Aquatica Wardrobe Plan

The Carol Collection is too much fun to play with. I'm having a blast putting things together and dreaming. Here's part of my dreaming:



Same caveat as with the other wardrobe plan--there's no guarantee this will actually get *made*...at least not on a timely basis. I am actually still plugging away on the larger red and navy wardrobe of which my Paris capsule was just a part; I finished a blouse and skirt last weekend. I don't know that any more of it will get made this year, though, as it's a Spring/Summer wardrobe and for once I'm actually excited about Fall/Winter sewing. Despite my inclination to a leisurely pace involving more dreaming than sewing, I have a conference in October and this capsule would be nice to pack. I'm not following any particular rules here re: number of tops/bottoms/accessories/reversibles/matches/mismatches/etc. It's short on tops--only one--but I have RTW and previously made pieces in my closet that will serve for tops, such as a nice gray V neck sweater rib.

It's built around the plaid in teal and deep green. I just loved the 102 jacket from September's BWOF. I'm not sure I have enough fabric to make it, and if not the whole plan kind of falls apart. I'm hoping I will, if I cut what is supposed to be a self-facing out of the plain teal wool and perhaps crop it a teeny bit more. With my limited fabric, there will be no effort made to match the plaid on the sleeves to anything. This is the downside of BWOF--if it was a Big 4 it would take me twenty minutes to figure out if I have enough fabric. With BWOF, I have to trace out the pattern before I can even start to consider the possibilities, and tracing is enough not-fun that I'm not in a hurry to do it and find out that I actually can't make the jacket and have traced it for nothing.

The most traditional suit element will be the skirt in teal wool, also from this month's BWOF, 09-2008-119. At first I thought I would make the pleat inset out of the plaid, but then I thought that a button-on decorative band in the plaid (using the buttons from Karen!) would be more versatile, allowing the skirt to stand on its own.

You may recall that in my original professional wardrobe plan I had allocated some gray pinstriped wool to the Simplicity 3673 jumper, but sort of lamented that I wanted to use it for a high-waisted pencil skirt with detachable belt. Carol to the rescue! I love the green/white/black wool for the jumper. It kind of reminds me of Junior Mints. And now my gray wool is freed up for the skirt, sometime in the far distant future.

The green (with a slight tinge of yellow--it's the perfect color for me) is a heavy knit. Little Hunting Creek suggested that I turn a knit I recently purchased into BWOF 05-2008-125. The pattern was designed for wovens and I hadn't thought of using a knit. The fabric I had wasn't suitable, but I'm wondering if this is. The thing is, it will need sleeves--I just can't get behind sleeveless for Fall, because I'm always chilly. And I really want also to eke out the skirt from Simplicity 4074 (I've made it once and it's really nice). So again, not sure if there's enough fabric, will have to trace out the pattern to find out, bleah. It may end up being a more simple dress that takes up less fabric; I don't have anything specific in mind.

The dark turquoise is a linen or linen blend. I'm hoping it's not too heavy for BWOF 05-2008-108. I love the color. It doesn't correspond to a particular color in the plaid, but they are in the same color families and look good together.

The shirting will be...a shirt. While I have warmed up to short sleeved blouses, I am not feeling the love for long-sleeved ones. Well, in this case it will have to be 3/4 sleeve--I am not fashiony cool enough to wear a jacket with short sleeves and a shirt with long sleeves sticking out. Though now that I think about it I could be interested in 3/4 sleeves with a turn-up cuff, and turn the cuff up over the bottom of the jacket sleeve. I wouldn't hate that. Suggestions welcome.

Dream on....

Birthday Dress: Behind the Scenes

I still have a giant backlog of reviews. It's hard to choose what to do next, so I think I'll alternate between recent projects and past projects. The most recent and photographed project is my birthday dress, so let's get to it!

BWOF 05-2008-127 came in sizes 34-42. I decided to make mine a little roomy so that I could wear it for years. In retrospect, I think I went a little too roomy, but I do not have the model's figure and would never look like her in the dress anyway, so whatevs.

I cut a 36 for the bodice and midriff (though I added about half an inch to the midriff in cutting just to be safe) and just cut a circle skirt to fit the midriff rather than deal with the pattern pieces for the skirt. I really don't understand why Burda gives a pattern for a circle skirt. They're not shy about having you measure and cut your own facings and bindings and such.

A BWOF 36 requires an SBA for me, so I reduced the width of the gathered area and shortened the bodice a bit. I should have shortened it a great deal more; on the model it is right under the bust and on me it's about halfway down my ribcage. But, I think the look stands on it own, even if it doesn't look like the intended design. The front bodice was a little gapey when sewn on, so I further reduced the length of the center front by pulling the center edges of the bodice down into the seam between bodice and midriff; you can see the little points sticking out to gauge how much.

For the back, I took a wedge out at the lower armscye radiating out to the top of the zipper stop at center back (you can see I have marked that with a notch, to make it easy to find when sewing), taking more out at the armscye and less at CB.

The pattern calls for batiste, though really their version looks like chiffon or some sort of semi-sheer silk or synthetic. In my sturdier cotton, the pattern for the wide tie looked way, way too wide. I cut it about half as wide as the pattern. The scarf is easy to attach as long as you mark well.



You sew all the way from the ends to the shoulder marking, leave open to attach to the shoulders, and sew across the front neck. Then turn it right side out, pin and sew the opened bits to the shoulders, turn under and hand sew the inner allowance to the seam allowance inside the shoulder and voila.

BWOF wanted you to take the easy way out with the midriff lining, treating the midriff and lining as one when sewing to the skirt. I really don't understand why you wouldn't go ahead and put in a little extra effort to get the inside to look nice! I had followed their instructions to sew the midriff to midriff lining, sandwiching the front and back in between, but then it turned out that I wouldn't be able to turn the lining under to slipstitch to the zipper tape for a clean finish inside, so I ripped out a couple of inches and sewed back bodice lining to midriff lining and fashion to fashion. Then I sewed the zip only to the fashion layer and hand-sewed the lining down on the inside, for a nice tidy finish.

I didn't line the skirt, figuring I could wear a half-slip if it really needed it.

All the construction and completed photos are here.

My Cup Runneth Over

Just when I thought the birthday excitement had subsided (I still haven't posted my wonderful gift to myself) I got a package in the mail yesterday from Karen! She sent me a beautiful soft border print that is totally my colors *and* some antique buttons. Antique buttons? Karen, you know me too well. It will be hard to snip them off that package but Karen has been trying to teach me not to get trapped in Too Good to Use.



I love both of them! A big thank you to Karen! I'm going to need to find some patterns for border prints, as I have several. I wonder how this fabric would look as a shirtdress? Hmmmm.....

Midriff Dilemma

I am working on McCall 5382 and having a dilemma. I am using a gorgeous silk brocade I got from Fabric Mart last year (long sold out, I'm afraid). One of brocade's great features is that it looks good from the front and the back. I'm using the yellow-with-white side for the dress because I'm wearing it to a couple of weddings (must remember to drink white instead of my usual red) and I don't want to commit the faux pas of wearing anything remotely resembling a white dress to a wedding. But, I want to play with the brocade. The inner side of the front bodice "wings" is in the white-with-yellow, but that won't really show. I am trying to decide whether to make the midriff white-with-yellow or stick with the yellow-with-white of the rest of the dress. I think I'll probably end up all yellow, despite my natural instinct to do contrast. (Yes, you may go ahead and be shocked that I am choosing classy over fun.)



I considered making a reversible shrug, one side yellow-with-white and the other white-with-yellow and wearing the white side out, but now I think I want to use the fabric for a skirt. I won't get much wear out of shrug in this fabric, but of course the skirt would be very fancy and perhaps I wouldn't wear it much either. Or maybe I could find some kind of top pattern. I'd be more likely to wear a top because I am bound to sit in something in a skirt but a top is easier to protect. At any rate, either would have more of a fighting chance of being worn more than twice (the number of weddings I have this month) than a shrug. I was given a silk scarf in Vietnam that will work as a wrap for the ceremonies.

The Carol Collection

Well, as Cidell has already shared, we had an amazing adventure on Saturday. Carol, the mother of Chelle of Necessary Chocolate, has decided to go quilting full time and was ready to purge her fashion fabric stash. Let's start with the proposition that now that this gorgeous fabric has made it into my hot little hands it will have to pried from my cold dead fingers so Carol's generosity (and Chelle's in resisting the temptation to take it herself) is quite amazing, inspired, and...well...generous. Wow.

We drove through some lovely farm country to Carol's even lovelier home, and then stepped into the mecca of her sewing room and *then* into the nirvana of her stash closet (enough mixed metaphors in there for you?). Her sewing room is gorgeous, with room for two cutting tables, a big table for the machine with knee lift so it can be free arm or table-set, and two sunny windows. And the closet. The closet! Chelle had given us some preview photos but wow, the closet was amazing. So organized! The fabric was beautifully laid out and organized by fiber and color. Though some pieces were over 20 years old, they had been kept in pristine condition. Certainly something to aspire to. Carol had some nice stories to tell us about some of the pieces.

Because the fabric had been set out all neatly in the closet it looked like way less than it was. Oh my goodness. We could barely get all the fabric into the car. This is a glimpse of Carol's sewing room, with me grinning like crazy surrounded by gorgeous fabric.







We got back to DC and I laid all my fabric out. You can bet that I considered doing a Scrooge McDuck through all this fabric. It was only Cidell's presence that restrained me. But seriously, this is major sewist pr0n. Do you see all the gorgeous colors? And textures? And scrumptious wools and fabulous silks? It's amazing.





Here is the debut of The Carol Collection.



I love that we have a lot of the same taste in colors, especially for teal/aqua/turquoise/blue-green/green-blue and all variations thereof. I am having a blast coming up with mini-wardrobe capsules. The possibilities are just amazing. In fact, I realized later a few fabrics are missing (yes, there are a couple more!!!!) because I had pulled them out to play with.

You can take your own Scrooge McDuck virtual dive through The Carol Collection. Just be sure to empty your pockets before you leave the vault! I'll be checking!

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You would think with all this fabric I'd never need to buy any again. But, um, I neeeeed shirtings now. I need them. I can't wear all that wool with jersey tops! So I stopped by G Street to take advantage of their 25% off sale for Labor Day to stock up on zippers and thread and found a few shirtings on the $2.97 table. Only seven yards. No big. *cough*