12 Months 12 Outfits - February

 Alas, it's a black shift.

Which photographs like a black sack, lol.

You can't see the darts that shape it...you really can't even see the neckline.   It's from the Sept 2012 issue of BurdaStyle magazine, with a modified neckline and sleeves, made from Telio Jockey ponte...nylon/rayon/lycra  and it is extremely comfy to wear.

You all know I waffled quite a bit over what to make; I finally decided I wanted a 'blank slate' dress that could be dressed up or down...and this is it.  If I could FIND some nice black pumps that don't make my toes cry, it could be a very dressy dress done up with pearls and such.  It also looks great with tights and boots.  Maybe someday I'll get pictures of me wearing it, but today I have a bad headcold and could not do it justice, lol.


Anyway, here's what I've matched it up to for the February Outfit challenge:


Pearl stud earrings, which are lying on the dress.  I don't like to wear dangly earrings w/ large scarves...they either drag on the scarf or at the worst, snag on it.  And the scarf, which is rolled up, is QUITE large...almost a shawl.  I should measure it, just for documentation, but...bad cold, I'm too lazy to run upstairs again. Anyway, it's a rayon scarf that I got at Talbot's a year or two ago. The shoes are Cobb Hill ballet flats w/ some detail on the toes; not as dressy as I would like but it's what I've got.  Believe me...the UPS guy wore a path to my door with Zappos boxes this month but I could not find a good fit for dressy pumps.  The bag is not quite what Janice posted, I know, but the truth is I really, really do not like carrying clutch bags.  Just the same, I thought I had a black clutch from, oh, 30 years ago. But when I looked in the purse bin it wasn't there; guess I did give up ever using it some time ago.  So, the leather hobo from Novica is going to fill the bag spot this month.  If, in the future, she posts an outfit that that bag would suit I will get a small bag that would work for this month so there will be a small black bag in the wardrobe by the end.

So, here's my composite of everything so far:

 At least it all works together as of this point, lol.  March, well, that may be something else...

February Progress

I have gotten my 'maybe kinda sorta wearable' muslin done to the hem for the dress I want to do...and I think it's a go.  I need to petite the armhole, but other than that, it's not half bad, even in the cheap yucky knit that I used for the first go.

Just for grins, here's the inspiration dress...a no longer available offering from J.Jill.

Here's the tech drawing, from Burdastyle 09/2012, #107 -

It's not *quite* the same...we have bell sleeves instead of straight, and the neckline is more of a boat than a scoop, if you follow me there. But it's got a similar vibe.

I've omitted the back zip...there's  no need for it in a knit...and I made a neckband instead of the binding (which, according to Burda, should be leather.  Um...pass).  I could probably shorten the band a little or perhaps scoop the front neck just a hair.as the band wants to stand up slightly,..but that gives it a kinda retro vibe, which I sort of like.  The sleeve treatment is the weirdest thing I've ever seen.  The shoulder seams are left to last, and the sleeve cap has a dart in it, that is cut open a bit at the top.  The sleeves are seamed, hemmed then inserted, from shoulder seam/dart leg around to shoulder seam/dart leg, then the shoulder seam and the dart are stitched in one go.

Of course, that means it's pretty much impossible to try the dress on for fit before the very end, but, well, whacha gonna do?

If I stand so that the droopy underarms are noticeable, the dress looks pretty sloppy.  But if I keep my arms down...it's passable, it's passable.  And solid black knit is pretty forgiving.  The darts end in about the right spot, so I'm just going to petite the armscye instead of folding out length in the upper chest also.

Monday is a holiday; I'm thinking I will get the hem in this and then make my armseye/sleevcap alteration and cut it out of the gray Sophia knit.  And sew it up on Monday.

At least, that's the plan.

I've ordered and returned about 6 pairs of shoes from Zappo's...my frog feet are just not adjusting well to a basic pump; nothing fits a wide forefoot.  I have one pair that I haven't sent back...yet...they're not great but I could probably stand them for a couple of hours.  I'm exhausting all possibilities before I commit to them, though.  At least they're Hush Puppies so they're cheap, lol.  The little phone wallet crossbody bag arrived in the mail today, and the earrings (So cute!  They're paisley shaped but they remind me of birds' wings, lol) are also here.  So I just need to get on the dress and the scarf.

I've got 12 days...lol.

Major Players Traced

I finished tracing the pieces printed on the pattern sheet today; I haven't made facing or lining pieces yet.  I'm going to do a quick muslin first, then alter the pattern and then make the facing/lining pieces from the altered pattern.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to shorten the sleeves by about 2", but that's a pretty standard alteration for me on everything.  I haven't sewn enough Burda patterns yet to have a regular set of alterations for them.

As I finished up, I moved the pattern sheet around and suddenly had a fresh appreciation for how small it really is...astonishing that an entire trench coat pattern is on that sheet, along with some others.  My Sweet Babboo stuck his head in the room just shortly after and took a look at what I was doing.  'Wow,' he said, 'How can you see anything on that?'

Just takes a little patience...

But I finally got to use the little curvy ruler that I won in a giveaway a while back.  If I had bought it, I'd tell you it was worth every penny.  I zipped through adding seam allowances.  I was going to post links to the etsy shop for them but it appears to be closed :-(  However, Claire did post a note there, saying that anyone who had questions could email her at sales [!at] sacurve.com .  Perhaps she still has some available...NAYY and all that...

Next step: Muslin.
Time is tickin' away...tick tick tickin' away...

Tracing Away

The AWOL pattern may actually have saved me something...if I had it at hand, there's a good chance I would've just gone with that one, since it was already traced.

But I've looked at the reviews for it, and I saw a number of folks who complained about the sleeve cap...and in many of the photos, it's obvious that there is too much ease in that sleeve.

So I decided to go with one of the patterns from my stash of Burda World of Fashion/Burda Style magazines...I subscribed for 5 years, and there is some good stuff there.

I looked the three or four available patterns over and finally decided on 9/2010/113:

I wasn't crazy about the darts instead of a princess seam, but when I realized the darts had the pockets on an angle, instead of vertical as they were in the princess seamed designs, I decided to go with this one.  I like the pleat in the back and the button tabs on the sleeves.  I *could* put a flap on the right shoulder, if I want, but I'll probably stick with it as designed.  We'll see.  I chose view A, since I'm short. ;-)

But there's a lotta tracing to do...and I *almost* forgot to add the seam allowances to the front when I traced it.

It's been a while since I traced a pattern from the magazines...

Back to the tracing table.

Choir Wardrobe 0310

March choir colors are navy, tan and a range of greens (officially anything between Pantone's  'Emerald Green' and 'Grayed Jade", but, in actuality, anything with a greenish tint seems to be fair game);  I pulled out my green silk blouse #117 from the Aug 2009 issue of Burda magazine and put it with RTW  Navy Jacket and jeans.  For some reason I decided to let my hair do it's own thing today...it's really not cut for that; I need layers if I'm going to let it go natural.  Otherwise, it's Frizzville.  But, on the plus side, it was quick to do and on Daylight Savings Sunday, that's golden.









And...lookie, it's a completed project!  The first garment to come out of my sewing nook since something like September.  I had been working on it, like, ten minutes at a time for forever, and it was close enough to done that I just went ahead and finished all the machine work before I switched the thread over to red for the poppies, and I put the buttons on last night.  It's Westcoat 108 from the May 2009 Buda.  It's made from a 'What???' fabric bought online, which was listed as a stretch poly charmeuse.  Well, it was a heavy satin...and I do mean heavy. Every time I flipped it onto a sewing table it hit with an audible slap.  Not pleasant to sew.   I'd already had one wadder from it a year ago; this was my attempt to get SOMETHING wearable from the rest.  It has lycra in it; I lined it with a blue poly/lycra charmeuse and put it together with the matte side of the fabric out, using the shiny side for the lapels.  Of course, I decided to do that just before I sewed the darts on the fabric, so the facings were all sewn shiny side out, too, since I put the facings together first.  And I sewed at least one of the construction seams with the shiny side as the good side and had to unpick it.  But perseverance finally paid off and it is DONE!

And I've probably got another 40ish minutes of work to do on the poppy skirt to get it to an evaluateable state, so I'm off.  Hopefully I'll have photos of the prototype tomorrow...

Skipping February and March...

 I splurged and subscribed to Burda World of Fashion after Christmas in 2007.  My subscription started in March '08, just AFTER that fabulous Feb 2008 issue that everyone made tons of stuff out of.

I renewed it four times, but decided not to renew the subscription this year after 1) The price went up and 2) the readability of the patterns went down and 3) I was seeing lots of repeats from earlier magazines and 4) I already have more patterns around than I can possibly use.

And around the end of January I started seeing pattern reviews of very cool things from the Feb 2013 issue, which should have been my last.

I waited two weeks, then emailed the company linked up on Amazon about my missing issue, stating that, while I realized Feb 2013 was my last issue, I would still like to have it.

They emailed me back promptly that, according to their records, my subscription ended with the Jan 2013 issue.  I was thanked for my interest.

So I emailed them back the particulars (that the subscription started w/ March '08 and should therefore end w/ Feb '13) , mentioning that Amazon showed the subscription active through March 2013.

Reply email.  'Please be advised that the dates listed in Subscription Manager are  estimated by Amazon"

Then they listed out the year-by-year:  March '08 through Feb '09; March '09 through Feb '10....etc....ending with March '12 through Feb '13.

No acknowledgement of my original question about the missing Feb 2013 issue.

So, once more I replied. 'Yes.   My subscription should end with the Feb 2013 issue...which I still have not received.'

Finally, a reply with an answer.

The February 2013 issue is no longer available to resend. The publisher will extend your subscription by 1 issue. The publisher will send the April issue as march is also no longer available.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Not deleting any emails until the April issue arrives.  Hoping it's a good one, as it apparently is subbing for the Feb. issue which, from what I've seen, was a good one.

Sure wish there was a local shop that carried the Burda mags...

Organizing, organizing....

Taking advantage of the long weekend to get myself back into sewing...not that I'm actually DOING any to speak of, although I have worked a bit on the mauve New Look blouse I cut out in... September?  I have decided I'm going to put the second sleeve on it and then bag it until spring.  I mean, you never know, I might get serious after Christmas and lose some weight (or, God Forbid!  Go wild at Christmas and gain some that takes up permanent residence) and the thing not even fit when the weather warms up and it's suitable to wear.  So I'll hold off on the hems and the buttons and change the thread and get on with other stuff.

As I've lamented of late, part of the reason I'm not sewing is that there is just too much unorganized chaos around me. (or, for the SHEs and FLYbabies, C.H.A.O.S.). Chaos and clutter are something that this Tigger can completely ignore...up to a point.  I hit the 'Oh, that's bad!' point back in the summer, I think, and it's been bugging me, but it took the approaching holiday season to make it hit the Unbearable Point.  So.  Yes.  I'm working at it.

One of the organizing things that needed doing was putting away the fabric that had meandered into the house in the past few months.  As always, there was more than I realized, so putting it away also involved some redistribution among the storage boxes.

And, as I was doing that, I pulled six pieces of fabric that I really, really am going to try to turn into garments before long. I need the clothes, the black and the gray (actually a black-and-white mini-houndstooth) are wool, with moth damage, and need to be made up and worn; the bin the cotton blend black-and-white suiting should go in is full so there was nowhere to put it and the knits are colors for choir in the next two months.

And the budget needs me to sew some so that I can move money from the 'clothing' envelope to the 'fabrics and notions' envelope, if you get my drift.


I already feel my my familiar 'Oh, which pattern?' infinite loop trying to kick in but I am determined to get these sewn so hopefully when the time comes that I can actually cut them out I'll have the intestinal fortitude to just pick a pattern and go with it. ;-)


 But, as I was putting the fabric away it came to my attention that I had been neglecting the stash documentation, so I whacked some swatches as I was binning, then came down and spent a couple of hours matching what was in the swatch box with what is in the Access file.  It's not done yet, and I missed some swatches, but I've made some good progress and weeded out all the records of stuff I'd sewn but not pulled. Even with that, though, the stash is outgrowing my box.  Another reason to sew some stuff.

Finally, I went through my nearly 5-years-worth of Burda pattern magazines and pulled the instruction booklets out to put in the zipper bag with the pattern sheets and reboxed the zipper bags, so they're in a bankers box with a lid that kinda sorta fits (I think I'm going to get a plastic file bin so the lid WILL close...)  I've decided not to renew this year; I have plenty of patterns to keep me busy and I'm beginning to think I need to concentrate on basics for a while.  I may come back 'round to trendy at some point in the future, but right now trendy is just distracting.

So there's $90 that won't be leaving the bank account. ;-)

The next area on the declutter list is the computer room/office area.  I'm not really sure when I'll get around to actually straightening out the sewing cave.  But that's not terribly public, so I can grit my teeth and deal with it for a while.   I gotta get some order around the desks...

Face Palm Moment

I've been subscribing to Burda's style/patten magazine for a little over four years now.  I haven't actually sewn from very many of them,  but I do enjoy looking through them and dreaming about what I might sew...if I could just get to it.

Anyway, early in the game I decided what I needed to do was copy out the two-page line drawing spread from each magazine  and put them in page protectors in a 3 ring binder, so I could sit down and dream conveniently.  I also emptied my kitchen of gallon zipper-seal bags to put the pattern sheets in, and filed the magazines in one set of bins and the pattern packages in another bin and cross-referenced with the binder.  It worked.  Sort of.

Fast forward to about last week, when I was copying the line drawings from a small backlog of magazines from the last few months. I decided it was annoying to have to look  up both the filed zipper bag w/the patterns AND the filed magazine, so I could have both the patterns and the directions.  I decided that I'd pull the instruction set out of the magazine, too, and put them in the bags with the patterns...I had to work with my short stapler a bit to staple the instruction pages together, but it was worth it.

I did that with the last two or three magazines that hadn't been filed yet, and then I thought it was a good idea so I started pulling the magazines/pattern sets out of the files; thinking that if I do a few a night, it'll eventually all get done.

After the second or third set, I kinda dropped the directions insert and cringed, expecting the pages to all fly apart.

They didn't.

It's all glued up.

Apparently, this is what one is SUPPOSED to do with those pages...pull them out of the magazine.

D'uh!

Burda 2/09 108 and the Animal Not Found in Nature Print

Can't remember the last time I actually sewed up a piece of fabric in the same month it came through the door.  This is one of the 'trendy' knits that a couple of online vendors were selling like hotcakes this summer; I grabbed this from one of the final clearances.  Not something I'd usually go for, but the color suits me much better than the usual gold/brown leopard/cheetah/other big cat print so I thought I'd make something fun.  The vest is from May '08 Burda (I think); that has been a true wardrobe staple that is not shown at its best angle here. 

I need to make more vests.

I've got the sleeves pushed up; they really do cover my wristbones.  And I still need to tweak the neckline a bit; it *still* wants to buckle a bit.

But it'll do, it'll do.  It was kinda fun to wear today...

Testing a Sundress

Since acid reflux has reared its ugly head and is preventing sleep tonight, I might as well catch up on a little posting. I finished the Burda 6/2010 top pattern a few days ago and got some pictures, but haven't had time to write it up for either the blog or Pattern Review.






















As I'll state in the review that's written but not posted yet, this is actually a test for the maxi dress that is basically the top lengthened, just to see if I think it's going to be worth using my long piece of rayon challis purchased LAST summer for a maxi dress. (insert sighing).

The jury is still out. I'm thinking this has possibilities, but I need to:
1) tilt the front neckline in to dart out a bit of bubbling
2) raise the neckline a good inch and a half to two inches if I don't want to have to wear a cami under it (and this is to be a height-of-summer dress... I don't!)
3) fold out about 1/3 of the pleats in the pattern before I cut the top out, to reduce the fullness in the center front and
4) add inseam pockets if I make a dress from it.

I did find that, perhaps due to omitting the back darts, I don't need a zipper for access, so that's something, and it is the closest thing I have to a ready-to-sew maxi dress pattern.

But, we are past the focal events of the summer, school has started, and we have about 5 weeks go to to the Princess's wedding. Time to clear the calendar and get cracking on the short list of things I need to make: my dress, the Flute Player's dress, and The Veil....

One Muslin done!

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures, mostly because in my puny-ness I look pretty pathetic. But I finished out the jacket muslin (Burda magazine 12/08 # 116). I did a square shoulder adjustment when I traced the pattern, but, based on the muslin, I took in the shoulders at the princess seams pretty substantially and added a pinch of ease around the tummy/hips. It looked pretty good, except for the sleeves, which were huge. I ended up taking about 2 1/2 inches out at the wrist, tapering that up into the bicep, which fit fairly well. I also shaved a bit of the ease out of the back of the sleeve cap (oh, I have just had an epiphany! I realized when I was transferring the other adjustments to the pattern that I'd only actually done half the square shoulder adjustment when I traced the pattern; I raised the shoulder but forgot to raise the underarm. But I was pleasantly surprised that there was just a pinch extra ease in the sleeve cap when I put it in. It just hit me that now that I raised the underarm to match the shoulder, I bet I need to pull some more ease out... I'll fold 3/8" out of the sleeve cap to offset what I raised the underarm). I think I need to shorten the sleeves by about 1/2", too, but that's a minor fix. By and large, this jacket is ready to cut out of some real fabric.

Now, I just need to decide which fabric to try first. ;-)

This will be a really great basic jacket pattern that I can use as a basis for lots of style changes...once I'm convinced the fit's right.

But I'm just really glad that piece is out of the WIP file...I was surprised to see that I cut it out on 2/5/10; it's been waiting for over a year....

And, yeah, I probably should've spent the day on the sofa instead of messing with the muslin. But it was so close to being done... ;)

Back from the Break...

Wow, that went by fast...except, when shall I find time to read the 766 posts that have accumulated in Google Reader????

I didn't get as much sewing done as I wanted, but I did have one 'wait up while the kids do homework' night in which I made knit tops. I finally made the boat neck top from the Sept. (oops) Feb. '09 issue of Burda Style...and I made a total of three of em in about a day and a half. I haven't gotten my review written yet, and these photos were taken all at once, but I have worn each of the tops already.

The first one is short sleeved because that's all the fabric I had. I fell victim to a sale, but I determined to sew the goods quickly. However, the vendor from which I ordered my first batch of '11 fabric has gone to the little sticky notes as order sheets, and the information was truncated by the edge of the note. So the '.5' on the order got lost and instead of getting a yard and a half, I got a very scant one yard of the royal paisely print. It's an ITY jersey, which I ordered mostly because I wanted to see what all the buzz is about ITY fabrics. But I didn't have enough for long sleeves. So, I made a short sleeved version.


For all it's slick and drapey, it's still very much polyester. The fabric feels cold when I wear it. It was ok as a bottom layer, but I think this is going to go to the back of the closet until the weather warms up.










I did have a yard and a half (again, rather scant, but not a half yard scant) of the rayon/lycra blend turquoise brush stroke knit. It's super yummy, and I love-love-love the colors. But, to my surprise, those brush strokes are horizontal. Since there was ample stretch in the length as well as the width, I just put my pattern on crosswise, so the stripes are vertical. This may be my new favorite top.




However, I still hadn't made the top as intended, so I pulled a 'why did I get this?' pink floral cotton/lycra knit from the stash and made one more top, since they went together so incredibly fast. This one gets zero style points, but it's nice to wear so it's a good 'change into after Sunday services' shirt; it may get worn more than the others after all. Or, if I can come up with a suitable bottom half, it may turn into a PJ top...


I'll get my review written up in the next couple of days and talk about the fit. I did have to do some tweaking to the neckline and the underarm, but by and large this is going to be a workhorse pattern for me. It is definitely instant gratification, and I was in sore need of some of that.

It's good to be back; I've missed the blogsphere... ;)

Choir Sundays 2010 # 9

(sheesh, blogger's acting WE-IRD today; I moderated a comment on yesterday's post that shows up if you click on '0 comments', but isn't registered as being there; doesn't show up on the 'edit posts' page, either...well, anyway...)

March Choir Colors: Green and black w/blue jeans


It's the Lee Bootcut jeans again along with my black poly/rayon Textile Studio Florence Jacket and the Burda 8/2009 blouse I finished yesterday.

It's funny; last week I wore the blouse I originally purchased this fabric for...felt marvelous in it, loved wearing it, love the blouse...and got ZERO comments on it. Today, I wore the bonus blouse and wasn't at all sure the style suited me and was even wondering if I would hang on to it or not and I got 5 - 6 compliments; some from people I barely knew. So I guess I'll keep it.

We took a couple of other photos of just the blouse, both tucked in and untucked (sorry for the wrinkles), since it is tunic length. It looks better when belted, but I need a belt to hold up my jeans and two belts just DON'T work.

I'm not crazy about the way the sleeves/armholes look, but under a jacket it's ok.

12 Weeks of Gorgeous Fabrics: Week 7

Ann tends to cut fabric generously; after I cut The vintagey tie-neck blouse from the green silk jacquard, I found I had a generous yard-and-a-quarter left over. Plenty for another top, so long as it was on the simple side.

I decided to try one of my Burda magazine patterns. I picked a little shell top from the August '09 issue that's gotten several favorable reviews, looks pretty cute and requires 1 1/4 yards of fabric.



I didn't have anyone around to do a photo; I'll get one in the next day or two and post a review.

However, I had some issues with the blouse that no one else mentioned. I think part of the problem is that the 42 that I traced is simply Too Big in the shoulders/upper chest, the neckline is way wider on me than other reviewers. So it kind of shifts around, which makes me feel like the flounce is lopsided.

I used the rolled hem foot on my sewing machine to hem the flounces and I'm not terribly adept at it... I think I inadvertently stretched the edges. And, since the rolled edge foot requires sewing down one flounce and up the other, the stretching is not symmetrical; one side curls under, the other curls out, which also adds to the lopsided feeling.

I changed one element; instead of using a button-and-loop on the neckline, I made bias tubes for a tie closure; I like that. I may put beads on the bottom of the ties...haven't decided yet.

This one may sit in the closet for a while before I decide if I like it or not. If I make it again, I will definitely use a smaller size above the bust.

Later that same day... I did a check and found that the left side of the flounce *did* come farther up the neckline than the right side. So I did some unpicking and refolding and now they do, technically, match. Why didn't I think to do that before I put the facing on??? *smacks head* That didn't help the asymetric draping, but at least I know the thing's even. I'm still not sure about this style; the double-folded armhole hems wing up a bit. Don't think there's anything to be done about that... I'll put details on the review, when I get it written.

Burda Already?

I was shocked to pull the April issue of Burda Style magazine out of my mailbox yesterday...a whole week before April arrives!

Something in the shipping/distribution must've changed significantly; Burda used to arrive the first week of the issue month.

Haven't had a chance to look through it yet; think I'll do that while I munch breakfast.

Burda Boat Neck Take Two

I jumped on that pattern pretty quickly, because I wanted the black and white striped top for choir this month.

I shaved 3/8" off the top portion of the back raglan seam, then I added 1/2" to the neckline all around. I shortened the sleeves SIX INCHES, then narrowed them by about 1/2" on both sides at the bottom, tapering it out at about the elbow.

It's a ten minute top, meaning I made it in ten minute increments.

I like the fit at the neckline much better, but it's still not perfect. For perfect, I think I need a teeny dart at the top of the shoulder on the sleeve portion.

I was surprised, too, at how long the sleeves still were. I was shooting for 3/4" length...they're a little past that, even with the amount I took off.

But this one is definitely wearable...it looks good under a jacket or an overshirt!

Yards out...

Nice to see something in that column! I had a pretty productive weekend; three basically black knit shirts that all finished at once; I did all the double-needle stitching on them at the same time. They're all up on the reviews (although The Flute Player's shirt is just a repeat). First up is the raglan T from the current (Feb 10) Burda magazine. I made it as a test garment and put it in the closet, but I'm still on the fence about it. The neckline is strap-exposing wide, and the fabric is not really nice to wear (it's from the buck-fifty table at Wally World). But I've already altered the pattern and cut it out of a yummy black/white/gold cotton lycra, which WILL be nice to wear! Dunno when I'll get a chance to sew it up...this is a VERY busy week...but it's a quick shirt and if I get 20 minutes or so at the machines it'll be done and I'll update the review with the 'real' shirt!

Next is a variation on the Jalie twinset pattern (I'm too lazy to link it up). I used the t-neck pattern, and borrowed the long sleeve from (I think) 2682. The Flute Player, being a dedicated puppeteer also, needed a new black shirt. It's a really nice cotton/lycra jersey that I had in the stash...wish I could remember where I got it (I went back and checked; it was a purchase from Gorgeous Things about a year ago).

Finally, I made Jalie 2682 from a yummy knit I got a while back (Sept. of '08!) from Gorgeous Things. I really liked the fabric and waffled for the longest time about what to make from it. With 'black and white' being the choir wardrobe for next month, I decided to just do one of my favorite tops.

I'm trying to limit myself to purchasing fabric only after I've sewn 10 yards from stash. I need to shop the stash first! ;) But it's hard...and, heading into more costuming, I know the temptation will be to buy since I'm not sewing. But I gotta stop the increase; there's nowhere left to put it!