Choir Wardrobe 11-20-11

Well, this month we have gray/burgundy and mustard yellow w/ jeans; I've got my CWC knit bootcuts, a Textile Studio Monaco Shell, crafted from burgundy slinky knit (which was a remnant, actually) and one of my modified Jalie 2919 Cardigans, which is in a gray lycra/rayon knit. 


I really like this color combo and have been known to wear it when I'm not even in choir! ;-)

Choir Wardrobe 11/13

This is going to be a short month for choir posts; we didn't have choir last week, and My Sweet Baboo and I will have our semi-annual prayer ministry gig Thanksgiving weekend, so we won't be in choir that weekend, either.

So this week and next week will pretty much be it.

Which is rather a pity; I love the burgundy-and-gray combo that were' wearing this month.  Mustard yellow is also an option, but I don't think you'll see me in that. ;-)

Today I wore a Lands' End turtleneck, Lee bootcut jeans and a Loes Hinse Designs Bolero Jacket, made from a marvelous wool-lycra blend I purchased from Emma One Sock and made up something like 6 or  7 years ago.

Wow. six or seven years ago... I just went back and checked.  The review is dated January 2004.

Time flies.

Thank You

To all US service men and women and all law enforcement officers...those who are serving and those who have served...and all their families:  Thank you for the sacrifices you make every day for this great country.  Words can't express my appreciation.  God bless you all.

Wear whatcha want ...if it fits...

We didn't have choir today; there was a rather large wedding at church this evening and the stage drapes for it that were put up earlier blocked the choir risers, so we had the day off.

I thought about taking a photo of what I wore today, just because it was whatever I desired, but I didn't because I had to face the fact that all my clothes are basically too tight. I managed some camouflage, but I was rather uncomfortably confined..mostly because the shapewear that made wearing my too-snug pants possible rolled into a thick wad of elastic just above that pants waistband.  It really didn't show, because of the loose top over it, but I'm still feeling the effects around my middle.  Oy.

I have weighed (slightly) more than I do now, but I don't think I've ever been as squishy as I am now. 

Now, there's no sense in whining about it.  I need to either suck it up and do what I need to do to lose weight or suck it up and make some clothes that fit me now.  Or both. 

It's not my intention to be the wispy little thing I was when I got married; I'd settle for being the healthy, I feel-good, reasonably sized thing I was at age 35.  Heck, at this point I'd be happy to be the size I was after my last kid was born and I thought I was pudgy. (age 37).

In all honesty, it's not just about fitting into my clothes.  There are unpleasant things that start happening at a certain weight, and right now I am over that line.  Even five pounds down makes a difference in how I feel.  So.

But that will take some time.  And meantime, I need clothes.

Methinks I need to pull out my stash and start Making A Plan...maybe two plans: one for sewing and one for eating and exercising...

Lovely day...

It was pretty foggy this morning when Miss A. picked me up and we headed south, but the sun soon came out and it was a lovely drive through near-peak fall color.

But we spent the day indoors, getting our sewing inspiration tanks filled up by Louise Cutting.  I came home with  about 4  1/2 pages of notes, a booklet and a pattern.  I browsed the fabrics that Louise brought, thoroughly enjoyed petting all that lovely stuff, but ultimately did not purchase any.  There were lovely tropical wools; but I have several pieces of lovely tropical wool already in the stash so I really couldn't justify getting any more.  Most of the fabrics were in a warmish color range, and since my personal color palette runs to the cool side I wasn't tempted by them. But there were nonetheless a couple of pieces that were very tempting...if I hadn't already been over 100 yards fabric in for the year, I'd've probably given in to temptation.  But I decided to come home and sew up one of my tropical wools into something this week in honor of the seminar.

Not exactly sure *when* that will happen, but I'm gonna try...I've got to take the fabric I swatched yesterday up to the, um, fabric storage zone so perhaps I will pull out a piece of wool and bring it down...hm...I *do* have an extra hour tonight, don't I?  ;-)

Happy Blogiversary To Me!

in which she looks at the calendar and does a facepalm, because not only have I just realized it is Sew Random's sixth birthday, it is also my Dear Mother-In-Law's [somethingieth] birthday.  How does the calendar do these amazing overnight jumps of multiple days???

Yes, my dear friends, it was six years ago today that I wrote my first post and began the blogging journey.

And I completely meant to do a giveaway to commemorate the day, but, well, I can't find the item I was going to give away.  It's around here somewhere, honest, and, well, maybe when I find it I will dream up some cutesy little reason to give it away.

Cause I totally cannot give away something I can't find.

So I'll just say I'm celebrating by going to a seminar with the ever-inspiring Louise Cutting tomorrow, sponsored by the Birmingham chapter of the ASG. 

Rumor has it that she will have fabric available...I will let myself buy ONE PIECE, if it something I NEED.

I've been swatching the stash today and, wow, the size of it hit me all afresh.  If I could just sew up the yards as quickly as I can buy them....anyway.  One...1, do you hear??...piece.  Ahem.

I'll report on the seminar tomorrow evening. And show you my 1 piece I could not come home without. :-)

I smell a SWAP coming on...

I haven't done a SWAP wardrobe in 5 years (Sewing With a Plan - annual contest begun by Julie Culshaw and now hosted by Stitcher's Guild  that involves making 11 coordinating garments in approximately 3 months).  Either I was in over my head on another project, or I just didn't need that many clothes in my wardrobe right then, or the specifics of the online contest just weren't practical for me, but this year...the rules are pretty much set up to tweak some patterns to TNT ( Tried-N-True) status and make a well-fitted 11 piece wardrobe.

I've mentioned the, um, weight that crept up when the hormones shut down.  Not to mention my last wardrobe is 5 years old and showing its age.  I need to do this.  I need some TNTs that fit the body I currently have.

In fact, there are so many pieces that I need, and so much nice fabric lurking in my stash, that my problem will be to choose one color scheme/plan and stick with it.  I need some black things (boring) for right now, but I really, really need to have some brown stuff so next fall's choir colors don't seem so hard to pull out of the closet.  But the SWAP timeline runs into spring...and who wants to be sewing black and brown when spring is peeping around the corner? I'll be ready for some color....

I really need to determine what I need and get on it.  Maybe I can make a black jacket to test the pattern for the brown... ;-)

Anyway, last time I did the SWAP I was a stay-home mom.  Now I have a (sorta kinda) paying job.  It has cut seriously into my sewing time, as my loyal online buddies have no doubt noticed.  I don't know that I can do it in the time frame allotted.

But, as a wise friend recently said to me, 'Every ending has a beginning.'

Even if I don't finish, if I get a couple of patterns tweaked I'll be eons ahead of where I am now.

That's worth it.

Choir Wardrobe 10/30/11

I really am not crazy about how quickly the year is winding down, but I have to admit I'm somewhat relieved to be at the end of the brown/orange/oatmeal month!    Hopefully I can get a couple of things made before it rolls around next year...

But I did manage to scrape by.  Since the temps have dropped into the fallish range, I pulled out a brown rayon/lycra turtleneck that I made so long ago I can't remember where the fabric came from or what pattern I used.  I *think* it's a modified Loes Hinse Cowl Top, but it might be a Christine Jonson Basewear 2 top.  I'm gonna say it's the Cowl Top, frankenpatterned w/an oop Kwik Sew turtleneck.

The jacket is from Coldwater Creek (and yes, someone asked if I made it!).  It's a great jacket, but it lacks pockets.  I pondered it pretty hard before I bought it last year, but I was in urgent need of a brown jacket to wear for choir and I just didn't have time to get one made.  So it has filled in the same role this fall.  But I still miss the pockets.

The jeans are also CWC bootcuts; I actually bought these a couple of years ago during one of their serious online sales; I was losing weight and so I bought the size below what I was wearing so I'd have something when the current ones got too loose.  Well, about that time the mid-life hormone shift hit and the scale reversed itself and hasn't come back down.  But I discovered to my dismay today that among the loads of laundry I *didn't* get done this week were my 'machine wash cold' jeans...i.e, all the jeans I wear for choir.  I found these hanging in the back of the closet, and pulled them out mostly just to convince myself they didn't work.

Let me tell you, they are not pretty around the midsection (hence the cover-it-up top and jacket), but the lycra in them was sufficient for the purpose and I wore them.  And now I'm going to go change into sweat pants.

I will be doing 'wash cold' blue jeans ASAP.

Bring on the Burgundy and Grey next month...LOL...

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...

Choir Wardrobe 10/23/11

October colors are burnt orange, brown and oatmeal, and with one Sunday left to go in the month, I finished the second top for our 'burnt orange' color.  This is not something I would ever have chosen, had it not been for our choir colors, but I guess it worked; I got several compliments on it today.

It's my second go at Simplicity 3624; this time in a very thin and drapey rayon/lycra jersey.  I used the long sleeves this time; I think they worked better for me than the weird cap sleeves I used the first go-round, for all that these turned out to be full-length instead of the 7/8 length shown on the pattern.  It's over the brown Jalie 965 tank, both for color and for, um, church suitability.  Actually, church or not, I doubt I'd wear this without something under it...it's pretty low and wide.

Lee bootcuts this week...someday I WILL make myself a pair of jeans... ;-)

Choir Wardrobe 10/16/11

So. Despite a really busy week (including an all-nighter at our Girl's Ministry Sleepover on Friday)  I managed to complete ONE of the three tops I cut out on Thursday, so I at least had something burnt orange to wear today.  Add one more Jalie 965 Tank Top , this one from burnt orange rayon/lycra jersey, (I've lost count...that makes somewhere between 12 and 15 of those tops in my closet) to my wardrobe.  I've matched it up with an oblong scarf made from the remnants of the Threads scarf I wore last week, and my heathery brown Jalie 2566 Cardigan, all with the CWC knit jeans I keep raving about.

I actually have another top cut from that same orange fabric; maybe I'll get that one put together this week...

The Fabric that Haunted Me

Been meaning to post this for a week or so now...

A year or two ago, I purchased a bundle from Fabric Mart that had some fabulous tattersal tropical wool in it.    I marked it 'gorgeous' and added it to the stash, sending it off to the bin w/a fond memory of how lovely the colors were ... and particularly thinking of some golden hash-type marks that lit up the fabric.  I distinctly remember sitting on my sofa, holding the fabric just so the light hit it perfectly.  Such a nice fabric would require a special garment.

Sometime after that, this wool fabric showed up on Gorgeous Things.

I was SURE it was the same wool.  It was uncanny how similar it was.  I smiled, thinking how fortunate I was to already own such a lovely piece.

But...this winter I sorted and organized my fabric stash.  I thought I'd pull that piece and compare it to the photo on the website and see if they really were the same piece.

And I could NOT find the fabric I recalled so vividly.

I did find the piece of fabric that I'd gotten in the bundle from FM...and it was nothing like the piece I remembered or the piece on the GT website.  Not the same pattern, not the same colors.

I hunted through all my records of past fabric purchases.  I could find no record of purchasing any wool that I didn't have physically in front of me at that moment.  And I record EVERYTHING.

Weird, huh?

So from that moment, I was fascinated by the fabric on Ann's site.

And, at the last sale, I finally succumbed.  I bought 3 yards. It's in the 'fabric in' picture at the bottom of this post.

No, it's not a dead ringer for the fabric I must've dreamed about handling.  It's heavier and the pattern is larger.  But, yeah, it is still marvelous and will still make something great.

I just gotta quit hearing the Twilight Zone music every time I look at it...

Choir Wardrobe 10/9/11

This was a last minute throw-together; I couldn't seem to make *anything* work this morning...October colors (burnt orange, oatmeal and brown) are not plentiful in my wardrobe.

One of these days, I'm going to do that and realize as I'm walking out the door that I'm wearing all RTW.  I don't think I've sung in choir without wearing at least ONE garment (or scarf!) that I'd made in a long, long time.  Not that that would be a horrible thing, I suppose, but it would make for a rather sheepish 'Choir Wardrobe' post.

In this case, the one thing is the brown rayon/lycra jersey Jalie 2682  top, worn with  Coldwater Creek (jacket and knit jeans).

I have fabric in a burnt orange color, for at least one top, and some brown Zegna wool from Michael that needs to be used before the moths find it...if I can just get myself to the sewing nook this week, hopefully I'll do better next Sunday. ;-)

What's up, Doc?

I am heading back into the sewing room; but first, I had to take care of a few things that had accumulated.

We had used some random chunks of fabric from the decor room at church for the wedding reception.  They had obviously been used for other things, as there were chocolate spots on them when we pulled them out.  They also had not been cleaned because they were just cut yardage...and the poly-organza type fabric was raveling out like crazy.  So I brought them home, serged the ends and washed them. And, while I had a 3-thread configuration on the serger, I also took care of a couple of other things:

-- a friend had purchased a bit of silky poly print that she wanted to turn into a scarf.  A bit of ripping, a bit of cutting, and a little decorative thread roll-edging and it's done.

--The Princess purchased a lacey floor-length dress that she wore for her 'departure' from the wedding.  She'd wanted me to hem the bottom for her, but I wasn't sure the serger would feed it evenly, since it was a textured melange of lacey bits and managed to talk her into just wearing shoes w/ a bit of heel.  Well, there was an incident with the escalator in the hotel when they arrived and suddenly, well, you can see for yourself, as I'm in the process of trimming off the chewed up bottom:

Once it became a salvage job, I wasn't nearly so nervous about serging it.  I cut off about 7", so it is now a  lacey tea-length dress.  And the serger did just fine...

--And, we have more weddings coming up at church so I brought home a dress that will be worn by one of the other office staff young ladies who is a member of one bridal party; it needed to be shortened about 2".  Poly shantung, straight skirt, poly lining.  Took maybe an hour and a halfish.  And I was astonished to find 5/8" seam allowances used in that dress...I thought that was the mark of a home sewn garment...which this most pointedly was NOT.

Anyway, my chartitable sewing done for the time being, I can focus on my next project(s).

And I had a brainstorm for one of them.  I'm going to use the pattern I just adapted for the MOB dress and 1) change the neckline to bateau and 2) add 3/4 length sleeves.  It's a princess sheath...it's very close to ideally fitted...so, Carolyn, I'm heading over into your 'alter the TNT!' camp; we'll see how it works!

And, you know, there were sales last week.  And the second box of fabric just arrived, so I piled all the 'yardage in' onto the sofa and took a picture:

The two pieces on the right came earlier; the stripe is a cottony-feeling rayon/lycra blend, and  the taupey-looking piece is actually a multicolored houndstooth plaid.  The other four pieces came today (and my living room now has that lovely new-fabric smell...); the white, black and green are cotton/lycra poplins and the spotted piece is one of the 'trendy knits' that have been dispersing themselves around the country for some time now.  I know it's an Animal Not Found in Nature, but the normal print colors of yellow/brown/orange do NOTHING for me; this one is black/grey/red and I will wear it just for fun.  Might even turn it into that popular Burda Style funnel neck shirt really, really soon...

I had a scary moment today; I hit Hancock's Big Pattern sale and came home to enter my new acquisitions in my PatternReview Pattern Catalog; when I entered the Chado/Ralph Rucci dress (Vogue 1239) I was informed that it was already in my stash.  I couldn't believe I'd duplicated it...but it turns out I didn't.  I have a Vogue/ Perry Ellis skirt pattern from something like 1990 that has the same number.  So, yeah, you know you're a SERIOUS pattern stasher when the numbers start to repeat...

Shopped and Dropped

Since the school system is currently in a 3-days-surrounding a weekend version of Fall Break, I took the Flute Player up the road to the new discount/department store that opened a bare 4 miles from our house.  She has grown like nobody's business in the past six months and was in need of jeans and at least one pair of dressy pants that covered her ankles.  And I just haven't had time to get any patterns adjusted for her;  she's been growing faster than I could get the adjustments made so we were going for emergency rations.

She took up residence in a fitting room while I ran around the store bringing her various styles and sizes.

Which means I got a pretty good look at the merchandise in the juniors and misses sections of the store.

O.Mi. Gosh.  What a bunch of...dreck.  Cheap, thin, wonky, card-boardy and EXPENSIVE.  We did find two pairs of jeans, one pair of (thin) RPL pants (that will need to be hemmed up a couple of inches) and some loungy/sweat pants.  All on sale..and it still rang up at about $120. 


I want to clear my calendar, take two weeks off from work and just sew that child a wardrobe. Quick-like, before she grows more.  And then make one for myself.

At least our fabrics will feel nice.

On a more positive note, I found out a few weeks back that Louise Cutting will be teaching a one-day seminar for the Birmingham chapter of the American Sewing Guild on the first Saturday in November (and she will be bringing fabric!!).  Miss A and I are making plans to go; I sent in my registration today. 

I haven't done a sewing event in a really long time; it'll be nice to see Louise again and get some inspiration.

But I really, really want to spend some quality time with my sewing machine...unfortunately, I've some mending/alterations that need to be done before I can really get there.  Sigh.

There are no big events scheduled for this weekend; I think I can at least knock some of those out.  I hope.

Choir Wardrobe 10 02

I am totally laughing at this picture; all I need is a 10 gallon hat and I look ready to ride the range.  It didn't look that way in the mirror!  

Anyway, October's colors are brown, rust orange and oatmeal.

So, I've got on straight-legged Lee jeans (all my bootcuts are in the laundry. Still.  They were at the bottom of the mountain; I'm almost there...), a taupey Coldwater Creek sweater that might be considered oatmeal in some lighting, my brown rayon jersey 965 Jalie Tank Top and the made-for-choir orange/brown/taupe Threads smoke ring scarf, for which I have at least two more pieces of fabric earmarked only I canNOT find my pattern.  So I've got that issue of Threads pulled out so I can, at some point, re-create it.

Sigh.

Thursday this week was my FIRST day at home since the Wedding, and, while I intended to spend some time working on new sewing projects, pretty much all I did was laundry.  You'd think I coulda managed some tracing or cutting or something while the machines were running, but, alas, I seem to have done something else.

I just can't remember what. ;-)

But, I did promise a winner for the Galaxy dress pattern.  Since I only had two (count 'em ...two) folks identify themselves when they left comments since I announced the giveaway, I flipped a coin:  Heads would be my friend Felicia, Tales would be my friend Jess...and the coin landed on Heads.

So, I will be handing the pattern to Felicia on Wednesday night.  Hopefully it will inspire her to pull out her sewing machine and get reacquainted ;-)

Mysterious Laundry problem

For the last few months, I have noticed, from time to time, some discoloration on woven garments.

But only on POINTS of woven garments.

Latest example:

I had pre-treated similar spots on shirts in this load and washed them, then checked before they went into the dryer and I didn't see anything.  But these two shirts came out of the dryer with spots; one on a collar point, one on one of the lower band points.


So the dryer seems to be implicated

But I don't know why this is happening or what is causing it.  So I sort of crawled in and took a look.

We purchased this dryer when we bought the house in 2005.  There is one odd spot on one of the vents that MIGHT be a rust source; I can't tell really what it is. But it wouldn't explain why the spots are only showing up on points, not other parts of the garments; I had some rust spots in my old dryer that would leach if damp clothes sat in it.  But those spots would show up anywhere, not just on points, and besides, these shirts were put in, immediately dried and removed.

Could the points be slipping down into the juncture of the turning drum and the back (or front)?  Why/how would they do that...and how can I either clean that part or prevent them?  I suppose I could make a really big mesh bag to hold them...

Anyone else ever had a problem like this???

A 'What Was I Thinking' Giveaway

Now that The Wedding is past and we can begin to head back to what passes for normal life around here, I decided I'd just stay in dressmaking mode for at least a little bit and began the search for the next Serious Dress.  I want a (possibly bateau neckline?) sheath dress w/ 3/4 sleeves that will be good for dressy fall events.  I purchased some deep red wool tricotine just because I loved the color last February, and I'm determined to get it made into something wearable for this fall/winter season.  Since I just ordered some burgundy rayon lining from Gorgeous Fabrics current sale (along with a couple of other pieces that have been literally haunting me for months...more on that when the fabric arrives ;-) ) I thought I'd get rolling on the pattern search.

 In the course of digging through my stash of patterns, I pulled out the famous Vogue 8280 'Galaxy' dress and discovered, to my utter astonishment, that I' purchased the smallest size range - 4/6/8.

But, my stupidity has turned into my reward for one of you dear folks who drop by here, because I decided to give it away.  Just leave a comment on any post on the blog between now and, say, noon central time on Sunday, and I'll throw all the comment authors' names into a  hat and post the winner on Sunday's Choir Wardrobe post.

Meantime, I'll be checking my Hancocks/JoAnn's sale flyers for the next Vogue sale so I can pick up the pattern in a more reasonable middle-aged spread size range. ;-)

Choir Wardrobe 9/25/11

First, a bit of news:  the decision has been made to not use the full choir on Saturday nights; our pastors felt it was beginning to be a little too much to ask of the volunteers; we were having problems keeping a full choir on both Saturday and Sundays.  So Saturday night will just be a small praise team, like the 8 AM Sunday service, and we will just be using the full choir on 2nd and 3rd service Sundays.

So the upshot of this is that I will only be posting one choir photo per week instead of two for at least a while.  That takes a bit of the pressure off; while it didn't bother My Sweet Baboo to wear the same thing on Sunday morning that he had worn for a couple of hours the night before, I just wasn't feeling good about that.  So my wardrobe requirements have just been halved.... LOL...

So, for the last weekend of muted green, cream and brown, I wore the mossy green rayon/lycra jersey  Jalie 2682 top, Lee denim bootcuts and a tweedy linen jacket that was very likely my first mail-order Cold Water Creek purchases about 10 ish years ago.  It has some black in the mix, but the other colors in it are spot on, so I fudged and wore it today.  It just looks taupish from a distance anyway.

This may be the last time out for that green top; the fabric at the bottom of the v really is wearing out; it's ripped through the stitching, even though you have to look Very Close to see that!   I have some olive green rayon/lycra jersey to make a replacement, but I'll still be very sorry to see it go.  The new fabric is a little more yellowy than this is; this color has been good to me and I'll miss it!

Thowin' up some photos

...because I'll link to these from reviews later! LOL!

I put on the MOB dress last night...sans makeup, jewelry and P*ntyhose, just so My Sweet Baboo could snap a photo that I could use for the review.   The just-barely-visible bruise on my right leg just inside below the knee is, I think, from climbing up and down and leaning on the big aluminum ladder on the platform at church, using a steamer to get the wrinkles out of the background curtain.  Prince Charming joined me with a second steamer after a while, and the two of us got that thing fairly wrinkle-free in about an hour and a half.  But the bruise made P*ntyhose a necessity for the wedding...

The Butterick top pattern lines the garment to the edge on all the edges; I thought the neckline would stand open enough for the back side to show, so I made facings for the neck edge: 

All in all, the dress worked, although I didn't think about the petite adjustment I made through the upper chest and upper back also raising the waistline and the hem.  I'd've caught that in a second muslin...and if I ever make the dress again (and that's quite possible; I love this basic pattern), I'll add that length back in between the bust and the waistline.

And I just *might* aim for the length to be mid-knee, rather than the top of my knee.  Not sure I'm wild about that short of a length on me.

Here's another photo, which is not a very high-quality picture, but I love the composition once I cropped it.  It makes me smile...

The other wedding -related sewing I did was a surprise gift for the Princess's L*ingerie shower (such trouble I'm going to so that creepers won't land here with creepy searches!).  I hustled (and failed to have a clean house for the weekend) to make her a tap and cami set from Vogue 7837, from raspberry-sherbet colored silk charmeuse and some fancy lace I'd picked up a number of years ago at a serious Hancock's sale.  The only problem was shaping the lace to the edges; I ended up cutting the motifs apart and reconnecting them to fit the necessary curves.  Plus, the lace had no vertical symmetry, so it is just a wee bit uneven from side to side.   I had to shorten the top about 3 inches to get the lace to work right..but, to be honest, I think it was probably longer than she would've liked anyway:

Unfortunately, due to some glitches and goofs, she didn't actually GET the set until they were in the ready room preparing for the ceremony.  So I don' t know if she liked it or not or if it fit or not.  Guess I'll find out when they get back from the honeymoon...I don' t even know if it made it to the suitcase or if it got sent back to the apartment.


So, now to find some time to write the reviews! ;-)