Not expecting so much bling...

 I meant to post this over the weekend, but the surprise costume trunk took precedence, lol.

Anyway.

Number 1 Son, aka The Artist, is officially getting married in September.  Over Christmas, his Intended...whom we shall call The Dancer...showed me the colors she had selected for the bridal party: tan and a peachy pink.

Now, when the Flute Player was planning her wedding I stumbled onto pics of dresses from Nataya and was rather smitten...but her outdoor June wedding would have been too hot for the polyester dresses.   And, to be honest, the colors of most of those dresses wouldn't flatter me anyway.  But that whole vintage-y vibe really caught my eye.

So, when a couple of websites sent me emails with sales on their lace fabrics, I went looking.  I'm thinking something in blue would look fine with the tan and peach,  but I will let The Dancer's mom have first choice.  Still, I thought it wouldn't hurt to look and maybe have some options.

I found a 'teal' guipure lace at one vendor, and an embroidered net (like the Nataya dresses??? Maybe?) at another and ordered what I hoped would be enough for a dress from each of them, knowing there's another wedding coming up as well, once the Actor gets around to being official with his Little Red Haired Girl.

Anyway, the laces arrived last week and somehow the photographs on the 'net mislead me.  Both of them are straight up blingy.

The guipure lace has clear sequins sewn pave-style in the loops of the lace, and the net has a bajillion iridescent beads glued onto the embroidery.  None of that sparkly stuff showed up on the websites.

And, the teal ain't so much teal as it is a kindof weird muted mint color.   It looked like a more saturated/ deeper color on the screen.

Anyway...here's what we have so far...

The net is a border design; above is one edge; below is the other.  The sparkle really isn't showing in the pics but the dots on it are the iridescent beads

I think the colors are fantastic; the peacock blue-green color and the beige and and tan would look fine with the bridal party colors.  Will probably have to go with a contrast or complimentary lining.

This is an odd shade of... ok, we'll go with teal.  A lot more muted than I expected. I don't know that I'll be able to match it with a lining/ under dress.  Might have to just go with a contrast fabric and be done with it, if I make it up at some point.   And, why with the sequins?  This elegant lace doesn't need them.

I thought I would use the guipure lace for a more tailored dress, if that was more in line with the MOB's selections.  But unless she picks out a blingy dress (and I really don't expect that) neither of these will do. 

The venue is a state park; a very pretty patio on a bluff overlooking the Tennessee river.  Yeah, outdoors.  But towards the end of September it should be more temperate than in June.  We hope, lol.

The hunt will continue.  Maybe I'll make up the bling to wear to my hubby's 50 year class reunion this summer...#trophywife...LOL.

A wee bit of fabric in...

 The Flute Player is getting married in June.  At the local Botanical Garden...ie, outside.  In the early afternoon.

In other words, it's gonna likely be HOT.

So...for the MOB dress, I want something cool and airy and floaty.  Definitely NOT POLYESTER.

The bridesmaids are in a pretty shade of light blue; the guys are wearing white shirts, khaki pants, and kind of a golden yellow suspenders and bow ties.  There are flowers in white, blue, yellow, and pink.

I wanted a kind of a floral print, in something rayon and floaty...poked around on an internet somewhat.  Found something I really like, but it was backordered.  But it was so perfect I crossed my fingers and ordered it anyway.  Last week.

It came today...

The colors are dead perfect,although my monitor shows the colors slightly greyed.  It is rayon crepe; light and floaty.  I have 4 1/2 yards.  Should be enough for whatever I pick.

Time to dig through the patterns now.

Woot Woot

On the Cutting Table...

You may have noticed that bodacious number under 'Fabric In' for this year on the sidebar.

I can legitimately claim that 12 yards were purchased for sewing facemasks; I am slowly whittling that down...but the rest represents a lot of wishful thinking.

One of the pieces that I bought early in the year was a printed knit from Gorgeous Fabrics.  I can't just make a plain ol' T shirt out of it; I think the impact would get lost.  It needs to be a part of something that will set it off...then, if I have any left, maybe I'll make a sleeveless t or something.

I pondered and I pondered...but the pattern that kept coming to mind was

Vogue 9108, the view with the full back (not the criss cross straps):

I read the reviews, thought it over, read the reviews again, pondered a bit, and then finally went looking through the stash to see if I had anything that would work with that print.

I think I found enough:

The print 'reads' as light in intensity, for all that the colors in it are bright; I have purple knit that matches the bit of purple in the print and it could work, but I think it would fight the print for attention.  The gray is  more on the right intensity level, I think.  Then the stripe and a bit of blue on the bottom; I've got both a hot pink and a green ribbon; I'll play with it when I get there and see what looks the best.

I think I am just so weary of cranking out masks...and I haven't even made a fraction of what some folks have done...that I'm ready for something a little bit weird and a whole lot fun.  My only hesitation is that all of that rayon knit could possibly be heavy and droopy. 

If I can just mix a little fun sewing in amongst the masks, I think I will enjoy it all a whole lot more.

And maybe I would quit wandering into temptation on those fabric sites...lol.

Hit a sale....

What possessed me to click on Fabric Mart's website a couple of weeks ago?

And discover that they were in the midst of a 60% off everything sale.

So lookit what landed on my doorstep last Thursday...

4 pieces...the most expensive of which turned out to be $6.04/yd, after taking into account the discounts, the generous cutting, and flat rate shipping.

Gray cotton/poly/lycra suiting...for next year's wardrobe, the gray is good with the scarf, as is the creamy white of the denim-like stretch cotton/lycra twill.  Spring/summer, probably, as light as the colors are.  The royal blue and white was a bit of a disappointment...it's REALLY thin and sheer.    Not sure what I'll be able to do with it.  Not what I'd planned, that's for sure.  But the brown/white/blue print is a nice weight rayon jersey.  Haven't put it up against the scarf yet to see if it will work with the colors, but even if it doesn't it will be a good knit top.

And that's pretty much all the sewing anything I've gotten done in a month, lol.  Well...not quite.  We did a scene from the Gospel According to Scrooge at a small town 'tree-lighting' celebration last Friday, and it was, well, chilly for these parts.  I found the renmant of the army blanket I'd whacked ironing board pads from, squared up the dangly bits and made a stout wrap to keep me somewhat warm whist we haggled over Scrooge's fine linen shirt and bed linens wot we took off 'im whilst 'e was lyin' there....lol. I also found one of the first attempts to make skirts for the charladies...a straight draw-string skirt that didn't work for the era...and sewed up the bottom to make a bag for 'aulin' th' spoils'....So maybe I did get a bit done   Kind of appropriate as last week (the 4th, actually) was the 13th anniversary of the day I logged on for the first time to talk about costuming the 2005 production of  Scrooge.  The plan was to just do the scene for the Friday night event, but rumor has it that we will be doing it again for a Sunday morning service in December as a 'teaser' for the revival of the show in December, 2019.

Hm.  I may have blogging material again. LOL.

A Little Fall Challenge

So, word has come that, after two months of black and white, our choir wardrobe colors for October will be gold and denim.

As in, mustard yellow.

Now, you all KNOW that mustard yellow and I are not on speaking terms.  I have one pair of knit pants in that color and that's pretty much it.

This is a major departure from our normal October colors of brown and burnt orange.

Whacha gonna do in a case like that?

I hit up one of my online suppliers and got four pieces of various denim-colored jersey knits.

Left to right...a cotton/poly/rayon/lycra blend of striated blues.  Might not be entirely the right color, but it has a surprisingly nice hand.  The next two pieces are organic cotton; one is slightly heavier and has a touch of lycra in it.  The last piece was labeled 'Heavy rayon jersey'...but somebody was smoking something when they picked that label because 1) it ain't heavy...I can see my hand through it and 2) I don't think it's got much rayon in it; it's not the least bit woody when wet.  But it was cheap, lol.

Here's my challenge...to turn each one of those pieces into clothes in the next two weeks. 


Which may be a bigger challenge than I really want, given that the serger has not been playing nice with knits lately.

But, be that as it may, that means I can't overthink what I'm going to make these up into.  I need to pick patterns and sew.   At least one needs to be ready to wear by Oct. 6.  'Cause otherwise, I got nuthin'.

At the end of a busy month...

August 5 was the day that we celebrated the 'grand opening' of the new church auditorium...the gymnasium of the school that we bought...that had been gutted and rebuilt.  We had special services every Sunday this month in celebration.

From the back office/data entry position, it was like having a month of Easter.  Awesome, amazing weekends, but a lot of work.

Plus, we had a trip home for  my folks' 60th wedding anniversary, My Sweet Babboo's 45th year high school reunion, and the 104th annual Pippenger reunion.

Needless to say, no sewing happened. At least, no personal sewing.  A team of us did make something like 50 sashes to be embroidered to wrap on the chairs to reserve them for ushers/pastors/ leaders w/ duty, etc.  That happened right before we left town.  God bless the lady who did the embroidery.

I've barely kept laundry caught up.

So I'mma just gonna talk about some plans that I've got on percolate but haven't really gotten to.

I did cut out the gray Brussels Washer Linen pants.  They are sitting on the ironing board, right where I put them after I cut them out.  First step is to reinforce the crotch curve; I've heard that Brussels Washer linen tends to stretch out when worn.  I've got some fusible tape to put on it.

I should put it in the 2018 projects list...since this is like, the first thing I haven't just cut out and sewn up.

Plus, I happened to wander in to Charming Charlie (one of the few that hasn't closed) early in the month...or maybe it was late last month...wow, the selection has dropped considerably.  But I did find an interesting navy/white rayon/lycra jersey tunic that came home with me for probably less than I would have spent on the fabric.

It actually was a pretty close fit, but the shoulders are wide and the armholes low, as is usual for these things,  so I took the sleeves off and opened the side seams.  I need to raise the underarm somehow; I can't just recut it because the armsceye is about an inch below all my patterns.  So I may have some piecing.  And I want pockets in it somehow.  Thinking I'm going to do some color blocking with solid navy godets and pockets in the side.  Maybe.

I have an aunt (I would say elderly aunt as she's in her mid 80's, but elderly doesn't do her justice.  She hasn't slowed down a bit) who had some fabric she said she wouldn't use, so she gave me two garbage bags' worth while we were on the farm.

I glanced through it there but didn't really dig into it until I got home.  There were a couple of pieces that went straight into the donation bag...do you remember that 80's poly stretch terry that we all made athleisure stuff out of?  Yeah, that went in the bag, as well as some yellow poly linen look.  But the balance of it...maybe...

There are a couple of pieces that might make tote bags...or corn hole bags, lol...but there are some linings that I'll use to make pockets, some nice wool remnants that I'm going to have to use carefully, because there's not much, and one gorgeous bit of rayon challis that I'm guessing is from the late 80's...jade green, hot pink and royal blue paisely on black.  I had a whole capsule wardrobe based on those colors back in the day.  There's 3 yards.  Lots of options for that.  Oh, and there's also two yards of gold lame'...the same stuff I used to make all those Pippin shirts.  No idea what to do with it.  Can't imagine what Aunt Wilma got it for, unless it was some crafty thing. There's a bit of gold-and-white lace that may have been intended to go with it.

I haven't tallied this up for the stash; not sure what I'll do with it.

Because I haven't sewn,  part of my recreation has been filling up my shopping cart at online vendors, dreaming about it a bit...and then deleting it.

But one piece managed to actually make it through check out.

I've been looking for a rich red denim for a denim jacket for the longest time and when I found that Ann had some, well, I actually bought it (the photo is off; it's not nearly as orange-y as it looks).  It's already pre-washed and ready to sew.  Whenever I can manage to get to it.

Hopefully September will be a little more forgiving and I can get to the machine.  It is National Sewing Month, after all...

Old habits are hard to break...

Well, that and nothing in my closet fits.  Sugar binge  + schedule change that made the routine 2 mile daily walk nigh impossible and...well, I'm pulling stuff out of my closet saying 'I can't wear that...I can't wear that...I can't wear that...'.  Stuff that I could get away with last year I can NOT pull off this year.

So, despite my determination to make the choir wardrobe work w/ accessories, defaulting to sewing it is.  And, sometimes, that means a visit to the local neighborhood online webstore.

This time, it was Fabric.com, in search of gray and hydrangea blues for May's choir wardrobe.

Two bamboo/lycra knits  for tops/ cardis and a 3-yard piece of chambray gray Brussels Washer Linen for some nice relaxed fit floppy pants.  I'll look like a tree trunk but I'll be comfy.

7 more yards in.  I gotta get to the sewing machines....

But I'm gonna see if I can manage to get the sewing room cleaned out this weekend.  Maybe.  I will likely be scheduling it around a viewing of  'Infinity War'...just so I can talk to my kids, who saw the movie on opening day but are refusing to discuss it until I've seen it.  I expect it to be bodaciously depressing, because I know people die, but I need to just see it and get it over with.

I'll be going with the Actor, and I might even skip choir practice to make sure we do it, because...drum roll...the youngster has actually been offered a REAL JOB, with, like, benefits and insurance and everything, as part of the Children's Ministry team at New Life Christian Fellowship Church...in Jacksonville, Florida. (Backstory Here, on the other blog, if you're interested).  He's gonna leave the week after Mother's Day.  So my time with him is limited, and next week is his birthday, and friends are throwing him a goodby party...and ...and... anyway, it's looking like Thursday might be the only chance.  The Flute Player says she can't sit through it again.

But seeing it Thursday  would leave ALL DAY Friday and ALL DAY Saturday and Sunday afternoon/evening for dejunking cleaning and reorganizing the sewing nook.  I *might* be able to get it done....maybe with an eye to moving it to a vacated bedroom, when it actually is vacated...

So.  Life is about to get different.   Again.

Enabled.

Well, in the last post I invited enabling with regard to fabric used for those really soft, really stretchy, really expensive leggings sold by direct sales.  If you're on facebook, you've probably been added to at least two groups by folks selling said leggings.  My daughter bought me a pair for Christmas and, while they are super comfortable, the print on them is, well, a cartoon character and more PJ/loungewear than I'm really good with wearing in public.  So I was looking for some more, um, useable prints.

Nurse Bennett corrected my misconception that the leggings fabric was cotton -- it's actually a double-brushed polyester -- and put me on to Cali Fabrics...an online vendor I was not acquainted with.  I went to the site and poked around a bit.  I settled on two prints for the double-brushed poly jersey, and a rayon/lycra jersey in a dark dusty rose color that I'm always short on when it comes up in the choir rotation.

They arrived  yesterday.  I was very impressed with the packaging; they were double-wrapped in plastic, well protected against any USPS foibles.  The prints were lovely and the cuts generous:

I was surprised that the abstract had a bit of the rose color in it; it didn't show in the little swatch on the website.

But...the floral print is too thin for leggings. It's going to make a wonderful flouncy shirt, I think. The abstract is a bit thicker; not as thick as my Lul@R03 leggings but I think it's substantial enough to work.  And, because I had to order in whole yards and it was generously cut, I'll have enough for a T shirt as well.

I'm on Cali Fabrics' mailing list now.  Sigh.  Another opportunity to, um, exercise my willpower.

Giving in to temptation...

The arcadia green top is in progress...I would make better time on it but for some reason the kitty has decided that the chair in front of the sewing machine is the perfect chair for me to hold her and pet her and scratch her chin and ears while she purrs loudly.

So my progress has been somewhat delayed.

But I have actually succumbed to the siren song of the internet fabric sources...and two orders have arrived since the start of the year.

Just two.  Really.

First was a sale, the second was, well, an indulgence, plain and simple.

Up first, two pieces from EmmaOneSock...

I have a t-shirt made from the sparkly gray; I didn't realize it was the same fabric until I got it home and compared it.  I got some for a cardigan...guess I'll end up with a twin set.  The green knit is darker and blue-er than it looks in the photo.  That's mostly for the next time we get assigned dark green for Choir.  We got surprised with it for Christmas a year ago and I had NONE.  Now I have a couple of pieces...this is a four-way-stretch rayon/lycra; I've also got a ponte that I picked up last year.  That ought to be enough to get me by, should it come up again.

And, you know, I had to show some support for the  Gorgeous Fabrics re-launch.   The two bottom pieces are rayon/nylon/lycra ponte, very, very nice.   I aim to make Sewing Workshop Helix Pants from them, but that could change.  The top pieces is a crepe-y ITY knit; it's a substitution, the print that I wanted sold out just before my order popped up.  But that's ok, it's just going to be a t-shirt, so it'll work as well as the first choice.  It's really nice...not slick like other ITY jerseys I've gotten in the past.

So, my yards in has surpassed yards out.  I'm done buying for a bit.

Unless I come across some really nice cotton/lycra knits...like what is used in the leggings sold by direct sale in multitudes of Facebook groups.  I got a pair for Christmas...still haven't got a black top to wear with them, but it's coming...and I'd LOVE to find knit like that.

Anyone found a source?  I give you permission to be an enabler...lol...

Loss of a Landmark...

Saw this on the news last night....logged on today to find that the fire had re-ignited overnight and there is literally nothing but a portion of a shell left.

I've been to Sir's irregularly...it is a 45-minute to an hour drive away...and the stock varied greatly; one visit would yield very little worth bringing home while a visit in 2007 saw me hauling home nearly 50 yards of deals; a good bit of which is still in the bins.  It was THE place to go to find costuming fabric; especially after the deterioration of the fabric department at Wal-Mart.

It was a place that still SMELLED like I remember fabric stores smelling as a kid.  The good ones.  With real fabric.

It was a family business; who knows if they'll try to rebuild/restock.

I can hope, but given the current status of the retail fabric business...I fear they're gone for good.

Glad I have a stash....

A New Paradigm...I hope...

I looked, and do you know, I ran some form of a Choir Wardrobe post for nearly ten years?  With a break here and there...

Hard to believe I've been blogging that long, but it was 12 years last fall, so...well, time flies.

So I've been contemplating my sewing. The choir wardrobe has literally driven my sewing choices for who knows how long; yet I have been accumulating fabric in all sorts of styles all that time that has languished (note to self:  next post, do the dismal 2017 stats...lol).

Fabric dot com sent an email to me (actually, more than one), saying they were worried about my stash...afraid I was going to run out of fabric.

(laughs hysterically)

I posted on Facebook that they should be afraid I would open a competing fabric business, based on the stash.

But you know, the stash has been weighing on me.  So many unfulfilled dreams.  Those lovely blouses, awesome jackets,  sharp dresses...that have never been made.

So my goal for 2018 is to dare to sew pretty things from the stash.

Also on my goal for 2018 is to have fun sewing; I'm going to try to sew without deadlines.

But first up...my sewing room is a disaster.

A DIS.AS.TER.

No, I'm not posting a photo now.  I'll take a 'before'...and, when it's clean, I'll post it with the 'after'.

I may not get much sewing done for the next month; it may take that long to clean it out.

'Specially as I haven't started yet.  Got some other urgent household business to take care of first.

Regarding choir; I'm going to give it a go and see if I can use what I have, with possible minor accessory purchases, for the entire year.  Unless something changes radically, or some previously unknown color shows up in the mix, I should be good...even if I just go in all black or all brown or whatever the neutral is for the month.

So...here's to shopping the stash in 2018! :-D

The Last GF Purchase...

You will possibly remember the stern talking-to I gave myself regarding a going-out-of-business sale.  With way more fabric in than I've been sewing...I couldn't really justify adding more, just because it was a good buy.

But then I happened to click on the page with the laces and specialty fabrics, instead of my normal jersey knits.

Y'all.  You know you can't just walk into Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's and find stuff like this.

I'm, by an large, a sewer of practical garments.  It's really outside of the box for me to get something like this, and I'll be stretching my creative boundaries to actually come up with garments for it.  I don't really have a good track record of knowing what to do with lace yardage.

But I'm not going to rush this.  The blue lace might even become a Mother Of The ______ garment; and none of the three eligibles are even dating.

But it's nice to know I've got it...and when I do sew it it will be with fond memories of a friend who supplied me with wonderful stuff for a few years.

Godspeed, Ann!

Fabric In

No choir today; the remnants of a respiratory infection made an embarrassing coughing spell way too likely so I sat in the rear and practiced what little bit of ASL I know.

So instead of a choir wardrobe post, I thought I'd share a bit of the fabric temptation that has landed on my door....there have been sales...

This is a result of Fabric Mart's latest sale...two pieces of nylon/viscose/lycra ponte (cobalt blue and forest green) and a cotton lawn print that is absolutely divine.  I don't know for sure what I'm going to make of it; it's 45" wide and I have 3 yards.  Maybe a nice breezy summer tunic next year.

Or maybe that will turn out to be the feature print of a SWAP combo.

Cobalt (royal) blue is a fixture of the choir wardrobe in January, and last year we got surprised by switching forest green for red in December.  So the green is...just in case. ;-).

Anyway, I'm just over 60 yards for the year, so I think I need to shut 'er down, unless I get to do some sewing. We'll see how things go.

I did finish a small project; I'd cut out another Jalie 2566 T shirt, from a salmon/navy stripe, just before the nine-patch project hit.   I got as far as the hems and then had to sew up the squares.  Friday I walked into the sewing room and found it in a little pile and remembered...oh, yeah, this still needs hemming.  So I threaded up the double needles and ran 'er through.  I'd only gotten, like, 1 3/8 yards, so a cap-sleeve t was the best I could do from the yardage; I really wanted to use it for a Tilton top but there just wasn't enough.  But at least it's in the closet now and will look great with my navy ponte Helix pants and the navy Jalie pleated cardi.  Maybe Thursday's workwear...lol.

This is the first of several moving weeks;   we have to be completely out of our current building into the in-the-process-of-being-transformed school by January 31.  So it's jeans and t-shirts for the first three days this week while we hopefully move a bunch of stuff from storage here to storage there.

We'll add a service for three months; the sanctuary is not slated for completion until May.  So...four services on Sunday in the theater will hopefully shoehorn everyone in.

Gonna be an interesting start to 2018....

More fabric in...

In Which She Scores Something She's Been Looking For For Ages...

I have fallen off of Fabric Mart's mailing list.  I'm not sure why, but I have.

Which may actually be a good thing.

But somehow I happened to just wander by last week...you know, just to see if anything was on sale.

And, wow, I hit gold.

See, I've been wanting to add an Ei1een Fisher-esque long black linen cardigan to my wardrobe for ages.  Found an actual EF cardi in my size on a serious sale at a local department store a year or two ago...and it was still something like $120.  Just. Couldn't. Do. It.

But linen knit is not easy to come by.  And, when I've ordered in the past, it's been floaty and fluffy and not the nice heavy drape of the fabric used in those pricey cardigans.

And then came the sudden urge to just have a peek at Fabric Mart's page last week.

On the deep, double discount page were linen knits.  One of them was black.  It was only 42" wide, so I'd need two cardi lengths, plus sleeves, but the price was only $7.50/yard.  Even if it wasn't *quite* the same, it was worth a shot.

And, of course, fabric HATES to travel alone, so I found a couple of other pieces to keep it company...and bring down the shipping price per yard.

The package arrived today:

A garnet red 'slubby textured' cotton jersey,  some 100% cotton knitted (crochet-look) lace yardage and...the black linen knit.  Which is a substantial, drapey perfect-for-the-cardi weight. So I will have my cardi for about 25% of the sale price of the inspiration piece.  YESSSS! 

And they're all generously cut.  I almost wish I'd ordered the linen in additional colors...but, well, that really was enough of a splurge.

I'm still wanting to sew my '2017 SWAP' wardrobe...it probably won't look like the original plan I made back in January, but I really need to get some stuff put together.  Meantime, I've been chipping away at the UFO list...another one down this week.  Something I *could* wear for choir...that helps...lol.

The Power of Positive Thinking

We had a big conference at church last week and the stage had not been reset for the choir, so there's  no choir wardrobe this week.  So I will share with you my ridiculousness.

 I still have not sewn more than a couple of seams in all of 2017...and I ordered more fabric.  Is that optimism, or what?

Because the choir colors for the next two months are pretty much conspicuously absent from my wardrobe.  So I ordered a bit...

We have metallic gold and black for March, and mauve/gray/black for April.  The sheerish knit on the left has metallic stripes in it and I intend to turn it into a little cardi that caught my fancy in an old Burda magazine.  The chevron gold stripe is printed on a scuba knit; I'm pretty sure I'm going to make that ubiquitous  McCall's jacket that I've made up a few times, because what else would you do with something so over the top as that?  The Dusty Purple on the end might work for the mauve...I haven't seen a sample yet to know if we're talking dark mauve or light mauve.  But it's a pretty bamboo that will make a nice top, even if I can't wear it next month.  And the black and white stripe because...well...it's classic.

The upside is that these will all be very quick things to sew up.  Once I manage to actually get to my sewing machine.

No more  fabric in until I've sewn up the 20 yards I bought (or an equivalent in already-stashed-goods, lol).  And I mean it.  Even if that means I wear the same outfit four Sundays in a row...

A little delayed...

So tomorrow's the last day of January.

Guess I need to clear the annual stats, especially as I have had some fabric arrive today so I need to get the 2017 Counts going.

Last year's statistics:

Fabric In: 82.875 yds
Fabric Out: 71.375yds
Last fabric added:12/28/16
Garments made for me: 31
Home Dec Items: 2
Misc. Church Sewing: 7 accent pillows covered

So close to parity...that's the best I've done in a long, long time, and if I hadn't bought fabric for costumes that didn't happen, I'd've been there.

But the costumes will happen, if not this year then certainly next year, so I'm not going to sweat it too much.

And I didn't carry any 2016 projects over into 2017.  One of the 2015 projects is currently going through the machines...slowly...so maybe I'll actually get some work done on the UFO pile.

But, since I haven't posted a picture of Fabric In in forEVER...new fabric...

Going from right to left....
black Telio rayon/nylon/lycra ponte, teal green organic cotton jersey, navy blue Telio rayon/nylon/lycra ponte, gray bamboo/lycra jersey and, although I usually NEVER buy polyester knits, an ITY jersey that I think I got just because I could not resist the colors.  I'll blame it on short gloomy January days.

I will say that that ponte knit is amazing.  I ordered 4 yards of the black and got 4  1/4;  I may venture to make a Little Black Dress as well as a pair of Helix pants and I'll still have a chunk left.

But...no more purchases until this has been sewn.  Or at least mostly sewn; I may put the remnant of black away for another day.

But at the rate I'm sewing, that means I may not get to buy anything else until the summer sales hit in July.

That 'no-stashing' pledge...

I've been trying to write this post since the first of August and couldn't seem to get it done.  So Imma gonna just do it now.

Last July, I made a pledge not to add anything to the fabric stash until my birthday this year (July 11...a year later).  I'd had to clean out the spare bedroom I use for cutting, which had somehow accumulated all the fabric purchases for the previous three years, in addition to fabrics I'd pulled from the bins with the intention of sewing them up and then never getting to it.  It was a mess.

I did not make a fabric purchase...at all...from July 1, 2015 to Jan 29, 2016.  During that time, I sewed up 16.5 yards.  I started letting myself purchase fabric on the condition that I sewed it up immediately...and, excluding of a couple of pieces, totaling 7 yards that I bought to replace basic fabrics that I sewed (gotta keep those basics stocked, you know), I purchased...and sewed... 29.5 yards of fabric between 1/1/16 and 7/1/16.

That's 46 yards of sewing all by itself, not counting the 'from stash' sewing that I did.

And I almost made it.  Those 4th of July sales caught me, and I added 15.625 yards in the first two weeks of July...most of which has still not been sewn.   I kinda fudged by saying my last purchase was 7/1/15, so I made it the required year.  Sort of.

And there have been sales since then.  You can look at the sidebar and see that my fabric in is now exceeding the fabric out for the calendar year by about ten yards....which isn't TOO bad, considering I bought fabric in anticipation of costuming needs that did not develop...at least, not yet.

When I was a teen, I happened to see a friend's mom's fabric stash and was astonished that anyone would purchase fabric and then not sew it.  Now, with the demise of Hancock's, not to mention most independent fabric stores, it's hard not to buy fabric that sings when I spy it...because who knows if it will be there when I want to sew it?

Which is a kinda crazy way to think.

It was a great discipline for me to make myself sew what I bought.  I think...I hope...I broke the tendency to purchase without sewing.

I don't know that I'll get all the new purchases sewn by Christmas; I've upped my work hours a bit and embarked on an online Master's degree, so my sewing time has dropped again.

But, before I tackle the new purchases,  I think I'm going to see if I can clean up some UFO's. Time to get those off the sidebar.

And I'm going to try not to order any more fabric until I have sewn up what I can (not tackling costuming until I need it...) from the recent purchases.  Or at least get back to parity...lol...

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday began at church, with three excellent services.  July choir colors are black, gray and hot pink, so I wore my new favorite top, Louise Cutting's My Heart's a-Flutter top made up in hot pink Brussels Washer Linen.,  the Gray knit Pamela's Patterns Drape Front Cardigan  from this year's SWAP collection and gray Lee jeans.


Now, if you're interested... the Birthday Breather...




After 3rd service, we ate a nice lunch, loaded the car and headed out of town for a quick 24 hour celebration.

We drove over the new bridge at Scottsboro for the first time;  it was completed and the old bridge knocked down within the last couple of months.

 Our destination was our favorite getaway,  the Lodge at Gorham's Bluff.  It was a lovely evening to sit on the balcony and listen to the tree frogs.  The thunderstorms didn't come through until later...

 


 The Lodge has great breakfast; kind of a limited menu, but those carrot mini-muffins...oh, my....

We decided to do a little adventuring and wandered through parts of Alabama we had not visited before, cutting over and among the hills from Scottsboro  to Fayetteville, Tennessee, the home of Sirs Fabrics.

No photos from Sirs; I got some buttons at a 50% discount and a couple of discontinued patterns and another piece of the brown tropical wool that I used last year for my steam-punkish  family-crusade costume.  I have a bit more costuming I want to do...kind of on a hunch, actually...and I think with an extra three or so yards added to the remnant I had left from the steampunk suit I'll have enough of it.  It was only $3.99/yd.

But my Sweet Babboo bought several pieces of cotton calico to make frontiersman shirts. How cool is it to be married to a guy who actually likes going to fabric stores...thanks to the frontiersman involvement...  :-D

Headed back to Huntsville, we passed the building that is being renovated for the Fayetteville campus of our church.  It's *scheduled* to open in about 6 weeks; those folks have been setting up in a local school for services and children's ministry and then clearing it out  every week for several years...I know they're going to be glad to get a permanent facility!

We finished the adventure with dinner in a local steakhouse, using a gift card we'd been hanging onto for 3 or 4 years.   We'll have the official 'let's get together and celebrate mom's birthday' dinner later this week, when everyone's in town.

(Yep, I wore the crazy bright Kim's club dress to dinner.  What's a splashy fun dress for if not to wear on a date?)


Back to work tomorrow....

Something to mull...

My determination to sew what I buy has slipped a little...because a couple of my recent purchases were to replace basics that I'd sewn up from the stash (I always want to have some black ponte on hand, for instance). 

But, after finishing the SWAP I decided to treat myself  and caught a sale and three rayon/lycra blends have now been pre-washed and are ready to sew.

 The sparkly gray in the center will be a nice basic T to wear as a bottom layer for the choir wardrobe, but the other two...the black and white piece and the multicolor one, were roll ends that I splurged on.   

The black and white will definitely be a Tilton top...not sure which one yet.. but the colorful print (the photo doesn't do it justice...) has me stymied.  What it's telling me it wants to be is a knit tank dress, but I'm not sure how much rotation that could get in the wardrobe.  Maybe a swirly skirt...or maybe another Tilton top.

Hmmmm

On the cutting table

...the pledge I made to myself last summer was to 'add nothing to the stash until my next birthday'...which will be in July.

And the last fabric purchase was July 2.

But my navy blue rayon/lycra t-shirt, which was floppy to begin with, has completely stretched out of shape.    So, being in need of a new blue T, I clicked through to Fabric Mart and discovered that they had jersey knits on sale for 50% off.

Fate, no?

So I snagged 2.5 yards of a blue rayon/lycra jersey, and, to make the shipping worthwhile, I also got the last yard of  a charcoal gray modal/lycra and a yard and a half of a blue/white rayon/lycra stripe.

My hubby was tut-tutting me for ordering fabric...until I told him this was the first purchase since July.  HE'S bought way more fabric for his re-enactment gear than I have in the past 9 months...lol.

I figured it would be three-four tops (depending on how generous the cuts are; FM sometimes is quite generous), which I could sew up pretty quick.


The fabric arrived today:

I've already washed it and it's up on the cutting table for a date with the patterns and weights tomorrow.  It all feels yummy; I'm looking forward to getting some nice new tops.

But.  Wouldn't you know.

The blue one...the one I needed the most...is rawthar sheerish.  I checked the description again and it DOES say 'semi sheer'.  Oy vey.  How'd I miss that?  I usually scroll right by anything that says 'semi sheer'.  I guess I was just suckered in by the perfect color.

It's only sheer if stretched.  So that just means I've got to use it for something drapey.  And I have no clue what that is going to be a this point...so, as much as I don't want to do it, it may end up in the stash whilst I contemplate a suitable pattern.  Since I've already sewn up 2 3/4 yards, that will not be a net gain in the stash so technically I'd still be ok on my pledge.

But...rats.