I wore last week's make, the rayon/lycra jersey Marcy Tilton/Vogue T, with Loes Hinse's Bistro jacket, in black poly herringbone suiting and Sewing Workshop's Helix pants from a RPL 'denim print' ponte.  And the only mauvey-pink necklace I could find when I poked around the mall last week.

Sunday I wore the new jacket...that I finished Saturday night.   With a linen 'My Hearts A Flutter' shell, which is in the color we wore last year two years ago that we called 'Lavender Herb', but is very, very close to the lightest shade of 'mauve' in our sample photos.  With the pinstripe Loes Hinse Oxford/European mashup.  I strung the necklace from beads I found at Hobby Lobby, which matched the jacket fabric dead on.

Y'know, I really should train myself to go stash diving earlier in the process...

Choir Wardrobe 04.09.17

SO...here's the Vogue 9057 top that is fresh off the sewing machine as of 10 PM last night...which is something, considering the flat fabric arrived on my doorstep about 2 PM yesterday afternoon.    The color is terrible to photograph...a pearly dusky pink.  Which is pretty much the standard interpretation of 'mauve'.  But it looks washed out beige in about every photo.  Worn with the Burda vest that I wear All. The. Time. and the pin stripe tropical wool modified Oxfords from last year's SWAP collection.  Interesting thing about those stripes...I think they're tan and gray, but, being only two threads wide, they can read as other colors...including mauve and lavender.

That same box contained 2 yards of  a mauve-ish lace yardage as well, but it was something of a disappointment.  The color is perfect and the pattern is lovely but...it's very stiff, being embroidered/couched on fine nylon net.  I had rather anticipated some drapey lace and had something in particular in mind.  But it's not at all drapey.  Whatever I do with it...it's going to be kinda like wearing denim, as it's about that stiff.  And there are odd spots in it here and there where the filler in the cording shows through...and it's a kind of odd, oh,  greasy-sewing-machine-lint color.  I may be able to satin stitch over it and cover it up, but it's rather annoying.  Why did they use such a yucky filler for the cording?


But it is pretty at a distance, anyway.  I thought about making a denim-style jacket out of it , but I really don't have time for anything that involved. I'd like a long vest, but I'm not sure if it will hang or stand, if you know what I mean.

My own personal sewing challenge...make something I can wear by Friday this week.    So it's gotta be ridiculously quick.

Think...think...think...

Something for Choir

I had nothing, really.

I went into work late on Thursday...ate junk on Wednesday and paid for it on Thursday...did a bit of work from home before I went to the office and, just before I shut the computer down, I checked a few online fabric vendors.  Because, like, I need some mauve in my life.

Found a knit and some lace yardage; click click and they were ordered before I left.

The box arrived this afternoon.  The lace...well, I'll talk about the lace later.  But the knit is spot on perfect.  I threw it in the washer, worked on my homework, put it in the dryer,  ran a couple miles down the road to Chick fil A and back to pick up a quick supper for The Flute Player and myself and, as soon as the knit was dry, took it up to the cutting table.

6:43 PM.  It shrank a quarter yard in the wash; I'd ordered 1 1/2 yards and measured exactly that before I threw it in the washer.  Plus, it was cut a bit crooked.  So I went with the TNT relaxed fit Vogue 9057 T, with my modified cap sleeves. 

 It took 9 minutes to whack it out with the rotary cutter.

 I had to change out the thread on the machines; plus I ditched the needles that had sewn the metallic-printed poly scuba knit.  I could tell they were getting dull before I finished that  jacket and I wanted fresh needles for the rayon/lycra 4-way stretch jersey;  I kinda expected some trouble. But at 7:14 the machines were set.
Short break to get a photo of a lovely sunset and switch the laundry.

Hashtag no filter  ;-).  But I hung out on the porch a bit to get to the full color...
After I hung up the dry clothes and got a new load in both machines, I trimmed some scrap interfacing to reinforce the shoulders and fused them down at 7:59

 I ran the teeny neckband seam through the sewing machine, then pressed it open.  While I was at the ironing board, I went ahead and pressed up the hem on the sleeves at 7:59..

 Shoulder seams were quick; the neckband went on at 8:17.   Match the centers, then mark and match the quarters and serge it on.

 Gave it a bit of a press and at 8:24 we're ready for sleeves.

 The sleeves are on  and it's ready for sideseams to be sewn at 8:44.  Had some trouble with skipped stitches and had to reinforce a couple of spots with a bit of straight stitch.  Neeldle Lube helped a little, but jersey is tricky and I didn't have stretch needles for the serger.

Switched laundry again.

 At 9:17 I'd switched to the double needle w/ wooly nylon in the bobbin to do the hems.  And had more trouble with skipping stitches and shredding thread.  Had to unpick about 3 different spots...that took more time than actually sewing the hems.

At 9:56 I have a shirt that just needs some thread tails buried and a bit of a steam and...yay! I don't have to wear all black tomorrow! :-)

Choir Wardrobe 04.02.17

 I know, I know, I missed last week's post.  But cut me some slack; My Sweet Babboo and I actually went on a (gasp) VACATION.  To a place we'd never been before, where we had NO RELATIVES LIVING.

Those time share points we were awarded as a bonus for drinking the kool-aid, er, purchasing a time-share were about to expire, so we kinda backed ourselves into using them up.  And, as it was spring break season, most of the resorts within a day's drive were booked.

But we managed to get 5 nights at Myrtle Beach.  We left after church last Sunday and got back home around 7:30 last night.

So I didn't post a photo of last week's choir wardrobe...but it doesn't really matter, I didn't get any more sewing done so it was a repeat of something I'd worn earlier in the month.

But, being gone all week also meant I didn't get any sewing done for April's colors, either.

April colors are black and mauve.  We were asked to chose something within a 'range' of mauves...the samples posted on our facebook page range from what looks identical to the 'Lavender Herb' color we wore last year, through a kind of dusky lilac to a muted raspberry.  None of which would be a color I call 'mauve'.  So I went really safe today with a black-on-black-on-black, and a fringy polyester burnout scarf in what looked to be close to the lighter color samples on the FB page.

Black poly Loes Hinse Bistro Jacket, black knit  sleevless Jalie 2682 top and RTW black denims.

And, lo and behold, the bulk of the 'mauve' on stage was a dusty pink that, to my eye, looked nothing much like the colors on the FB page.

Maybe my monitor is out of adjustment?

But, that does mean that the dusty pink New Look top that's been a UFO for forEVER will do nicely, and a kind of dusty pink-retro 80's silk jacquard in the stash might work well also.

'Cause, you know, this is Easter month, which means extra services, and it also has 5 Sundays.  Imma gonna be wearing a lot of this.

But, I'm still working hard on the Master's class.  I took the textbook for class number eleven...the next-to-last one...with me and got it almost completely read.  I should finish the work on it this week.  Which will give me about 3 weeks to do the last class if I want to meet my self-imposed target of finishing by the end of April.

And, of course, I have something on the calendar Every. Single. Night. this week.  Nothing like hitting the ground running after vacation.  So I'm going to be doing really well to finish the last assignments for class number eleven.

IOW, I may wear all black with my kinda-sorta-right-scarf again next week, LOL.  We'll see.

But here's a photo of sunrise on the beach last Wednesday (we had not walked on a beach together since 1989...we were DUE), just to share a Happy Place: