Sewing Red

Though I haven't been blogging much, I have been sewing. One recent project was my attempt to copy a dress worn by a business client. It was a black and white print sleeveless dress. The armhole facings/lining were red so when she moved her arms, you caught glimses of red. I thought it was neat visual suprise. My version turned out pretty well. My review of the dress pattern and the different variations of sleeves/hemlines I tried can be read at http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=20473.

I must admit red is my favorite color. I get a mental lift when viewing red. It is hard to describe, but it is like an increase in mental pleasure. It would be interesting to find out if my brain waves change, or synapsis open up, or something. Paintings with large sections of red, red flowers, red fabric. I recently bought Bulgari Ou The Rouge purfume at the duty free shop on St Martin and while the scent is okay, I suspect the red box had a lot to do with my purchase. When I was working on this quilt, I would get a good feeling just looking at the fabrics. I have decided I want to be buried in this quilt. It will line my casket. No shiny white satin for me.

My husband tryed to take advantage of this color preference early in our marriage. He was doing his best to convince me of his need for a pickup truck, and the concluding line of his arguement was "and you'll really like it cause it is red!". I agreed to buy the truck, but not because it was red.

Does a color affect you this way?

2007 SWAP Winners

The winners of the Timmel Fabric 2007 SWAP (Sewing with a Plan) contest were announced back on April 30. The winners:

1. Glam Bam Thank you Ma'amShannon M. - LaSalle, ON, Canada
2. Le Rouge et le NoirLaura P. - Bucharest, Romania
3. Chasing ButterfliesSummerset B. - Northfield, NH, USA
4. Its Not Easy Being GreenTerese R. - Burlington, ON, Canada
5. Apple Pie ala ModeAudrey Y. - Richmond, VA USA

There I am at number 5. I am both thrilled and amazed. There were so many great SWAPs, representing tons of creativity and hard work. Check them out for yourself at the Timmel Fabric site. http://www.timmelfabrics.com/2007swap.htm The winners were based on votes of contest participants and Stitcher’s Guild members. Thanks to all of you that voted for my SWAP. If you want to try SWAPing yourself, there is a similar contest over at http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/sewingclasses/board.pl?t=20889 that is just getting starting.

By the way, because of generally negative feedback on my proposed SWAP name of WWW for Wonderful Work Wear, I thought very hard on it one day and decided the colors of the fabrics were predominately russet red like apples and cream like vanilla ice cream. "a la mode" is an often used term for something served with ice cream. It also means according to the prevailing style or fashion from the French translation à, in + la, the + mode, fashion. Both usages appropriate for my SWAP. Hench the name Apple Pie a la Mode, in case you were wondering. It also is one of my favorite desserts, after anything chocolate.

I am trying to use SWAPing techniques for my summer sewing and only being partially successful. I do have a start on one that includes tan, white or brown bottoms with turquoise, teal and coral tops . But I have veered off course to sew a few dresses in fabrics that don’t fit in with that color scheme. More on that soon.

One less UFO

We had a great vacation. I missed my sewing and getting back into the work routine was tough. I did get in some sewing the last week. I made the stripped skirt from the Threads article published in May 2005. http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/th_120_029.asp I have wanted to make this skirt since the issue was published. I had a lot of scraps leftover from my SWAP blouses, as well as several coordinating silk chiffon's and crepes that failed their SWAP auditions. Since I am horrible about putting fabric away, they were stacked together on a table and the colors looked so inspiring . The fabrics were in front of me, it was a good way to use up scraps, so I went for it. If I had thought about the fact that piecing the fabric as the first step of the process would increase the time to make a skirt, I probably wouldn’t have made it. Sometimes practicality stops my creative processes dead. I have to consciously make an effort not to over think or over plan the process or practicality issues, such as not enough time or missing notions or just the right fabric, will stop my creative process dead in its tracks. My review can be read at http://www.patternreview.com/ http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&ID=20149.

On a more somber note, on Friday I wore pieces of my SWAP to show support for Va Tech in the aftermath of the shooting. My SWAP colors included the Tech colors, burgundy and orange.

Remember my previous posting on UFO’s and Pigs. I actually have completed several of the UFO’s. The most recent was using the pieced silk tie scrap yardage to make a jacket. I got the scraps from the Talbott’s men’s wear factory, located somewhere in Calif. They used to sell scrap bags via ads in Threads magazine. The striped scraps were the most conservative scraps in the bag. The silk jacquards were gorgeous and are still in my stash. I would love to know if you could still buy these scrap bags from the factory. Anyway I found an old Easy Burda jacket pattern that had some shaping, but it was all through darts, which did not impact the pieced fabric too much. I made the bands in coordinating silk organza, and in hindsight this feature of the pattern was fortuitous. The way the fabric was pieced, all the edges, sleeves hems, etc. were bias. The straight cut bands help keep the edges from stretching out. The organza was a sheer curtain panel purchased at Target. Hint: check out the curtains and tablecloths at stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Marshall’s Big Lots, and TJ Max for inexpensive (usually), unique yardage. Many of these stores carry curtain panels of silk, organza, raw silk and dupianni, and silk/poly blends. Look in the clearance area at Marshall’s and TJ Max. I have seen Walmart brand curtain panels in Family Dollar Store, at really low prices

Both the skirt and jacket are a little non-traditional or "artsy". But I can wear them next week while attending the AQS quilt show in Paducah, Kentucky. My mom and I are taking a road trip, We had originally signed up for a bus trip, but it got canceled. Mom was so upset and disappointed. My father has turned into a big homebody in his retirement, and refuses to travel. She, on the other had loves to go places. So I told her we would drive. It’s a two day drive one way, but multiple people have told me, it is very scenic. Subtext: hilly and be sure and keep your gas tank full for the long non-populated stretches. It should be an adventure in many ways.

I will post the requested info on working with chiffon in a post when I get back from the Quilt show trip.

Ageless Style or Less Style for Age(d)

I recently made this top of out silk chiffon. New Look 6561. I chose the pattern and fabric for two reasons. 1. I wanted to try the style, and 2. I am on a personal mission to improve my confidence and skills when sewing silk chiffon. The sewing was, as I expected, a learning experience. I made the bias binding for the casing out of the chiffon. What a nightmare. It got done, but not to my normal level of quality. I really need to try that tip about starching the chiffon to make it easier to cut and sew. Okay, be honest now, is this style too young for me? Why do I feel like I am wearing a nightgown?

I am happy to be the age I am. However as I get older and my body changes, my hair lightens, and my skin coarsens, I have to do a lot of thinking about and editing, the current fashion trends to find ones that will work for me, both physically and mentally. I have discovered that I have a slightly different (more youthful) mental image of my body than the mirror shows. And horror of horrors, I have color and style preferences from the 80’s.
I recently purchased two excellent books that helped me on this self analysis. Forever Cool, by Sherrie Mathieson – Which is about how to achieve ageless youthful and modern personal style, and Closet Smarts by Emily Neill, Both available at http://www.amazon.com/. Forever Cool shows people of all ages and shapes, men and women, in outfits you can spot on people today, that tell you how old the person is because they are wearing styles or garments from another era. She then shows the same person in updated, classic, reasonably priced clothes that make them look ageless. Unfortunately, I liked the 80’s style clothes in the before picture. And the book showed me that I was dressing my husband (yes, I buy his clothes) in a dated way.

Closet Smart has a slightly different focus. It takes real women of various heights and shapes and puts them in outfits for every occasion that draw your eyes to their good features and away from others. From this book I got the “A ha” moment on why raglan sleeves and crew necks don’t work for me. I buy and sew them, but they are never my favorites. I have rounded, sloping shoulders and I thought since raglan sleeves are rounded and curved, they should fit and look good. Instead they emphasize the roundness and curviness. To look my best, I need to have defined, structured shoulders. For example, for one of the tops in my SWAPs, I chose a raglan sleeve blouse pattern. It went together quickly and I loved the fabric. But when I put it on, I wasn’t thrilled, especially by the fit in the upper back and shoulders. It looks fine under jackets, but I probably won’t wear in on its own.

We are off to a Caribbean island for spring break, The “bod” is in good bathing suit form. I plan to consume rum based fruit drinks, stare at reefs and their fishy inhabitants, and wear my new top.

70's Style Updated

I peruse fashion magazines for trends and styling tips, and tear out the pictures of garments with interesting decorative details, embellishments, fabrics, etc. This spring one trend that caught my eye was lots of feminine blouses with gathers, ruffles or flounces. A lot of them resemble what I called "peasant blouses" back it the 70’s when I sewed and wore them for the first time. Here is the pattern from my collection. Using my Dollar Store magnifying glasses, I see that the date on the envelope says 1971, so I would have been 14 years old at the time. I remember making the blouse and doing the cross stitch. I definitely did not do the head scarf. In the past few months I have collected several pictures of this style of blouse, but they are all paired with slim pencil skirts, not the more common multi tiered calf length skirts that make you look like a dancer with a Latin American Folk group. One picture is a Banana Republic ad (the blond), showing a blouse with neckline gathers, band and front button placket, tuked into a slim pencil skirt. This silhouette appealed to me.. My basic shape is elongated pear. This outfit would add bulk on top where I need it. It was slim on the bottom, which I can do if you get past my waist. The front placket contributes to a vertical line. And I have always liked the blue, tan color combination for summer.. When I spotted the pattern for New Look top 6678, I quickly purchased it. It was so close to the pictured blouse, plus it also had waist darts to keep the waist slim. Looking at the full-page magazine ad, I thought the blouse was made of sueded silk, so I ordered some dark turquoise sueded silk from http://www.fashionfabricclub.com/. After checking out the BR web site I found out the blouse was actually cotton and looked a bit wrinkly. I have never noticed Banana Republic stores before. But in the time since I tore out the ad, I have read two articles that suggested BR as a good store for "classic fashion updated with modern details" for the over 40 customer. Here is how the blouse turned out after much work and some tweaking. I widened the band 5/8 " towards the neck, to make it easier to work with and cover my bra straps. The original band was 7/8 wide, with 3/8 seam allowances. I am really happy with the way it turned out though the sleeves are a little foppish. I may restyle them by removing the flounce, gathering the bottom edge, and enclosing it a bias binding. Hours after finishing the blouse I felt I had to make myself a skirt like the one in the picture too. I was in "Get er done!" mode. So I quickly chose a tapered skirt pattern from my stash based on the written description of "tapered, kick pleat" and 1 yard 60" fabric required. I didn’t have enough wool gabardine for the kick pleat so I made a creative design decision and used brown scalloped edge lace instead. I was liking the way the skirt was going together until I was pin fitting the side seams, and realized the unique back yoke emphasizes the derriere area. The yoke curves over the butt cheeks and ends in a point just below the butt curve. The kick pleat starts at the point the yoke ends, Way up high! Very revealing when the kick pleat is made of lace. The lining does not cover the kick pleat. This was not what I had planned for a skirt to wear to work. I am not the office hottie! To tone it down, I plan to remove the lace and replace with similar colored silk shantung. Hubby likes the outfit, but thinks I should wear the top button of the blouse unbuttoned like the BR model and the pattern envelope picture. His idea of appropriate clothes for me are best described as " aggressively sexy". I am flattered he thinks I can carry it off, but it ain’t going to happen. And that BR model, comparing her picture to mine, I realized the poor girl has no hips!

Can't Stop

SWAP momentum can be strong. It caused me to created two more garments, in the past weeks, that could be included in the SWAP if I chose to switch out some pieces. I intended to stop making SWAP stuff, and switch to vacation sewing, but the fabrics, threads and patterns were still in my "sewing room" (the dining room). And in a moment when the need to make something was strong, I grabbed the next fabric/pattern pile. What emerged was a fitted safari style jacket (Vogue 7764) made out of a sueded distressed looking print which goes well with the SWAP pants and pencil skirt. The fabric came from the home decorating area of Joanne's. When I buy non garment fabric for garments, I always worry that someday, someone will comment that my jacket matches their curtains or couch. Wouldn't it be amusing, in a warped way, to make a garment out of the same fabric as your couch and then have someone take a picture of you wearing it while sitting on the couch. I wonder if it would be a surreal photo of an disembodied head (matching jacket) or legless torso (matching pants). Yes, it is past my bedtime.

Anyway, I also put together another reversible jacket (Vogue 8167) that was alternative B on the reversible garment list. I wasn't as confident it would turn out well, as it was a non TNT pattern and a style I don't usually make. The remaining black wool poly Timmel fabric was used for one side of the jacket. The other side is a lightweight beige pinwale corduroy. I chose the pattern because it had a sewn on scarf type front and I had purchased a fringed jaqcuard woven scarf in my SWAP colors that I wanted to use in lieu of the front. It turned out fine,a little dramatic looking for my taste, and I need to remember that cut on sleeves are not the best look for my sloping shoulders. Shoulder pads to the rescue.

All Done!

I have finished all my SWAP garments. The last two tops are the Issey Miyake blouse in a lightweight gold red cross woven silk and a Carolina Herrera inspired blouse in the wool poly blend from Timmel Fabrics. The CH blouse did not turn out as light and ethereal looking as the inspiration picture. I used commonly available polyester ribbons for the trim. I suspect CH used lighter weight silk or rayon ribbons in keeping with the weight of the garment fabric. I have rolls of white silk ribbon I could have dyed, but with the time constraints I decided against that approach. I also lined the blouse body with Bemberg rayon so that I didn’t need to worry about the color of the bra I was wearing. I have a penchant for brightly colored undergarments.
I have 11 well fitting, well made, coordinating garments that make a great work wardrobe. I haven’t got a SWAP name yet, but am seriously considering "wonderful work wardrobe" abbreviating it to www. Remember I work in IT. Okay, so IT people can be weird some time. I still have some other garments planned that I may use in the final 11-garment submission. My strategy has been to share my ideas, progress and pictures along the way. The pictures especially provided me with visual feedback on fit and color coordination, and a record of the possible combinations. Other SWAP participants chose different sharing strategies based on their technological restrictions, and I suspect also, their competitive style.
I am glad I finished early. Life is starting to throw distractions at me. Like gorgeous spring weather. It was 70 degrees here yesterday. On a morning yard tour, I found daffodils and miniature iris in full bloom. I bought some seed packets for flowers and herbs recently. I need to get them started. Eldest son announced he is in the school play (the chorus) and needs various costume. And an Easter week vacation on a Caribbean island has caused me to lose interest in winter fabrics and colors. It has also changed the location of my lunch hour from the cafeteria to the company fitness center. I thought about a small vacation SWAP, but really don’t have the time. Though I am using my SWAP planning experience to choose the clothes I will pack for my vacation. Maximizing wardrobe combinations and minimizing suitcase size.