The Winter of Two Patterns

Fast forward several months and I’m still getting organized. Can you believe it? Simplify has become both my middle name and my mantra. I’ve tossed most of my old clothing. A few things I’ve been able to alter - but most? No, not worth the time or effort. Even though I don’t have many garments, my closet has nine boxes of fabric along with a floor to ceiling stack of neatly folded two to three yard lengths.

I have been sewing, just not blogging. The quality of my photos gets the blame. Usually it is late at night when I take pictures of my projects. I don’t know if it is the camera or the lighting (or both), but the photos are awful and I end up deleting them and then not blogging. I either need to find a decent lamp or a new camera…

Jalie 3245

This winter’s sewing focused on two patterns. One for tops, Jalie 3245, and the other for pants, Burda 2-2007-120.

Burda 2-2007-120

Why only two? Well, once home after working all day and fighting traffic (both coming and going), I often didn’t feel like tracing new patterns and wondering if I was going to end up with something wearable. With so few garments in the closet, I needed a sure bet and took the expedient route. Boring, utilitarian sewing with incredibly bad lighting (really, really bad!) produced enough business casual garments to get me through the winter.

The pants are straight forward, nothing fancy…just pants, but I like that back yoke seaming that meets the pocket seam on the side. For me, sewing a yoke seam is much easier than marking and sewing waist darts, especially with dark fabric and INCREDIBLY BAD LIGHTING. I didn’t include the cuffs. Sewn entirely on the machines.

The tops came together with whatever knit fabric I could extract from the stack without knocking it over. Some even came from the Fabriconda. Those were the most interesting as I had to combine fabrics to have enough to make make a top.

This cotton tunic is my escape from the Winter of Two Patterns. I bought the fabric at Super Textiles in Dallas. It is just down the road from the Golden D'or Fabric Outlet. Interesting place. Go there if you get a chance. Haven’t worn it yet as it is waiting for a pair of white Capri’s. The pattern is Burda 8918, and long OOP.

Burda 8918

I did my standard "add an inch to the neckline at the shoulder" maneuver. I also left off the ties and went with a narrow elastic loop and a button instead. I didn’t want to fiddle with a skinny bias loop. Simplify…

News? Well, DD#2 got married and it was a very happy wedding. Their new puppy even showed up! I ended up purchasing my MOB dress. I shopped for quality fabric, both online and off, that would be flattering and a good value and was unsuccessful. I think it would have helped had I had a definite style in mind. Anyway, no complaints. The purchased dress was kind to my budget and appropriate. Plus, it fit and I was comfortable the entire evening. A win all the way around.

Here we are at Easter:

What else? DD#1 graduated with her MBA. I’m so proud of her!

Will work on the lighting thingy…