First garment for teal grouping

I'm definitely trying to keep up with my blogging for 2018 because I love having a record in one place of all the garments I've sewn throughout the year. At my age, I do forget sometimes when something was made, and it helps to be able to go back through past posts and files to determine when I did what.

Also because my weight has a tendency to fluctuate quite a bit, it's nice to be able to determine the date so I can kind of get a clue about the size it is and I was when it was made. :-)

This tee was begun on January 5, and morphed a bit from the initial thoughts to the final garment. As usual, I used Pamela's Perfect Tee shirt, which I use almost exclusively. I had intended to do a long or 3/4 sleeve on this one, but after looking at the fabric and thinking about my wardrobe needs, the climate in this area, and the short winter versus the long warm days, I went ahead and did the short sleeves. It only took about one yard, so I have enough fabric left for a tank top.

As I think I said in a prior post, I had intended to do a teal grouping back in 2013-2014, and this fabric was purchased for that group in November 2013. I was all gung ho to get the grouping going ] before other things got my attention. It's from Mood and it's a wonderful rayon jersey that sews like a dream, drapes beautifully, and has a gorgeous soft hand that almost feels like silk.

With a lot of family drama, and an interim for a bout of the flu that left me in bed for days and days, it wasn't completed until January 14. I can picture this in rotation for years to come. I just love the look and the feel of the fabric.

Perhaps because of the background, the fabric color appears different IRL. The photo is the last post is quite close to the actual colors. 

This week, I've started a pair of denim slacks out of a teal blue that will be my first bottom in this group. I started pattern work on them on January 14 as soon as this was complete. I am using the same Burda pattern I used for my shorts and instead of using the long pants in the pattern, I did some research on the width of pant legs, and the consensus was that straight leg pants have an 18" to 19" width at the hem, full pants have a 22" width at the hem, and the boot cut should be about 20". Somewhere in my research, I found something that equated the width of the hems to the crotch width, but when I went back to find it as I was starting the drafting, I couldn't find it again, so following directions in one of my pattern drafting books,  I started at knee length on the shorts, and went for a boot cut by adding 3/4" to each inseam and outer seam at the hem, tapering to the knee. 

I have relatively chunky thighs and don't want them too tight through that area, so this procedure should work well. I finished the redraft on the 15th, and finished cutting them out yesterday, but have not yet begun sewing. I do have about a yard of fabric left, so should be able to get a skirt out of that. 

The fabric is an end of the bolt cut from Fashion Fabrics Club, that was purchased along with some french terry and other denims back in September, so for me, it's a fairly new fabric. I was able to get a 3 1/4  yard piece for only $15.25, and it's a nice heavy denim with a bit of stretch. I'm sure it will also get a great deal of wear! Here's a teaser swatch of the new fabric:

In this photo, the color appears to be fairly close to real life. I'm excited to get these pants made up and into rotation. 

More later!

Quick Swimsuit Coverup

This is a quick sew that I put together as a swimsuit cover up. I needed something a bit warmer for the winter, as our pool, in general, is open year around and I need those Aqua Aerobics classes to keep on my feet, and to help with weight loss and muscle tone.

Due to other obligations, It was started on 12/28/17 with the idea of having it done that day. Hah! I finished it New Year's Day.

I used my TNT Pamela's Perfect Tee pattern, and just extended from the waist down to about ankle length. I had intended to leave slits a couple inches long in the bottom hem area, but forgot to do so, as it was truly sewn under the old Nancy Zieman 10-20-30 minutes to sew, so it is one long column. .

The fabric was purchased from Fabric.com via Amazon on November 9, 2017. A really new fabric! LOL. It's a 50% polyester, 50% cotton French terry. This particular garment is okay with the polyester content as I only wear it about an hour in total.

I had thought to do a vertical piece down the front, but got lazy and did the whole thing horizontal. I wish I'd done the vertical piece now. That much horizontal stripes across a fairly significant torso isn't that attractive. Oh, well. Now I know. I had purchased 3 yards with the thought of the vertical, and now have right at a yard left over. It could make a tank top for summer. We'll see. I'm debating going back in and doing some sort of a gore from about bust height down to the floor to give more walking room and add the vertical interest.

One note to self. Match stripes below the darts so the majority of the garment is matched. I matched at the armpit on this. It won't be noticeable to most folks, but sure is to me. At least the stripes are fairly narrow. 😄

I've started on a core grouping out of teal. I intended to do this core back in the fall of 2013, but it's been sitting idle while I went on to other groupings. Sew Ruthie has given me a push as I see all her lovely garments in the teal grouping she's doing. I do have multiple fabrics and will be making several garments. First up is a tee from a gorgeous rayon knit purchased from Mood many moons ago. It's been aging nicely, and is a dream to sew. Here's a teaser look at the fabric.

My second grouping will be browns and tans, so this is perfect. I can see it getting a lot of use! Since I decided to go with a short sleeve, I'll have enough left over to make a tank top also. Hooray!

This one is also being sewn in 10-20-30 minute increments, so it will probably be a few more days before it's done. I'm going to try to post all my sews this year so I can remember what was done when and hopefully keep on track with cores so there aren't any orphans in my closet and I have a varied and beautiful wardrobe.

More later!

My Final Christmas Gift

I have a wonderful sewing friend that lives in Eugene, Oregon. We met in the fall of 2013 when we both attended a Sure Fit Designs workshop. Afterwards, we began to communicate a bit by email, and for a very long time now, we communicate daily. Although we are very different people in very many ways, we are very similar in many ways too.

The last couple of years, she has made me a gift from the heart and the sewing room. Last year was the microwave soup bowl cozies that I liked so much I made them for all my peeps this year. See last post. :-) 👧 This year she made me the most amazing bag out of recycled jeans. It's phenomenal. So of course I wanted to make her something special also.

In October Rhonda Buss had a hand sewing caddy on her blog. Since my friend loves to hand sew, I thought it would be the perfect gift for her. I did want to find sewing related fabrics though. So I searched and came up with three fabrics I thought were appropriate and I did enlarge the caddy. Rhonda's was on a 5" X 7" stand, and I went for the larger size 8 1/2 X 11 stand, so I did have to do the math to enlarge the pattern, but it was minimal. Without further ado:

Here it is on my sewing table before I sent it. She's made very nice comments and it appears that it was a big hit. 

Then it was off to selfish sewing and time to get moving on my 2018 projects. More later!