I hope this works...

 So, I am going to add a skirt to the Hydrangea wardrobe; a few years back I got some pleated stretch velvet, with the idea of making a loose cardigan jacket, maybe.  Only when I got it...I found that the pleats were crosswise.

Which makes sense, I suppose, but I didn't expect that.  

So if I want vertical pleats...that's a cross-wise layout.

I put it back in the stash.

But a little while ago, I decided I wanted a Hippy Earth Mother Skirt I could wear in the winter.  I thought crushed velvet would make a nice funky skirt.  Was hunting around for some, actually, when suddenly I thought of my pleated piece.  Could I make a skirt out of that?  I did a quick set of math calculations and decided I could make it happen.

Like the doofus I am sometimes, I jumped right in and cut out the two yoke pieces.   And forgot to add seam allowance, so they were too short for pockets.  Teeth gnashing ensued, and I decided I probably couldn't recut them and resigned myself to a pocketless skirt.  But then I got cold feet and decided to measure out the fabric and then plot out the tier pieces.

Lo and behold, I had 3 1/2 yards... I thought I just had 2.  So maybe I could get it...

I did one layout using the yoke and three tiers, I had plenty of fabric, but that actually left me a rather largish oddly shaped remnant. What if I made the tiers all rather narrow, and cut more of them?

Here's what I ended up with...

I have to recut the pieces I already cut, but a skirt with 5 5" tiers will use up nearly all the fabric.

It's also going to be bodaciously big at the bottom; I will be hemming for days.  Maybe I'll get caught up on the Star Wars saga...still haven't finished Obi Wan, let alone ventured into Andor.  It would be good hand-hemming distraction, lol.

I will have to test my scraps from the boo-boo to make sure it is gatherable.  I have an idea to kinda force it if the pleats don't want to gather conventionally.  It will take forever to hand baste all the gathers in all the Tiers, so let's hope it plays nice.

I will hopefully report back on progress after the holiday weekend.  Here's hoping I did all the math right and it really does fit...it's very close, lol.  If my fabric isn't actually a full 60" wide ( I think it is but I will recheck) then I'm back to the original plan with lots of leftovers...

In other news; posted on the other blog,  it was a rather momentous day...

Start With a Scarf 2022: the October Set

In Which She Changes Her Mind...

Y'all.  I had an epiphany.

See, the 'item to make' for the October wardrobe selections was a  flannel shirt.  I have the fabric...a blue and mint on white...and I plan to use a tweaked version of the Burda pattern I used for the Pink Twill Shirt.  But I have blue thread in the serger and, um, several blue things to make for the November set, so I was putting off the October shirt.  

Then I looked at what I wore today.

A blue t shirt from the 2020? I think?  Women's conference merch, blue jeans, and a fairly recently-purchased blue and white plaid flannel shirt from Land's End...love their flannel shirts, but sometimes the patterns on them are a little Out There, if you know what I mean.  Snagged the classic one on a sale.

Dude, why am I gonna stress about making a shirt when I have a perfectly acceptable one already?

So that means the October set is ready to post, lol.

Janice's additions were "Three cold weather tops, earrings, boots or sneakers, and gloves".  

I had a blue Lands' End mock turtleneck already...I mean, doesn't everyone?  Hunted for a blue hoodie; something a little nicer than my gray Turkey Run hoodie that I wear because it's warm, and found a nice midweight basic blue zip hoodie (with pockets!  It had to have pockets!) at Quince.  Bonus points for reminding me a lot of a sweatshirt I had and loved in high school, lol.

 I thought I had some blue leather gloves but I hunted all OVER and couldn't find them, so I ended up getting some Alpaca gloves from Novica.  The fingers are a little long for me, but ALL gloves are too long in the fingers; I just have shrimpy hands.  They will work for driving, lol.  I also puzzled over the footwear.  I have some blue Taos sneakers that I thought about putting in the set but I stumbled onto a pair of Cobb Hill blue lace up boots that are waterproof and...I got them.  (Wore them to church on a rainy Sunday and got compliments on them from twenty-somethings, so there's that).  I wasn't sure what I would do about the earrings...but that could be decided at the last minute.  

 All of that was waiting for me to make the flannel shirt.

So I will use something I have and I'll move the mint-and-blue shirt to Phase Two, lol.  Then I can work on the crazy math for the skirt I'm making for the November set without feeling like I'm getting behinder because I'm out of order.

And I thought about which earrings should be added and I decided on the earrings my hubby got me for Christmas...replaced a kinda similar pair that disappeared whilst we were on vacation last September (a true mystery).  I think the low key shine is perfect here.

Casual?  This almost looks downright lumberjacky...lol.  But that's life in the early 2020's....

All the clothes so far:

I just did a quick count; 34 garments...I bought 11 since the start of the challenge, made 12, and pulled 11 out of the closet.  Pretty even.

All the Accessories so far:

Now I can focus on the items for November.  A velvet Hippy Earth Mother Skirt?  Hmmm....

Start with a Scarf 2022: The September Set

 Once I posted the collection for August, I was cleared to post the collection for September because...gasp... I didn't actually make anything for the September set.

Have a look at what Janice selected for the Vivienne files September wardrobe addition; I pondered how to make that work for me for quite a while (seeing as how I am so far behind, I had time, lol).  I decided that instead of a white skirt, which really wouldn't work for me at all, I would start with (drum roll...) white jeans!  And I just happened to have a pair of nifty white Lands' End jeans in the wardrobe already.  But I didn't have any suitable cold weather footwear that felt right with the white jeans and soft colors.  Zappos to the rescue; I ordered multiple sizes in a couple of different styles of sort-of-white boots and ended up with some David Tate boots in a creamy vanilla color that kind of is ok.  (NOBODY had true white boots, at least not in wide widths).  I pulled a Talbot's scarf out of the closet that actually made an appearance in the SWAP 22 photo shoot, so I was wearing it with this lot anyway.  I had actually already purchased the mint tunic sweater from Lands' End on a big sale just before the September picks dropped, and I found a pale pink cashmere turtleneck at Quince.  A pair of pink opal earrings found via Amazon (don't judge me) and a silk bandanna from Nordstrom's (on sale too!) and I'm set.

And here's all the clothes so far:

After I re-created the accessories slide, and then updated it for this set, I found the one I couldn't find earlier.  It was the page two of the to-date clothes file.  Facepalm.

That's what happens when I go for, um, several months in between posts, I guess.

But I have sewing to do for the last three installments; and of course I'm going out of order, and there is an Easter production to costume so...well, I'll get there eventually, lol.

Start with a Scarf 2022 - the August Set

 Lawd have mercy, it's been a minute since I talked about the 'Start with a Scarf' wardrobe.

Here 'tis Feb of 2023 and I was just a fuzz over halfway through the process when I had to stop All Personal Sewing and hit the Christmas Production Costuming.

Then...I had to find a hat pattern, draft a pattern according to the instructions, test the pattern, tweak the pattern, and then ...make the hat that I wanted to put in the August set.

There was a hat and a scarf in the Vivienne Files selections for the August Hydrangea Scarf wardrobe;   I hunted around looking for something that would do; I looked at retail without much luck.  Found a nice navy wool beret at...Talbots?  I think?  But $80 was more than I wanted to spend. Finally checked some fabric sites and found a lovely bit of fabric at, I think, Fabric Mart...on sale, no less.  A double-sided wool cotton flannel.

So...I made a cap-and-scarf- set.

I probably should have put on one of the pink tops from the wardrobe, just for grins, but it works with red, too, lol.  The scarf was easy...just cut a rectangle and fringe it.  It's been done... a while, lol.  But the hat I finished today.

So, with that all set, here's what I pulled together for my version of the August wardrobe addition:

The pants and the denim jacket were pulled from the closet; the jacket came from Coldwater Creek, back when they had an actual physical store at the fancy open air shopping center across town.  It's SEVERAL years old at this point, lol.  The pants are tropical wool Sewing Workshop Plaza pants with a pleat that I flipped so I could put pockets under it, lol.  They are in a kinda weird spot, but they work, lol.

The pink 'space dye' sweater came from Chico's clearance; it's sheer enough that I have to wear a cami under it and it snags REALLY easy. At least it was...not expensive, lol.  Boots are navy leather patchwork Trotters.  The jewelry item was supposed to be a brooch, but I really don't wear them.  So I am substituting a necklace from Novica.  It looks like a bracelet, but it is a choker so it works with the neckline on the sweater.

I had the darndest time trying to photograph that hat.  Finally propped my small sewing ham up on the ironing board, and it...sorta worked.  I didn't realize the light over the ironing board was so much warmer than the light I shine on stuff hanging on the doors.

So here are all the clothes, to date:

I don't know what happened, but my file with the accessories had disappeared and I had to re-create it before I could add the new stuff.  

Maybe I should rename this -- 'Start with a Scarf: Hibiscus' since we're running into 2023, lol.  But actually I think I'll leave the 2022 moniker up since I'm working with the Vivienne Files posts from 2022.  When I do the  next phase...then I'll change the name...