Stashoholism Confessional: A Long Time Coming
One of the things I looked forward to over the holidays (in addition to seeing family, of course) was going back to Golden D'Or in Dallas, where I had scored so handily last year.
I have not been crazy about Burda lately (so much with the shapeless!), but I was definitely interested in the Burda 11-2011-114 drapey faux-wrap top. I didn't have anything in stash really suitable for it, and when I found the drapey pink sweaterish knit at Golden D'Or it seemed perfect.
I have already sewn up the copper sweaterknit. My dear friend and neighbor (we bought condos next door to one another) loooooves copper, and I immediately thought of her when I saw the fabric. Metallic copper sweaterknit for clothes is a little whackadoodle, even for me, but it is great trim for accessories. I made her a fleece hat with sweaterknit brim and a fleece-lined scarf. I bought a pair of gloves and hand-stitched a copper cuff to the inside lining, for a full set. My photo is terrible but the gift had already been handed over before I realized it, but you get the gist.
You may recognize this silk jersey as the same print in a different colorway as the perfect knit wrap dress I just sewed. I believe the silk jerseys were originally $24/yd. I got the turquoise print for the wrap dress on sale for $12. And then I saw this on sale for $6. When you see silk jersey for $6/yd, you just buy it. Unfortunately, I hesitated for a day and only got two yards of this, which is all he had left. It is extremely narrow. I would like to make another McCall 6069 cowl dress (with a non-cowl back bodice), but haven't investigated whether I have enough fabric for it.
Ever since I first saw this Robert Rodriguez dress, I have been wanting some copper silk. Not to try to copy the dress (way above my skill level), but just because it is so rich and gorgeous! When I found it on the $7.97/yd table, with 25% off sale plus a coupon, I had to have it. I am thinking maybe Burda 7519, or at least the sleeves from it. I dig the carapace sleeves. In pre-washing, I realized the copper silk is a stretch, so I may have to do something to take advantage of that property.
I have this giant fleece robe I wear when it's cold. It is red with plasticky dragons on it. I got the fabric on clearance from Joann and it's fairly hideous. Also, the robe is about 9 years old at this point and pilled (on the plus side, the plasticky dragons in the seam allowances that used to poke me have finally worn off). So, it's time for a new robe. This leopard print amused me.
This was my first purchase of 2012, and already I made a mistake! In the store, the mushroom-colored knit on the left looked gray, but then I got it into sunlight and saw that it is brown. Argh!!! I don't wear brown. I guess I will use it for knit muslin.
I am almost always allowed to buy knit prints when I find them and I like the colors in this border print. Orange! There is never enough orange.
The Schiarparelli pink silk charmeuse caught my eye on the $7.97/yd silk table. It will make a fabulous lining for something.
==============
I have bought more fabric since these items--including on the Baltimore Fabric Crawl--but I am so slow in posting this that I won't wait until I have photos done.
==============
I am terrible at answering questions. I apologize for that. Here are two recent ones:
MySummerTouch asks:
I wonder what do you do with your traced Burda patterns? Save them or throw them away?
I generally save them. There are probably a few I've thrown away because the pattern was terrible on me. I fold the pattern pieces together into a rectangle bundle (making sure the pattern number is facing out) and put it into a plastic page protector sleeve. I have giant three ring binders with the patterns arranged chronologically in them. With three ring binders, it's easy to open up the rings and put the latest pattern in the proper order.
However, it is getting to the point where I have a LOT of traced patterns. I need more binders, but the giant ones are expensive! I get lazy about actually filing the patterns, too. I should probably do a cull of patterns I will not realistically sew again, but the tracing is so much work that it's hard to just toss it!
Has anybody developed a brilliant system for saving these tracings?
Thank you all for your supportive and helpful comments on my pants post. I have looked through the resources you recommended and may eventually be ready to tackle them again. I actually sewed up a muslin of a Palmer/Pletsch pattern that fit better out of the envelope than the Burda did after 4 muslins! However, I made the stupid mistake of assuming that a P/P pattern would not have the ridiculous ease of a normal Big 3 and sewed according to what size I "should" be. The good crotch fit may only be because the overall muslin is way too big.
JENL observed:
I think a lot of the problem was the weight of the fabric-it looked too light and shimmery? Perhaps a little bit of a pressing issue-though I know you were just making a sample.
I actually like using "worst case scenario" fabric for a muslin. Not to mention I bought like 10 yards of that stuff at Jomar, only to get it home and realize it was too loud to be used as lining! The shiny, unforgiving fabric reveals every fitting issue in stark clarity, so there will be no surprises in real fabric.
Comments
Post a Comment