Pages

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

May Wrap-Up

IT'S JUNE!!! Time, it flies.

This month it felt like I sewed a ton of stuff.
  • Nettie bodysuit in a teal jacquard knit
  • Vogue 1501 skirt in a printed poly woven
  • McCalls 7542 top in a floral cotton (likely lawn)
  • Simplicity 1280 top in a navy and white printed poly crepe
  • Vogue 1392 dress in navy textured double knit and taupe ponte
Favorite: I have to say the Vogue skirt! I am practically jumping for joy at a yellow one.

FAILS: No project fails this month - yay! But I swear I thought I traced the scoop on the Nettie. I briefly considered removing the neckbinding and 'fixing' it but...HA! Plus there was the serging through both the Vogue skirt and McCalls top.

Accomplishments: I can't say that I stretched myself on anything this month, but I guess I'll give myself some props on growing a little bit. I'm a technical person. Process-oriented things come easily. So that side of sewing is my jam. The creative side? ehhhhh. Part of the reason for this:


...is my inability to look past what's presented. Adding/changing/modifying details requires a sort of brain path that I don't naturally possess. So whenever I do ANYTHING outside of what's presented on the pattern envelope I'm pretty stoked. With all that said, it totally isn't a stretch for most people to say, oh I like this dress, let me remove the bodice and ta-da! skirt! But I thought it was pretty genius on my part. LMAO!

Fabric: I have two fabric orders enroute from this month. I bought two cuts from FabricMart for more Nettie bodysuits; a gray cotton-lycra print and an off-white lightweight ponte. And as mentioned before, from Fashion Fabrics Club, a bright yellow poly crepe for another V1501 and a printed cotton sateen for the Burda dress.


June Plans:

Here I talked a bit about upcoming sewing plans. I've sewn 2 of the 4 tops mentioned and the last 2 are from the same pattern AND I've made them before. So hopefully no snags there. I almost bought 2 tops today from JC Penney and as I stood there knowing I'd need a large for my bust but that the armholes would gape (they were sleeveless), I put them back. But I want more bright! colorful! lightweight! tops for summer. Onward!

V1392 is ready for it's facing (it's intended to be lined but I'm just going to do an all-in-one facing). I love the pleats


but am otherwise a bit meh on it. I added length because so many people added length. I am going to be removing all 1.5" that I added, plus a touch more. Maybe I'll like it better at a shorter length.

I've also decided I want to make this dress from Burda 6/2017

Yes, yes I should make more things with sleeves, especially since I had to turn my heat back on yesterday. Sigh. But actual summer has to show it's face eventually.

So some combination of:
M6519 x2
Nettie x2
Burda 2/2013
Burda 6/2017
V1501 skirt
B5760 skirt

I can't do things for the month of June because my kids are *so.expensive!!* and I need to just sit in my house and stare at the walls...or sew. Sewing it is!

21 comments:

paulastrid32 said...

You are creative. You have a wonderful sense of color and putting tops with bottoms. You have an amazing amount of patterns!!! but I think you have pattern love and looking at the covers and imagining what could be gives you great happiness. Love your honesty, your writing and your clothes, they inspire me.

Tomasa said...

You have such energy and enthusiasm about sewing...it is thankfully contagious :)

Vanessa said...

Nice plans! I look forward to seeing more Netties!! I too think that you were creative to turn that dress into a skirt. I am quite literal when it comes to sewing too, so I understand you being stoked about it!!

Levone said...

What a productive month, I love everything that you have made! I've lost my sewjo the past few months but still love catching up with others' projects. I don't know how in the world I 'lost' your blog but luckily I've found it again! Hopefully your productivity will rub off on me, lol.

Nursebennett said...

I don't comment often on blogs, but I read many and yours is one of my favorites, I love your sense of humor and I could see us becoming truly good friends if we lived near. Unfortunately, at this point in my life (due to unplanned circumstances of adopting again) I'm an overwhelmed mom and caregiver to parents, and can't sew garments like I once did. I CANT WAIT until I get a bit of time to start sewing more! Until then......I'm living vicariously through you and others who generously share. Thank you! You will never know how much it means. I give up sleep to read about sewing. It's what keeps me somewhat sane. I sincerely thank you for sharing.

Sheila said...

Awesome sewing month.Looking forward to your next creations.

Beth (SunnyGal Studio) said...

I'm interested to see that Vogue 1392 as I bought that pattern and played around with it and also decided meh, so never sewed it. And that Burda dress is so cute - I would sew it except I don't need another dress with that shape. But tempting!

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

It's not looking good for the Vogue dress. It doesn't give me any warm fuzzies. It fits fine...it looks fine...We'll see when it's done!

I hear you on the Burda! I felt that it was a bit redundant but I like the seamlines and have this black/white print that I think will look good.

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

Thanks Sheila!

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

Oh Nursebennett! That make me feel all warm! Thank YOU for visiting my little corner of the web. I love how we all so often inspire each other. Hang in there; hopefully life settles down for you soon.

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

Aww, thank you Paula!!!

And I think you're right about the patterns. I love 'em! They make me happy!!

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

Thanks Vanessa! And for 'getting it'! haha!

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

Thanks Levone! It's hard when the mojo goes but I find it eventually gets sparked by something! :)

Little Stitches Art said...

Congratulations, you work really hard. I would like to have work as you do, with no fails.

Myra said...

Oh my goodness! You've been working your liitle fingers to the bone! Beautiful clothing too! I was on the fence with that Vogue pattern too...never did wear mine! I feel for you when it comes to the children...when mine were teenagers at home, they were VERY expensive! I think it's just the law of the land! Don't fret...before you know it, they'll be on there own!

The Sewing CPA said...

That's a whole lot of patterns!! You really are creative and you make clothes that look great on you. I love the burda dress pattern - it's going to make a nice summer dress.

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

Thank you! Oh, sometimes I have fails! :)

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

Thanks Myra!

Oh one day I'll be on the other side and have money in my pocket!!! :)

KS_Sews (Dressmakingbacles) said...

Thank you so much!

Ebi Poweigha said...

Love that Burda dress - what's the pattern #?

Also, had to LOL at your comments about creativity and literal pattern interpretation, but really - any little step is a big step when it's outside your wheelhouse! I don't consider myself creative or artistic, but pattern hacking is my #1 thing to do. I wish I could be more like you sometimes and just sew the darned pattern!

Elizabeth said...

Old posts yaddayadda reading all the way thru yadda apologies you know the drill.

I always wondered who the people were that couldn't just chop and change things but as I get deeper into things and people start paying me that its actually a really hard won skill! I only developed it out of sheer stupidity (to be frank). When I think of the fabrics I wasted in my teens that my grandmother lovingly paid for and how I'd just throw it on a pillow and pin it around til I got what I wanted...yikes! Somehow I managed a few wearable items like this but I dare not look inside them lemmeteyou.

Part of me is jealous of old me. Just throwing and cutting and folding to my hearts content.

I think knowing too many skills can hamper creativity. Why would I DARE throw fabric against a pillow and pin when I can carefully tape my dress form lines and make a sloper to pin my fabrics to gently and carefully? Suddenly it's a big deal to me when I switch out necklines or redraft sleeves. Old me would be like DOESNTFITOHWELL chop it into something else.

I think when we get to 'professional' quality (and with other sewists high standards - I always get oohs and ahhs from non sewing friends! Even with pinked seams - they couldn't give a rats ass if it was French or hong Kong or colonialist) we lose a bit of creativity.

Sewing has all these little bits that can be done better stronger (certainly not faster...) and we know we can do those things so even of stores sell sheer blouses with over locked seams, we know we can dp French. We know we have to alter the seam allowance to do so. We COULD whizz it through the overlocker and nobody would give a flying sh*tpickle. But WE would know. And then dressmaking becomes exact. Creativity is replaced with 'logic'. Failures hurt even more because /we should know better now/.

As teens and twenties mistakes are common and we can say 'oh well I didn't know that fabric was a bit stiff. Next time...'. And next time we won't try something newer something creative because we 'learned something'.

Wow this became a post in and of itself. I haven't touched my blog in a year. Maybe I should open with all this again. Open a discussion of creativity vs skill (yes vs! Not hand in hand like we think).

Annnnyway back to reading.um projecting on your projects!