Since I Wasn't Sewing

Yesterday was one of those days when things don't go quite as you planned. I seem to have had quite a few of them lately. I did do several errands and the grocery shopping so it's not as if nothing got done however, not what I really wanted to do - sew.

When I took the serger in, Charlene wanted to keep it until this afternoon hoping that it was something simple she could fix herself without passing it over to her husband who does the repairs. Apparently, he's incredibly busy and it would be weeks to wait. I hope not. I'm serger addicted. I like the way it finishes. I need it to sew.

I decided to read for a half hour and then start cleaning my studio. When I downloaded a new book, the Kobo had a glitch that required a factory restart that required reloading my library that required deleting preloaded books and marking those already read as complete. That - of course - took far too long, a couple hours. And then, at the end of that, I found an option that hides the preloaded books. That would have saved half the time at least.

SO... since I wasn't sewing... I thought you might like to see the patterns I bought in the last sale and read some of my plans. LOL - that makes me laugh. I'm sure if I read my plans from the last batch, very little has come to pass. Oh well. A girl can dream.




My friend Caroline emailed me about this pattern - McCall's 6293. She's jacket oriented. I'm not so much although I do think if handled correctly, the seaming in this design could be used to create something more artsy than crafty. I like the built in shaping. I'm a bit concerned about how the sleeves appear twisted on the model. Hopefully a muslin corrects that. It's unlikely the pattern will arrive before I leave for the workshop in February. They typically take 28 days. However, if it does, this is one I'd consider making.

A couple of the patterns I ordered are because I saw them on someone else's blog. I'm not always sure whose but if it was yours, thanks for the inspiration. I liked the soft shaping of this McCall's 6286 shirt, especially the green view without the pockets. Normally, raglan sleeves aren't suitable to my figure type. The wide collar balances that aspect. I think this would be a good shirt for work with simple dress pants. Possibly, what I should sew at the workshop is work clothes. Hmm... that sounds way too practical.

McCall's 6264 strikes me as the perfect summer dress. It looks both elegant and easy wearing in all three lengths. The pattern is for stretch knits. The longest one takes 3.8 meters which seems like quite a lot. I normally buy 2.0 meter lengths of knits so I don't have an appropriate fabric and it'll have to wait until I find the perfect thing on sale.

I've liked Vogue 8685 for a long time. It's one of the easy options patterns. I'm more drawn to the flared skirt than the fitted one. I'm not sure about the midsection. I'm so short waisted that this might not work for me. It's something else to muslin. I have a lot of patterns of this nature in my stash that I've bought and not sewn. Hopefully this won't be another one of them but the odds are high.

This new skirt pattern - Vogue 8711 - has shown up on quite a few blogs. It's one of those perfect tummy camouflage patterns and again lovely for summer. The longer style takes 1.8 meters. I like View F with the decorative buttons at the hip - which are hard to see in the picture and easier on the technical drawing if you click through to the site.

I bought Vogue 8705 to see how it's sewn more than to actually sew it. I doubt I could carry this design off but I have some ideas for using organza or wash away stabilizer to add a similar approach to other garments. Then again, maybe I'll get brave and sew it for our 30th anniversary in June... LOL... or not.

Vogue 1218 didn't interest me as a dress. Again, I wanted the how-to details and the possibility of converting this to a top. I love the way the front ruffles like that. It's subtle and sophisticated and not over done. Quite nice.

This Vogue 8699 cut on turtleneck is practical as are the elastic waisted pants that go with. I think the top lengthened would make a wonderfully warm winter dress.

I wish these Vogue 8717 pants suited my figure type. They are elegant and sophisticated and, in just the right fabric, would have fabulous drape and movement. Unfortunately, the style is not suitable to short waisted me. That lovely waist would be curling over and folding down. I bought this pattern for the jacket. In a softer, cardigan type fabric, it could be work quite nicely with a dress, skirt, or pants - for work - in the summer - when the air conditioning is running. I like the elbow pleats and the way the seam lines on the front curve right into the shoulder.

I don't want to but I need to clean the studio today. It looks like a hurricane went through here. Very. Messy. The fact that Barb is coming this weekend is strong incentive. It'd be nice if we could actually function.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - the potential for clean